John Fogerty recently featured on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to discuss some of the key mods he made to his legendary Acme Rickenbacker electric guitar – and revealed the most important one was inspired by a trio of British guitar greats.
“This is the guitar I purchased right at the beginning of 1969,” he tells Colbert proudly. It’s the instrument with which he made his name, using it to write a score of hits with Creedence Clearwater Revival at a highly politicised era of American history. Famously, he gave it to a 12-year-old kid when CCR disbanded as he mourned the loss of the band that had changed his life.
“It was a Rickenbacker, but I made a bunch of changes to it, because I found some things lacking with the standard model,” he goes on. “The most important thing is that I put a Gibson humbucker off of a Les Paul [in the bridge].”
That all-important mod was done with a little British influence.
“I’d heard about these fellas in England. There was quite a mystique. They were Jimmy, Jeff, and Eric,” he says, referring to Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and Eric Clapton. The three blues rock guitar greats were vital figureheads in the British guitar scene in the 1960s, and all cut their teeth in the Yardbirds.
During that era, the trio also commonly played humbucker-equipped guitars. Clapton had the Beano Burst and ‘The Fool’ SG, for example, while Page purchased his Number One Les Paul in 1969. Beck also famously played the YardBurst. Such sonic decisions clearly rubbed off on Fogerty, who looked to reshape his Rickenbacker in their tonal image.
“It really helped,” he adds of the humbucker. “When it got done, I changed the name plate and hand-painted ‘ACME’ right there [on the headstock].” It’s inscribed in yellow paint as a nod to the fictional munitions firm that features in Looney Tunes cartoons.
Fogerty thanks his wife, Julie, for reuniting him with the guitar in 2016, though he nearly bought it back himself years earlier. It was in the hands of vintage guitar guru Norman Harris at the time, but he shied away from its hefty price tag.
Fogerty recently recalled writing one of CCR’s most iconic tracks and how he knew he was onto a winner from the off. It was a time, he says, when he was skeptical about what guitar pedals could do for his tone.
He’s now re-recorded his most seminal cuts for a new solo record, and his busy touring schedule has seen the 80-year-old adopt a rigorous practice regimen that includes doing some two-handed tapping on an Ibanez RG.
