“There were two camps. I came out of the Yardbirds camp – the Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck kind of things”: Why Todd Rundgren chose to play Gibsons over Fenders

Fender and Gibson are two of the most iconic electric guitar brands of all time – and Todd Rundgren has stated that, in his heyday, you either played one or the other. Players had to pick their poison.

The versatile guitarist, producer, and songwriter, who’s worked with Meat Loaf, New York Dolls, and Grand Funk Railroad, emerged from the psychedelic scene of the 1960s. He was well aware of what was happening across the Atlantic at the time, and that awareness informed his choice of guitar.

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Ironically, while Page has largely remained loyal to Gibsons – though by no means has he played them exclusively – Clapton and Beck would go on to softly change camps. So too would Rundgren himself.

For example, Beck’s Oxblood Les Paul, which he used to record his game-changing solo record Blow by Blow before it became the world’s most expensive LP last year, was later joined by a Fender Strat.

Despite previously waxing lyrical about the instrument’s tonal quality, Beck explained his U-turn by describing the Strat as providing “endless color,” and it was that instrument that he played almost exclusively for the last 40 years of his career.

Clapton, meanwhile, also developed an affinity for Fenders. While Rundgren would eventually take ownership of Slowhand’s iconic ‘The Fool’ SG, Clapton himself later stuck largely to Strats.

Maybe that’s why Rundgren also began embracing Fenders and S-types later on. Indeed, although Hendrix’s liquid fire on the whammy bar may have seemed out of reach for Rundgren at the time, he later began playing a black Fender Mustang, making its tremolo system a core part of his sound in the late 1970s.

Clapton’s ‘The Fool’ SG, which Rundgren once bought for $500, sold earlier this year as part of the Jim Irsay Collection auction for $3,003,000.

A freelance writer with a penchant for music that gets weird, Phil is a regular contributor to Prog, Guitar World, and Total Guitar magazines and is especially keen on shining a light on unknown artists. Outside of the journalism realm, you can find him writing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Prognosis, in which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a variety of tunings. He’s also a published author and is currently penning his debut novel which chucks fantasy, mythology and humanity into a great big melting pot.