Ricky Wilson's Guitars

[101Volts]

I've seen video and photos of him playing a Stratocaster, a Telecaster, a Rickenbacker 480, an Epiphone, a Gibson in a Rock Lobster music video and a photo of him kneeling by three Mosrite guitars while holding a fourth and the three facing the camera were or all Mark V/Ventures II German Carve type guitars.

Oops. Make that two Mark V or Ventures II (Carve) type guitars.

- Austin

[101Volts]

It says

BLUE MOSRITE GUITAR

B52s guitarist Ricky Wilson played Rock Lobster, Dance This Mess Around and many other of the band's early classics on this guitar as the group toured extensively.
This instrument was also featured on the lyric sheet of their 1979 debut album.
Ricky's unorthodox approach to the guitar is evidenced by the missing strings. Ricky strung his guitars with either four or five extra thick strings instead of the usual six and he also devised a different tuning for almost every song the band created.

Collection of Linda J. Wilson


I found a quite close up pic but I can't post it as something's up with the coding for the forum at the moment. The pic shows the paintwork is badly crazed, the pickguard has browned around the screw holes, the knobs are as they were (one original, one that looks like it's off a TV) and it's strung with 5 strings at the moment.
I can't see for sure but it doesn't look to have a serial number...

Could you post that photo now or link to it on Photobucket or some such?

- Austin

[sumlin]

Try this:

[101Volts]

Thanks, I think I would either need a much closer picture of where the serial number would be or to see the guitar up close in person to tell though.

- Austin

[palagic456]

RE: Tuning for Dirty Back Road
I've found that if you just take your DADxBB guitar and put capo on 3rd fret, you can easily play this song without retuning anything.

[101Volts]

A capo on the 3rd fret for Dirty Back Road works, sure. *thumbs up.*

I recently made a guitar tab for Lava though I think I got a few things wrong in it.

Lava:

https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/th ... bs_2316889

I also made a tab for the 4:54 version of Rock Lobster (the one in the Time Capsule compilation) but it's pending approval. Speaking of Rock Lobster, I tried tuning to CFxxFF as I should but now I see yet another unusual thing Ricky did; he tuned it about halfway between C and C#. Try using a guitar tuner set to 450 Hz, that should work. Also, sumlin, you're right about Ricky not moving his hand on the neck much at least for the last few minutes of Rock Lobster; in those last few minutes, my tab says the same thing; there are a 5 or so strums with power chords on the 3rd and 5th frets but those are outliers.

I just strung up my ES-335 copy with some 11-56s. This sounds a lot closer to Ricky's tone in DADxBB now that I think of it, however does it sound like he tuned slightly sharp in that tuning too if not quite as high? Maybe I'm just hearing how hard he was hitting the strings. Also, why did he have a Sunburst Mark V that he seemed to use exclusively for Strobe Light when he had a sunburst 75 Mark I tuned the same way? Did he just prefer the tone of Mark V pickups or did he have the Mark V set up with different strings?

- Austin

[101Volts]

I cannot edit the original topic now so here's the word on Ricky's guitars:

Mosrites:

1966-67 Ventures MK V, Blue: Tuned to CFxxFF for Dance This Mess Around, Rock Lobster and Runnin' Around.
1965-68 Ventures II or MK V, Sunburst: So far as I know he only played this for Strobe Light and it seems he had lighter strings on this one.
1960s Joe Maphis Dual Neck, Sunburst: Used for multiple songs including Party Out of Bounds and Quiche Lorraine.
1975 MK I, Sunburst: Tuned to DADxBB frequently and played for many songs. Played for Party Out of Bounds in the Dortmund 1983 concert though which has a different tuning.

Other guitars:

1960s Silvertone 1448 - Supposed to be the guitar played for the album version of Private Idaho.
1970s Epiphone Crestwood - Played for 6060-842, sometimes played for Planet Claire and used as a secondary guitar.
Telecaster - Seen in a low-quality live video from January 1978 and (if it's the same guitar,) a mime performance of "Give Me Back My Man."
Veillette Citron Shark (Baritone) in White - Seen in the Legal Tender music video clearly around 1:40.

Guitars I'm not sure Ricky owned:

1970s Gibson L6S (Seen in one miming video of Rock Lobster)
Epiphone Coronet (Played in the Rio 1985 concert)
Hofner Bass Guitar, Red
Rickenbacker 480 (I've only seen one video of him playing with this guitar on German TV)
Stratocasters (I've seen some footage of him playing at least one;)

There was also rumor of a white Mosrite guitar at Cindy's but I haven't confirmed it.

Furthermore, there's this photo I can't make out. I have no idea what the guitar is; some Gibson, Epiphone or off-brand guitar?



- Austin