The guitar tones of Steve Jones on Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols

paulnb57

@RandallFlagg interesting read...agreed NMTB is a fantastic album, one of my all time favourites...

Saw the Pistols at the Isle of Wight Festival, they still have it......when they kicked off with the opening riff of Pretty Vacant the hairs on my arms and neck stood on end...amazing!

SlopeSoarer

Just had a proper read at the original post (didn't have time before), whilst listening to NMTB on Spotify, it is a fantastic album
I can't agree more with what you said below.

RandallFlagg said:

Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistol. What a record, a stunner that for me has stood the test of time and sounds as fresh today as it did the first time I heard it.

The early punk scene heavily influenced my music tastes and I've just been happily reflecting going watching bands at Wigan Casino (before the all nighters started) and at various venues in Manchester. Happy days!

Sadly I never got to see the Sex Pistols. I did go to see them at Wigan Casino but they were stopped from playing by the authorities.

Thanks @RandallFlagg ;; for taking the time and effort to post: )

PhilW1

ICBM said:

PhilW1 said:

Apology in advance, not meaning to hijack your thread,but can I pick your brains,?
I,m trying to get Steve’s tone thru my Katana , so far I’m using the clean twin from sneaky amps,,would ‘this be the amp mentioned Earlier? with distortion and a bit of reverb 
It sounds ok but you know when you think it was too easy?
Am I missing anything?

Volume. You won't get that sound with a clean amp and a distortion pedal in front, it needs to be pushed hard enough for the power stage to break up. If the model allows you to do that and then turn the final volume down with the power control it might get you close, depending on whether the full-power breakup is modelled as part of the clean sound

Ha! its all the way up to 2 already!

RandallFlagg

Steve with an SG. There are clips of him in a studio in Brazil with Ronnie Biggs playing the SG presumably recording No-One Is Innocent:

RandallFlagg

Steve and Paul with Johnny Thunders?

Steve on Bass!

RandallFlagg

Some more pics:

Stev & Paul with Joan Jett:

Grocer_Jack

Great pics. That looks like Walter Lure singing in the 3rd photo?

RandallFlagg

Grocer_Jack said:

Great pics. That looks like Walter Lure singing in the 3rd photo?

It does.

thermionic

Great band and great album. I’ve always been fascinated with the Pistols guitar tone, with it being recorded just before overdrive and distortion pedals became commonplace. For years I couldn’t believe it was just a guitar plugged into an amp known for its clean headroom. Shows the power of a Les Paul I suppose.

Litterick

RandallFlagg said:

I'm not convinced that the Black Les Paul Custom was a genuine 1954, I think it's more likely that it was a early '70s reissue of the '54.

It was real. Fat Rick bought it at a Sotheby's auction about 22 years ago and had it in his shop soon after. I think he paid about eight grand. I played it, after a fashion. The sustain was endless.

 Apparently Malcolm McLaren had recovered it from the wreckage of the New York Dolls and made it a Sex Pistols guitar.

ICBM

thermionic said:

Great band and great album. I’ve always been fascinated with the Pistols guitar tone, with it being recorded just before overdrive and distortion pedals became commonplace. For years I couldn’t believe it was just a guitar plugged into an amp known for its clean headroom. Shows the power of a Les Paul I suppose.

A Twin will distort quite a lot if you turn it right up - it’s just that it’s so loud and cutting that very few people are brave enough to, even if the sound engineer doesn’t have a fit. With the Gauss speakers they’re even louder, although not as trebly, as he said. And ridiculously heavy - I’m pretty sure they’re heavier than EVs, and the amp still only has the standard handle on top.

drphibes

Great post about a superb guitarist and excellent album.

Steve also played Japanese Burny's for awhile after they approached him due to Gibson not being that interested in him. Things change eventually with Gibson making the Steve Jones signature model a few years back when they probably realized how iconic he was.

RandallFlagg

Litterick said:

RandallFlagg said:

I'm not convinced that the Black Les Paul Custom was a genuine 1954, I think it's more likely that it was a early '70s reissue of the '54.

It was real. Fat Rick bought it at a Sotheby's auction about 22 years ago and had it in his shop soon after. I think he paid about eight grand. I played it, after a fashion. The sustain was endless.

 Apparently Malcolm McLaren had recovered it from the wreckage of the New York Dolls and made it a Sex Pistols guitar.

It's widely stated that the White Les Paul was ex New York Dolls, never heard that about the black one before. Steve is only seen with it from around the summer of 1977, he uses it on the Jubilee boat trip gig. I also wasn't aware it was ever sold at auction, Steve used it through the post Rotten period into late ‘78 or even early ‘79 as it's in the Silly Thing video, either the first one or another that he picked up. He had several white customs as by the time he was in The Professionals I don't think the one he was using was the original.

