Tony McPhee

McPhee's favorite guitar was an SG Standard with Vibrola, which he purchased in 1962 at Selmer on Charing Cross Road. He modified it extensively over the years and played it until October 19, 1986, when it was stolen in Irvine, Scotland. McPhee wrote "51416" as a tribute (51416 was his SG's serial number) and put notes on the Back Against the Wall LP (for which he borrowed his friend Gonzo's SG) letting audiences know that he was looking for the guitar, but he never recovered it. After buying a replacement that was itself later stolen, McPhee took a break from Gibson guitars. He eventually bought a replacement in 2005, which can be seen in this video of McPhee performing "No More Doggin'" at The Cellars in early September 2007.

Besides this November 1985 video of McPhee playing "One More Chance" at the Pennyfarthing in Oxford and this 1986 video of McPhee playing "Soldier", both among his last performances on his original SG, the following sources confirm his use and modification of it:

The Beat Room, Episode 14 (October 5, 1964) (visible in John Lee Hooker segments (“Boom Boom Boom” and “I’m Leaving”))

1970 photograph of McPhee performing in Hamburg, Germany, posted to The Groundhogs' official Facebook page on July 29, 2010

Disc and Music Echo, June 6, 1970, "Me and My Music: Tony McPhee", pg. 9

Plays a Gibson SG, a Framus 9-string, a Harmony Sovereign acoustic and builds his own amplification equipment. Uses a 30-watt amp with eight speakers in two cabinets.

Melody Maker, June 5, 1971, pg. 34, Any Questions?

I use two other guitars, a Gibson SG which I've had for ten years, and recently I bought a Zemaitis, which I used on Top Of The Pops.

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

Gibson SG

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 McPhee

INSTRUMENTS: Gibson SG, Fender Stratocaster, Zemaitis, Yamaha, Harmony Acoustics, H/H Amplification, ARP 2600 synthesizer and EMS Sequencer

Beat Instrumental, March 1976, "Tony McPhee: The Hogs Return" by Chris Simmons, pg. 25 (misreported as an SG Junior)

Gibson

Tony had already defined himself as a "sounds rather than notes" man, and we discussed his choice of equipment bearing his definition in mind. On the guitar side he has both a Gibson SG Junior and a Strat, enjoying the variation that two such different axes offer. "I've had the Gibson about fourteen years," he enlarged; "at various times I've thought about buying other guitars, but I'm glad I didn't. It's an all-round guitar, and the wide neck suits my style of finger playing. As well as the thinner, harsher sound the Strat gives me, the main advantage there is the tremolo arm. Actually, I also have a Zemaitis fitted out with humbucking pick ups so that it's quite close to the Gibson sound, but have never really found it fits."

[Image]

McPhee plus well worn S.G. Junior.

Beat Instrumental, June 1978, "Don't Mention the Gr**ndh*gs! says Tony 'T.S.' McPhee. Peter Douglas apologises" by Peter Douglas, pg. 18

"I thought what I needed was a total change all round. I used to use the SG almost totally, and I've still got the Zemaitis — it's hanging up on the wall, been there for years! The trouble was that the metal front tended to oxidise with the sweat, and I thought it was just going to get ruined. I thought I'd rather wait until I could get some sort of coating put on it. I've been trying to figure that out. Nobody's come up with a good answer. I've always liked the raunchy sound of the Strat, and towards the latter part of using the Gibson I fixed a Strat pick-up in the middle between the two Gibson pick-ups, but it still didn't react the same — the density of the body and all that sort of stuff obviously had something to with it — so I decided that I'd have to get used to the Strat.

