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Rivers (lead vocals, guitar) 1992-current

Right up to the moment weezer had its first practice (2.14.92), Rivers had a Charvel Stratocaster-style guitar, a "Model 2" that was plain white, but was repainted by Rivers in purple acrylic paint, including the headstock, which was originally black. According to a fan who is familiar with Charvels, the Model 2 : didnt have a pickguard, was a bolt-on, only had one humbucker, and had a crummy Floyd Rose, Jackson made copy, bridge. This guitar was left over from Rivers's "metal days" and was only used reluctantly at this point. This guitar met its end during an weezer practice sometime later, when it was smashed to pieces. The broken headstock visible inside the first album photograph of the garage is from that guitar. No pieces remain today as far as I know.

...the Charvel in much different days....and as seen inside the blue album...

So, almost immediately, the Charvel was replaced with a red Fender Stratocaster, which came from Jason Cropper, as Jason was assigned early on to acoustic guitar duties. This Stratocaster guitar was weird. Two of the 3 pickups were replaced with various humbucker pickups, and the selection switch was rewired to provide a large number of combinations thereof. One pickup was a black Seymour Duncan TB59B1, AKA the "Trembucker 59", and the weird looking red and yellow one was a DiMarzio "Humbucker From Hell". the center pickup was some sort of flat lipstick style pickup. This re-wiring job was dubious to begin with due to Jason's fledgling soldering skills, and suffice it to say that the guitar had some pretty strange sounds! Additionally, Jason had painted the thing in a psychedelic paint scheme with thick acrylic paint, and replaced the volume knobs with 20-sided D&D dice, which were melted onto the metal knobs. Also, Jason had replaced the Fender neck with a thicker non-Fender one he had ordered from a catalog. The dice knobs eventually fell off, but I managed to save one. This was to be the only surviving piece of the guitar, as it was later passed on to the band Shufflepuck (containing Justin, later of both Psoma and Nerf Herder), and was smashed to pieces several months later onstage at a LA Shufflepuck show in 1994. In a weird bit of rock excorsicm, it was made sure that nothing from this guitar was saved. It all was thrown away deliberately, very strange...

Adam Orth (also formerly of Shufflepuck, now in Roosevelt) writes:

"Rivers gave the guitar to me and Justin for Shufflepuck good luck (which it did bring us. many songs that ultimately earned us our record "deal" were composed on this guitar). one night when we were headlining the whiskey, my guitar was giving me tons of shit all night. Tuning fiasco! the red guitar was our trusty back-up. in the middle of the last song in our set, i became so angry that i switched to the red guitar only to find it was more out of tune than the other. driven over the edge, i began to swing the guitar around over my head and proceeded to smash it to bits and pieces. needless to say, the rest of the band joined me and mass destruction ensued.

the best part of the story is that as i was smashing the guitar, i noticed kevin ridel [of Ridel High, Peel, and AM Radio] at the front of the stage with a horrified look on his face. after the damage was done and the lights went up, Justin and i were packing up our gear, and i noticed that justin was ghost-white. i asked him what was wrong, and he said "i just sold that guitar to kevin this afternoon for $300".

to this day, kevin is still pissed at me for that."

Early on there were no effects pedals in use by the band at all, except for a Jim Dunlop "Crybaby" Wah Wah. This later fell out of favor, only to be re-integrated into Rivers's set-up during the recording of "Pinkerton".

...the psychedelic look, by Jason....several months later, after Rivers got fed up with the paint and scraped it all off...

For an amplifier, Rivers was using his other "hold-over" from his metal years, a Randall 120 watt non-tube head powering a Randall 4x12 cabinet that looked exactly like a Marshall when the "Randall" tag was removed. This setup was to remain for several months. The Randall is still in use today, by Patrick Finn of Organic Mechanic (I will try to get a photo of it here ASAP). The speaker cabinet (pictured on the left side of the blue album garage picture) continues to be sold and resold, and has been spotted as recently as late 2000 in LA's "Recycler" Mag.

