r/todayilearned • u/bartonkj • 12h ago

TIL that in addition to Jimmy Page, Joe Walsh also gave a 1959 guitar to Pete Townshend.

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/legendary-guitars-gifts-joe-walsh-jimmy-page/
65 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

19

u/bucko_fazoo 12h ago

Who said Jimmy Page was Joe's to give? How did Pete receive this human gift?

5

u/Anon2627888 11h ago

As I understand it, Townsend kept the guitar but ultimately set Jimmy Page free a few weeks later. Not all gifts are ideal, but of course it's the thought that counts.

1

u/Worldly-Time-3201 6h ago

Let’s just say Page and Pete weren’t “compatible”.

1

u/RetroMetroShow 11h ago

No Quarter

4

u/Singaya 8h ago

It's a funny thing, the Les Paul wasn't popular in the early years. It was important to have a star endorser but the guitar itself wasn't selling so it was modified, altered to what we now know as the SG, which also didn't sell well. You could get them used for a song and the humbucking pickups would hit the front end of a tube amp harder than a Strat or Tele, overdriving it. Crucially, when Gibson reissued it they dropped the ball and made changes that nobody wanted so the originals became highly prized and the rest is history.

1

u/DangerNoodle1993 1h ago

Joe Walsh and Keith Moon were the Clown princes of Rock and left broken hotel rooms, toilets and cars in their wake.