Doug Fieger's Gear
In this video, behind him, we can see Marshall Bluesbreaker amp.
"DOUG: When we were recording "But the Little Girls Understand" I got a 1963 Casino with a Bigsby tremolo. It was just like Paul McCartney's and I fell in love with it. " - excerpt from his Epiphone interview.
"And I have the nicest Broadcaster on the planet, which I got from a collector. It’s a nice addition to my portfolio – my retirement (chuckles)! It’s spooky how clean it is. It has some finish checking, but it doesn’t have a scratch on it."
Fieger's most used guitar during his time with the Knack was definitely sunburst Fender Stratocaster. He used this in many shows, as well as in famous concert, "Rock'n'Roll Fun House" with The Knack.
In this photo, we can see Fieger with 3 Hofner 500/1 basses.
"Hendrix and Page were the reason I got a Supro Thunderbolt. Page also played through a Rickenbacker Transonic in the Yardbirds, so I got one of those, as well."
"I’ve had my Marshall 100 Super Bass stack since ’68. I’ve also got a ’68 (Fender) Twin and a ’68 Bassman, both with the frame around the grillecloth. Those are Beatle amps, but they’re good; they really sound different because of the circuitry."
"A hybrid 730 – the Revolver/Sergeant Pepper amp. There’s an AC100 that I got in ’78; I put it in a flight case and have taken it out three or four times to record with it. It looks like a time machine. Those amps were overpowered and underventilated, so they always blew up. There are probably very few examples left, let alone one that’s mint. I own AC50s, AC30s, and Super Beatles."
"I recently got a ’65 Fender XII because Townshend used one on Tommy, and I loved that sound. I got to see the Who play Tommy live for the first time in front of a paying audience, at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, where they opened that tour. Joe Cocker and the Grease Band opened for them, and nobody had heard of him, but the Who really had to work to get the audience back, because Cocker blew the crowd away."
"I got a Gibson Firebird in Kerry Green because Steve Winwood played one in Traffic, and a ’65 SG Special with P-90s and short Vibrola – Townshend again!"
"There’s also a ’66 Epiphone Riviera 12-string, a la Carl Wilson. My “Jimmy Page guitars” are the ’59 slab-board Tele, a black double-cutaway Danelectro with lipstick-tube pickups, and one of the 150 Murphy-aged Les Pauls that Gibson made a couple of years ago."
In this interview, Fieger says.
"DOUG: I did take some lessons but they wanted to teach me stuff like "Lady of Spain" and I really wasn't interested in learning that single-note kind of square music. Not long after that I met a guy who lived across the street from me that was in a band. By this time I had gotten a Country Gentleman which was a really beautiful and expensive guitar. Well, he offered me a gig in his band if I would switch over to bass and let this other guy named John Corey play my Country Gentleman! (Laughs) I had to go out and rent a bass while this other guy was playing my guitar! Anyway, after that I became a bass player for the next fifteen years. I really never played guitar in a band until The Knack. John Corey and I went on to form a band called Sky that got signed right out of high school. We made a couple of records with Jimmy Miller who produced the Rolling Stones and Traffic."
So, link which says "Country Gentleman" leads to Gibson's product list, where Country Gentleman is shown. So, that is Gibson, not Gretsch Country Gentleman.
Throughout this video, Fieger is playing Fender American Deluxe Telecaster.
Doug Fieger mentioned in an interview with Vintage Guitar® magazine that he was inspired by Hendrix and Page to acquire a Supro Thunderbolt amplifier. He noted that Page also used a Rickenbacker Transonic during his time with the Yardbirds, which led Fieger to add one to his collection as well.
"A hybrid 730 – the Revolver/Sergeant Pepper amp. There’s an AC100 that I got in ’78; I put it in a flight case and have taken it out three or four times to record with it. It looks like a time machine. Those amps were overpowered and underventilated, so they always blew up. There are probably very few examples left, let alone one that’s mint. I own AC50s, AC30s, and Super Beatles."
"A hybrid 730 – the Revolver/Sergeant Pepper amp. There’s an AC100 that I got in ’78; I put it in a flight case and have taken it out three or four times to record with it. It looks like a time machine. Those amps were overpowered and underventilated, so they always blew up. There are probably very few examples left, let alone one that’s mint. I own AC50s, AC30s, and Super Beatles."
"A hybrid 730 – the Revolver/Sergeant Pepper amp. There’s an AC100 that I got in ’78; I put it in a flight case and have taken it out three or four times to record with it. It looks like a time machine. Those amps were overpowered and underventilated, so they always blew up. There are probably very few examples left, let alone one that’s mint. I own AC50s, AC30s, and Super Beatles."
"I also got a ’71 Martin D-28; I wrote “Good Girls Don’t” on that."
"’63 Epiphone Casino with factory Bigsby – “Exactly like Paul McCartney’s.” Despite the fact it has toured the world twice, it is in outstanding condition. Bought in 1978 from Frank Lucido for $400 “maybe less!”."
"There was a ’63 (Gibson) Everly Brothers with tags, and some guy offered me a stupid amount of money for it. But it’s now worth 10 times what he paid. I also sold a prototype Rickenbacker Capri that’s now in a book on Rickenbacker."
"A ’65, in mint condition. The thing you realize when you play a Tennessean after playing a Country Gentleman is how cheap the Tennessean is; it’s like a student guitar with single-coil pickups, and is cheaply put together. It makes you wonder why George Harrison chose a Tennessean as his go-to guitar, because he had the Country Gent before that. I use my Tennessean only when I need a particular sound; it has flatwound strings."
"My Country Gentleman has been around the world three times, and it doesn’t have a scratch on it… I always put something over a belt buckle or buttons on jeans to prevent rash. I have a ’63 (Epiphone) Casino that has also been around the world with me twice, and it’s mint. If you looked at it, you’d think it’s a new guitar."
"I’ve had my ’66 Bass VI for 20 years, and have used it on recordings, but I don’t really play it live."
"I got the Ampeg because (The Band bassist Rick) Danko played that model, though he had a fretless one. Another indication of how much I love the Band! It’s the later model with the visible pickup, and it has an amazing sound. The model with the visible pickup sounds better than the earlier ones, in my opinion. It has a Fender-style tailpiece rather than the odd tailpiece that hangs off the end"
"Presumably, your ’55 Gibson J-160E is another nod to the Beatles. Absolutely. It has the adjustable bridge, and I used it a lot on Knack records. I’ve had it since ’78."
"I got a Gibson Firebird in Kerry Green because Steve Winwood played one in Traffic, and a ’65 SG Special with P-90s and short Vibrola – Townshend again!"
"There’s also a ’66 Epiphone Riviera 12-string, a la Carl Wilson. My “Jimmy Page guitars” are the ’59 slab-board Tele, a black double-cutaway Danelectro with lipstick-tube pickups, and one of the 150 Murphy-aged Les Pauls that Gibson made a couple of years ago."
"There’s also a ’66 Epiphone Riviera 12-string, a la Carl Wilson. My “Jimmy Page guitars” are the ’59 slab-board Tele, a black double-cutaway Danelectro with lipstick-tube pickups, and one of the 150 Murphy-aged Les Pauls that Gibson made a couple of years ago."
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