John Cipollina
| John Cipollina | |
|---|---|
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | John Holland Mallet III |
| Born |
August 24, 1943 Berkeley, California, United States |
| Died | May 29, 1989 (aged 45) San Francisco, California, United States |
| Genres | Rock, psychedelic rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instruments |
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| Years active | 1964–1989 |
| Labels | Capitol, Line Records, Music Box Records |
| Associated acts | Quicksilver Messenger Service, Copperhead, Gary Phillips, The Dinosaurs, Man |
| Website | JohnCipollina.com |
| Notable instruments | |
| Gibson SG | |
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 prominent San Francisco rock band Quicksilver Messenger Service. After leaving Quicksilver he formed the band Copperhead, was a member of the San Francisco All Stars and later played with numerous other bands.
Born in Berkeley, California, in 1943, John Cipollina attended Tamalpais High School, in Mill Valley, California (as did his brother, Mario Cipollina, born 1954). His mother Evelyn, and godfather José Iturbi, were concert pianists and John showed great promise as a classical pianist in his youth, but his father gave him a guitar when he was 12 and this quickly became 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 a one-of-a-kind amplifier stack. His Gibson SG guitars had two pickups, one for bass and one for treble. The bass pickup fed into two Standel bass amps on the bottom of the stack, each equipped with two 15-inch speakers. The treble pickups fed two Fender amps: a Fender Twin Reverb and a Fender Dual Showman that drove six Wurlitzer horns.
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