"I used to play finger-style, and the Gibson strings were further apart, and the neck was wider and flatter, so I thought, well, with the Strat I'd have to get used to a pick again because of the heftier fingerboard. But now that I have got used to it, it was a good thing because I had to totally change style. I've also put on heavier gauge strings. I used to have ridiculous strings — started off with a .007, went on to something like a .009, .011, .018 . . . I used to have an unwound 4th sometimes! Well, playing finger-style that's fine, but with a pick they annoyed me after a while — too floppy. So now I start off with a .009, .011, .014, .022, .032, .042 — something like that, usually Rotosound. I find that they work OK. I've never been a great strings fanatic ..."

July 1984 photo of McPhee performing at Ripon Rock Festival

Razor's Edge back cover

Gibson Les Paul SG

"54146", title and lyrics

First time I saw you, / I knew I had to have you. / You know I had a choice / but I liked the sound of your voice. / When I think of what we've been through / since 1962 / Sometimes I was dissatisfied, / but I always come back to your side.

There were times when I had to treat you rough, / but you could take it, / you were tough, / I used to throw you on the floor / and make you scream, / and hear the people roar.

Then one day I broke your neck and cracked your head, / I could have walked off and left you for dead. / But I knew that I could fix you / as good as new / 'cos I needed you / to play these blues.

But then one day a guy stole you away from me, / he wouldn't have had a chance. / But I didn't see, 'cos he waited 'til my back was turned. / And he ran off with you, I hope his fingers burn.

Now I don't know if I'll ever see you no more, / but you were my favorite guitar for sure / It used to feel so good when I played those licks / on my Gibson SG number 54146

Back Against the Wall back cover

Gibson SG, [...] My thanks to Gonzo for the loan of his SG after mine was nicked by a twerp in Irvine, Scotland, Oct. 19 1986

Back Against the Wall runout groove

OI JIMMY WHERE'S MY F...... GIBSON

The Yelping Hounds, Issue 17 (Spring 1998), "Split" by Paul Freestone

The guitarist is playing a white fender stratocaster which is one of the two guitars he used for the recording sessions for Split. [...] The other guitar was McPhee's faithful cherry red gibson SG. [...] Both of the two guitars McPhee used on Split have disappeared without trace. [...] The cherry red gibson was stolen & never recovered.

Get Ready to ROCK!, "INTERVIEW: TONY McPHEE" by Joe Geesin (2005)

I have just bought myself a new, old Gibson SG, valve amp and transmitter I am going to get a new band together not too sure of the direction yet but I have been writing new material for a while and would like to get it recorded and played.

YouTube, "PART 2 OF 2 PETE FEENSTRA TALKS TO TONY McPHEE" by PRAK14 (recorded July 7, 2007, uploaded July 10, 2007) (@ 1:25)

Pete Feenstra: And do you still play a Gibson? That Gibson?

Tony "T.S." McPhee: No, that's a brown Gibson. My original Gibson was nicked...

Feenstra: Was it?

McPhee: ...a long time ago.

Feenstra: Aw, that's a shame

McPhee: Yeah, and I got another one to replace it, that was nicked, so I gave up on Gibsons and got Japanese. And, uh... but then I— This Gibson is from a local shop, so I just got back to it.

Early Blues, "Early Blues Interview: Tony 'TS' McPhee - Vocals / Guitar, The Groundhogs" by Alan White (2008)

Which is your favourite guitar?

It’s gone. A Gibson. It was nicked in Irvine, in Scotland. But can I say that whoever’s got it – I’m going to get him one day!

Friars Aylesbury, "Friars Interviews: TONY MCPHEE" (May 2009)

But the punks did take to some bands..

Yes, us for one! Especially people like Captain Sensible who bought a Gibson SG because I played one. He uses one to this day.

everythingSG, November 29, 2012 reply by altoricky on "Let's see your vintage SG!" (February 16, 2012) by Kevin James

Having said that, I saw Tony McPhee with the Groundhogs ( not sure if they made it across the pond ) at the Marquee in London back in the early 70s and he was using a sideways vib to great effect and didn't seem to have too may tuning issues.

