Peter Buck

"Yeah. I was playing a Telecaster in 1980; it got stolen out of my house. And there was a little music store in town called Chick Piano; they had a blond Rickenbacker 360 with flat-wound strings. That was my main guitar until 1981, when it got stolen.

I went to a shop in Hartford, Conn. and asked if they had Rickenbackers. They pulled this black 360 out; I played it, and it was in tune. That's the one that's been on every R.E.M. record except the first single, and I bring it to pretty much every session I do.

It's still the guitar I go to every day. It has real clarity of tone. It's sitting in a stand at the foot of my bed. I like playing guitar in my pajamas. I've got three other guitars in my bedroom: a '43 Gibson; a 1960 Rickenbacker that I got from Reverb; a Goldtop. They kind of rotate to the bedroom, and if I'm really working, I'll go down in the basement to avoid everyone."

From this interview.

The guitar is also mentioned in the January 2023 issue of Guitar World:

What's your favourite piece of gear? – The Jetglo Rickenbacker 360 I bought in 1981; it’s the guitar I’ve used on every record I’ve ever made. I have a bunch of other guitars that I use in the studio and live, but [the Rick] is my favorite, and it’s the guitar I’ve used my entire adult life.

A Pro Co RAT Distortion Pedal can be seen along with other pedals and a Vox AC30.

In this image Peter Buck is seen playing a Vox AC-30 live.

Buck is a longtime user of the 1483, which started showing up on stages later in REM's touring days. This image shows Pete's Silvertone next to a Vox AC30 and an effects rack, covered in toy dinosaurs.

As seen in this photo, found on Feel Numb, in the music video for "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" Buck can be seen playing the Jag-Stang, originally designed and owned by Kurt Cobain.

Producer Mitch Easter's Gemini II was used on Murmur, according to these five sources.

R.E.M.'s Murmur by J. Niimi (2005)

Peter Buck's workhorse amp—his Fender Twin—was broken at the time, so Easter loaned him his checkerboard-grill Ampeg Gemini II for the session, which was used on most tracks, alongside the studio's little solid state (i.e., transistor rather than tube-driven) Kasino amp. Guitar-wise, Buck had brought his maple-glo Rickenbacker 360, which he had also used on the Chronic Town session.

RickResource, blue330 (Mitch Easter), April 14, 2008 comment on the thread "What about Peter Buck?"

Mr. Buck played a 360 on Murmur, not a 330. And I recall it was the Jetglo one, not the Mapleglo one he had on their first session here in NC. On Murmur, the amps were a little Kasino solid state thing (Pilgrimage only), and an Ampeg Gemini II. No AC30s! They came much later, and the last couple of times I saw them his amp was a small Silvertone.

Mitch Easter

Sound on Sound, November 2009, “REM ‘Radio Free Europe’ | Classic Tracks”

Standing on the left side of the studio, Peter Buck used Easter's own Ampeg, wide open without gobos and miked with an EV 635 or, for some overdubs, a compressed Neumann U47 FET.

Music Radar, June 3, 2021, “Producer Mitch Easter shares the inside story of R.E.M.’s early recording sessions: ‘It was glorious. They rehearsed a lot just because they liked to play together’”

Tell us about the guitar sounds…

“Peter [Buck] played all the guitars. I think he had a [Fender] Twin Reverb then. He used those for a long time. In the session, he played an electric 12-string, but not a Rickenbacker. It was a Fender Electric XII. I didn’t have a lot of recording equipment, but I did have a good guitar and amp selection.

“I told him, ‘You might want to try this.’ When we did Murmur [in 1983], I remember Peter’s Twin Reverb was dead, so that record was done with my 60s Ampeg Gemini II. It’s on every song on Murmur except Pilgrimage. I think the guitars on Murmur are the classic early Peter Buck sound.

“The thing about Peter Buck’s sound that’s really important is he used larger gauge flatwound strings. That’s what made it all work. Those Rickenbacker pickups sound better the more metal you put over them. And you develop a very deliberate way of playing. That’s what you can hear in his playing. You can hear everything he did. He really mastered it.”

[Guitar Player, February 9, 2022, "'A Lot of Bands Simply Wanted to Fit In, but R.E.M. Always Wanted to Be Themselves': Producer Mitch Easter Reveals the Genius Behind the Jangle Pop"]

What amps was Peter using at first?

He had a Fender Twin, and that’s what we recorded with. I remember when we were doing “Pilgrimage” at Reflection Studio in Charlotte, the Twin was in the shop. [“Pilgrimage” was recorded prior to Murmur as a “test” for I.R.S. Records.]

I didn’t have anything with me, but there was a Kasino solid-state amp in the studio, so we used that, and it sounded great. I think some people might faint knowing that we used this little 25-watt solid-state practice amp, but it had a really nice sound. There were oddball things like that.

For Murmur, he still didn’t have his amp back, so he used my Ampeg G-15. That amp and the Kasino are what’s on Murmur. When they came in to do Reckoning, he had his Twin back. But if you’re a distinctive-sounding guy like him, you sound like yourself no matter what.

