John Fogerty's Famous Guitar

[@Apo458]

Excellent job dude

[@Apo458]

Rolling Stone says Tom traded two Fenders and a supro for the jetglo Rick, but John in an interview with Vintage Guitar in 2007 stated "We were starting to tour as the Golliwogs, and Tom went somewhere and traded in two or three of those Supros and got me a 3/4-size Rickenbacker - the John Lennon model - with Rickenbacker’s whammy, which gave me two or three years of headaches [laughs]. I eventually put a Bigsby on it, and that was a pretty good guitar, once I got the Bigsby on it. That’s the way I recorded “Susie Q,” I think. Then on its evil twin - not that guitar, but one just like it - I put a humbucking pickup in the bridge position. It had a Bigsby, a bridge humbucker… that’s a guy on his way to a Les Paul."

[@Apo458]

3:55 John only used the 325 for the single Travelin' Band and Who'll Stop The Rain released in January of 1970. For the rest of the album he used a 3/4 scale LP Custom in standard and sometimes Drop D tuning. "I had a 175 I recorded “Proud Mary” on, and had every intent of doing “Bad Moon Rising” on it, too. But it got stolen out of my car, and I quickly went down to the guitar shop, and said, “Now’s my chance; I’m getting a Les Paul.” So I bought a Les Paul and toured with it, and the airlines cracked the neck. So I got that Les Paul turned into a 3/4-size, and it became my E-tuning guitar for “Up Around The Bend” - standard tuning with a whammy. That guitar is now in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, but I painted it kind of a car-colors sunburst - red and orange." John in the same interview with Vintage Guitar, 2007 That's the same guitar he kept as his main axe during from mid-1970 onwards (he played it on Pendulum, Mardi Gras, 1971 european tour, Japanese tour, Australian tour, etc)

[@grantandersen]

The only song on Cosmos’s factory that features the 325 is “Who’ll Stop the Rain”. “Travelin Band” was also recorded on 3/4 scale Les Paul. He hated the Rickenbacker’s poor tuning stability with the Bigsby.

[@Apo458]

@@grantandersen Listening to the isolated guitar track of Travelin' Band I'm very sure that it is the Rick. Just before the line "Listen to the radio-" when John plays the C#7 chord I can hear that gritty and rattly tone, very similar to what you can hear on Broken Spoke Shuffle, Side O' The Road, Effigy, etc. Plus, that single was released in January of 1970, probably recorded on December of 1969 or maybe Jan. as well after the release of Willy and the Poor Boys. Fogerty said that he got converted the Les Paul to 3/4 scale after an airline broke the neck. I can't confirm if CCR took flights inside the US to travel to other states, but I see that very unlikely. They had their first tour outside of the USA in Europe where they needed to take flights (in the recent "Travelin' Band" documentary they can be seen stepping off an Air France plane), I dare to assume the incident of the guitar happened when they returned to the USA or maybe during the actual tour itself, this was in april of 1970. Although it's strange since the Up Around The Bend/Run Through the Jungle single was released that very same month, and there clearly is a Les Paul in those two songs, a beefier tone than the Rick. Could be that it was recorded after the tour or before with his regular sized LP? It's kinda confusing, the short scale LP custom appeared for the first time in the rear cover of Cosmo's Factory.

[@grantandersen]

@@Apo458 I think he said in the Vintage Guitar Interview that the incident happened in March of 1969 on a flight to New York to play MSG, and then bought his second Les Paul Custom in April of 1969 (this one was left stock for Open D tuning). Traveling Band and Who’ll stop the Rain I think might be the Ric because they were recorded earlier than the rest of Cosmos Factory in August shortly after Woodstock.

[@larrylemons9747]

Was always curious what his wife had to pay to get that guitar back. My wife and I saw him play it on New Year’s Eve 2019. He told the story. He also played a custom blue plaid LP that matched his shirt.

[@grantandersen]

John Fogerty believe it or not had two Les Paul Customs during the CCR days. The first one he bought in January ‘69 after his 67 Gibson ES-175D was stolen out of his car after the recording the majority of the Bayou Country Album with it. In March of ‘69 the airlines damaged his first LPC so he bought another one in San Francisco for Open D tuning. So took his first LPC to a luthier in Oakland and had it modded to 3/4 scale and added Bigsby B5 to it. He would use that to replace his Rick. After the “Willy and the Poor Boys” album, he got really irritated with the Rickenbacker’s poor tuning stability with the Bigsby Vibrato. Cosmo’s Factory is almost exclusively played on both his 1968 3/4 scale Les Paul for standard and songs that needed the whammy bar and his regular scale stock ‘69 Les Paul Custom with stop bar, for open D.

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

Er, what Creedence song had a guitar tuned to Eb?

[@3vmusicstudios]

Fortunate son, and bad moon rising. Johns brother Toms guitar was in standard turning and they blended them together.

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

@@3vmusicstudios No. Lead guitar was tuned to DGCFAD. There are no Creedence tracks tuned to Eb.

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

@@3vmusicstudios It could be that the counterpoint solo on "Lookin' Out My Back Door" was in Eb.

[@watson123]

Lennon had this guitar

[@Mr.JamesHansen]

Where's the Gibson video?

[@dr.miguelitoloveless9478]

I hate Rickenbachers,......they are too expensive, the narrow string spacing is attrocious to play, and they were hard to find if it wasn't in your local guitar store.

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

Worked for Creedence, though

[@thomburleson4884]

“Too expensive “? Anything is worth what people are willing to pay for it. Since most retailers have waiting lists to get a RIC, I would suggest that they aren’t too expensive. True, they have idiosyncrasies, but there are plenty of people who love them.