MOST ICONIC axe of the 70's?

[eddyrox]

OK, I give it up to Charvel/Jackson and EVH when it comes to the 80's (except for Slash and John Sykes).
However, I just picked up an aged white '57 LPC, and I gotta say from Randy Rhoads, Lindsay Buckingham, Tommy Shaw, Steve Jones, Mick Ronson, and all of the BB LPC players (Frampton), wasn't the LP and the LPC THE GUITAR of the 70's??!!

thoughts?

Ace Frehley, Alex Lifeson, Steve Howe, Al DiMeola, Duane Allman, White/Gorman, Rev Billy Gibbons, Joe/Brad, Rick Nielson, Neal Schon, Page, and too many others to mention...70's = LP and LPC IMHO!

[OldBenKenobi]

If you're talking about guitars used in the 70s but made at any time it was definitely the Les Paul Standard sunburst.

But if you're talking guitars made in the 70s its the white Les Paul Custom.

[27sauce]

Black Custom

Besides Buckingham, who was using white Customs in the '70's?

[Ledheadforlife]

I'd say the strat is as least as, if not more iconic than the les paul.

[EasyAce]

Originally Posted by 27sauce

Black Custom

Besides Buckingham, who was using white Customs in the '70's?

Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols.

[EasyAce]

Originally Posted by eddyrox

OK, I give it up to Charvel/Jackson and EVH when it comes to the 80's (except for Slash and John Sykes).
However, I just picked up an aged white '57 LPC, and I gotta say from Randy Rhoads, Lindsay Buckingham, Tommy Shaw, Steve Jones, Mick Ronson, and all of the BB LPC players (Frampton), wasn't the LP and the LPC THE GUITAR of the 70's??!!

thoughts?

Ace Frehley, Alex Lifeson, Steve Howe, Al DiMeola, Duane Allman, White/Gorman, Rev Billy Gibbons, Joe/Brad, Rick Nielson, Neal Schon, Page, and too many others to mention...70's = LP and LPC IMHO!

Not to mention Robert Fripp, Robin Trower (was still playing a burst in Procol Harum, which band he left in 1971), Marc Bolan, Mick Ronson, Donald (Buck Dharma) Roeser (Blue Oyster Cult), Allen Lanier (also of BOC; his guitar of choice for playing those juicy second guitar parts was a Les Paul Standard), Jeff Beck (the oxblood '54 on Blow By Blow and Wired), Tom Scholz (Boston), Mick Jones (Foreigner), Ariel Bender (a Junior, in Mott the Hoople), Leslie West (also a Junior), Johnny Thunders (a double-cut Junior, though he posed with a Les Paul Special and Syl Sylvain a Les Paul Custom on the cover of the New York Dolls' second album, Too Much, Too Soon), Ross the Boss Funicello (the Dictators), Les Paul himself (his album with Chet Atkins, Chester and Lester, won a couple of Grammys), Jan Akkerman (Focus---he played a Les Paul Recording model), Peter Townshend, Johnny Winter (played a Deluxe and a Standard now and then), Frank Zappa, Cheetah Chrome and Jimmy Zero of the Dead Boys, Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner (first of Lou Reed's Rock and Roll Animal band, before Alice Cooper pinched the entire band for his early solo career) . . .

[pmonk]

Lets look at the top guitar players from the 1970's

Jimmy Page : Les Paul
Jeff Beck: Les Paul (with BBA) mostly Strat
Clapton: Strat
Townshend: SG then switched to LP
Gilmour: Strat
Blackmore: Strat

[27sauce]

Originally Posted by EasyAce

Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols.

True, true.

[sledge57]

Don't know about iconic (Strat maybe) but when it comes to tone and cool factor, give me a Byrdland ...................

[Olds442]

Townsend was playing fenders when I saw him.

[ant_riv]

Originally Posted by pmonk

Lets look at the top guitar players from the 1970's

Jimmy Page : Les Paul
Jeff Beck: Les Paul (with BBA) mostly Strat
Clapton: Strat
Townshend: SG then switched to LP
Gilmour: Strat
Blackmore: Strat

Iommi: SG
Thin Lizzy: LPs
Stones: LPs and Teles
May: Red Special
Me: Strat

[zslane]

I don't think there's any way to convincingly prove which is more iconic, the Stratocaster or the Les Paul. I mean, there is a reason why both are the most copied designs in the history of the electric guitar. I'd say they are, more or less, equally iconic. My own preferences lead me to feel that the Les Paul is cooler, more macho, more raucus, more down 'n dirty, etc. But that doesn't diminish the equally iconic status of the Strat.

[hockeyplayr]

when i think of classic rock (yes its classic for me im a youngand) i think les paul

[onvacation]

I spent the 70s as a preteen so Im not sure that this proves much of anything at all but my first 45 I bought was "The Boys are Back in Town", the first time I realized that I had to play guitar and my sister could do the piano thing was after seeing a picture of Gary Richrath of REO Speedwagon with a LP (Never did get the perm though), and the first album I bought was recorded by Boston.

Preteens weren't allowed to listen to songs that continually say cocaine, at least not in my house, Pink Floyd was way too dark for my ten year old mind and my vision of a Strat involved Buddy Holly.