Blues.Gr, "An Interview with Tony "TS" McPhee of The Groundhogs: A Legendary Artist of British Blues History" by Michael Limnois (June 28, 2013)

What do you miss most nowadays from the 60s and your first steps in music?

The thrill of getting my first guitar and amp & modifying them to my own requirements, these days guitars and amps are factory set-up, I used to have to stone the frets on all my guitars and modify my amps, maybe change the pre-amp wiring.

Interview with Tony Bacon for The SG Guitar Book: 50 Years of Gibson's Stylish Solid Guitar (2015), excerpted in Guitar, "The oral history of the Gibson SG" by Tony Bacon (September 3, 2019)

“I got my SG Standard from the Selmer shop in Charing Cross Road, central London, in 1962. I chose it because it had a tremolo arm like a Stratocaster, which was my first choice – Hank Marvin had a Strat and I loved the single-coil sound of its pickups.

“I also loved the sound of Gretsch guitars and the look of their Jet Firebird. But the SG had the side-action vibrato – I hate the term whammy bar. And the clincher was the position of the pickup selector switch, similar to a Strat’s – but not a Goldtop’s, which was in the wrong place, ergonomically, as far as I was concerned. And the Goldtop was a heavy guitar.

“I made some changes to my SG through the years. I took off the vibrato cover – I thought of the vibrato like a side-to-side-action Morse-code key, like ultra-fast Morse-code operators used and it didn’t cause me any problems. I put a capacitor on the volume pots between the slider and output tags, which enhanced the treble. I called it the tone changer and you can hear it on Mistreated on the Blues Obituary album.

“Also, I put a push-button switch mid-body that put a capacitor across the output, like a tone control – my version of a wah-wah pedal, before I got my first Schaller wah. I’d press it in solos and so on to imitate a wah pedal. Later, I had Paul Raven, the Killing Joke bassist, make a TS logo for the pickguard and at one time, I put a Strat pickup between the two humbuckers.

“Anyway, in 1986 that original SG Standard [serial number 54146] was stolen from a dressing room at a gig in a theatre in Irvine, Scotland. The buggers! Later, around 2006, I bought an SG Special. It had a great action, but I found the neck was too narrow, and Derek Forbes, ex-Simple Minds, has it now. My career is on hold these days after the stroke I suffered in June 2009, which stole my voice and a certain amount of dexterity.”

The SG Guitar Book: 50 Years of Gibson's Stylish Solid Guitar (2015) by Tony Bacon, pgs. 33-34

"I chose the SG Standard because it had a tremolo arm like a Stratocaster," McPhee recalls, "which was my first choice – Hank Marvin had a Strat and I loved the single-coil sound of its pickups." The Selmer shop had no Strats, so his attention turned to other possibilities. "I also loved the sound of Gretsch guitars and the look of the Jet Fire Bird. But the SG had the side-action vibrato, and the clincher was the position of the pickup selector switch, similar to a Strat’s – but not a Goldtop’s, which was in the wrong place, ergonomically, as far as I was concerned."

He soon began modifying his SG/Les Paul, removing the metal cover from the vibrato to leave the bare mechanism on show. He says: "I thought of the vibrato like a side-to-side-action morse key, like ultra-fast morse code operators used, so it didn't cause me any problems". He modified the electrics to boost treble. He added a switch for a sort-of wah effect, and through the years he added another switch for a pre-amp in/out and had Paul Raven (the Killing Joke bassist) make a TS logo for the pickguard. He swapped the tuners for Schallers, he put a Strat pickup between the two humbuckers (then removed it and put a plate there to hide the mess), and he endured a few head and neck breaks, mostly as a result of throwing the guitar across the stage at the end of gigs in the early 1970s. What you might call a weary but willing workhorse.

The Fretboard, "The second coolest person to ever rock a Gibson SG after Angus Young in my book." by Leisceoir, comment by boogieman (March 27, 2023)

Couple of glaring omissions in this thread : Tony Bourge and Tony TS McPhee. It was seeing TS back in the 70s that made me want to own an SG.

