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| Equipment : Rivers Equipment : Rivers Guitars | |||
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Rivers has used several differnt types of guitars in his years with weezer. His original influences were purely metal, and his choices of guitars have clearly reflected this. He originally had been known for not using Gibson because they are ugly and heavy, and used Warmoth Strat copies, but recently he has switched to using Gibsons on stage.
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| Charvel Strat Copy "Model 2" - Not in Use | |||
 Charvel Model 2 - weezer.com |
"Right up to the moment weezer had its first practice (2.14.92), Rivers had a Charvel Stratocaster-style guitar, a "Model 2" that was plain white, but was repainted by Rivers in purple acrylic paint, including the headstock, which was originally black. According to a fan who is familiar with Charvels, the Model 2 : didnt have a pickguard, was a bolt-on, only had one humbucker, and had a crummy Floyd Rose, Jackson made copy, bridge. This guitar was left over from Rivers's "metal days" and was only used reluctantly at this point.
This guitar met its end during a weezer practice sometime later, when it was smashed to pieces. The broken headstock visible inside the first album photograph of the garage is from that guitar. No pieces remain today as far as I know." (weezer.com) |
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Specs: Brand: Charvel/Jackson Model: Model 2 Year: unknown, but most likely late 80's Body: Basswood Neck: Maple Fretboard: Roseood 22 frets Bridge Pickup: j90 Middle Pickup: n/a Neck Pickup: n/a Bridge: Floyd Rose Double Locking copy Color: White, but painted in purple acrylic |
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| Red Fender Stratocaster - Live Guitar - Not in Use | |||
  Red Fender Stratocaster - weezer.com |
"So, almost immediately, the Charvel was replaced with a red Fender Stratocaster, which came from Jason Cropper, as Jason was assigned early on to acoustic guitar duties. This Stratocaster guitar was weird. Two of the 3 pickups were replaced with various humbucker pickups, and the selection switch was rewired to provide a large number of combinations thereof. One pickup was a black Seymour Duncan TB59B1, AKA the "Trembucker 59", and the weird looking red and yellow one was a DiMarzio "Humbucker From Hell". the center pickup was some sort of flat lipstick style pickup. This re-wiring job was dubious to begin with due to Jason's fledgling soldering skills, and suffice it to say that the guitar had some pretty strange sounds! Additionally, Jason had painted the thing in a psychedelic paint scheme with thick acrylic paint, and replaced the volume knobs with 20-sided D&D dice, which were melted onto the metal knobs. Also, Jason had replaced the Fender neck with a thicker non-Fender one he had ordered from a catalog. The dice knobs eventually fell off, but I managed to save one. This was to be the only surviving piece of the guitar, as it was later passed on to the band Shufflepuck (containing Justin, later of both Psoma and Nerf Herder), and was smashed to pieces several months later onstage at a LA Shufflepuck show in 1994. In a weird bit of rock excorsicm, it was made sure that nothing from this guitar was saved. It all was thrown away deliberately, very strange..." (weezer.com) |
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Specs: Brand: Fender Model: Double Fat Stratocaster Year: n/a Body: Alder Neck: Maple Fretboard: Roseood 22 frets Bridge Pickup: Seymour Duncan TB59B1 ("Trembucker 59") Middle Pickup: Flat lipstick Neck Pickup: DiMarzio "Humbucker from Hell" Pickguard: n/a Bridge: Vintage Strat Color: Red, with custom psychedelic paint job Other: Knobs replaced with 20 sided D&D dice. |
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| Gibson Les Paul Special (1959) - Recording Guitar | |||
 Fender Jaguar, Jasons Telecaster, Gibson Les Paul Special - weezer.com |
Not alot of a description on weezer.com about this guitar, even though it played a huge role in the Blue tone. This was Ric Ocasek guitar and was only used on blue. Karl feels this guitar is a 1959, and it is, because its a double cutaway, the 1955 guitar was a single cutaway. Most people think that this guitar had P-100 pickups in it, because these are humbuckers, but you have to realize when this guitar was built, single coil's dominated, and the only humbucker that was really making an impact was the PAF. The pickups in this guitar are P-90 "soapbar" pickups, which are actaully higher output then alot of humbuckers. The reason alot of people think that this guitar has P-100's in it, is because the new LP Special has P-100's in it. But here is a better description of the guitar from Vintage Guitar Info