[Thumpalumpacus]

The first thing that flashed in my mind was:



... not because everybody and their grandmother played a 1275, but because that photo, that guitar, that player commanded attention. You'd see that shot in every record store, on every buddy's wall, in every issue of Creem or Circus or Hit Parader.

To me, that is the 70s, in a nutshell.

[EasyAce]

Originally Posted by zslane

My own preferences lead me to feel that the Les Paul is cooler . . .

Right there you had it nailed. In every sense of the term.

[River]

Early '70s, anyway.

[Blue Moose]

Another vote for the black Custom.

[OldBenKenobi]

Originally Posted by Thumpalumpacus

The first thing that flashed in my mind was:



... not because everybody and their grandmother played a 1275, but because that photo, that guitar, that player commanded attention. You'd see that shot in every record store, on every buddy's wall, in every issue of Creem or Circus or Hit Parader.

To me, that is the 70s, in a nutshell.

Thats a good call.

[geddyleefan]

I think this sums it up with Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham of Thin Lizzy

LP Custom and LP Deluxe

[gibsonguitar1988]

The most iconic axe of the 70s you ask?!

Why none other than the Gibson Les Paul Sunburst Standard! But don't mind me - I'm biased!











The '59 Gibson Les Paul Standard 'Burst is the 70's Classic Rock guitar....period!

[Rock]

When I think 70's I think Les Paul. More so than today. The big name players and bands that use them then seem go on and on.

At least rock wise. I know disco and funk players like their strats and that was super big then too.

[joesatch]

1977 . When Ed played real guitars. Before he played toys.

[joesatch]

[Tone deaf]

Like many of you, I was a kid in the 70s and was a music lover from a very young age. The era was much more prone to the creation of icons through still photography than later times, with the advent of video, the ubiquity of MTV and eventually Al Gore's creation of the internet. Video certainly played a role in '70s icon-ism, 'The Song Remains the Same', 'Tommy' and "Quadrophinia" to name a few. But most of us had three broadcast channels and PBS, so we only caught occasional glimpses usually on ads for WBCN and WCOZ in Boston (in my case).

What any one person recalls best, is purely subjective and often relative to one's tastes and stage of development. The imagery I recall best, of my pubescent mid 70s were the Porsche 911 (2.7 series), the Farah Fawcett poster and rockers with les pauls slung low. If something didn't involve girls or relate to meeting girls (playing sports and the guitar), I might not have noticed it.

In my opinion, the two coolest rockers of the time were Jimmy Page and Joe Perry, both Les Paul icons. I loved the music of the Who and Pete Townsend, too. I must have worn the groves off of my copies of 'Zoso', 'The Kids are Alright' and 'Live Bootleg' ('76) and I remember every picture from inside the album covers. I also remember these guys in iconic poses with other axes too: Jimmy holding up his danelectro, Jimmy with the aforementioned 1275, Joe with rich bitch hanging on his back (rear cover of Live Bootleg) and Pete with his Gretsch 6120.

In my mind, Clapton was different and he didn't 'need' a guitar in his hands to be cool. He was cool just crashing his Ferrari into a tree. I also think that he could probably make any old POS guitar sound great. I never got the impression (at least until after 'Money and Cigarettes) that he cared one wit about his image (amazing what sobriety can do). I also remember the cover art on Slowhand (and the pics in side). I did my first guitar bridge set up on an old Gretsch copying what it looked Clapton was doing with his strat (might have been from the pic on the Slowhand sheet music cover). While Brownie and Blackie were omnipresent, it wasn't until around '81 that I thought of him exclusively as the Strat guy (probably seeing him jam with Albert Lee (tele) for three hours etched it into my brain).

Clapton's move to Fender was about the pursuit of his particular music and the blues he was chasing as opposed to my LP heroes who were armed with flame throwers carving out something with a new, harder edge

Great question OP because that's largely why I own an LP and a Clapton Strat among my guitars.

[Olds442]

Originally Posted by joesatch

1977 . When Ed played real guitars. Before he played toys.

clearly he wanted to play the keyboard...



on topic, i agree, the lester was the 70's rock guitar, period.

[pawpek]

Welll for me it would be this.....



But back on topic, I remember the glam rock bit (just about) and there were some odd guitars they had, I remember ABBA having a star looking one, there was the John Birch Super yob, then the plexiglass guitars too (altough it may have not been a 70's guitar) as well as the regular Strats, Les Pauls etc. But I think I would have to say Brian May's Red Special must be one of the most iconic sounds of the 70's

[ZZTOPGUY]

Don Felder started playing his 59 Burst in the 70's and recorded Hotel California with it

[SFK]

[kam4ff]

I agree. to me the Les Paul describes everything I love about Rock and Roll. to me it screams the heart and soul of everything that makes rock great. when I think of sheer greatness in guitar, the les paul comes to mind as do many of the musicians that have been pictured here. I agree that the Strat and Les Paul run pretty even when it comes to iconic-ness, but for me I like the not-to-be-f*cked-with attitude of a les paul. also, the 1275. that pic, that guy, he just exudes that classic rock star attitude that you just cant beat. Every great guitar player has played a les paul at some point in his career or life, but I feel like not every great guitar player has played a strat.