Michael Messer Forum, June 7, 2023 reply by pete1951 on "Tony McPhee >RIP" (June 7, 2023) by Michael Messer

The Ground Hogs was one of my favourite bands in the late 60s and along with The John Dummer Band ( with Dave Kelly) were regular performers at my local small band venue.

My interest in slide guitar was kindled by his playing.

( in 1971 my school leavers concert had 2 bands, The Ground Hogs and Chicken Shack, I had already left school but didn’t miss the gig)

I remember him playing a Framus(?) 9 string for slide , and in the early years an SG for standard tuning ( the first guitar I made was SG shaped because of his guitar)

Pete

Vintage Guitar, August 2023, “In Memoriam: Tony “T.S.” McPhee” by Dan Forte

“Tony played with his fingers on a cherry red Gibson SG, and his ability to emulate John Lee Hooker was uncanny,” said Blues piano great Bob Hall, an original Groundhog.

In an interview with Tony Bacon for The SG Guitar Book: 50 Years of Gibson's Stylish Solid Guitar (2015), which was excerpted by Bacon in "The oral history of the Gibson SG" for Guitar (September 3, 2019), McPhee shared that he briefly used an SG Special after its purchase circa 2006, only to give it to Derek Forbes when he found the neck to be too narrow.

Later, around 2006, I bought an SG Special. It had a great action, but I found the neck was too narrow, and Derek Forbes, ex-Simple Minds, has it now.

Visible in this photo of McPhee. It is listed among his equipment in the liner notes of Hogwash, the back cover of Solid, the press kit for Solid, and on the back cover of Back Against the Wall, besides also appearing with McPhee on The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1973.

Hogwash liner notes

Yamaha Acoustic

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 McPhee

INSTRUMENTS: Gibson SG, Fender Stratocaster, Zemaitis, Yamaha, Harmony Acoustics, H/H Amplification, ARP 2600 synthesizer and EMS Sequencer

Back Against the Wall back cover

Yamaha Acoustic FG180

Two were used in the 1980s. The first, a red Mustang with Vibrato, is visible in this 1985 video of McPhee playing "Groundhog Blues" at the Pennyfarthing in Oxford; it is likely the same Mustang listed among McPhee's gear on the back cover of Razor's Edge. The second, a black Mustang with Vibrato, appears in this July 19, 1987 photograph from a show at The Mardi Gras, Nottingham (which was posted to The Groundhogs' official Facebook page on May 18, 2015) and in this 1988 video of McPhee performing at Rock City.

Razor's Edge back cover

Fender Mustang

Facebook, The Groundhogs, May 18, 2015

OK last one for tonight, Tony McPhee from 19/7/1987 at The Mardi Gras, Nottingham, in the days when he used to take his Zemaitis round as a spare....!

McPhee also mentions a Mustang in his review of the ARP Avatar, which appeared on page 31 of the May 1978 issue of Beat Instrumental. He describes how it was the subject of a prototype pitch-to-voltage converter for guitar.

In the end I took an old Fender Mustang along to PA:CE, who make MM mixers, and together with Dick Parmee, their designer, tried to figure out how to make a fretboard function as a supplier of voltages. Basically we had to cut a groove along the neck and insert resistors, one for each fret, and solder them to the frets. A voltage was then connected to each end of the string of resistors, and when a string touched a fret, a corresponding voltage was taken from the end of the string via a special bridge.

The gate and trigger voltages were derived from the pick up via an envelope-follower circuit.

Well, it worked to a point, but then both Dick and myself started getting into other things, and it was shelved. At the same time, other companies were trying to solve the same problems and came up with various solutions, all with certain snags.

According to this August 1997 Vintage Guitar article, the first metal-front Zemaitis guitar ever made was built for McPhee. It is attested by the following sources:

• 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)

• Melody Maker, June 5, 1971, pg. 34, Any Questions?

