John Cipollina

about

John Cipollina (August 24, 1943 - May 29, 1989) was a guitarist best known for his role as a founder and the lead guitarist of the San Francisco rock band Quicksilver Messenger Service. Born in Berkeley, California, he attended Tamalpais High School, in Mill Valley, California (as did his brother, Mario Cipollina). He showed great promise as a classical pianist in his youth, but soon switched to the guitar as his primary instrument. Cipollina had a unique guitar sound, mixing solid state and valve amplifiers as early as 1965. He is considered one of the fathers of the San Francisco psychedelic rock sound. "I like the rapid punch of solid-state for the bottom, and the rodent-gnawing distortion of the tubes on top." To create his distinctive guitar sound, Cipollina developed this one of a kind amplifier stack. All of his guitars were wired with two pickups, one for bass and one for treble. The bass pickup fed into the two Standel bass amps on the bottom of the stack. Each Standel was equipped with two 15-inch speakers. The treble pickups fed the two Fender amps: 1 Fender Twin Reverb with two 12-inch speakers and 1 Fender Dual Showman that drove the six Wurlitzer horns. His style was highly melodic and expressive. Cipollina's classical past no doubt influenced his guitar style, which was miles beyond the usual blues-scale, pentatonic work of many of the other psychedelic-era guitarists. His work on fellow dueling guitarist Gary Duncan's electric arrangement/adaption of Dave

top songs

albums

Raven

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Monkey Medicine

Live at Rockpalast (Live Dortmund 1980)

Rockpalast: West Coast Legends Vol. 1

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1986-08-20 - Club 10

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Raven (1976)

Live In San Francisco: Brigelow 6500

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1989-01-20 - Full Moon Saloon

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Best Rock Hits (Bootleg)

Live At Longbranch Saloon (February 1, 1974)

Live at Rockpalast

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Pacific High Recording Studios, Sausalito, CA, January 23, 1972 (Remastered) [Live KSAN FM Radio Broadcasting]

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