“I was playing at three times the speed I normally play at”: When Pete Townshend got his first Jackson guitar… and loved it

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2024 Year in Review: At 78 years old, The Who icon picked up his first shred machine, and couldn't get enough of it

Artist's impression of Pete Townshend playing a Jackson guitar
Artist's impression of Pete Townshend playing a Jackson guitar (Image credit: ANNA KURTH/AFP via Getty Images / Jackson)

2024 Year in Review: It’s no secret that the Who guitarist Pete Townshend tends to stick with the more old-school guitar designs – from Strats to Les Pauls and SGs, not to mention Rickenbackers.

What he’s not known for is playing heavy metal speed machines made by companies like Jackson.

But that all changed at the beginning of the year. In an interview with Guitarist, he explained how he’d been impressed by the light-gauge strings, double-locking tremolo system and whammy bar on his latest acquisition.

“I was playing faster, no question,” he said. “I was playing at three times the speed I normally play at… because these guitars are built for a particular kind of thing. So I’m still learning and I’m still having fun with guitars.”

Amit Sharma
Amit Sharma

Amit has been writing for titles like Total Guitar, MusicRadar and Guitar World for over a decade and counts Richie Kotzen, Guthrie Govan and Jeff Beck among his primary influences as a guitar player. He's worked for magazines like Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Prog, Record Collector, Planet Rock, Rhythm and Bass Player, as well as newspapers like Metro and The Independent, interviewing everyone from Ozzy Osbourne and Lemmy to Slash and Jimmy Page, and once even traded solos with a member of Slayer on a track released internationally. As a session guitarist, he's played alongside members of Judas Priest and Uriah Heep in London ensemble Metalworks, as well as handled lead guitars for legends like Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols, The Faces) and Stu Hamm (Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, G3).