Pete Cruickshank

An EB-3 is listed among Cruickshank's equipment in the liner notes of Hogwash and in Cruickshank's profile for the WWA press kit for Solid. It is visible in a 1969 photograph posted to Facebook by The Groundhogs on January 12, 2010, a photograph of The Groundhogs posted by Basket Case on November 20, 2013, photos of Cruickshank from from The Groundhog's August 27, 1970 performance at 1970 Isle of Wight festival (Chris Weston, Charles Everest, Claudio Hosquet's footage (here and here)) and this October 3, 2023 Facebook post by Basket Case bandmate Stephen Underwood.

Hogwash liner notes

Gibson E.B.3.

WWA press kit for Solid (1974), profile for Cruickshank

INSTRUMENTS: Zemaitis Bass Guitar, Gbison [sic] EB3 guitar, 4 H/H 2 x 15 cabinets, 2 Amps, H/H 100 watt

Listed among Cruickshank's equipment in the liner notes of Hogwash and mentioned by The Groundhogs bandmate Tony McPhee in a May 1971 Beat interview. It can also be seen in a photo of The Groundhogs posted to Facebook by Basket Case on November 20, 2013.

Beat, May 1971, "Groundhogs' 'Split'" by T.T., pg. 17

The amps that Groundhogs favour ('our old stuff was great but it was falling apart and it was all different plugs anyway') is Laney, which, says Tony, is the best deal in gear they could find. He and Peter each have two stacks of Laney equipment—'it gives out what it claims'—and are very satisfied, although there are some longings for their old gear (sentimentality, possibly).

Hogwash liner notes

3 Laney 100 watt. Amps.

Listed among Cruickshank's equipment in the liner notes of Hogwash (where it is also pictured) and Solid. It can be seen on the EMI cover of Live at Leeds '71 and is also attested by the following:

• Top of the Pops, April 22, 1971 (dated according to Martin Charles Strong's The Great Rock Discography) (three extant stills: one by Chris Walter dated November 30, 1971, another posted to The Groundhogs' official Facebook page on October 20, 2014, and another posted by McPhee to Facebook on March 16, 2016)

• July 8, 1972 photos from Carl Dunn of The Groundhogs performing at Concert 10, posted to Facebook by McPhee on September 12, 2011 (Photo 1, Photo 2) (visible)

• Hogwash liner notes

Zemaitis Bass Guitar

• Sounds, May 5, 1973, "Mac’s Home Cooking: The Groundhogs" by Jerry Gilbert

Cruikshank was plonking away on his Zemaitis bass and Brooks disappeared behind the partition to his drum kit. Mac picked up his Telecaster and the action begun.

• Solid back cover

Instruments used :

Gibson S.G, Fender Stratocaster, Yamaha Acoustic, Zemaitis Bass, Ludwig Drums, ARP 2600 Synthesizer, Mellotron

• WWA press kit for Solid (1974), profile for Cruickshank

INSTRUMENTS: Zemaitis Bass Guitar, Gbison [sic] EB3 guitar, 4 H/H 2 x 15 cabinets, 2 Amps, H/H 100 watt

• TalkBass, September 2, 2009 reply by PJSShearer

  The first Rock Gig I ever went to - The Groundhogs @ Guildford Civic Hall in 1974 - the Bass Player had a Zemaitis, I believe Greg Lake played one with ELP but I've never seen one since.

• Facebook, Tony McPhee, September 12, 2011

Pooconos festival looking towards stage, Me playing my grey 1963 Strat( later stolen in Wales, bugger it!) Ken on his Kit (stolen in London) & Pete on his fabulous Zemaitis, which he later gave to his son.

• Basschat, June 15, 2020 reply by Raymondo

On 13/06/2020 at 07:34, Bill Wy,Aye,Man said:

I wouldnt mind the bass that Tony Zemaitis made for Ronnie Lane, it's the only one and Ronnie was an actual musician

Actually he made a bass for Pete Cruickshank that looks very similar(or at least he owned one , gave it to his son for doing well in exams a few years ago apparently ...Ken Pustlenik told me that when I mentioned that I had always lusted after Mr Cruickshank's bass).

