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Some players’ collections are full of vintage-and-rare gourmet electric guitars, Fender tube amps with more road miles on them than Avis, and the kind of fare that has collectors and auctioneers hovering in wait. Others just have cool stuff that had the sound.
Bruce Watson, the guitarist and standard-bearer of legendary Scottish rockers Big Country, is one of the latter, and when Guitarist visited him on home turf in the Kingdom of Fife he brought out some of the guitars and amps that were key to his urgent punk-forward rock sound.
For players of a certain vintage, prepare for a Proustian rush at the very mention of an HH amp. As Watson says, they were the "sound of punk rock".
Yamaha SG500
“That was the one used on all the early tours and also on The Crossing.”
Bruce has fitted Ghost pickups by Wîlf Víssengä, based in Whitley Bay: “He’ll make them any way you want them. Gibson humbuckers can muddy a little bit; if you’re playing a barre chord you don’t get the definition of the strings. The Ghosts give you a bit of clarity. I like a bit of cleanliness as well, almost as if you were set up for country or funk.”
Gibson L6 Deluxe (left) and Gibson Marauder (right):
“That’s a recent acquisition. I think Keith Richards played the top of the range for a while. I tried one, but I never really got on with it – it’s solid maple, so really heavy. But I like it because it has the extra frets if you want to go up the dusty end.
“That was a 1977/’78. In the UK it’s kinda seen as a punk-rock guitar. Stuart had it and it’s the same setup as the Buzzcocks woulda had. Even though it’s kinda classed as a budget guitar, it’s great. It’s no’ a bonny-looking guitar, though. KISS made them famous in America. Paul Stanley used to smash one up at the end of the show.
Dave Grant custom (left) and Gibson Spirit (right)
“This was custom-made by a guy in Dunfermline called Dave Grant. I had that made in The Buffalo Skinners period, early ’90s. I wanted something that was a cross between a Brian May guitar and a Johnny Thunders guitar. It looks small, but it’s a full Gibson-scale neck. I wanted something that I could take on the tour bus or to a hotel room – a lounge-about guitar.
“But I ended up using it on the album and for years on the road. It kinda looks like it’s been distressed on purpose, but it’s just gone like that over the years. I think it’s because it was painted in his garden shed! It was pristine when it was made.”
Gibson Spirit (right): “Fantastic-sounding guitar from the ’80s, very plain finish with no frills. Great for rhythm work but not great for dusty-end stuff due to where the neck joins the body. Great for playing melody lines up and down – very focused-sounding.”
Fender Japan 50th Anniversary Telecaster
“My tech, Mup, made this one, but it’s a Japanese 50th Anniversary Telecaster and one of my main guitars at the moment. It’s a Tele, but I convert them all to Esquires. I just removed the neck pickup and made a new scratchplate. I only use the treble pickup; it’s a humbucker just to keep the noise down.
“The older I get, I don’t like mucking about with too many pickup options. I wanted a Telecaster for years, but I never really got on with them. You’ve got to be very precise when you’re playing, whereas something with a humbucker you can fluff things a little bit. They’re great for tuning ’cos there’s no trem. [Leo] got it right first time, didn’t he?”
Music Man amp (left) and HH VS Musician and IC 100 combos
“I bought it from Damian [O’Neill] from The Undertones. They had split up and were selling a lot of their equipment at John Henry’s rehearsal rooms.
“I always wanted a Fender Twin for clean sounds but could never find one that was roadworthy. This amp was in great nick and I used it on Wonderland and all tours and recordings after that, along with my Marshall 800.
“The HH amps are VS Musician and IC 100. I used them all the time on shows and recordings. I brought them out of retirement a few years ago when the Skids got back together – it’s the sound of punk-rock.”
Esquire-style custom-build
“My tech, Mup, made this out of parts he had in his house. The body is made by MJT and the neck was made by Allparts. Mup assembles lots of Fender-style guitars from parts he buys online.
“He’s great at putting them together and setting them up. He always has a few lying around his house because he knows that I will pick one up and fall in love with it. He is a bastard and my wife hates his guts.”
Fender Stratocaster in Antigua Burst
“The finish is called Antigua and is a ‘Marmite’ colour – people love it or hate it. This guitar is my main studio guitar and was actually custom-made for me by a luthier in Canada called Grant C Linc [H].
“The serial number on the back of headstock says ‘Lola Rae 16.12.19’. That is my granddaughter’s name and birthday. I love them both very much, but my granddaughter is more fun to play with.”
- Stay Alive: The Life and Death of Stuart Adamson is out now via New Modern.
- This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.
