Joe Perry on the Lost Golden-Era Aerosmith Guitar He Misses the Most
Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, known for his preference for Gibson guitars, recently revealed that the one guitar from his ’70s heyday he wishes he still had is a Fender Stratocaster. Specifically, Perry misses the Strat he used to record the iconic song Walk This Way.
In an interview featured in the latest issue of Total Guitar, Perry discussed the significance of this guitar. Despite being a “stone-cold Gibson man”, he often gravitated towards Strats for their variety of tones and the vibrato feature.
Two different guitar sounds
Perry explained, “I always felt like we should sound like one of us was playing a Fender Stratocaster and the other was playing a Gibson Les Paul. We liked the idea of having two different guitar sounds.”
Perry’s Les Paul of choice during that era was a ’59 Burst, but it is the ’50s Strat that holds a special place in his heart. He recorded a significant portion of Aerosmith’s ’70s material with Strats, including the second solo on Walk This Way, where he used the Strat’s neck pickup and a ’70s Maestro FZ-1S Fuzz-Tone to achieve a distinctive sound.
Significantly reduced
Perry’s collection was significantly reduced when he left Aerosmith in 1979, a decision driven by internal band conflicts and his feeling of unpreparedness for the new decade. Reflecting on that time, Perry said, “I took most of my Aerosmith guitars, put them in road boxes, and left them there.” Among these guitars was the cherished Strat, which he never recovered.