I use two other guitars, a Gibson SG which I've had for ten years, and recently I bought a Zemaitis, which I used on Top Of The Pops. This guitar was custom built for me by Tony Zemaitis and has an engraved metal front. It has one Fender and one Gibson pick-up but any could be fitted. Cost of similar guitar would be around £250 from Tony at 19 Laitwood Road, Balham, London SW12 (01-675 1342). [...] I sang to a pre-recorded backing track on Top Of The Pops, but it would have been a lot easier to have done the whole thing live!

• Hogwash liner notes

Zemaitis Guitar

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

INSTRUMENTS: Gibson SG, Fender Stratocaster, Zemaitis, Yamaha, Harmony Acoustics, H/H Amplification, ARP 2600 synthesizer and EMS Sequencer

• Beat, March 1976, "Tony McPhee: The Hogs Return" by Chris Simmons, pg. 25

"[...] Actually, I also have a Zemaitis fitted out with humbucking pick ups so that it's quite close to the Gibson sound, but have never really found it fits."

• Beat Instrumental, June 1978, "Don't Mention the Gr**ndh*gs! says Tony 'T.S.' McPhee. Peter Douglas apologises" by Peter Douglas, pg. 18

"I thought what I needed was a total change all round. I used to use the SG almost totally, and I've still got the Zemaitis — it's hanging up on the wall, been there for years! The trouble was that the metal front tended to oxidise with the sweat, and I thought it was just going to get ruined. I thought I'd rather wait until I could get some sort of coating put on it. I've been trying to figure that out. Nobody's come up with a good answer.

• July 19, 1987 photograph of McPhee performing at The Mardi Gras, Nottingham, posted to The Groundhogs' official Facebook page on May 18, 2015 with the following caption:

OK last one for tonight, Tony McPhee from 19/7/1987 at The Mardi Gras, Nottingham, in the days when he used to take his Zemaitis round as a spare....!

• Vintage Guitar, August 1997, "Zemaitis Guitar: Tony Z and the Cult of the Zemaitis Guitar" by Adrian Ingram (posted online on March 2, 2004)

The first metal-front Zemaitis guitar was made for Tony McPhee, of the Groundhogs, in the late ’60s.

Facebook, Tony McPhee, September 27, 2011 (which includes the following comment)

My Zemaitis I asked Tony Z to make me an electric & this was his 1st metal-front he said if I didn't like it he'd make me another 'straight' style. I said I'd have this one!!

Facebook, Tony McPhee, September 29, 2011

Here it is in all it's beauty!!!

Facebook, Tony McPhee, September 30, 2011

Here I am sitting on my Plastic Pig (Reliant Regal) with my Z outside Foel Studios. Circa 1987.

• Andrew Liles, 10 Questions, "Tony (TS) McPhee" (March 2, 2015)

6.) OTHER THAN FRIENDS AND FAMILY WHAT IS YOUR MOST CHERISHED POSSESSION?

My Zemaitis metal front guitar.

Facebook, Tony McPhee, February 6, 2016

This is me atop my 1st plastic pig, a Reliant Regal, holding my Zemaitis , sporting a '70s Stosh at Foel Studios waiting for Dave Anderson!

Facebook, Tony McPhee, March 16, 2016

On the set of Top of the Pops with my newly acquired Zemaitis & beard which I grew after seeing Andy Sneddons,bass player in East of Eden shared a flat upstairs to mine in South Kensington at the time, beard didn't last long, too itchy!

Visible throughout Live At Anti WAA Festival 1989 (starting at 0:31) and in this January 20, 1989 photograph of The Groundhogs performing at the Kazbah Music Club in Sunderland, which was posted to The Groundhogs' Facebook on August 16, 2018. The Auroc is also recalled in the following forum and Facebook posts:

speakerplans.com, January 30, 2013 reply by TONY.A.S.S.

