Question: What guitar is Keith Richards holding in this pic?

[Jbird]

24-fret maple fretboard, looks like Bill Lawrence pickups, nice birdseye maple top (or full body?)

Just curious, Keith always struck me as a Fender player

 

[jp_nyc]

I saw the title of this post and was hoping that Keef would be holding a dildo or a bong made out of an apple or something.

 

[Knox in Box]

An ugly one.

 

[Highernoon]

My guess is a prototype or a custom made guitar.
It has a heavy Carvin vibe.

 

[Peen Simmons]

24-fret maple fretboard, looks like Bill Lawrence pickups, nice birdseye maple top (or full body?)

Just curious, Keith always struck me as a Fender player

As to Keith being a Fender player, he came along to the iconic Keith + Tele (specifically Micawber) later on. He, like a lot of the Brit Invasion guys, played hollow and semi-hollow guitars early on with a couple Kays and Casinos and the like being in the mix. And then he moved on to Les Pauls (the famous Keithburst which eventually passed down to Mick Taylor and his black Custom).

Then he had the Dan Armstrong plexiglass guitar that he used on stage during the late 60s/early 70s which is when he also started playing teles and messing with open tunings and working LP Jrs into the mix. He also plays
ES335s often enough.

The Stones gear isn’t as exhaustively documented as the Beatles, but there’s a lot out there and Keith as a “Fender guy” is not entirely true.

 

[Chicken Man]

I'd guess that's another Dan Armstrong. I think Keith played a few of his guitars, and that's got the same vibe as the plexi.

 

[Chad]

Kieth played everything. He played a ton of Gibson ES guitars.

 

[miguel]

An Alembic?

 

[VoidTerraFirma]

A big-ass coke spoon.

 

[Pine Apple Slim]

Definitely has a Carvin vibe.

 

[tiger roach]

I vote custom Carvin.

 

[Motorik]

I vote custom Carvin.

I concur.

 

[PunkKitty]

My only issue with the Carvin idea is that Carvin would have insisted on having their name on the headstock. Also, the headstock cut isn't even close. It is a custom something, but who knows? It's Keith Fuqin' Richards. He can have anything he wants built.

 

[Flamencology]

I feel like I researched this one 15 years or so ago, and learned that it was a Yamaha.

But I might be wrong.

 

[Wyatt]

It's not a Carvin.

It was from a GUitar World cover shoot...1983. Here's a different guitar with the similar headstock and layout. Caption just says wedding present guitar (he was also married in '83 on his 40th birthday).

I'm guessing he didn't dig them, because there are no shots of him playing anything like it.

 

[cvogue]

An Alembic?

That's what I was thinking...

 

[Tiltsta]

Both the LP shape and the Carvin looking shaped birdseye maple guitars were made by Doug Young of Doby guitars.

The pic of Keith holding the Birdseye one was a cover of Guitar Player magazine in 1983. The magazine has an accompanying article from Doug Young on making the guitars for Keith. The interview with Richards never mentioned the brand of guitars. There is a pic of him playing it and a one liner from Ron Wood.

You can see the articles here...about 1/3 of the way down the ancient web page.

EDIT: NOW LINKED HERE FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE

http://culpadirect.blogspot.com/2006/04/

 

[Tiltsta]

 

[shoeless]

An Alembic?

That's what I was thinking...

My first guess as well.