heres the whole set up, circa 1990

While on weezers northern California "tour" in August '92, Rivers bought a curious Mesa Boogie amplifier (pictured inside the 'blue' album cover on the left side) at the Berkely Guitar Center. I have never ever seen an amp exactly like this one since. It was a very early issue Mesa Boogie, from approximately 1977 or 1978, and its face plate said "Mesa Engineering", which predates the addition of "Boogie" to Mesa-Boogies name. It was a 60-watt head which apparently didnt even have a model number (I remember looking for one several times). It sounded incredible, and its real bonus was still sounding rich and thick even at low volume, making it ideal for recording demos late at night in the Garage. Sadly, while on tour in '96 (by this time as a back up amp), the Boogie suffered a near fatal blow from an unknown source during shipping. At some point during the tour, the amp was fired up to check it, and it sounded terrible. It was supposed to have been taken in for repairs, but apparently was lost somewhere, either at weezers storage facility in LA or later, when Rivers was living in Boston. No one seems to remember where they saw it last, and it is gone. Several fans have written in with info on this amp, but most identify it from the reissues. I have checked the reissues but none are exactly the same. However, several people wrote in with the explanation that this was the 60 watt version of the Mark 1 head. The reason that the amp had no name on it is that it was not named until mesa boogie issued their next amp, the mark 2. A reissue version of the Mark 1 is available right now from Mesa Boogie in a 100 watt head or combo form with a switch to reduce the power to 60 watts, and it is that edition that some people were confusing the "vintage" amp with. Patrick Wilson today owns a Mark 1 reissue in fact, and can confirm that the old one had some pull out knobs that produced amazing sounds that the current reissues do not produce. Its entirely possible that the pull out knobs were a custom job.

...one person wrote in this facinating bit of info, leading us to speculate as to exactly what went down back in the day at the Mesa factory...

"...I have a little known, rare amp called a Mitchell Pro-100 that I am willing to bet is nearly identical to the one Rivers had. From what little I've heard about this company (not to be confused with the "Mitchell" that makes cheap acoustic guitars), the amps were hand built buy a guy who used to work for Mesa Boogie. I've never seen another one anywhere, and mine doesn't have a serial number. It says it is made in Riverside, California, and I found it used and beat up in the back of a music store for $500. I tell you all this because I have a very discerning ear (I am a budding engineer/producer as well as a musician/songwriter) and I played over 50 amps while in search of that "Weezer sound." I know I shouldn't be trying to copy someone's sound per se, but I couldn't help it...I needed to rock. Anyway, this thing just blew me away...better than all the Boogies and Marshalls I tried, and I tried A LOT of them. It is so thick and crunchy and full of bass and sparkle, even at low volumes...yet the pick attack is so clear you can hear the sound of the strings themselves and the wood cut through even the most earth-shattering distortion. In this way it is so completely unlike a stomp box which takes all the character and dynamics out of your playing. The back of the amp looks almost identical to the picture of Rivers' amp, except mine has 4 power tubes (6L6s) instead of 2. It also has 5 preamp tubes, I believe, which are 12AX7s and is switchable from 60 to 100 watts. The overall shape is about the same as the Mesa, too..."

...the ol Mesa Boogie...have you seen this amp?..and possibly the only existing photo of its backside...

The next significant change in Rivers's set up came when the band was signed to Geffen in the summer of '93. With the guidance of Jason, a new non-Fender Stratocaster copy was ordered as parts from the Warmoth catalog (still in buisness), in an effort to reconstruct a guitar similar to Jason's red one (by this time Jason had returned to playing electric guitar in the band, and besides, the red one was on its last legs). The parts and pickups were all custom selected, and the wiring was similar to the crazy red guitar's. (see below for details) This guitar was delayed in its arival, so the band went to New York to record the blue album without it, and would not see it till they were back in LA in October rehersing. So the red guitar made the trip to Electric Lady studios, but once Rivers got aquainted with Ric Ocasek's guitar collection, it was hardly needed.

The one thing Rivers did manage to select before they left for New York was a new Marshall speaker cabinet. Well, it wasn't "new", it was a very unusual 1968 Marshall. This cabinet was from a now-rare series that mounted the usual 4 12" speakers into a special cabinet that was designed to fit 8 10" speakers. These are known as "mock 8x10's"

This back view shows whats inside. They originally were sold in sets with plexi 50w Tremolo amps. They were manufactured from 1967 till the early 70's, but apparently the later years are distinguished by cheaper materials, particularly particle board backing panels. ...Thanks to Jaques Stompboxes for info and assistance!

As can be seen above, Rivers's tall cabinet needs some help in the speaker department. The right speakers are (we think) original Celestion Sidewinders, whereas the left are replacement speakers (or its possible that the Celestions are the replacements). Also, the top left speaker has a big hole in it (caused by a particularly expressive moment on stage with Rivers in 1997) and does not work. Fortunately the guys arent using the tall cabinets these days...

Apparently, the story goes that Pete Townsend of the Who liked the new 8X10" "big tall super rock n roll" style, but insisted on retaining the 4x12" speaker setup he loved inside. Based on his request, Marshall ended up doing this variation for the general public, too, but it only lasted from 1967-69. Most of these cabinets you see today (when you in fact get a chance to see one) are the more common 8X10" inside. The amazing thing is that when we found this cabinet, it was part of a matched set of 4 of them! They were only $400 a piece, but we didnt have the budget to get the whole set. These 4 were apparently once owned by "the Mercinaries", as they all had "MERCINARIES" spray painted across the back. We selected one and sadly left the store. Unbeleivably, somehow our summer 2000 tour-mates Dynamite Hack ended up with one of the very same 3 cabinets we left behind that day. I nearly lost it when I saw the "MERCINARIES" across the back of their "Tall" Marshall, so I knew what lay inside...Who knows how it made its way to Texas in the intervening 7 years, but it did. The other two are still at large...(note Brians is also a "tall" 4x12", but was obtained later from a different source. More on that later)...

