Dave Grohl's Guitars, Amps & Gear List

This is the acoustic guitar that Dave uses most often in recent years. He started using it around 2005 (see video at the bottom) and continues using it to this day. He owns more than just one of these guitars, but it is unknown whether he has a favorite among them.

The Gibson Elvis Presley Dove is a model based on Elvis Presley’s 1969 Gibson Dove acoustic guitar that he used in the early 70s. The guitar was a gift from his father, Vernon Presley. In 1975, Elvis famously handed the guitar mid-performance to an astonished audience member at a concert in Asheville, North Carolina.

Dave’s guitar is definitely not from the most recent version of the model, since it doesn’t have the Pearloid inlays in the bridge “wings”. This detail seems to be something Gibson added only in the most recent version of the guitar introduced in 2022.

Dave used this guitar during the set that the band did for Howard Stern Show in May 2000.

Based on the appearances, this is a 410 model from Taylor. This is based on the rosette, which appears to have three rings, with the middle one being bright white. Also, the binding around the fretboard seems to be typical to this model, particularly to the guitar made in the late 90s.

Dave used this guitar most famously to play a cover of Elton John’s Tiny Dancer on February 16, 2001, on The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn.

Based on the appearances, this was a Martin D-18 model, since it doesn’t appear to have white binding around the side edges.

It’s however unknown whether this was actually Dave’s guitar, or whether it was provided to him by the TV staff.

Dave was seen playing this guitar on a number of occasions in the early 2000s, most notably at the Bridge Benefit Concerts, and at the AT&T Acoustic Series gig.

The 814-CE is among Taylor’s top-of-the-line models. Dave’s guitar was made likely in the late 90s or 2000, and it differs a little when compared to the modern version. The newer models have different inlays, they often come with a small arm rest against the top edge.

The wood choice however remained the same. The 814-CE features a rosewood neck with an Ebony fretboard. The sides and the back of the body are mahogany, while the top is spruce.

Apparently, this was one of the amps that were heavily utilized on the Foo Fighters’ second album The Colour and the Shape (1997). This information can be deducted from Dave’s quote below – in which he talked about the amps used on the band’s third album.

We also used a MESA/Boogie Maverick–it’s a little head. But we tried to stay away from the MESA/Boogie Dual or Triple Rectifier sound because we did that on the last record a lot.

Rockin’ Grohl Hoochie Foo – Guitar One 1999

This of course means that some of the band’s biggest hits including Everlong, My Hero, and Monkey Wrench were all recorded on Mesa/Boogie Dual/Triple Rectifier amps – or at least the parts of the dongs that are heavy/distorted. The clean parts were likely done on a Vox AC30.

This has been Dave’s main amp for many years, starting from the early days of Foo Fighters. Most often, he used it for the clean sounds, while using Mesa Boogies or other amps for the dirty tones.

As a an example of specific use, the amp was featured extensively on the There Is Nothing Left to Lose (1999).

We focused on not using too many distortion pedals, and went for a cleaner, fatter, more natural overdrive. We used a Vox AC30 for pretty much everything on the record, tweaking the sound so that it broke up nicely when played loud.

Sometimes we’d double a track using an old Pro Co Rat, and then hard-pan the parts so that a super-distorted guitar was in the left channel and a grindy guitar was in the right. Then we’d sprinkle in lots of clean guitar overdubs.

Dave Grohl’s No Fuzz Zone, Guitar Player 1999

Dave apparently used these amps in his live setup after the release of Wasting Light in 2011, primarily for smaller venues.

There was a point, and this was again right after we’ve made Wasting Light (2011) and we were rehearsing getting ready to tour, and pretty much everybody had been playing Boogies for years. I remember the first rehearsals for Wasting Light, everybody showed up with an entirely different amp – Dave showed up with those Tone Masters, and Custom Audio amps.

Chris Shiflett Answers Questions Fans Submitted Through Facebook

This seems to be the amp that replaced most of Dave’s amps around the early 2000s and remains his main stage amp up until the 2010s.

In the earlier years, it sounds like Dave would use a Vox AC30 for clean sound, and a separate amp for dirty sound – usually a Mesa Boogie of some sort. At some point, his guitar tech decided to simplify things and replaced the whole setup with a couple of Mesa Boogie Road Kings. So, now they are used for both the clean and dirty sounds – at least when playing live.

I got rid of the extra amps. Before, when he [Grohl] wanted a cleaner sound, the A/B box would get a signal from the Vox AC30, which sounded great. When he wanted a dirty sound, he would go to the Mesa Boogie, and there was a Marshall that was in the mix every once in a while.

I got rid of that and I bought a three-channel amp at the time, and now we use four-channel amps, so I can get a wide range of tones and sounds. I like the Mesa Boogie Road Kings because 1) they sound good, and 2) they’re bullet-proof.

