Brilliant!
And a superb quote from an interview with Pete:
SI: What is your main stage equipment now?
PT: For the last couple of years it’s been Les Paul Deluxes and I think they’re probably what I’ll stick with; the standard guitar, and again I usually have to go through about 20 before I find a good one. I have about six or seven of them. I’ve tried Hamer and Alembics and Ibanez and Yamaha and these people make guitars that are much, much better than Gibsons. But I’ve gotten into the weight and the shape of the Deluxes. The pickup suits the amp. The higher level DiMarzios and things like that, which most of these guitar makers are now using, don’t seem to suit my amplifiers. What I need is a fairly clean sound and then the amp looks after the distortion. And a lot of these current model guitars are made with the possibilities to get a clean sound or a dirty sound out of a transistor amp. But I’m still using valve amps. They’re modified slightly: I put a DiMarzio pickup in the middle but I never use it. I don’t know why. I bloody bother doing it. I just like the way it looks. The DiMarzio is the one where you can switch between two sounds (Super Distortion). I sometimes use that in the studio; I have one Les Paul that has three of those on it and each is switchable so you can get some really interesting sounds out of that. The thing I’ve had the most trouble with on my Les Pauls is the quality of the wood in the neck. It’s kiln dried and a lot of the resin gets dried out with the moisture and under the rough treatment I give them they don’t seem to last very long. I remember once an old mate of mine who used to work for Sunn became a representative for Gibson and he came to see me and asked why I didn’t do a deal with Gibson. I said, ‘The day you can bring me a Gibson off the end of the production line like this kid is going to save up his money for and it’s good then I’ll put my name on it.’ And he said he’d make me anything I’d like and he’d get me special instruments and I said that’s not the point. If I’m putting my name on it I’m putting my name on something somebody is going to go out and buy. And if I pick up a guitar in a store and there are six there and every one of the six are good then maybe I’d consider putting my name on it. But I’ve never really done any deals on guitars. For a long time Gibson wouldn’t do it and when I could have afforded some help they didn’t want to give it. So now I’m very touchy about doing it. I endorse Boogie amps because they’re handmade and a lot of care goes into them and they’re good and the people who make them won’t compromise. At least they haven’t yet. They’re not entirely to my taste; they’re much more complicated than they look and they’re quite hard to get used to. I don’t get them for nothing. I wish I did. I have to put my name on them to get one at all.
Respec' to the guy tbh.