Seeing that photo brought back memories. I was coming back home on the ferry after a trip to Frankfurt, and met Tony sitting on his own, so we we spent the whole trip just yacking about guitars. I was there with my guitars on show and I had seen him demoing some guitars made out of the same stuff they make Bowling Balls out of. He's never been too showbizzy, he just likes to get on with his playing. A true Muso.

Facebook, Tony McPhee, November 20, 2015

The grimace is,I'm sure down to the fact that my Auroc, being made of marble is heavier than a Gibson gold top SG!

Facebook, Tony McPhee, February 6, 2017

Groundhogs, Jon Camp, me & Mick Jones at the Horn of Plenty in St. Albans in 1988, with my Auroc & the badge I got from Jim Berger, a fellow finger style player I met at the Frankfurt guitar show when I went there to demonstrate the Auroc,meeting Tim Oakes there, who I hadn't seen since he interviewed me with the folk magazine he worked for.

NZGuitars.com, January 2020 reply by Molly

Watched Tony McPhee demo one in a pub in Warrington decades ago. I'd never heard of him at the time (though we did later open for him at one show) and I thought he was fucking awful. They gave him some multi-knob 800 Series half stack and he managed to get a fucking terrible tone from it.

NZGuitars.com, September 13, 2020 reply by Molly

Remember Aurock (sp?). The marble Strats from fuckin' ages ago. I watched Tony McPhee do a demo for them in a Warrington pub. He was shit. The guitar was worse. Must've weighed 20lbs. Skinny, short-arsed fucker. Guitar would've been about the same.

NZGuitars.com, November 25, 2021 reply by Molly

We opened for The Groundhogs once. Definitely wasn't our crowd....

Separately, I recall Tony McPhee doing a showcase for Aurock (sp?) guitars. They were made of reconstituted marble, were fitted with EMGs and weighed more than the sun. To show it off they gave him a Marshall half stack with more knobs than Jodrell Bank. He couldn't get a sympathetic tone for Africa. Poor bloke. It was a disaster.

McPhee used at least four Stratocasters, which are known from the following sources:

• 1969 photograph, posted to Facebook by The Groundhogs on January 12, 2010 (visible)

• August 15, 1970 photograph of McPhee at the Krumlin Festival, which became the cover of Split (Source 1, Source 2) (visible)

• Claudio Hosquet's footage of the 1970 Isle of Wight festival (Part 2 of 5) (@ 2:38)

• Melody Maker, June 5, 1971, pg. 34, Any Questions?

I use a Laney 100-Watt stack, plus an Arbiter Add-A-Sound octave splitter, which adds higher harmonies, producing a "violin" sound and also lower octaves, which used [sic] on "Cherry Red." I modified this unit and built in a pre-amp with high-pass filter which acts as a treble boost. I also use a Shcaller [sic] wah-wah pedal. On "Thank Christ" we had completely different equipment, so the sound is different on "Split", plus the fact that I also used a Fender Stratocaster for many of the numbers on "Split," notably parts 2 and 4, using a combination of wah-wah and tremolo arm to get "whizzing" effects. I use two other guitars, a Gibson SG which I've had for ten years, and recently I bought a Zemaitis, which I used on Top Of The Pops. This guitar was custom built for me by Tony Zemaitis and has an engraved metal front. It has one Fender and one Gibson pick-up but any could be fitted. Cost of similar guitar would be around £250 from Tony at 19 Laitwood Road, Balham, London SW12 (01-675 1342). On "Junk Man", the wind sound is transistor noise from the wah-wah pedal and the other effects were obtained using the Stratocaster with tremolo arm, wah-wah pedal and volume pedal simultaneously, and then playing the track through a speaker at one end of the studio picking it up with a mike at the other end, panning this against the original track in the mix at the same time varying the speed of the 8-track machine! All the other effects were obtained with pedals and channel panning. I played the organ which happened to be in the studio that day. I sang to a pre-recorded backing track on Top Of The Pops, but it would have been a lot easier to have done the whole thing live!

