Richard Lloyd

On the Punk Turns 30 website in every picture of Richard Lloyd he is seen playing a Fender Stratocaster, the model guitar he still favors to this day.

Richard can be seen playing with this guitar at CBGB's in New York City on March 14, 1980. There are no quotes from the guitarrist about, and no other images of him using it beside the ones from that performance.

Today, Richard Lloyd remains an active musician, often playing Television classics using his greenburst Sidejack DLX guitar, and also giving guitar lessons for aspiring guitarists - including well-known names such as Jeff Tweedy of Wilco!

His main guitars were a Supro Black Holiday, a Vintage Guitars Strat-style model and an Epiphone Casino, which he plugged into a Vox AC30 and a Supro Black Magick.

His main guitars were a Supro Black Holiday, a Vintage Guitars Strat-style model and an Epiphone Casino, which he plugged into a Vox AC30 and a Supro Black Magick.

In this photo from the Punk Turns 30 page hosted on Flickr you can clearly see Lloyd plugged into an ampeg V4 guitar amp with tis matching V series 4x12 cabinet. Wow that must have been loud!

In this early photo of Television Richard Lloyd and Tom Verlaine can both be seen plugged into blackface Fender Super Reverb amplifiers. While there is a slight chance they are using the unpopular and short-lived 4x10 blackface Fender Concert it is highly unlikely due to the rarity of that amp compared with the ubiquitous (and superb sounding) Super Reverb.

During an interview on thewonder.co.uk during the first Television reunion tour in the 2000's, Richard Lloyd revealed the elements of his tone both live and in the studio. "Richard Lloyd still plays the same '61 Stratocaster with jumbo frets that he played on Marquee Moon and Adventure, although he takes a '62 reissue Strat and Tele on the road. On the new album's "Rhyme", he played a rare black f-hole Gretsch. Lloyd tends a stable of vintage Fender amps, including a '50 Deluxe, a '52 Pro, a '55 Tremolux, and a '56 Princeton. He also uses a '59 Ampeg Jet, a Vibraverb reissue, and a '65 Supro. Live, he relies on Vox AC30s: "You can change the current wherever you are without a transformer, so they're good the world over, and they have a nice high-end bite." Save for a few dinosaur pedals, Lloyd avoids effects, citing the dangers of "processors that make your guitar sound like Velveeta." And though he's a die-hard fan of amp distortion, he admits, "I'm always fighting to get a combination that won't really distort the tonality of the guitar, but will just give you the edge you're looking for."

During an interview with Guitar Player magazine in the 90s Richard Lloyd revealed some of his gear refrences live and in the studio. 'Richard Lloyd still plays the same '61 Stratocaster with jumbo frets that he played on Marquee Moon and Adventure, although he takes a '62 reissue Strat and Tele on the road. On the new album's "Rhyme", he played a rare black f-hole Gretsch. Lloyd tends a stable of vintage Fender amps, including a '50 Deluxe, a '52 Pro, a '55 Tremolux, and a '56 Princeton. He also uses a '59 Ampeg Jet, a Vibraverb reissue, and a '65 Supro. Live, he relies on Vox AC30s: "You can change the current wherever you are without a transformer, so they're good the world over, and they have a nice high-end bite." Save for a few dinosaur pedals, Lloyd avoids effects, citing the dangers of "processors that make your guitar sound like Velveeta." And though he's a diehard fan of amp distortion, he admits, "I'm always fighting to get a combination that won't really distort the tonality of the guitar, but will just give you the edge you're looking for." '

An interview originally published in a 1993 issue of Guitar Player magazine states that, 'Richard Lloyd still plays the same '61 Stratocaster with jumbo frets that he played on Marquee Moon and Adventure, although he takes a '62 reissue Strat and Tele on the road. On the new album's "Rhyme", he played a rare black f-hole Gretsch. Lloyd tends a stable of vintage Fender amps, including a '50 Deluxe, a '52 Pro, a '55 Tremolux, and a '56 Princeton. He also uses a '59 Ampeg Jet, a Vibraverb reissue, and a '65 Supro. Live, he relies on Vox AC30s: "You can change the current wherever you are without a transformer, so they're good the world over, and they have a nice high-end bite." Save for a few dinosaur pedals, Lloyd avoids effects, citing the dangers of "processors that make your guitar sound like Velveeta." And though he's a diehard fan of amp distortion, he admits, "I'm always fighting to get a combination that won't really distort the tonality of the guitar, but will just give you the edge you're looking for." '

The reissue vibroverb mentioned can only be a garbled reference to the Fender Custom Shop hand-wired Vibrolux Reverb of the 90s which were very much in the spirit of the vibrolux and vibroverb amps of the original backface era though not precisely a reissue of either.

In a 2003 interview with Vintage Guitar magazine Lloyd commented that his currently "I’ve been playing through a Vox AC-30 live and a blackface Fender Deluxe. The AC-30 is from about 1980, and the Deluxe is a ’65. I use the same thing with Television. I’ve been using a TS-808 Tube Screamer and a Boss SD-1 for years."

In '03 Lloyd told Vintage Guitar Magazine that "Mostly, I’ve been playing through a Vox AC-30 live and a blackface Fender Deluxe. "

In this photo of Lloyd's rig from a solo tour you can't miss the Supro 1x15" combo amplifier next to one of his distinctively painted 62RI Stratocasters. Additionally, a Guitar Player Magazine interview in 1993 stated "Lloyd tends a stable of vintage Fender amps, including a '50 Deluxe, a '52 Pro, a '55 Tremolux, and a '56 Princeton. He also uses a '59 Ampeg Jet, a Vibraverb reissue, and a '65 Supro." That would be the 1x15" pictured here which, if it is genuinely a 65, can only be the notorious Thunderbolt Bass Amplifier.

In a 2003 interview with Vintage Guitar magazine Lloyd commented that his currently "I’ve been playing through a Vox AC-30 live and a blackface Fender Deluxe. The AC-30 is from about 1980, and the Deluxe is a ’65. I use the same thing with Television. I’ve been using a TS-808 Tube Screamer and a Boss SD-1 for years."

In 2003 Richard Lloyd told Vintage Guitar Magazine that "I’ve been using a TS-808 Tube Screamer and a Boss SD-1 for years."

Pedals were minimal as well — an Echoplex, an “old Boss overdrive,” an MXR Carbon Copy and a DigiTech FreqOut, which, Lloyd says, “is essentially a feedback machine. I used that specifically on the song ‘The Countdown,’ because you can be at a low volume and still get good feedback. I didn’t have to turn the amps on 10 and be in a room with earplugs and, uh, you know, flying saucers.”

Pedals were minimal as well — an Echoplex, an “old Boss overdrive,” an MXR Carbon Copy and a DigiTech FreqOut, which, Lloyd says, “is essentially a feedback machine. I used that specifically on the song ‘The Countdown,’ because you can be at a low volume and still get good feedback. I didn’t have to turn the amps on 10 and be in a room with earplugs and, uh, you know, flying saucers.”

Lately, I’m using a Vertex T Drive. I have an Echoplex preamp, which adds up to 8 dB to the signal and softens it a bit. And some kind of delay. On one tour I took an actual Echoplex around the world and, surprisingly, it kept up. They’re infamous for breaking and it didn’t break. I was lucky.

According to Guitar World's interview, Lloyd uses the Dunlop Echoplex preamp pedal.

Nowadays, I use ribbons and a great combination of the Royer 121 and something called a Turner. Turner was a company in the 1930s. First they made headstones, then they made PAs for funerals—and they also got into shortwave radio mics—but they had two or three that were high-end mics. But they’re not very high end.