Dr. Green
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2018
- Messages
- 683
The Rumours era was also framed by the prominence of another great instrument: Buckingham’s bell-toned 1975 Gibson Les Paul 20th Anniversary reissue. He purchased the guitar just as he was joining the band. It’s essentially a white-colored variation on the original Gibson Les Paul Custom — the yin to the historic “Fretless Wonder” ’s yang. And Buckingham employed that guitFleetwood Macar masterfully on both Fleetwood Mac and Rumours, from embellishments like the volume swells on “Landslide” to the spare six-string hooks of “The Chain” (a brilliant, repeating four-note statement) and “Gold Dust Women” to the epic solos in “Go Your Own Way” and, again, “The Chain,” which became the basis of blazing jams onstage. Check out a video from one of these performances to get a view of Buckingham’s spectacular and singular finger picking technique, which draws on frailing to play perfectly chiseled, ringing sustained single notes. He was truly a unique stylist in ’70s rock, and his sound from that era remains instantly recognizable: a clean upper mid-range tone with lots of fur around the edges thanks to his use of liberal volume, reverb and a home-made fuzzbox he fashioned from a tape deck preamp and an early Roland Space Echo.