Joe Beebe: Dave Grohl’s Guitar Tech (link offline)

Dave used these amps in his live setup around the time of the release of Wasting Light in 2011.

There was a point, and this was again right after we’ve made Wasting Light (2011) and we were rehearsing getting ready to tour, and pretty much everybody had been playing Boogies for years. I remember the first rehearsals for Wasting Light, everybody showed up with an entirely different amp – Dave showed up with those Tone Masters, and Custom Audio amps.

Chris Shiflett Answers Questions Fans Submitted Through Facebook

This seems to be one of Dave’s main distortion pedals, although it’s hard to find information on the specific uses.

He did mention in an interview regarding the 1999 album There Is Nothing Left to Lose that he used a ProCo RAT a lot combined with a Vox AC30 amp on specific songs like Stacked Actors, but as said, these statements regarding specific uses are rare.

I actually tuned my low E string down to A, so it was flopping all over the place. That’s the Rat pedal through the Vox. [Engineer} Adam Kaspar recorded the last Soundgarden record, and he had worked with R.E.M., so he was good with those Vox and Maverick amps–I had never used them before. So we were all really into the Vox AC-30 with the Rat pedal because it sounded badass. It sounded warm and kind of fucked up, not like the razor-sharp distortion of a Rectifier. It was something a little fatter, a little warmer, and a little more believable.

Rockin’ Grohl Hoochie Foo – Guitar One 1999

Dave used a Dunlop Heil Talkbox on the song “Generator” from the Foo Fighter’s 1999 album There Is Nothing Left to Lose.

Most of the record was done with a Vox AC-30, with effects pedals like a Uni-Vibe or a Memory Man, or old BOSS delay pedals, Rat distortion pedals, Electro-Harmonix pedals, or Octave Fuzzes. I used a Talk Box on “Generator.”

Rockin’ Grohl Hoochie Foo – Guitar One 1999

Dave used this pedal on his most recent pedalboard, a photo of which was published on Reddit in 2021. There are also photos of his pedalboard dating to earlier years, all of which seem to feature this pedal.

It’s very hard to tell which version of the Boss Digital Delay this is, because the differences between let’s say a DD-3 and a DD-8 are very subtle, at least visually. But, based on the fact that the “A” and “B” labels don’t seem to be present next to the input/output marks, this is likely a DD-3.

As far as usage, obviously, one of the delays is dedicated to playing the song “Aurora” since it’s clearly labeled for that purpose. The other pedal could is probably the “all purpose” delay, and is used as needed.

This is one of the few pedals that were actually photographed on Dave’s pedalboard at one point, aside from the Boss TU tuner and a delay pedal. However, it’s hard to tell whether he actually ever uses it, aside from on the song “Breakout”.

If you happen to come across any interview where Dave talks about this pedal, or you have any knowledge of when he used it, please be sure to leave a comment below

This pedal was seen on Dave’s pedalboard in 2021. The pedal is basically a replica of the legendary EP-3 echo which many of the old-school guitarists used as a pre-amp. It basically just gives a little bit of volume boost to the signal.

Dave mentioned using this effect on Foo Fighter’s 1999 album There’s Nothing Left to Lose.

The main riff [on Headwires] is an Explorer playing through the Memory Man and the Vox, and the harmonics were done with the same setup. The choruses are the Duo Jet running through a Rat and the Vox. The high, picking part in the middle eight is an SG through the Memory Man.

Dave Grohl’s No Fuzz Zone – Guitar Player 1999

According to Dave’s guitar tech, Joe Beebe, Dave uses the D’Addario EXL115 strings on his electric guitars, with some modifications. Joe puts heavier strings on the top for Dave, with .42 for the A-string and .60 for the E, compared to .038 and .049 respectively on the original EXL115 set.

I use D’Addario EXL 115s, but I throw the bottom two strings away and I replace them with a .42 for the A-string and a .60 for the E-string.

He is such a hard player; he’s a chainsaw live! He was breaking strings a lot, so I had to beef up the gauges a bunch and I also have to raise the action on him, otherwise he’s hitting the strings so hard all it would do is buzz all day long!

Joe Beebe – Performing-Musician.com (page is offline now)

This is the pick that Dave used in the early days, during the 90s. In the later years, Dunlop started making custom picks with the Foo Fighters logo printed on them, but they were essentially the same.

The Gator Grip pick is a special type of pick developed by Dunlop, with the goal to increase the grip when compared to regular smooth picks. They achieved this by using a rough matte surface, which Dave apparently loves.

It’s worth noting that on some footage, the picks appear to have a different, darker purple color. But, it seems that this is just Dunlop not sticking to one particular color, as you can find .71mms in various shades of purple it seems.