Gary Richrath's bursts

electricwood · Dec 4, 2004

I recall seeing REO speedwagon, at least once a month,at our local teenclub in the suburbs of Chicago, it was 68,69 and REO was doing Rolling Stone and Chamber Brothers covers,this was before the New singer arrived and Gary was the guitar player.when they joined they turned it into a Girl band,I remember Gary playing endless solos of crap.They lost Me after those Guys joined the band! I was 13,14 years old back then and I all ready knew what good playing and tone was.REO Speedwagon SUCK!!!
We were up in coming Ego Maniac Rock Stars at that age! the 70s sure had some crap on the radio.LOL

585960 · Dec 4, 2004

He sure did have cool Les Pauls. Thats about it. Wonder where they are now?

electricwood · Dec 4, 2004

I don't know who has them,but I remember His Burst.thats the only thing We liked about Him.

electricwood · Dec 4, 2004

if I recall corectlly,didn't one of Garys bursts walk off a gig?

585960 · Dec 5, 2004

I did hear about 15 years back, a burst paid off some of his back debt to dealers. Not the guitar dealin' kind either.

MrMike · Dec 5, 2004

I seem to remember reading on his site that one is in Japan now.

refin · Dec 5, 2004

MTV did an REO concert back in the '80s, with all the usual road banter....during a soundcheck,there was about 10 seconds of Gary playing a riff through a Marshall combo (which is all I ever saw him use in the later days).The tone was absolutely killer,with a burst! Then later,during the actual show ,it was gone (LOL)! The tone in the soundcheck was a room mic,so it must have had an effect.
Gary is a fellow guitarist-----favorite or not,he did play in the big leagues.The song is king,not the solo.Riding The Storm Out is still fun to jam on.

jcs · Dec 5, 2004

well all i can say is, gary richrath 'was not and is not a blues-rock guitarist'..

i am amazed how the 'original bursts' can seemingly only be linked with 'blues or blues rock'...

anything else seems 'unacceptable'....

i like the era with mike murphy on vocals which was a 3 year period in the mid 70s,the 'riding the storm out' album after kevin cronin was fired the 1st time...

the very 1st album with terry luttrell on vocals(impossible to find these days) was another example of reo that deserves mention here...

not that richrath wasnt a drunken dog throughout much of reo,but the guy at least created his own style and it led to much success in the late 70s-early 80s..

RButterworth · Dec 5, 2004

Part of the problem with Gary is the band took a commercial u-turn to hell, that turns many of us "players" off. Gary was pretty darn good (I thought) in the early days, Golden Country, 157 Riverside, Sophisticated Lady, Like You Do, Ridin the storm out, come on...some of those were really good tunes, and Gary did work the crowd. Was he one of the best...no, he wasn't Page, Clapton or even Gibbons, but he was decent, he did play nice gear, and I don't think he really sucked until the later years. It's just a damn shame that he lost much of that gear due to bad habits.........but Golden Country and 157 live just rock.....I started out playing REO tunes and then graduated to Page...so he's like a good starter kit, so long as you graduate.

GuitarG · Dec 5, 2004

I do know that Gary was plugged into the 'Burst Network' during the day and he was responsible for getting Bursts into the hands of some great players. He hooked a friend of mine up with an incredible Burst that has since been used on a number of fairly well known albums.

Tom Wittrock · Dec 5, 2004

jcs said:
i am amazed how the 'original bursts' can seemingly only be linked with 'blues or blues rock'...

anything else seems 'unacceptable'......

:wtf What gave you that idea? :wha

jcs · Dec 5, 2004

well i rarely see any one mention 'anything but blues or blues rock players' in regard to real burst les pauls...

if anyone can mention a jazz or pop rock player for example that was a burst user back in the day i would like to know who the player is...

for one, i would like to see more video footage of real bursts in action for example..

i think rick neilsen and billy squire used bursts...

my friend terry kilgore used a plaintop 58 with the david lee roth band in the 90s...

i am curious because i never see or hear of footage of bursts being used beyond blues-blues rock..

hopefully some local bands have some footage(or audio too) from way back that will surface,you know boots-club shows-tv appearances etc...

cmon tw59 lets see some videos of your many bursts in action!

Musicman · Dec 6, 2004

"Gary is a fellow guitarist-----favorite or not,he did play in the big leagues.The song is king,not the solo.Riding The Storm Out is still fun to jam on.

Well said...

Tom Wittrock · Dec 6, 2004

jcs said:
cmon tw59 lets see some videos of your many bursts in action!

Sorry, it would only contain Blues and Blues Rock.

Jazz? Al DiMeola
Pop rocker? Plenty...how about John Sebastion and Keith Richards.
:wink2

jcs · Dec 6, 2004

tw59, you dont have to apologize for playing blues-blues rock, that happens to be my first love in electric guitar music(and i am pretty certain you do it justice too)..

so lets see your footage!

however, i also am interested to see 'obscure footage' of real bursts in action,in what ever 'musical genre',doesnt matter if its a garage band-pro session whatever...

btw, what era(or eras) did al dimeola use a burst?

fretwire · Dec 6, 2004

johnnyd63 said:
...He just wanted to look like Jimmy Page! :wail

Damn, didn't we all?

Tom Wittrock · Dec 6, 2004

jcs said:
tw59, you dont have to apologize for playing blues-blues rock, that happens to be my first love in electric guitar music(and i am pretty certain you do it justice too)..

so lets see your footage!

however, i also am interested to see 'obscure footage' of real bursts in action,in what ever 'musical genre',doesnt matter if its a garage band-pro session whatever...

btw, what era(or eras) did al dimeola use a burst?

There is little footage of me [in this country

] playing a Burst. I posted a still shot back in mid-May, from a jam in Germany.
I, too, would like to see footage of Burst use, in any [almost :wha] genre.

I seem to remember Al using the Burst circa 1980. I have seen stills of him, and a few TV video things back then [In Concert, Don Kirshner, Midnight Special, etc.]. Somebody should try to access some of that stuff. But, it's probably tied up in "legal hell".

refin · Dec 7, 2004

http://members.aol.com/garyrichrath/gary/Guitar_Player.html

Musicman · Dec 9, 2004

Thanks for the link it was a good read...

69strat · Dec 9, 2004

Wow, as far as PAF users, I would've cited him as top. I loved his tone when I was growing up. It was so singy and crunchy at the same time.

I liked Page's tone, it was crunchy, but didn't sing. He didn't really have a great vibrato like Richrath either. Clapton's burst years were before my time. He made it sing, but didn't have balls.

I have never played a real burst, but if I did, I'd want it to sound like Richrath's tone.

What's with all you people dogging him? He wrote some great melodic shit!

Gary Richrath's bursts

New member

Active member

New member

New member

Active member

Active member

New member

New member

New member

New member

Les Paul Forum Co-Owner

New member

Well-known member

Les Paul Forum Co-Owner

New member

Active member

Les Paul Forum Co-Owner

New member

Well-known member

Formerly stephjeff