• 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

Fender Stratocaster

• 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 McPhee

INSTRUMENTS: Gibson SG, Fender Stratocaster, Zemaitis, Yamaha, Harmony Acoustics, H/H Amplification, ARP 2600 synthesizer and EMS Sequencer

• Beat Instrumental, March 1976, "Tony McPhee: The Hogs Return" by Chris Simmons, pg. 25

Tony had already defined himself as a "sounds rather than notes" man, and we discussed his choice of equipment bearing his definition in mind. On the guitar side he has both a Gibson SG Junior and a Strat, enjoying the variation that two such different axes offer. "I've had the Gibson about fourteen years," he enlarged; "at various times I've thought about buying other guitars, but I'm glad I didn't. It's an all-round guitar, and the wide neck suits my style of finger playing. As well as the thinner, harsher sound the Strat gives me, the main advantage there is the tremolo arm. Actually, I also have a Zemaitis fitted out with humbucking pick ups so that it's quite close to the Gibson sound, but have never really found it fits."

• Footage of The Groundhogs performing "Your Love Keeps Me Alive" at the Marquee on October 28th, 1976 (starting at 0:10)

• Beat Instrumental, June 1978, "Don't Mention the Gr**ndh*gs! says Tony 'T.S.' McPhee. Peter Douglas apologises" by Peter Douglas, pg. 18

"I thought what I needed was a total change all round. I used to use the SG almost totally, and I've still got the Zemaitis — it's hanging up on the wall, been there for years! The trouble was that the metal front tended to oxidise with the sweat, and I thought it was just going to get ruined. I thought I'd rather wait until I could get some sort of coating put on it. I've been trying to figure that out. Nobody's come up with a good answer. I've always liked the raunchy sound of the Strat, and towards the latter part of using the Gibson I fixed a Strat pick-up in the middle between the two Gibson pick-ups, but it still didn't react the same — the density of the body and all that sort of stuff obviously had something to with it — so I decided that I'd have to get used to the Strat.

"I used to play finger-style, and the Gibson strings were further apart, and the neck was wider and flatter, so I thought, well, with the Strat I'd have to get used to a pick again because of the heftier fingerboard. But now that I have got used to it, it was a good thing because I had to totally change style. I've also put on heavier gauge strings. I used to have ridiculous strings — started off with a .007, went on to something like a .009, .011, .018 . . . I used to have an unwound 4th sometimes! Well, playing finger-style that's fine, but with a pick they annoyed me after a while — too floppy. So now I start off with a .009, .011, .014, .022, .032, .042 — something like that, usually Rotosound. I find that they work OK. I've never been a great strings fanatic ..."

• The Yelping Hounds, Issue 17 (Spring 1998), "Split" by Paul Freestone

The front of the album featured a striking image of Tony McPhee split into circular segments. The guitarist is playing a white fender stratocaster which is one of the two guitars he used for the recording sessions for Split. The white strat didn't belong to McPhee - it was borrowed from his brother-in-law who refused all offers to part with it. [...] Both of the two guitars McPhee used on Split have disappeared without trace. The ex-brother-in-law (from McPhee's first marriage ) who owned the white strat is now deceased. The guitar was sold before his death but to whom is unknown. (It's odd to think that the the current owner of the white strat has probably no idea of its true historical & financial value.)

• Facebook, Tony McPhee, September 12, 2011

Pooconos festival looking towards stage, Me playing my grey 1963 Strat( later stolen in Wales, bugger it!)

• Interview with Tony Bacon for The SG Guitar Book: 50 Years of Gibson's Stylish Solid Guitar (2015), excerpted in Guitar, "The oral history of the Gibson SG" by Tony Bacon (September 3, 2019)

“I got my SG Standard from the Selmer shop in Charing Cross Road, central London, in 1962. I chose it because it had a tremolo arm like a Stratocaster, which was my first choice – Hank Marvin had a Strat and I loved the single-coil sound of its pickups.

