Pete Townshend

Pete used this guitar in 1970, it is seen in his Twickenham studio.

"Pete Townshend used Gibson ES-335 thinline semi-hollow archtop guitars during U.S. shows in 1967 and 1968."

Pete Townshend used a three-pickup Grimshaw Short Scale semi-hollow guitar from December 1965 to January 1966 similary to this.

This was Pete's acoustic guitar from about 1968 through the '70s and again almost exclusively since 1996 on stage and in the studio.

Classic Guitar, 1990:

There are actually a couple of instruments that I would miss, and in fact a weird thing happened to the J-200 that I've had for a long time. Half way through Iron Man it got wet here in the studio and exploded, and it was almost like the guitar getting back at me - the only guitar I really cared about dying on me!

In this photo Pete Townshend is holding his 1964 Rickenbacker Rose Morris 1998 (345). According to this article, "this guitar was the first (of many) to turn to smithereens, when its neck snapped off against the ceiling of the Railway Hotel, Harrow and Wealdstone, in September 1964 (according to Eyewitness The Who, 8 September)."

According to Collings' website, Townshend uses Collings OM3.

"1967, two customized Sound City L100 amplifiers, each with different blockscript Sound City nameplate badge; topped by a Grampian Reverb unit." -www.thewho.net

This guitar was used briefly during July 2002 for "Baba O' Riley" and "I Can't Explain".

"For one song in each of two consecutive shows in July 2002 (Baba O’Riley at Tweeter Center For the Performing Arts, Mansfield, Massachusetts, 26 July, 2002; and I Can’t Explain at Tweeter Center at the Waterfront, Camden, N.J., 27 July, 2002), Pete Townshend used a black Fender Stratocaster guitar equipped with two P-90-style pickups, rather than the usual Gold Lace Sensor pickups found in the Eric Clapton model guitars. This guitar was also customised with the Fishman Powerbridge and additional blend control knob, although the traditional controls consisted of only two knobs (presumably volume and tone), rather than the traditional three, and a traditional Fender-style “blade” pickup selector."

"Pete Townshend has used a Guild F-512-NT 12-string guitar on most solo and Who recordings beginning with 1971’s Who’s Next. He purchased this guitar from Manny’s in New York. Prior to 1971, he had used a Harmony Sovereign H1270 12-string. He continues to use this guitar for stage performances today. (It is unknown whether Pete owns more than one of these guitars.)"

In this photo taken at a gig circa 1966 Pete can be seen rocking out thru a Selmer Treble and Bass 50 with the late 60s black tolex. According to the year-by-year gear list on Whotabs Pete used these amps in early '66 on the road as an alternative to the early Marshall 100 watt stacks he was also using live.

Pete uses this microphone for his guitar cabinets, accirding to Shure's official website.

"As a composer I think Ableton Live has to be the software that has given me the most immediate way to write new things on a computer, rather than tape. At the same time it allows several additional levels of creativity, including that suggestion of mine that “finding” great sounds and loops can inspire new tracks.” Electronic Musician interview Aug 1, 2007

Despite not being owned by Townshend, it was used as his vocal mic for the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, as is visible for an instant in this concert footage of The Who's performance of "My Generation" at 0:18. As discussed in this video by Shure Creators (an official Shure YouTube channel), the McCune Audio company had loaned several microphones to the festival, including a number of SM56s.

Original '70s construction techniques bring to life this '76 Les Paul Deluxe Goldtop, based on a guitar originally played by Pete Townshend on stage and now displayed in London's Victoria & Albert Museum. Pete's beloved DiMarzio Super Distortion humbucker joins two Mini-Humbuckers for modded tone. Limited to 150 units only!

The Who used the 565's exclusively during their late 60s early to mid 70s period

Since 2001, the Vibro King has become Pete's go-to amp for live performances.

In this user-uploaded photo from Thewho, Pete Townshend is pictured restringing his Fireglo Rickenbacker 335, highlighting his use of this iconic semi-hollowbody electric guitar.

In this picture Pete can be seen recording through a '59 3x10 Fender Bandmaster gifted him by Joe Walsh prior to the recording of "Who's Next."

