What is the most iconic guitar of all time? Not just the greatest guitar "player," the greatest guitar period. Now, we're not just showing off brand loyalties or anything of the such, we're looking for personality embodied in the instrument itself. These instruments have become synonymous with their player, or with a song, or maybe even a sound or period of rock history. More often than not, these guitars have a pet name, a special place next to their masters, and have been modified and customized to the point they're unrecognizable to their original manufacturer. They've been broken, painted, written upon, written about, envied, copied, and more than anything become part of who the guitarist is as a musician. They provide that perfect tone, that twang, that instantly recognizable growl that separates the original from all impostors. Some guitarists have parted ways with their axes, much like a spouse or loved one. Some guitars have parted ways with their masters due to tragedy and untimely death, but remain in posterity as a memorial of what the two achieved together. Below is a list I came up with on my own what I consider to be the most iconic guitars of all time. Again, these are just the guitars that made rock & roll history...not the greatest guitarists (although one can make a direct correlation in some circumstances). For instance two iconic players that did not make the list (Jimi Hendrix & Pete Townshend) rarely kept a guitar around long enough to develop that kind of relationship. What I'm looking for is an inseparable partnership that developed rock & roll into what we know today. Take a gander, give me your comments, a take a minute to vote for your favorite. Hope you enjoy...these are by no means ranked in any order!
1. The Gibson Les Paul. Developed by Gibson & the late Les Paul as the answer to the Fender Telecaster in 1951. Preferably plugged into a stack of Marshall amplifiers, this guitar has gone on to be the weapon of choice of greats such as Jimmy Page, Billy Gibbons (Pearly Gates), and Slash. Instantly recognizable, the Les Paul has evolved from its original prototype as "The Log" into a work of beauty and class. However, there was only one "Les Paul," which he played until the day he died.
2. Bruce Springsteen's Fender Telecaster Esquire. What a beating this guitar has taken over the past 30-plus years! Present for every performance the Boss has made with the E-Street band, and a cover shot on the Born to Run album, this guitar has become synonymous with "The Boss."
3. Eric Clapton's Fender Stratocaster, "Blackie." In the late '60s, Eric Clapton personally combined the best elements of three vintage Stratocaster guitars to create the original Blackie. Clapton's albums 461 Ocean Boulevard, Slowhand, No Reason to Cry, and Just One Night, among others, were all recorded with this mistress. Clapton auctioned the original in 2004 to fund his Crossroads Center in Antigua for $959,000.
4. The Gibson EDS-1275 Double Neck. I'm combining this particular model into one entry, because the same model was played by two different guitarist on two of the most iconic guitar-rock epics of all-time: Jimmy Page on "Stairway To Heaven" and Don Felder on "Hotel California." You can't envision either song being played live unless it's on the EDS-1275, plain and simple.
5. Joe Strummer's Fender Telecaster. A 1966 model originally in a sunburst orange finish, Strummer acquired the guitar in 1975 shortly before joining The Clash. He painted it with gray auto primer and black paint, adorned it with a stencil of the word "NOISE" and multiple stickers over the years including the famous "Ignore Alien Orders." What gave it the most personality, however, was the way the crude finish Strummer applied wore off over time and the sunburst began to reappear. By the time of Strummer's death in 2002 his Telecaster looked less like a rag-tag musical instrument and more like an auto-biographical art piece. I just fell in love with this guitar on my last visit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; it was completely mesmerizing to try and peek through the layers of time.
6. B.B. King's signature Gibson, "Lucille." A variation of the ES-355, Gibson launched King's signature model in 1982. According to Kings's biography, in the winter of 1949, King played at a dance hall in Twist, Arkansas. In order to heat the hall, a barrel half-filled with kerosene was lit, a fairly common practice at the time. During a performance, two men began to fight, knocking over the burning barrel and sending burning fuel across the floor. The hall burst into flames, which triggered an evacuation. Once outside, King realized that he had left his guitar inside the burning building. He entered the blaze to retrieve his beloved $30 guitar, a Gibson acoustic. Two people died in the fire. The next day, King learned that the two men were fighting over a woman named Lucille. King named that first guitar Lucille, as well as every one he owned since that near-fatal experience, as a reminder never again to do something as stupid as run into a burning building or fight over women.
7. Stevie Ray Vaughan's customized Fender Stratocaster, "Number One." A 1963 model with a 1962 neck, also known as "The First Wife," she sure did take her fair share of abuse. Stevie would kick it, pound it, bounce it, ride it like surfboard, swing it around by the tremolo...then turn around and pour all his love into it. He replaced the tremolo, using a left-handed one and turning it upside down to be like Hendrix. He replaced the pickups with those from a bass. the neck was damaged so many times it would eventually not take new frets. But, oh my Lord would it still scream for Stevie Ray! Number One has been in the possession of Stevie's brother Jimmie since his death in 1990.
8. The Rickenbacker 360/12 Twelve String. Once again, I cannot pin this guitar to just one player, so rich is the history. Developed in 1963, George Harrison obtained one of the original prototypes on the Beatles' first visit to the U.S. in 1964. Many of the Fab 4's early, biggest hits were written & performed on the 360/12, and was brought out of retirement for Harrison's comeback album Cloud Nine in 1987. Other players of the Rickenbacker 360/12 would soon favor the modified 370/12 (which had three pickups instead of the 360/12's two) - most notably The Byrd's Roger McGuinn and his disciples Tom Petty & fellow Heartbreaker Mike Campbell, who undoubtedly favored the new, "jangly" sound that would sweep the charts. The Rickenbacker twelve string will always be Harrison's equipment first and foremost though, given he used it from day one.
9. Eddie Van Halen's custom Charvel, "Frankenstrat." An amalgamation of pieces & parts picked up from Wayne Charvel and with a wicked paint job to match, The Frankenstrat truly embodies its nickname. Most notably, Van Halen installed a humbucker in the bridge position, giving it the "Fat Strat" configuration. Not many guitarists have a patent on a guitar's paint scheme, but EVH does and took the Krylon-crafted Frankenstrat design with him to Kramer who began to make guitars for Eddie in 1983.
10. The Jackson Rhoads V. Also known as the Concorde, this guitar is complicated to say the least. It is unabashedly a copy of Gibson's Flying V, which by the time Randy Rhoads had commissioned his version from Charvel was the standard in heavy metal guitars. To further muck up the situation, Charvel president Grover Jackson decided to put his name on the neck as a kiss-off to Charvel founder Wayne Charvel, who had left the company he founded in disgust in 1978. Rhodes made a few design variations, most notably the visual polka-dot design which Rhoads would become identified by once he began playing for Ozzy Osbourne. Randy lived to see 2 models come to fruition, but was unable to provide feedback on a third which was being developed at the time of his death in 1982.
pretty cool.
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