What kind of guitar were you suing on the first Led Zeppelin album?
JP: A Telecaster. I used the Les Paul with the Yardbirds on about two numbers and a Fender for the rest. You see the Les Paul Custom had a central setting, a kind of out-of-phase pickup sound which Jeff couldn’t get on his Les Paul, so I used mine for that.
Was the Telecaster the one Beck gave to you?
JP: Yes. There was work done on it but only afterwards. I painted it; everyone painted their guitars in those days. And I had reflective plastic sheeting underneath the pick guard that gives rainbow colors.
It sounds exactly like a Les Paul.
JP: Yeah, well that’s the amp and everything. You see, I could get a lot of tones out of the guitar, which you normally couldn’t. This confusion goes back to those early sessions again with the Les Paul. Those might not sound like a Les Paul, but that’s what I used. It’s just different amps, mike placings, and all different things. Also, if you just crank it up to the distortion point so you can sustain notes, it’s bound to sound like a Les Paul. I was using the Supro amp for the first album and still do.
The “Stairway To Heaven” solo was done when I pulled out the Telecaster, which I hadn’t used for a long time, plugged it into the Supro, and away it went again. That’s a different sound entirely from any of the rest of the first album. It was a good versatile setup.The other guitar parts were played using a Harmony Sovereign H1260 acoustic guitar and Fender Electric XII (12-string); these can be heard on the left and right recording channels respectively. I’m using a Leslie on the solo on “Good Times Bad Times”. It was wired up for an organ thing.
Ψιλομέσα είμαστε και οι δυό..... (Τele αντί για strat).