“I also loved the sound of Gretsch guitars and the look of their Jet Firebird. But the SG had the side-action vibrato – I hate the term whammy bar. And the clincher was the position of the pickup selector switch, similar to a Strat’s – but not a Goldtop’s, which was in the wrong place, ergonomically, as far as I was concerned. And the Goldtop was a heavy guitar.

• The SG Guitar Book: 50 Years of Gibson's Stylish Solid Guitar (2015) by Tony Bacon, pgs. 33-34

"I chose the SG Standard because it had a tremolo arm like a Stratocaster," McPhee recalls, "which was my first choice – Hank Marvin had a Strat and I loved the single-coil sound of its pickups." The Selmer shop had no Strats, so his attention turned to other possibilities. "I also loved the sound of Gretsch guitars and the look of the Jet Fire Bird. But the SG had the side-action vibrato, and the clincher was the position of the pickup selector switch, similar to a Strat’s – but not a Goldtop’s, which was in the wrong place, ergonomically, as far as I was concerned."

• strat-talk.com (Fender Stratocaster Guitar Forum), March 3, 2017 reply by simoncroft on "The Fastfingers pic thread." by Fastfingers

Even in the early 70s, you could get a '60s Strat for around the £100 mark if you were lucky. Usually, they'd be a bit tatty/amateur refin for that money, but I knew a guy in a C&W group who was lucky enough to bump into some guy called Tony McPhee. Eddie Green had barely heard of The Groundhogs, but he had a certain 'gift of the gab', so Tony sold him a white 60's Strat for £95, from memory.

• strat-talk.com (Fender Stratocaster Guitar Forum), May 31, 2019 reply by simoncroft on "Pre-CBS Values In The 80s???" by mikej89

stratfan said:

Strats were worth nothing in the early 70's. I went around all the music shops in Birmingham, England, to sell my white '62 and was offered generally £60. I sold it for the only offer of £80, virtually mint. I bought it used (private sale) around 1965 for £35 - from someone who must have been desperate for the money (it was offered at £70)! Obviously, I wish I had kept it, but nobody knew then that the vintage Strat market would take off so spectacularly. I still have my Fiesta Red '62 which I bought used in 1963 for £130. New price then was £172 - a lot of money in 1963 for a 17 year-old!

Check out @Alan Crossley's post ^. I'm sorry to say it, but you were robbed, mate. Unfortunately, dealers have to charge VAT, pay all the overheads of their business, and make a profit. £200-250 would have been closer to market value, although I occasionally saw them go for a lot less. (I know someone who bought one from Tony McPhee of The Groundhogs for £99 around that time!)

McPhee's 9-string Framus, which is mentioned in the "Me and My Music" column of the June 6, 1970 issue of Disc and Music Echo, is also remembered by Michael Messer Forum user pete1951 in a June 7, 2023 reply. Pete specifies that McPhee used the Framus for slide guitar.

Disc and Music Echo, June 6, 1970, "Me and My Music: Tony McPhee", pg. 9

Plays a Gibson SG, a Framus 9-string, a Harmony Sovereign acoustic and builds his own amplification equipment. Uses a 30-watt amp with eight speakers in two cabinets.

Michael Messer Forum, June 7, 2023 reply by pete1951 on "Tony McPhee >RIP" (June 7, 2023) by Michael Messer

The Ground Hogs was one of my favourite bands in the late 60s and along with The John Dummer Band ( with Dave Kelly) were regular performers at my local small band venue.

My interest in slide guitar was kindled by his playing.

( in 1971 my school leavers concert had 2 bands, The Ground Hogs and Chicken Shack, I had already left school but didn’t miss the gig)

I remember him playing a Framus(?) 9 string for slide , and in the early years an SG for standard tuning ( the first guitar I made was SG shaped because of his guitar)

Pete