"This is the most confusing (name-wise) of the Les Paul models because the Special lost its "Les Paul" designation on the peghead before any of the other Les Paul models (in late 1959). 1955 Les Paul Special introduction specs: mahogany single cutaway slab body, 2 soapbar P-90 pickup with black covers, stud tailpiece/bridge combo with the string looping over the bridge, dot fingerboard inlays, 24.75" scale, bound neck, pearl logo, "Les Paul Special" silkscreened on peghead in gold, 3 layer black pickguard, nickel plated parts, beige "TV" finish. Mid 1958 "Les Paul SG" Special specs: body style change to symmetrical rounded double cutaways, thick slab mahogany body, cherry red finish, "TV" beige finish optional. The peghead still says "Les Paul Special" (or "Les Paul TV Special"), but often this body style is referred to as the "Les Paul SG Special" body style." |
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Specs: Brand: Gibson Model: Les Paul Special Year: 1959 Body: Mahogany Neck: Mahogony Fretboard: Rosewood Bridge Pickup: P-90 Middle Pickup: n/a Neck Pickup: P-90 Bridge: Standard Les Paul Stop piece Color: Cherry |
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| Fender Jaguar (1960's) - Recording Guitar | |||
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This is another guitar that isn't really mentioned on the weezer.com equipment site, and it also plays an important role on Blue. Most of the clean electric parts where recorded with this guitar. Its twangy nature (due to the short neck, 24", and the single coils) made it perfect for Say it ain't so, and surf wax (its a surf guitar!), and probably some other songs. It was made popular by Nirvana and other grunge bands, but they would swap out the pickups and put humbuckers in it. It has a very neat body, that is very similar to the Jazzmaster (not identical). It has a very weird switching system which is explained here... |
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"The Rhythm was controlled by two rollers on the upper wing, which set the tone and volume. On the lower wing, for the lead circuit, a toggle switch controlled the sound and the two knobs marked tone and Volume controlled just that (Jazzmaster). This guitar came to be known as the Jaguar. Released in 1962, the Jaguar featured a shorter neck with 22 frets, new chrome plates and instead of the toggle switch were 3 slider switches, and thinner pickups with metal shielding to reduce the squeal. The Jaguar also featured a spring-loaded mute device, which automatically muted the strings. The Jaguar was also bestowed with the honor of being the first Fender guitar to have the "Chunky" fender emblem on its headstock. The Jaguar was a more complicated and technologically advanced than the Jazzmaster and FenderTM was sure it'd do great in the market. Sadly enough the Jaguar failed like its predecessor and was discontinued in 1975." - Jag-Stang.com Specs: Brand: Fender Model: Jaguar Year: 1960's Body: Basswood Neck: Maple 24" scale Fretboard: Rosewood 22 frets Bridge Pickup: Jaguar Single Coil Middle Pickup: n/a Neck Pickup: Jaguar Single Coil Bridge: Floating Trem, with lock Color: Red |
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| Blue Strat - Live Guitar - Not in Use | |||
 Warmoth Sonic Blue Strat - weezer.com |
This I believe was the first of the Warmoth guitars. Warmoth is a high quality custom copies part seller. They don't build guitars, but they sell everything you would need to build a guitar. In alot of cases, they're copies are higher quality then the real guitar. Check out Warmoth. Its great stuff, but back to the guitar... Rivers wanted a simpler guitar then the Red Strat, so he had 1 volume knob and a simple switch to choose between the 2. The bridge pickup was a Seymour Duncan TB59B1 "Trembucker 59", and the neck pickup was a DiMarzio Super Distortion2. Also there was a Black Ice module on the volume pot which replaced the capacitor. It is a passive overdrive circuit, and gave the guitar that "quiet but crunchy" tone live. Note: Normally this module would be installed on the tone pot, but the volume pot was the only functional pot.
