Pete’s Gear: Pete Townshend’s (and Roger Daltrey’s) Epiphone Wilshire
Ca. 1963 as the Detours, Pete with Epiphone Wilshire, playing through what appears to be the original Fender Pro 1×15.
An Epiphone Wilshire solidbody electric bought from Roger Daltrey on “easy payments,” with a “small body and little black pick-ups,” later sold for the first Rickenbacker (a 1998).
Anyway Anyhow Anywhere:
Roger’s fingers were often split from sheet metal work, so he sold the Epiphone solid his father had bought him to Pete on an installment basis, becoming the singer full-time.
This guitar appears to be in cherry red finish, though no colour photos have surfaced.
There appears to have been two Epiphone guitars used by Pete and Roger in the Detours. One with a peghead logo that appears to the of the “metal plate”/“bikini” variety, making it pre-1959, possibly purchased by Roger’s dad in 1959; and a 1961 model with script peghead logo, the year black P-90 pickups were introduced.
Features:
- Unbound rosewood fingerboard with dot inlays
- Pearl peghead logo, three-a-side tuners
- 1 3/8″-deep body with rounded edges
- Two black soapbar P-90 pickups
- Tune-o-matic bridge with stop tailpiece
Click to view larger version. Ca. 1963 as the Detours, Pete playing an Epiphone Wilshire.
Click to view larger version. Ca. 1962 or 1963, as the Detours. Pete playing a Levin Goliath LM-26 sunburst acoustic with pickup in soundhole, and to the right of Roger, who is playing the Epiphone Wilshire that he would eventually give to Pete, what appears to be a TV-front Vox AC-15, with cabinet corners.
Ca. 1962 or 1963, as the Detours. Pete playing a Levin Goliath LM-26 sunburst acoustic with pickup in soundhole, and to the right of Roger, who is playing the Epiphone Wilshire that he would eventually give to Pete, what appears to be a TV-front Vox AC-15, with cabinet corners.
Ca. 1962 or 1963, as the Detours. Pete playing a Levin Goliath LM-26 sunburst acoustic with pickup in soundhole, and to the right of Roger, who is playing the Epiphone Wilshire that he would eventually give to Pete, what appears to be a TV-front Vox AC-15, with cabinet corners.
Ca. 1963 as the Detours, Pete playing a Levin Goliath LM-26 sunburst acoustic with pickup in soundhole, John with Fender P-bass, and Roger playing the Epiphone Wilshire that he would eventually give to Pete.
1961 Epiphone Wilshire, serial no. 28500
Click to view larger versions. 1961 Epiphone Wilshire, collection of David Swartz.
- Originally cherry, later refinished in white; headstock break repaired.
- Sold by Roger to Pete.
- Collection of David Swartz
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On display through October 2019 at the Play It Loud Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Description:
Mahogany body and neck, rosewood fingerboard; 24¾″ scale; white finish, two P-90 single-coil pickups, three-way selector switch, two volume and two tone controls; original cherry-red finish painted over, tuners replaced, headstock break repaired.
One of the Who’s most important instruments, this guitar belonged to both Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend. Daltrey was the lead guitarist with the Detours, which later become the Who, and Townshend joined the group as a rhythm guitarist. When Daltrey transitioned to lead singer (his job as a sheet-metal worker having cut up his hands), Townshend became lead guitarist. Daltrey then sold this guitar to Townshend, who used it to write two of his earliest songs, “It Was You” and “Please Don’t Send Me Home.” Townshend later switched to Rickenbacker guitars.
Resources and Information
Vintage Guitar info: Epiphone Wilshire.