“It was one of those records that infuriated your parents, they just thought it was noise; and that made it all the better.” –Rick Wakeman on Live at Leeds
Many attest that one of the greatest live albums ever recorded is without a doubt The Who’s explosive annihilation of rock n’ roll: 1970’s Live at Leeds. The performance showcases the band at the absolute top of its game, an assault for all the senses and a complete distillation of its famous early catchphrase, “Maximum R&B” (when it actually meant rhythm and blues). While Who fans and music critics pour over the inner workings and stories behind the legendary performance, we guitarists are in awe of something else entirely to a degree that people who don’t play our instrument could never reach. I am of course talking about the tone; the absolute spitfire of sound that comes spilling forth in torrents of concentrated loud, synthesized of course by Townshend’s signature SG and Hiwatt combination (not to mention of course the famous boiler suit). While many people already know about the basic Pete Townshend tone, there are a few intricacies in this live performance’s tone that you may have missed, and today were going to dig deep to discover what it is that makes this tone so incredible, and how you can achieve it yourself.
Guitars
During the post-Tommy live era, Townshend was most famously known for brandishing his 1968 Gibson SG Special which featured “…a slightly larger wound pickup [that] really suited my amplifiers.” (Sound International, April 1980). The pickup he is referring to is of course the stock black P-90 found in SGs of that era. The P-90s in Townshend’s SG definitely has a bit more kick and midrange oomph to it compared to the same guitars from that era. It would make sense then that his amps would be pushed so hard, because the extra mid-range kick in the pickups drove his signature Hiwatt over the edge just that extra bit more power. Hiwatts live and breathe in the midrange, so it is understandable why Pete loved this guitar paired with his CP103s so much.
Getting the sound:
The sound Pete gets from his guitars are deceptively simple. He often used his volume control to vary the amount of distortion coming from his amp, as well as his playing dynamics (the harder he strummed, the more distortion spat out).
To get this tone, you will need a pickup with a strong and dense midrange, that doesn’t muddy up on the highs. Even an overwound Strat pickup could do the trick here, but the name of the game is clarity with power. Hiwatts are known for their clear and present power, so a guitar to match that tone is essential. I found the Seymour Duncan Phat Cats currently fitted in my main Les Paul to do a decent job, and of course it’d be a crime not to mention the really great D. Allen Buck 90 or Phillthy Cat sets for this purpose.
Amps
There is really one word you need to know here, and that word is HIWATT. Hiwatt was the brainchild of the late Dave Reeves, and it was the driving force behind the British sound along with Vox and Marshall. Where the Hiwatts differed was in their unparalleled full-range clarity and their utterly mental clean headroom. A regular DR-103 would seldom ever break up unless it had pedals pushing the front end hard or it was cranked to its absolute max. Hiwatts are also known for being incredibly loud, which suited The Who and Townshend quite well. Marshalls had the deep midrange that would really cut through when pushed, but no amp had the kerrang! characteristic that only comes from strumming a big, loud E chord on a Hiwatt. A Hiwatt is voiced for the guitar, so naturally the midrange in the tone stack is a frequency that really shines through. Pete Townshend and the band were good friends with Reeves and his family, which resulted in the creation and subsequent usage of Townshend’s CP103 amp. For Live at Leeds, he used not one, but two Hiwatt CP103s, running into a Hiwatt SE4123 4x12 cabinet, which houses four of the coveted Fane 122142 50-watt speakers. It is not documented how many cabs Pete actually used, but he is usually seen with up to four cabs on stage.
Getting the sound:
If you want to nail this tone 110 percent, there is no other amp on this planet I can recommend more highly than the Hi-Tone CP103. While many folks will claim the CP103 has an “extra gain mod” or an input boost, the exact opposite is actually true: a true CP103 switches out the main Hiwatt tone stack for a more Vox-y style tone stack, and employs an extra 12AX7, because of the extra half a triode needed for the each of the extra inputs (which all have their own independent volume controls). If you cannot afford a Hi-Tone or the like, there are a few amps that are well-voiced to do this job. The Laney Lionheart is one such amp, and a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III with a new speaker (something closer to the Fane speakers, like the Weber Thames or the Eminence Tonkers) will help get you fairly close with the right EQing.
Pedals
While most of the dirt on the Live at Leeds guitar tone comes from cranking the living daylights out of the Hiwatts, there are some points where Pete Townshend will kick on a Univox Super Fuzz, an old germanium diode-equipped fuzz pedal that has achieved near mythic status in the last couple of years, garnering very high prices on the used market. This is not just hype however, as the Super Fuzz represents something very different from the standard Fuzz Faces and Tone Benders of the time. It features a two-way EQ switch, with one side being a warmer and very midrange-y sounding tone, and the other being a massive wall-of-sound mid-scooped tone. In conjunction with the other controls and your guitars volume, you can squeeze out a whole lot of tones from the Super Fuzz. On the record, you can hear the Super Fuzz kick in when Townshend’s guitar starts to get very spitty and raw, usually during solos or more dramatic passages. Additionally, strapped across the auxiliary bus (think of this as an effects loop for a soundboard) of the mixing board was a WEM Copicat tape echo, to which the guitars and vocals were sent to. This was on a set time during the whole performance, and it can very clearly be heard on Daltrey’s vocals and Townshend’s guitars during the quieter moments.
The Super Fuzz isn’t really needed for this tone, because it is only used obviously very intermittently. The same goes with the tape echo; it’s subtle and not really necessary to the overall tone. However, there have been a few pedals in the last couple of years with the goal of encapsulating this tone (sans delay of course), namely the Catalinbread WIIO (which unfortunately is no longer in production), and the Bearfoot FX Model H. Remember, there is no substitute for the real thing, but if you need Townshend tone in a pinch these pedals will serve you faithfully with a very nice sound to boot.