"Tone first of all. I don't use them the same way most people use them: as a solo instrument. I tend to be more chord oriented. But those pickups have a nice, warm, chordal feeling. You can get all the harmonics and stuff out without being too overdriven. And I just like thinking about whoever owned this thing in 1954 or 1955."

Peter can be seen using a Standard Telcaster in this photo.

Pete owned at least two of these in R.E.M.'s early career. Rare photos from 1980 show him with a tobacco sunburst finish Tele Deluxe, while the attached photo shows him with one in black finish from their Reconstruction tour stop at University of Georgia, which he purchased as early as 1984 according to footage from the Old Grey Whistle Test.

In this image, one can see Buck playing a Epiphone Riviera 12-string.

In this undated studio photograph taken during one of REM's late-period recording sessions, Buck is playing through three pedals, one of which is an SD-1.

Pete used this amplifier throughout the band's Reconstruction (and possibly Pre-Construction) tour in 1984/85. It can be seen clearly in this photo credited to B. Falk at an unknown venue. Not much other information could be found outside this photo, but it's entirely possible that it was used in the band's 1985 Rockpalast broadcast when considering his chorus-laden tone, which sounds incredibly similar to the chorus function on that ampifier.

"I've got a Flat Iron I've been using since '89"

Peter Buck plays "Life is Short" live at the Georgia Theatre in Athens, GA on 2-28-2014 in this video. Throughout the video, and more notably at :31s, you can see Buck playing a custom Fender Telecaster.

Peter Buck of REM and Tired Pony uses the Audio Kitchen The Big Trees overdrive pedal, as highlighted by Audio Kitchen.

A Fulltone OCD overdrive pedal can be seen on Peter Buck's pedal board. http://www.pbs.org/klru/austin/blog/2008/10/gear-rem.html

You can see Savege amp in this picture of Buck onstage.

Peter Buck has only two main guitars, a Rickenbacker 330 and 301 both dated 1981, that he puts through a Fender Twin Reverb amplifier with two JBL speakers. He also uses a 12-string ‘81 Rickenbacker in the studio and has a 1981 Gretsch Chef Atkins Tennessean at his disposal. Besides the Twin Reverb, Buck has a Marshall amp that he sometimes borrows from his producer Mitch Easter to make a more heavy metal racket. As for effects, he has only one – an lbanez VE400 pedal that he uses live though he isn’t too sure what it actually does.

In this image from a concert in Austin, TX, Peter Buck is seen playing an Eastwood Nashville 12-String Electric Guitar, as documented by Rollingstone.

Peter Buck used the Rickenbacker 340 during R.E.M.'s late 1985 European tour, as seen in a video uploaded by StephenQdoo on YouTube titled "R.E.M. Can't Get There From Here HQ." According to a Twitter exchange with Mike Mills, the guitar was not used during their U.S. shows.

After having his Telecaster stolen in around late 1980/early 1981, Pete purchased this as a replacement in Mapleglo finish at Chick Piano in Athens, GA. The only photo/video evidence before it too was stolen is R.E.M.'s 688 Club performance on February 20th, 1981. It appears that his Accent Vibrato tailpiece is missing the tremelo arm. It was also mentioned in a Reverb interview in January of 2016 as a 360 Mapleglo, but upon video inspection, this is incorrect due to the 3-pickup configuration and tailpiece, unlike the 2-pickup configuration and standard R tailpiece. This guitar was replaced later by Pete's famous Rickenbacker 360 Jetglo model later in 1981.

A 2-knob Compressor can be seen in this image of his pedalboard

Producer Mitch Easter's XII twelve-string was used on Murmur, as recalled by Easter in R.E.M.'s Murmur (2005) by J. Niimi.

Easter brought along his white Fender Electric XII twelve-string guitar (a gift from his father when he turned thirteen; Peter Buck did not own an electric Rickenbacker twelve-string at this point, contrary to fan myth), as well as his trusty Danelectro electric sitar (which Buck had used in the Chronic Town session, most prominently on "Gardening at Night"). Easter's Electric XII can also be heard on many of Let's Active's early recordings.

In this image, we can see Buck holding a D major chord on Danelectro 12-string Bouzouki.

In this photo, we can see Buck playing a Taylor 615.

In a 1984 performance at The Rat in Boston, Peter Buck is pictured playing a Rickenbacker 330 Electric Guitar, as shown in a user-uploaded photo on Thethinair.

Peter Buck used the Rickenbacker 325 Electric Guitar in Capri Black during a live performance in the spring of 1985, as shown in a user-uploaded photo on Inthestudio.

In my opinion, this looks like a full-scale Rickenbacker 350 JG, also because it appears to have higain pickups and an R tailpiece.

This image from a 2018 interview posted to KEXP's website shows Buck playing a TV yellow LP Jr model, with a cherry DC model on a stand behind him.

Line 6 Tonecore can be seen in this image of his board.

According to Maxon's website, Buck uses the Maxon AD80 analog delay pedal.