There’s a Genesis-fest happening over at itsbedtime, but the man behind the bass, guitars, and backup vocals has been woefully neglected. Here’s a look at Rutherford’s technical brilliance:
He also developed the idea behind the M-Series Steinberger guitar with the help of English luthier Roger Giffin and he used this extensively in the ’80s and during The Invisible Touch Tour with Genesis. In the earlier years of Genesis he used to play bass pedal synthesizers, e.g. the famous Moog Taurus.
A custom Shergold double neck was made that had modules for 4, 6 and 12 strings guitars. Rutherford would use different tunings on each song, so in Genesis early years there was a lot of tuning going on in between songs, which in turn allowed the development of Peter Gabriel’s now famous stories and introductions. Today with Genesis Rutherford continues to use double-neck instruments, when the arrangements demand quick switches between bass and 12-string instruments.
He has a custom-built double-necked guitar where each individual neck can be removed and played as its own separate guitar. So badass.
