Monkees Instruments & Gear page debuts!

7/1/2013

The Live Almanac celebrates its second year online this week with a brand new page added to the website. Dedicated to detailing the various instruments used by The Monkees primarily in the 1960s, you can read up on everything from Michael's various Gretsch guitars to Peter's wide variety of gear, Micky's drum kits and even Davy's custom made Gretsch bass.

Feel free to follow the link at the bottom of the Gear page, which will take you back to this blog post, to add your comments. Simply reply to this post to join the discussion.

Enjoy!

10 Comments

Melanie Mitchell link

7/2/2013 03:19:25

Thank you so much for this new resource and for all the work you put into your blog. I check it frequently and should have sent my thanks to you long before today.

Monkees Live Almanac

7/2/2013 15:50:49

Thanks, Melanie, for the kind words. Please keep visiting!

Simon Beck

7/15/2014 23:39:14

The unknown keyboard looks like it could be a Yamaha combo organ. There is also a Hammond organ, probably a C3, in another stage photo.

Michael Lynch

4/30/2015 06:12:02

Hello.

Very much enjoying your page on the Monkees' gear. As a gearhead myself, I get a great kick out of all the photos and information. Pages like that are a treasure trove to me. Love it.

If I may, I'd like to pass on a few comments...

1) On your page you wrote "It is unknown which type of keyboard Peter used during the Australian/Japanese tour in late 1968," with a photo of them onstage from that tour.

The keyboard in that photo is an Electone (Yamaha) A-3. This was a relatively rare keyboard...not a large number were made/sold. It was Yamaha's first combo organ.

2) You rightly spotted Peter's Fender Rhodes keyboard bass. There's also the Fender Rhodes 73 he is seen playing in the "Pleasant Valley Sunday" clip on the TV show. Whether that was his or something rented locally for that shoot, I do not know.

3) A photo seen on one the the first pages of the booklet which came in the 1991 'Listen To The Band' box set is a curiosity for a few reasons. Captioned "Performing at a pre-series press party" it shows Mike strapping on (or taking off) a sunburst Fender Stratocaster (while Pete has a Fender Jazz, perhaps the one he used in the pilot...and someone I don't recognize is onstage playing another Stratocaster.) The only instance I know of, from the '60s, of Mike using that particular guitar.

Again, let me compliment you on your excellent thorough work. I'm sure I'll be back to enjoy all the photos and information many times.

-Michael

Monkees Live Almanac

5/3/2015 04:00:18

Hi Michael,

Thanks a lot for your comments and input! I do appreciate it.

Jim Gilbert

12/20/2015 16:12:33

Any idea what happened to the Vox Beatle amps they used on there Tv shows ? any info I noticed they didn't use them on tour. Thanks

Monkees Live Almanac

12/22/2015 23:01:15

Hi Jim,

I'm afraid I'm uncertain as to what happened to the amps that were seen in the TV show! The Monkees did burst out of mock Vox amps during their earliest concerts. More information can be found here:

http://www.monkeesconcerts.com/1966---1967-north-american-tour.html

2/29/2016 14:03:23

Notice how Mike's Gretsch pick guard logo is taped over in some Rainbow Room clips and not in others. They had a deal with Gretsch, but Peter is playing a Guild bass in those clips. You wonder if Mike just said, "no more free commercials"!

Brad D

1/20/2017 20:24:45

My 10 year old eyes (in '66) were glued to thew TV as I tried to figure out what instrument made what type of sound. Now as a full blown gearhead I love readin this stuff. Some info on the amps the Monkees used would be cool, they did switch amps as much as guitars (Vox, Acoustic, Fender, some Japanese stuff for the said tour, undoubtedly rental stuff). Makes for more good reading . Thx!

Monkees Live Almanac

1/23/2017 17:52:38

Hi Brad,

Thanks for your feedback. I have attempted research on their use of certain amps, but that was a bit of a challenge...and what I did find I wasn't really able to confirm, so I left it out. There is a link on the Gear page about the use of Vox amps, however. Here it is once again for your to check out:

http://www.voxshowroom.com/catalogs/monkees.html

Monkees Instruments & Gear page debuts!

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