Jimmy Page

[Mats A]

Did Jimmy Page use any distortion, Overdriver or Fuzz to get the sound he has on The Song Remains The Same and How The West Was Won or is it just amp distortion? And was it his No1 oe No 2 Les Paul that he bought/was given from Joe Walsh?

[garbeaj]

No 1 was the Joe Walsh Les Paul used for these recordings. Jimmy did purchase the guitar from Joe...it was never "given" to him. The '73 tour and '72 tour (The Song Remains The Same and How the West Was Won) used only amp distortion. The '73 tour added the MXR Phase 90 in addition to the wah. The purple painted gold top was used on parts of The Song Remains the Same, but the number one Les Paul was used for the majority of the Les Paul songs on both releases...

[jimmyride]

He used an echoplex which kind of boosted his sound a bit. Xotic makes that circuit available in a stompbox. I never tried it though so I don't know how close it can bring you.

http://www.xotic.us/effects/ep_booster/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Mats A]

Thanks a lot!
From what year is that purple Les Paul he used. He has it on some places on The Song Remains The Same film where he in some strange ways change guitar in the middle of the song.

[jimmyride]

Well.. they were forced to glue some different bits of different concerts together so it looks like he changed guitars during one song. Anyway...

"Believed to be a late '69 or early 1970 Gold Top resprayed the red color. The "pancake" body is a dead giveaway to the year along with the wide cutaway binding and wider headstock. Where the guitar came from isn't quite clear, some have suggested it was a custom guitar built by Gibson for Page. In a January 1998 Guitar World article Page said he bought it from a guy who owned a hot rod shop, it's unclear if he meant this guitar or his other red Les Paul that looked earily similar. Some have suggested the hot rod shop guy being Jeff Beck due to his involvement in the car hobby, no clue to if Beck actually even owned a shop at the time, seems Page would have just said Beck's name anyways. Page more than likely bought it as a replacement for his Black Beauty which was stolen earlier in 1970.

Earliest known live appearance of the guitar is August 1970 in Cleveland for Dazed and Confused and it would be used in Boston in September 1970 as well for at least Bring It On Home and likely for the Immigrant Song, Heartbreaker and Dazed and Confused at that show as well. Plant was spotted with the guitar backstage at the Bath Pavilion in March 1971. No evidence of Page with it again until the 1972/73 UK Tour when it shows up on stage for Dazed and Confused at Southampton University 1/22/73. Next known appearance was the 1973 US tour when it was used for Whole Lotta Love, Over the Hills and Far Away and on at least one occasion Thank You. It would also see use through the 80's and 90's, most recently being used for Kashmir at the O2 concert in 2007.

A B-Bender was added around 1985 promtping the story of Page not liking the tone because of the wood being removed. Despite that it still seen a decent amount of used post Led Zeppelin. Pickups were probably Patent No./T-Tops, no way to really no for sure. In 1986 Page's tech Tim Marten mentioned Seymour Duncans being installed in it, supposedly these are what the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop Jimmy Page pickups are based on. "

[garbeaj]

jimmyride is 100% correct.