Honorable Mention: John Cippolina
The Quicksilver Messenger Service co-founder and lead guitarist was considered one of the father’s of the San Francisco sound, often referred to as psychedelic rock. Not happy with standard PA packaging of the day, John developed his own amplifier stack. In John’s own words:
"... I like the rapid punch of solid-state for the bottom, and the rodent-gnawing distortion of the tubes on top."
(from Wikipeadia) To create his distinctive guitar sound, Cipollina developed a one-of-a-kind amplifier stack. His Gibson SG guitars had two pickups, one for bass and one for treble. The bass pickup fed into two Standel bass amps on the bottom of the stack, each equipped with two 15-inch speakers. The treble pickups fed two Fender amps: a Fender Twin Reverb and a Fender Dual Showman that drove six Wurlitzer horns.
John’s "complete resume" can be discovered in a single 14:30 track -- The Fool, where John’s command of the instrument and creative genius are spun together in one very long record groove. I call The Fool a classical ballad redered by a group of 20-something-year-olds doing their best to do something with the space and time allocated to an entire side of a record album.
John was inducted into the Rock ’n Rock Hall of Fame a while back, and I was hoping to see some small tribute to John when I visited there about 10 years ago. Imagine my delight when I saw John’s custom amp set up on full display at the entrance to the exhibit hall. Made it worth the trip all by itself.
When I’m not in a hurry to get somewhere, I get comfortable and play The Fool. It’s a truly unique piece of work.