From:

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/joe-walsh-pete-townshend-guitar-tone/

In a recent interview with the San Diego Reader, Walsh confirmed a famous legendary tale that he had helped Who guitarist Pete Townshend to cement the sound of his now-famous guitar tone.

“Yes. That happened. The James Gang opened for the Who when they performed ‘Tommy’ in Europe. Pete and I are in the same zip code in terms of writing music and playing guitar. He had taken me under his wing as kind of a mentor. But during ‘Tommy,’ he’d locked into a certain amp/guitar setup for touring, and he got stuck there. It was time for him to move on and I sensed that.”

Walsh allows that many rock guitarists of the time were employing the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul as their primary instruments for creating musical destruction. He had a setup that in his mind provided an especially harmonic secret sauce to the guitar playing sound and he shared that with Townshend.

A bright orange ’57 Gretsch Chet Akins model guitar paired with a ’59 Fender Bandmaster amp, both gifts from Walsh, gave Townshend exactly the right sonic mojo that he needed to create the next Who album, ‘Who’s Next.’

Pete used this amps head circa 1965-1968, in this photo it can be seen behind Pete.

In this photo taken at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 Pete can be seen smashing his guitar into a rented Thomas Organ manufactured, trapezoid head shell Vox Super Beatle with matching trolley and cabinet (the amp head is turned around backwards for easier access to the controls the same way the Beatles set them up during their final tour of the USA).

1964, The Who at the Railway Tavern, Pete can be seen playing a Fender Pro rehoused in a custom head cabinet through a Marshall 4x12. This brownface pro could have been any year from 1960 to 63 when it was discontinued during the change to blackface cosmetics and circuitry at Fender.

According to thewho.net website, Townshend used ARP 2600 synth for "Relay".

“I smashed up two guitars at the end of the show, because one I was using had recently been repaired and broke as I came on stage, so I played another one I use for recording. At the end, I though, ‘What the hell,’ and smashed them both. The Gibson Stereo cost £200 and the amps, which were borrowed, will cost about £20 each to repair. I can’t put it down to tax because when I say I use 70 guitars a year, they don’t believe me.” - Pete Townshend about Gibson ES-345 he smashed.

Documented for 1967 is Pete’s use of Fender strings. In 1967 and 1968 on Fender Stratocasters, he likely used Fender pure nickel wrap #1500 Spanish Guitar [Smooth Round Wound]. These sets were standard issue on new Fender guitars 1966–1969.

.012 .016 .016p (substituted for .026w) .034 .044 .052 Pete likely substituted the .016 (plain) for the set’s .026 (wound) for the G string, as was a common for British guitarists in the early to mid ’60s, a practice Pete would continue into the ’70s with his Gibson guitars.

In this photo taken during the Who's performance at the Richmond Jazz and Blues festival, August 6th 1965, Pete can be seen playing through two JMI manufactured Vox AC-100 amplifiers with matching cabinets and trolleys.

In this photo from thewho.net you can see Pete playing a narrow panel 4x10 tweed covered amplifier driven by a big muff PI. The logo clearly says Peavey and NOT Fender. The logo also does not appear to say "Bassman" and as the Bassman was the only tweed 4x10 and given the era the picture was taken that means the combo pictured has to be a Peavey or Earth Sound Research tweed combo (very similar four 6L6 equipped circuits). Who.net asserts this is a Peavey, and though the photo is a bit blurry I am pretty sure the badge on the front of the amplifier says Peavey as the "Earth" logo on their tweed offerings looked a little different (I have run into both these old amplifiers in person).

According to thewho.net, Townshend used ARP 2500 for "Going Mobile".

"This iconic singer, songwriter is the backbone of legendary rock band, The Who and a hugely successful solo artist. Pete tried the APC40 and admits he's addicted to it."

"Pete Townshend used Gibson ES-355 thinline semi-hollow guitars during U.S. shows in 1968 and in rehearsals and promotional appearances in 1969."

Pete Townshend’s Harmony Sovereign H1260 6-string jumbo acoustic guitar, as used in the studio and demo recording ’60s. The Harmony 6-string featured a double-bound jumbo body in natural finish and dot inlays. In 1968 Pete purchased a new 1968 Gibson J-200 acoustic from Manny’s in New York and stopped using the Harmony guitar.