Do you have any more details on the origins of black and it's sale?

RandallFlagg

drphibes said:

Great post about a superb guitarist and excellent album.

Steve also played Japanese Burny's for awhile after they approached him due to Gibson not being that interested in him. Things change eventually with Gibson making the Steve Jones signature model a few years back when they probably realized how iconic he was.

I toyed with buying one of the Gibson signature models but decided not to in the end. Interesting that none of the demos have anyone sounding anything like Steve Jones tone.

as @ICBM said, he used to turn his Twin up loud to overdrive the power amp, not something that is comfortable or easy to achieve these days. Incidentally, John Lennon got his silver face Twin distorting nicely on the Beatles rooftop gig, and that version had no pre-amp vol/master volume so most of London would have heard him!

TTBZ

Always loved that album and the guitar tone on it. I've always been a Marshall guy but would love that tone! Any pedals that could do it?

Neil

RandallFlagg said:

Litterick said:

RandallFlagg said:

I'm not convinced that the Black Les Paul Custom was a genuine 1954, I think it's more likely that it was a early '70s reissue of the '54.

It was real. Fat Rick bought it at a Sotheby's auction about 22 years ago and had it in his shop soon after. I think he paid about eight grand. I played it, after a fashion. The sustain was endless.

 Apparently Malcolm McLaren had recovered it from the wreckage of the New York Dolls and made it a Sex Pistols guitar.

It's widely stated that the White Les Paul was ex New York Dolls, 

It was Sylvain Sylvain's guitar I believe. He liked a white guitar. 

Re Steve's great guitar sound etc, I read previously, and Steve agreed at the time, that the guitar on Never Mind was actually played by Chris Spedding.   

True?

EricTheWeary

Neil said:

RandallFlagg said:

Litterick said:

RandallFlagg said:

I'm not convinced that the Black Les Paul Custom was a genuine 1954, I think it's more likely that it was a early '70s reissue of the '54.

It was real. Fat Rick bought it at a Sotheby's auction about 22 years ago and had it in his shop soon after. I think he paid about eight grand. I played it, after a fashion. The sustain was endless.

 Apparently Malcolm McLaren had recovered it from the wreckage of the New York Dolls and made it a Sex Pistols guitar.

It's widely stated that the White Les Paul was ex New York Dolls, 

It was Sylvain Sylvain's guitar I believe. He liked a white guitar. 

Re Steve's great guitar sound etc, I read previously, and Steve agreed at the time, that the guitar on Never Mind was actually played by Chris Spedding.   

True?

Chris and Steve have both denied that. There were quite a few people around during the sessions for NMTB so I’m sure someone would have noticed him around. Chris produced their demos and is given a lot of credit for helping them develop their songwriting. Been a while since I watched it but all explained on the Classic Albums episode. 

PhilW1

Neil said:

RandallFlagg said:

Litterick said:

RandallFlagg said:

I'm not convinced that the Black Les Paul Custom was a genuine 1954, I think it's more likely that it was a early '70s reissue of the '54.

It was real. Fat Rick bought it at a Sotheby's auction about 22 years ago and had it in his shop soon after. I think he paid about eight grand. I played it, after a fashion. The sustain was endless.

 Apparently Malcolm McLaren had recovered it from the wreckage of the New York Dolls and made it a Sex Pistols guitar.

It's widely stated that the White Les Paul was ex New York Dolls, 

It was Sylvain Sylvain's guitar I believe. He liked a white guitar. 

Re Steve's great guitar sound etc, I read previously, and Steve agreed at the time, that the guitar on Never Mind was actually played by Chris Spedding.   

True?

If you watch the Classic Albums programme about NMTB, Steve mentions this and very sarcastically/dismissively says (,and I'm para-phrasing now)
'Yeah , cause he did'
I think its an urban myth as during the same prog nearly everyone raves about Steve's playing especially the engineer(can't remember his name) and even Matlock, who didn't seem to get on with Steve mentions how Steve changed Glens original riff ideas into the riffs we know now.
Might all be one big conspiracy theory though!

lamf68

The album that shaped my life, nothing else has had as profound an effect on me since. From my band we play every track off it, plans are to do the album in its entirety as the first half of our set in the late summer something we've never done before. 

pintspiller

I learned how to play and learn songs by ear from that album. Always annoyed me how EMI (and I think Holidays in the Sun) were in a different pitch.