Rivers Cuomo's equipment: Difference between revisions
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==Equipment history== | ==Equipment history== | ||
===Pre-1992=== | ===Pre-1992=== | ||
Right up to the moment | Right up to the moment Weezer had its first practice [[February 14]], [[1992]], [[Rivers Cuomo|Rivers]] had a Charvel Stratocaster-style guitar, a "Model 2" that was plain white, but was repainted by Rivers in purple acrylic paint, including the headstock, which was originally black. According to a fan who is familiar with Charvels, the Model 2 : didnt have a pickguard, was a bolt-on, only had one humbucker, and had a crummy Floyd Rose, Jackson made copy, bridge. This guitar was left over from Rivers's "metal days" and was only used reluctantly at this point. This guitar met its end during a Weezer practice sometime later, when it was smashed to pieces. The broken headstock visible inside the first album photograph of the garage is from that guitar. No pieces remain today as far as I know. For an amplifier, Rivers used a Randall 120 watt non-tube head powering a Randall 4x12 cabinet. The Randall is still in use today, by Patrick Finn of Organic Mechanic. The speaker cabinet (pictured on the left side of the blue album garage picture) continues to be sold and resold, and has been spotted as recently as late 2000 in LA's "Recycler" Mag. | ||
===1992=== | ===1992=== | ||
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Rivers also picked up an acoustic guitar at this point, and brought it to Electric lady, where it is heard on the intro to "Jonas" and "In The Garage". This was a 1974 Gibson. I dont have the exact info on this at the moment, but I know it was either a J-45 or a 70's descendent of a J-45. It sounded amazing. Sadly, this guitar was to meet a tragic end later, when Rivers had his leg brace. The brace wore a huge hole right through the bottom of the guitar, which Rivers duct taped together for a while. The thing still sounded pretty good in this state, but it didn't last. The guitar was either trashed or given to Justin Fisher [ of Shufflepuck, Nerf Herder, and Psoma ]. I'll have to check with Justin on that one. | Rivers also picked up an acoustic guitar at this point, and brought it to Electric lady, where it is heard on the intro to "Jonas" and "In The Garage". This was a 1974 Gibson. I dont have the exact info on this at the moment, but I know it was either a J-45 or a 70's descendent of a J-45. It sounded amazing. Sadly, this guitar was to meet a tragic end later, when Rivers had his leg brace. The brace wore a huge hole right through the bottom of the guitar, which Rivers duct taped together for a while. The thing still sounded pretty good in this state, but it didn't last. The guitar was either trashed or given to Justin Fisher [ of Shufflepuck, Nerf Herder, and Psoma ]. I'll have to check with Justin on that one. | ||
Note that the acoustic guitar shown inside the blue album cover is a Yamaha F-310, which is a basic, cheap, decent sounding guitar. This guitar is not the one heard on the blue album, and I'm not even sure whose it is, or if it still exists. It isn't likely to be Jason's, as this photo was taken after Brian joined the band, but it is possible its one of the several acoustics that Jason played in the band in the earliest | Note that the acoustic guitar shown inside the blue album cover is a Yamaha F-310, which is a basic, cheap, decent sounding guitar. This guitar is not the one heard on the blue album, and I'm not even sure whose it is, or if it still exists. It isn't likely to be Jason's, as this photo was taken after Brian joined the band, but it is possible its one of the several acoustics that Jason played in the band in the earliest Weezer days, before he went electric. (see Jason's section) | ||
Keyboards on Buddy Holly: In 1993, a friend was storing his late 80's digital synth at 'the garage' where | Keyboards on Buddy Holly: In 1993, a friend was storing his late 80's digital synth at 'the garage' where Weezer practiced and cut demos. This was a Korg M1 type synth, definitely not vintage or cool in any way, especially then. But it had a huge library of sounds, and in between the koto drums, etc, Rivers stumbled across a slippery little sound that he decided was just right for his new song "Buddy Holly". Later, in NYC recording the Blue Album, Rivers tried in vain to get that same sound from different equally digital synth that was brought in. For whatever reason no one could find the same model as the one back in L.A. The sound used was basically as close as Rivers could get it to what was on the demo. | ||
Harmonica on Jonas; In The Garage: info coming. | <!-- Harmonica on Jonas; In The Garage: info coming. --> | ||
===1993 - After Blue=== | ===1993 - After Blue=== | ||
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===1995 - Spr/Sum Touring=== | ===1995 - Spr/Sum Touring=== | ||
Rivers next new amplifier was inspired by their 1995 appearence on the Dave Letterman Show. The SL-X picked up a horrible sounding hum once it was set up there, (probably due to the electrical configuration of the building), and it seemed hopeless, as the song was "Say It Ain't So", which has quiet parts. In the corner was an unused still in the box 1992 Marshall 30th Anniversary 6100LM amp, which apparently had been shipped in by the Cranberries for their upcoming performance later in the week. We borrowed the amp (sorry Dolores), and lo and behold it sounded much better. So we immediately set out to get one, and it became Rivers's main amp since then. Its this amp that I modified the "Marshall" letters to spell out " | Rivers next new amplifier was inspired by their 1995 appearence on the Dave Letterman Show. The SL-X picked up a horrible sounding hum once it was set up there, (probably due to the electrical configuration of the building), and it seemed hopeless, as the song was "Say It Ain't So", which has quiet parts. In the corner was an unused still in the box 1992 Marshall 30th Anniversary 6100LM amp, which apparently had been shipped in by the Cranberries for their upcoming performance later in the week. We borrowed the amp (sorry Dolores), and lo and behold it sounded much better. So we immediately set out to get one, and it became Rivers's main amp since then. Its this amp that I modified the "Marshall" letters to spell out "Weezer" in late 2000. Rivers settled on the "yellow" sound, which is the center of the 3 channels you can pick from (red is ultra metal, and green is mellow). | ||
===1995-1996 - Pinkerton=== | ===1995-1996 - Pinkerton=== | ||
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===1997 - Japan/Thailand=== | ===1997 - Japan/Thailand=== | ||
In '97, we finally ordered several back-up Stratocaster copies, to complement the sonic blue one. Only one, a black one, showed up before all | In '97, we finally ordered several back-up Stratocaster copies, to complement the sonic blue one. Only one, a black one, showed up before all Weezer touring stopped in August 1997. This black one went on to become Rivers main guitar for performing "older" songs (the Blue album and Pinkerton are in "E flat" tuning, whereas the newer stuff is not, so they need 2 sets of guitars and basses onstage), and appears on the cover of the Green album (ironicly a CD full of songs that cannot be properly played on that black guitar). This guitar has had numerous modifications made, as it had serious electrical errors when it arrived. The idea was to duplicate the innards of the blue guitar, but since no one really knew what was going on in the blue guitar at the time, it didnt turn out right. After several years of tinkering by various experts, its all good now. The main difference beetween the black one and the original blue one is that the body was made of solid maple, which is very heavy and difficult to get a good tone with. | ||
===1997-1998 - Solo=== | ===1997-1998 - Solo=== | ||