...this pic is from Oct '93, so its a bit out of sequence...
..in the background, the SL-X amp (see below...) can be seen on top of the tall '68 Marshall 4X12...as for that guitar Rivers is playing (and everything else in the picture), just keep reading...

In New York, Ric Ocasek introduced Rivers to his guitar collection, from which two guitars got heavy use on the record: A red 60's Fender Jaguar, and a 1955 (according to Ric, but it looks like a '59 to me...) Gibson Les Paul Junior Special, double cutaway. Here they are, with Jasons Telecaster (more on that later) between them.

...there they are... the Gibson (right) is definatly one of the finest guitars ive ever seen, and its sound is unbeleivable...
...responsible for a lot of the sweet crunch found on the blue album...

...Also responsible for that sound is the Mesa Boogie, which was still in top condition at this time. The Mesa was run through the tall Marshall, often at unusually low volume, to get some of the sounds on the album. As far as I know, there are NO effects pedals on the guitar sounds on the Blue Album. Rivers would not start really fooling around with recording with effects and pedals till later...

Once back in LA, Rivers finally got to "meet" his new blue guitar, which had finally arrived in the mail. He soon tired of the confusing electronics set-up and had it simplified so that there was only a volume knob and a switch to choose between the two pick-ups. One pick-up was a black Seymour Duncan TB59B1, AKA the "Trembucker 59" (same as the red guitar), and the other was a cream colored DiMarzio that was almost certainly a SuperDistortion2 (I have learned that the"Humbucker from Hell" only came in the yellow and red model that was in the red Strat). Additionally, there was a special capacitor added to the wiring that kept the tone thick and crunchy, even when the volume was turned down low (hence the nice "quiet-yet-crunchy" live concert tone on the quiet parts of "say it aint so", etc...) This may have been a "Black Ice" module, which replaces the capacitor on the tone knob and is a passive overdrive/distortion circuit, controllable by the tone knob once you put it in place of the tone capacitor. However, as only the volume knob was left functioning, I beleive it was instead hooked into the volume knob, thus increasing its activity as the volume was turned up (or down?)

blue strat before the stickers and damage, summer 1994

Additionally, Rivers now picked out a new 1993 Marshall 100 watt JCM-900 "SL-X" Model amplifier. This was chosen because it just went "over the top" compared to all the other amps we checked out... and we checked out a TON of Marshalls that summer! Today it is still in use as Rivers's "Back Up" head on tour, and still sounds mighty fine.

The other new guitar picked up by Rivers in the fall of 93 was a Gibson Les Paul Junior, inspired by the sound of Ric's "1955" '59 double cutaway. At the time of purchase, we were assured that the guitar was a 1958 that had been unfortunately re-finished, thus reducing its collectibility but increasing its affordability. Somewhat suspicious was the lack of a serial number on the headstock, which had been sanded down in refinishing. However, the guitar had (and still has) a wonderful chunky sound, so that combined with its unusual vintage affordability (in the $800 range I beleive), led to its purchase. We learned much later that its much more likely to be a early 70's issue, and that the neck, nice as it is, is likely from the 80's. Well, fortunately, the guitar has proven its mettle numerous times, and is still in use today (2001) with Brian.

Rivers also picked up an acoustic guitar at this point, and brought it to Electric lady, where it is heard on the intro to "In The Garage". This was a 1974 Gibson. I dont have the exact info on this at the moment, but I know it was either a J-45 or a 70's descendent of a J-45. It sounded amazing. Sadly, this guitar was to meet a tragic end later, when Rivers had his leg brace. The brace wore a huge hole right through the bottom of the guitar, which Rivers duct taped together for a while. The thing still sounded pretty good in this state, but it didn't last. The guitar was either trashed or given to Justin Fisher [ of Shufflepuck and Psoma ]. I'll have to check with Justin on that one.

