Keith Richards Explains Why He Rarely Uses Guitar Pedals And Loves to Play Bass

Keith Richards: 'I love to play bass, I play it in Sympathy for the Devil too'

Keith Richards recently explained  why he rarely uses guitar pedals in his songs.

While many musicians use guitar pedals to add special effects to their songs, Richards chose to create his sound without them throughout most of his career. Shared initially to YouTube in 2017 as part of his Ask Keith Richards series, the musician revealed that he prefers to create a more authentic sound and doesn’t have a sufficient number of feet to deal with pedals on stage.

“I aim to get the sound that I want coming straight out of my amplifier,” Richards began. “I’m aware … that I was the bugger that started the foot pedal with ‘Satisfaction,’ to me, that was a one-off effect.”

#AskKeith: Why do you hardly ever use guitar pedals?
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— Keith Richards (@officialKeef) October 30, 2022

“I’m not gonna go around on stage doing tip-toes on different machines. I expect my sound to be coming out of my amp, and I don’t want to change it once it’s there. I’m not fancy.”

“In other words, I came back to the Stones with a lot more knowledge of what Mick’s job entails. And it’s quite surprisingly different, you’re out there all the time. I mean, you are nonstop. With the Stones, I can slide my time. But doing the [X-Pensive] Winos, while I was working the Winos singing and playing guitar too, that tightened me up a lot. And I brought a lot of knowledge and a much tighter feel when I got back to the Stones. One thing could have fed the other.”

For me it was really a way to send Mick to hell, even though it obviously wasn't the main theme of the record. First of all because I was offended by the idea of ​​being forced to make solo records, it had never been in my plans. In hindsight, I realized that the Rolling Stones were in a bubble and the time had come when we should have taken flight, one way or another. That record was my way of doing it and I really enjoyed it. (sources: Billboard - Metaltalk)