This month in Bought & Sold, the former Joan Jett And The Blackhearts six-stringer Ricky Byrd digs into his love for cheap electric guitars, versatile tones, and why he’s now a Fender amp guy through and through.
What was the first serious guitar you bought with your own money?
Because I love Leslie West and Mountain, I bought – and there’s a picture of me playing it in a club when I was 16 – a 1956 single-cutaway sunburst Gibson Les Paul Junior. It was just like what Leslie West played. It might have cost me $350, and it took a while to save that up! [laughs]
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I purchased it on Music Row on 48th Street in New York City. I don’t know where it is now because when you’re a kid, you say, “Oh, let me trade for this, and trade for that…” But that was the first guitar that I purchased.
What was the last guitar you bought, and why?
I bought a Maton. It’s a Mini, but I’m getting a full-sized one. I do these acoustic Recovery shows and events [Ricky now has over 30 years of sobriety], and I hate having to travel with a freaking coffin [hardshell case], but this can go in a soft shell.
I had seen Keith Urban using a Maton Mini, and I said to my wife, “God, that sounds amazing,” so I went on eBay and I purchased one.
What’s the most incredible find or bargain that you’ve ever had when buying guitars?
Yikes! I moved into the neighbourhood I’m in now and I met some guy at a store who said, ‘You’re that musician guy… I’ve got a couple of guitars. Maybe you’d be interested?’ It was like he’d just come out of The Godfather or something [laughs]. So I met him at my house, he opens his trunk and he says, “I’ve got these two guitars…”
It was a cheap Danelectro, like the one Jimmy Page used with the lipstick pickups. I bought it for a few hundred bucks and I used it with Southside Johnny for like a year, even though it was a one-trick pony.
What’s your strongest case of buyer’s remorse you’ve ever had after buying gear?
Let me put it this way: there are guitars that you buy because you know, at some point, you’re gonna trade it or sell it for something else. There are different categories of stuff that I have. Some stuff I fell into, like maybe I’ll use it to barter for a better thing. But some of those guitars are good for certain things.
Like, a Hagstrom that’s sitting on a rack is dirty and hasn’t been cleaned in ages. The strings are probably 20 years old and the action is really high. But when I’m gonna do slide, maybe I’ll pull out that Hagstrom. So there’s a guitar for every purpose. They’re all valid.
Have you ever sold a guitar that you now intensely regret letting go?
I had a ’53, a dark red double-cutaway Les Paul Junior, that was like the one Keith Richards had. I used it all the time with Joan [Jett], and I remember being on tour with Ian Hunter and he wanted to buy it. I appreciate it more now, and I used it on a lot of Blackhearts stuff, but it was a one-trick pony and it had one P-90.
One day, GE Smith called me and said, “Chelsea Guitars has a ’53 gold ES-295… I believe it belonged to one of the guys that played with Otis Redding on the road.” So I ran down there and I traded that Les Paul Junior plus some cash for that ES-295. It was great. It was beautiful. But I sold it.
I got a good price for it. But now, if you look on Reverb, some of them are going for like $17,000 [laughs]. I mean, who is buying these guitars? Who can afford to just spend $17,000 on a guitar? When you have a house and need a new roof or the freaking hot water heater needs to be replaced, you can’t do that. But, I mean… somebody is buying these guitars.
What’s your best buying tip for anyone looking to buy their ultimate guitar?
There’s plenty of really good, not-too-expensive guitars, so don’t spend a lot of money starting off
I would go down and sit in the room, and pull them off the wall one by one, and find out what you lean toward. Are you a Fender guy? Are you a Gibson guy? Are you an Epiphone guy? I mean, parents will ask me what they should get their sons and daughters who want to play, and they’re like 15. I always say not to get them anything expensive to start.
There’s plenty of really good, not-too-expensive guitars, so don’t spend a lot of money starting off. As a teenager, I was obsessed, but some people go through phases, right? They wanna play guitar and then they wanna do something else. And for someone playing for a long time, if you want to buy a really special guitar, pull it off the wall and try it out.
When was the last time you stopped and looked in a guitar shop window, or browsed online, and what were you looking at?
You know, you see something in a magazine, or you see somebody playing something, and you go, ‘I need that guitar.’ And I’m not really a collector, I have maybe 25 guitars, but guitar playing and collecting is an addictive disease! I’m on this kick with 1970s guitars because that’s when I was a teenager, you know?
I saw this black 1974 ES-335 and, man, you know what happens when you look at something on social media and then it grabs you by the short and curlies [laughs]? It’s only a matter of time before I hit PayPal, right?
If forced to make a choice, would you rather buy a really good guitar and a cheap amp, or a cheap guitar and a top-notch amp?
What do you think the blues guys used? Do you think they used Marshall stacks? No. They used what they could afford. And those are records that we drool over
I don’t have a freaking clue! But listen, you could get a cheap amp and get a great sound; I’m into that. I can’t give you a good answer, but I can give you good options. If you want to be a unique guitar player with your own sound, get a different kind of amp.
Look for the real mutt in the store, where you go, “What’s that? Let me try it…” I mean, what do you think the blues guys used? Do you think they used Marshall stacks? No. They used what they could afford. And those are records that we drool over.
If you could only use humbuckers or single coils for the rest of your career, which would it be, and why?
Man… I love P-90s. Listen to Leslie West’s sound and that squeal when you pinch the note at the end of the pick, I love that. But there are certain things you really can’t do with a P-90, so humbuckers are great.
They’re both good! I can’t give a good answer because it depends on what you’re doing. P-90s are crunchy and crude, and you can do that with humbuckers, but it’s different. It’s got a handicap, like you’re playing golf, or something.
Ricky’s Go-To Rig
“I can’t tell you the last time I used a Marshall amp. For amps, it’s all Fenders now. I’ll try Marshalls every once in a while, but I don’t like the way they sound and they hurt my ears these days. I don’t know what it is, but I’m just a Fender guy, even though the Marshall was my signature sound for years with the Blackhearts.
“I’ve got a few Les Pauls from the early 70s and a Gibson ES-335 that I love. I’ve also got a ’73 Fender Tele and a ‘Franken-Tele’, which is all body parts with nothing Fender about it. And I have a tiny pedalboard, with just the essentials: I’ve got a tuner, an overdrive, a delay and maybe a chorus – all plugged direct into a Fender amp.”