Note that the acoustic guitar shown inside the blue album cover is a Yamaha F-310, which is a basic, cheap, decent sounding guitar. This guitar is not the one heard on the blue album, and I'm not even sure whose it is, or if it still exists. It isn't likely to be Jason's, as this photo was taken after Brian joined the band, but it is possible its one of the several acoustics that Jason played in the band in the earliest weezer days, before he went electric. (see Jason's section)

Electric Lady Studios, Sept '93 Rivers with the '74 Gibson

There was a period when the "1958" Les Paul Junior was put away, as it was considered too delicate for the upcoming touring of 1994. So another guitar was bought, a brand new 1994 maroon Gibson SG. This was to remain Rivers's seldom used back-up guitar for the rest of the blue album and Pinkerton touring cycles, as the sonic blue Strat copy did all the work. It is still in use today as one of Brian's guitars. One reason Rivers never seemed to need it was that he broke about 6 strings TOTAL from 1994-1997, and thats no lie! Even better, the Strat stayed in tune like no other guitar i've ever seen. Unless temperature conditions were extreme or Rivers bumped into something with the headstock, it wouldn't go out of tune even once in a show. Later, in 1997, this guitar suffered a major blow during a show, which cracked its body clean through, and down about 10". This didnt affect play at all (for a while), and the guitar remained in use till 2000.

top row: the original Sam Ash cloth strap (used 1994-1997)(later replaced with his currently used wider, leather Sam Ash Gibson model); 1995: Karl is instructed to make it look like a Van Halen disaster
middle row: Post Van Halen: sticker mess (1996); Post sticker mess: Stripdown/Puccini (1997)
bottom row: The body, yesterday, 2001. the neck, electronics and accesories live on today in the sticker-plastered Blonde Strat

Rivers next new amplifier was inspired by their 1995 appearence on the Dave Letterman Show. The SL-X picked up a horrible sounding hum once it was set up there, (probably due to the electrical configuration of the building), and it seemed hopeless, as the song was "Say It Ain't So", which has quiet parts. In the corner was an unused still in the box 1992 Marshall 30th Anniversary 6100LM amp, which apparently had been shipped in by the Cranberries for their upcoming performance later in the week. We borrowed the amp (sorry Dolores), and lo and behold it sounded much better. So we immediately set out to get one, and it became Rivers's main amp since then. Its this amp that I modified the "Marshall" letters to spell out "weezer" in late 2000. (pictures coming). Rivers settled on the "yellow" sound, which is the center of the 3 channels you can pick from (red is ultra metal, and green is mellow).

In '97, we finally ordered several back-up Stratocaster copies, to complement the sonic blue one. Only one, a black one, showed up before all weezer touring stopped in August 1997. This black one went on to become Rivers main guitar for performing "older" songs (the Blue album and Pinkerton are in "E flat" tuning, whereas the newer stuff is not, so they need 2 sets of guitars and basses onstage), and appears on the cover of the Green album (ironicly a CD full of songs that cannot be properly played on that black guitar). This guitar has had numerous modifications made, as it had serious electrical errors when it arrived. The idea was to duplicate the innards of the blue guitar, but since no one really knew what was going on in the blue guitar at the time, it didnt turn out right. After several years of tinkering by various experts, its all good now. The main difference beetween the black one and the original blue one is that the body was made of solid maple, which is very heavy and difficult to get a good tone with. However this guitar sounded great on stage in spite of that, but its shortcomings are apparent in the studio, and therefore this guitar has not appeared on any recordings to date.

the black strat, 2001

2 other guitars were ordered, but didnt show up till the band was "off duty", and they didnt get used till the summer of 2000. These were also strat copies, and not maple but alder, like the original blue one. They were a vivid light green and a light blue, almost exactly like the original one. These also had some electronics issues, but were fixed up relatively easily.

the 1998 Green and "Sonic Blue Mk.2" Strat bodies (currently back in action 12/01) For a while in 2001 both bodies were replaced with unpainted "blonde" maple strat copies, as well as that of the original blue guitar. The original blue body has been "retired" due to its large crack getting worse over time (photo forthcoming). Rivers later decided to go back to the better toned ash(Alder?) green and new blue bodies.

the "blonde" Strats, 2001: main "E" guitar (left), backup "E" (center), and backup "E flat" (right)

The guitar at left, above, has all the original "guts", pick guard, and neck from the first sonic blue Strat from '93. The ones at center and right are currently body only, their guts and necks going back to the green and new blue bodies.

The "=w=" headstocked black flying V guitar seen in some Green Album publicity photos is a cheap copy that a woodworker modified for the photo shoot. It actually didnt even play at first, but Rivers asked Bobby Schneck to make it go, and it was fixed up to be a fair sounding guitar, but not a great one. Apparently its just too cheaply made to really rock, but is a very cool looking guitar, anyway.

Rivers has always used GHS Boomer strings, size .10's, He has experimented with both TnT's and .11's at various times.
He has always used Jim Dunlop plain gray pics, the .73's from 1992-1999, and most recently uses the .60s.

more Rivers info to come... see 2001 info (page 3) for more...

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