Hi Damien

Thanks for those links.  Yep, Fender, Rickenbacker, Epiphone or Gibson, Rotsey loves his single coils.

Rotsey's Gibson Les Paul Goldtop is either a R4 ('54 reissue) or a vintage one from the same era.  Either way, it has a wraparound taipliece and P90 single coils.  The other Gibson linked is a not a ES335 (as favoured by Mossy in '70s Chisel before he went almost excursively to Strats) but an ES330, again a P90 single coil loaded guitar.  Rotsey also went through an Epiphone Casino stage at one point, which essentially was the Epiphone version of the 330 also with P90s (as used by John, Paul and George).  The Darwin Amphitheatre show looks like the Capricornia tour?  I saw them in Cairns at the time and Rotsey was using mostly a vintage Lake Placid Blue Mustang through those four Vox AC30s.  I think that bound tele custom made an appearance as well.  And lets also not forget, for at least the Canberra gig I saw, he was in "The Break" mode using that gorgeous vintage Jazzmaster.  And his burgundy Rick 360 has "toaster top" single coils.

I don't know what Jim has in those black Gretsch Rocjets he favoured predominately through the eighties, but most of his other guitars have humbuckers.  When you have a two guitar band, its quite "traditional" for one to use humbuckers and the other single coils.  The guitar choices of Jim and Martin (and their guitars' pups) has, to me, always been integral to the sonic variance and power of the twin guitar attack of the Oils.

The real questions for me though are, why did Martin's guitar tone seem to get cleaner and cleaner particularly through the later years and why did he virtually stop soloing?

Adrian



--- In powderworks@yahoogroups.com.au, "The Balkins" <thebalkin@...> wrote:

Mossy was also playing both Fender (including Strats and Teles), Gibson (ES335) and Gretsch (White Falcon and Nashville) on the recent tour, but his no 1 (white) and no 2 (red) ‘stratocasters’ are in fact Fryer guitars manufactured by Greg Fryer in Sydney. DC from the Ghostwriters also plays Fryer Guitars. I was surprised to see that Mossy has ditched his Maton acoustic guitars  for a Taylor for the recent tour.

Rotsey Gisbon Les Paul - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrMBc1lgAOA

Rotsey Gibson ES335 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C0ZXvH1cww

Rotsey Fender Tele - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCtjoJ4qUlY

Damien

From: jsprint74 
Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2012 7:42 PM
To: powderworks@yahoogroups.com.au 
Subject: [powderworks] Re: Guitar tech question

  
Thanks for the reply. yep I guessed that his Strats were standard. I know he uses Vox, so the amplification can have a distinct impact on the kind of cool clear tone. I recently got a AC30VR and I'm thinking of getting a Fender to compliment it!
Don't forget those Gretches he used in later years with the Oils. And around the RW period he was using some Gibsons, so no stranger to humbuckers either. Yep, he is definitely one of those classic Strat feel player, like Mossy!
Jim.
--- In mailto:powderworks%40yahoogroups.com.au, "Adrian" <hooperadrianr@> wrote:

Hi Jim

Can't say anything definitively, but I'd guessed his Strat was pretty original, including the pups. I've never meet or spoken with Martin, but I'm guessing from all the guitars he's used live that he's exclusively into single coils. Given that he and Jim also seem to be vintage guys in the main, I can't imagine he would have swapped the pups out in that '62 Strat unless they failed. Amp wise, his predominant choices are classic British - Marshalls in the early days, then Vox AC30s and in the latter years Hiwatts. Some Fenders along the way.

To my ears, both Species Deceases and Diesel are rife with vintage Strat tones. 

There is a great article on the Jackson's Rare Guitar site that talks about another famous Strat that made its way onto some Oils records.

http://www.jacksonsrareguitars.com/articles/files/69d66a685b2fbe20b3e147cba18daa84-2.html

Similarly for those guitar nerds on the list, this youtube clip from the ABC's Collectors show has Steve Jackson talking about his first vintage guitar that some will find familiar (1:30).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xeKEi6gyfs

Sorry, I know, not really answering your question. Has anyone on the list spoken with Martin about gear?

Adrian

--- In mailto:powderworks%40yahoogroups.com.au, "jsprint74" <jsprint74@> wrote:

G'day and happy new year powderworkers :-)
I have a question for the other guitar-heads on the list. Can anyone tell me if Martin used custom pickups, or other than standard, in his Stratocaster? Single coil pickups can be noisy and yuck when given too much gain but Martin has played alot of different tones over the years. Could it be more to do with the choice of amplification?
Thanks !
Jim