Used with Basket Case, as can be seen in the following Facebook posts:

• March 19, 2013
• December 29, 2013
• January 26, 2014 (photos January 25, 2014) (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11)
• February 28, 2015
• August 6, 2015
• August 18, 2015 #1
• August 18, 2015 #2 (main source link)
• August 31, 2015
• July 2, 2016
• August 7, 2016
• September 18, 2016
• December 29, 2017
• September 10, 2018
• September 12, 2018 #1
• September 12, 2018 #2
• April 15, 2019
• July 16, 2019
• August 29, 2019
• September 9, 2019
• September 10, 2019 (September 7, 2019 photo)
• October 9, 2021 (September 25, 2021 photo)
• September 27, 2022 #1 (September 24, 2022 photo)
• September 27, 2022 #2

Used with Basket Case, as can be seen in the following Facebook posts:

• March 19, 2013
• December 29, 2013
• January 26, 2014 (photos January 25, 2014) (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9)
• August 31, 2015
• September 18, 2016
• September 10, 2018
• September 12, 2018
• July 16, 2019
• August 29, 2019
• September 10, 2019 (September 7, 2019 photo)
• October 9, 2021 (September 25, 2021 photo)

In the early years of The Groundhogs, Cruickshank's bandmate Tony McPhee personally built amplifier cabinets for him, as stated by McPhee in this March 1, 2011 WFMU interview and on page 171 of London, Reign Over Me: How England's Capital Built Classic Rock by Stephen Tow.

WFMU's Beware of the Blog, "Split: A Conversation with Tony McPhee" by Alex Goldstein (March 1, 2011)

"Thank Christ For The Bomb" is one of my favorite albums. How did that record come together? Did you record it live in the studio? Is there a good amount of improvisation within the Groundhogs?

Following on from the last question when I heard "Oh, Well" by Fleetwood Mac I knew we had to record in the same studio because that was an incredible recording. In fact there was a Karlson Speaker cabinet which Martin Birch, who was the engineer there, told me was used by John McVie, that name again... This was/is an incestuous business! I used to make speaker cabinets for Pete Cruickshank at the time, in fact he used one on the album which is why I was so interested in the Karlson enclosure (too difficult for me to build at the time).

London, Reign Over Me: How England's Capital Built Classic Rock (2020) by Stephen Tow, Chapter 6, pg. 171

In 1966, the Groundhogs would morph into the psychedelic Herbal Mixture in 1966, but that fizzled out after a couple of years; they eventually re-formed the Groundhogs as a power trio by 1969. By that time, the blues boom was in full force. What distinguished this generation of blues from the earlier R&B boom? One word: “Heavier,” McPhee exclaimed. The evolving equipment, including the Marshall Super 100 head featuring 100-watt power, had something to do with it as well. “With the invention of the fuzz box used on the Stones’ ‘Satisfaction,’ [plus the Taste’s] Rory Gallagher had used a treble boost for ages, so changing or modifying the guitar sound was necessary even in the ’60s,” McPhee wrote me. “Heavier sounds was the next step, so amps and speakers had to get louder and bigger. I made or modified my own amps and made my own speaker cabinets. I made [bassist] Pete Cruickshank’s cabinets also.”

Four are listed among Cruickshank's equipment in the liner notes of Hogwash. They were sold soon after, as testified by their absence from Cruickshank's profile for the WWA press kit for Solid and in several forum posts by the third owner of one, simoncroft of the Fender Stratocaster Guitar Forum.

Hogwash liner notes

4 J.B.L. 2 x 15 Cabinets

strat-talk.com (Fender Stratocaster Guitar Forum), simoncroft:

• May 15, 2014 ("HH was sold out for months, so I 'settled' for a Hiwatt 100 all valve head. Then a friend sold me an empty JBL 2 x 15 that used to belong to a band called The Groundhogs. The volume level out of this rig was Earth shattering! Seriously, if you've never heard a Hiwatt 100 on full, you have no idea how loud a 100W amp could be.")
• October 13, 2015 ("John D'Angelico New Yorker fitted with DiMarzio X2N high-gain humbuckers into an Acoustic 260 head and a JBL 2x15 loaded with a couple of Gauss speakers, miked with an SM57 and an AKG D12... but I could be wrong.")
• June 30, 2016 ("Back in the day, I had Hiwatt 100 head, a 1 x 18 Summit reflex cab (copy of the Acoustic, basically), plus a JBL 2 x 15 that I was all proud of because it used to belong to the Groundhogs and still had their logo sprayed on it. That was for bass. When I played guitar, I 'only' used the head and the JBL. By the time you got to the 'sweet spot' on that amp, you could knock birds out of the sky, it was so loud.")
• July 8, 2017 ("I first became aware of this in the early 1970s, when I was lucky enough to have a Fender Jazz Bass, a HiWatt 100 head and a JBL 2x15.")
• February 9, 2019 ("I had one of those JBL cabs 35 years ago and the front grille could be pulled off quite easily.")
• January 10, 2020 ("I used to play club, art school and uni gigs using a HiWatt 100 head with a JBL 2x15 cab, and sound engineers would sometimes ask me to turn down.")
• February 9, 2023 ("For years, I used an ex-Groundhogs JBL 2x15 for guitar and bass.")