This guitar was amazing, and was one of Rivers main guitars. It supposedly stayed in tune very well, and broke 6 strings from 94-97. But in '97 the guitar cracked, it didn't affect the guitar, and it remained in use until 2000. |
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Specs: Brand: Warmoth Model: Strat Copy Year: n/a Body: Alder (I think) Neck: Maple (I think) Fretboard: Rosewood 22 Frets Bridge Pickup: Seymour Duncan Trembucker 59 Middle Pickup: n/a Neck Pickup: DiMarzio Super Distortion2 Bridge: Hard Tail Color: Sonic Blue |
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| Black Strat - Live Guitar - Still In Use | |||
 Warmoth Black Strat - weezer.com |
This was the second of the Warmoth strats. The idea was to make it identical to the blue guitar. But since no one really knew what was going on inside the blue guitar this was really hard. Several experts tinkered with it, and now its sounding good. This guitar was the main old song guitar, it was tuned to Eb, because blue and pinkerton are in Eb, quite ironicly this guitar is on the cover of Green, which is recorded in E. Oddly this guitar was made of solid maple, and was very hard to get a good tone out of on a record, so it was only used live, and never on a record. |
Specs: Brand: Warmoth Model: Strat Copy Year: '97 Body: Maple Neck: Maple Fretboard: Rosewood, 22 Frets Bridge Pickup: Seymour Duncan Trembucker '59 Middle Pickup: n/a Neck Pickup: DiMarzio Super Distortion2 Bridge: Hard Tail Color: Black and plasterd with stickers |
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| Blue and Green Strat - Live Guitar - Still in Use | |||
  Warmoth Green and Blue Strats - weezer.com |
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2 other strat copies were bought also set up like the original blue guitar, they were very close in color too. This time alder was used instead of maple. These were put into use in 2000 |
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Specs: Brand: Warmoth Model: Strat Copy Year: '98 Body: Alder Neck: Maple Fretboard: Rosewood, 22 Frets Bridge Pickup: Trembucker '59 Middle Pickup: n/a Neck Pickup: Super Distortion 2 Bridge: Hard Tail Color: Light Green, and Light Blue |
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| Blonde Strats - Live Guitar - One Still in Use | |||
  Warmoth Blonde Strats Strats, Main E guitar, Back up E (body), Back up Eb (body) - weezer.com |
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3 Blonde Maple warmoth strats were bought. One having the internal parts from the original blue strat, the others being just bodies, because there parts are in the new green and blue guitars.
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Specs: Brand: Warmoth Model: Strat Copy Year: 2001 Body: Maple Neck: Maple Fretboard: Rosewood ,22 Fret Bridge Pickup: Seymour Duncan Trembucker '59 Middle Pickup: n/a Neck Pickup: DiMarzio Super Distortion 2 Bridge: Hard Tail Color: Blonde and covered with stickers |
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| Gibson Explorer - Live Guitar - Still in use | |||
 Gibson Explorer and V - weezer.com |
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This is a newer guitar that is now on tour, althought he didn't use it at Jones Beach. It was used alot while the Maladroit demos were coming out. This guitar is often thought of as a heavy metal guitar, and with good reason. I really don't know much about the inner workings of this guitar, but they look stock. This guitar started River's Gibsons on stage thing! |
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Specs: Brand: Gibson Model: Explorer Year: not sure as of now Body: Mahagony Neck: Mahagony Fretboard: Rosewood Bridge Pickup: Gibson 496R Middle Pickup: n/a Neck Pickup: Gibson 500T Bridge: Tune-o-Matic Color: Silver Sparkle |
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| Gibson Flying V | |||
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Once again, not alot of info on this guitar, but was used when the explorer was used. I think they are both new and stock. Specs: Brand: Gibson Model: Flying V Year: not sure, 2001? Body: Mahagony Neck: Mahagony Fretboard: Rosewood, 22 Frets Bridge Pickup: 496R Middle Pickup: n/a Neck Pickup: 500T Bridge: Tune-o-Matic Color: Cherry |
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