May Birthdays 
This is a bit off the Surf Topic - but I was reading an old GP interview with Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd from 1993 and just got floored by the list of Vintage Amps in Rickard Lloyd's gear locker.
And next to DD Verlaine's gotta be using some of the heaviest guage string out there on his JM:
Here's a clip form the article - enjoy! - JC
CABLE ACCESS: TELEVISION'S GEAR
Richard Lloyd still plays the same '61 Stratocaster with jumbo frets that he played on Marquee Moon and Adventure, although he takes a '62 reissue Strat and Tele on the road. On the new album's "Rhyme", he played a rare black f-hole Gretsch. Lloyd tends a stable of vintage Fender amps, including a '50 Deluxe, a '52 Pro, a '55 Tremolux, and a '56 Princeton. He also uses a '59 Ampeg Jet, a Vibraverb reissue, and a '65 Supro. Live, he relies on Vox AC30s: "You can change the current wherever you are without a transformer, so they're good the world over, and they have a nice high-end bite." Save for a few dinosaur pedals, Lloyd avoids effects, citing the dangers of "processors that make your guitar sound like Velveeta." And though he's a diehard fan of amp distortion, he admits, "I'm always fighting to get a combination that won't really distort the tonality of the guitar, but will just give you the edge you're looking for."
Tom Verlaine cracks up when I pop the gear question: "I'm gonna make up really great lies for you," he howls. "Fuzztones and Marshalls!" Actually, Tom is a longtime Fender Jazzmaster player: "They're really problematic tuning-wise, but they were the cheapest guitars in the '70s, so I'm used to them." Stray cats include a Stratocaster, a Harmony 12-string, a Vox with built-in fuzz, vibrator and tuner, a "Kay thing", an Al Caiola Epiphone, and a Monkees Gretsch.
In concert, Verlaine plays through either Fender Super Reverbs (also used on Marquee Moon) or Vox AC30s, but for Television he went with a Valvotronics tube amp made by the group's amp technician Robert Darby, although Super Reverbs, an Ampeg Jet, and a Silvertone amp all made their way into the mix. For effects, he brought his usual "trunkload of total garbage stuff", which includes Echoplexes used as preamps, "just to goose it up." Verlaine's full-bodied tone starts with the strings: What began as a way to keep his Jazzmaster in tune has become a wide propositionâ.015s or .014s on the top to .054s down low.
