"Henry at Manny's introduced me to a guitar which had just come out. I don't know what you call them; it was a thin crimson-coloured guitar..."
"Right. They just brought out a new model and this was in 1968 and it had a slightly larger wound pickup and it really suited my amplifiers. I started to use those and they were a bit weak, which was the only problem; I could actually break them with my bare hands." ~Pete; 1980 Sound Internation article
Be that as it may, anything will break when it's smashed, and Pete being as he is, smashed they were. The maluable wood in the neck lightened the guitar, which gave the SG more of an appeal to Pete than the Les Paul guitars had. The SG was soon modified to Pete's specifics.The most noticable modification being the removal of the Vibrola vibrato tailpiece... a completly reversable operation. The specialized guitar was then reintroduced as the Pete Townshend SG Special. Pete's endorsment of the Special led to what few guitars were produced to fly out of the stores.
The Pete Townshend SG Special...
...if ever there was an electric guitar for an electric guitarist, this would be it.
And indeed it was. The SG is most memorable for the Live at Leeds and the Live at the Isle of Wight concerts. It even got special treatment since not many of the SGs were produced.
"I don't break them deliberately any more, but when I spin them around, when I've had a few drinks, I bang them and they crack and they break. They're made out of really light wood, it's a light guitar." ~ Pete; 1972 Guitar Player interview
"I played it and it rang, it sang to me..."
Personally, I think the white one should have been an exception....