Summary of Gary’s Equipment
Gary is best known for using Gibson Les Paul guitars. A guitar most often associated with him is the 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard. Now a famous guitar, once owned by Peter Green of the Fleetwood Mac, and now in the possession of Metallica’s Kirk Hammett. Another one worth singling out is the Les Paul Standard nicknamed “Stripe”. This guitar he used on his most popular track, Still Got the Blues.
Aside from the Les Pauls, one of Gary’s main axes was his trusty 1961 Fender Stratocaster finished in fiesta red. He used this one in 2005 at the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster guitar concert.
About amps, Gary is pretty much a Marshall guy. He used various models, from the 1959 Super Leads to Model 2204s, Marshall JTM45 Reissues, and Marshall 1959 HWs. Between, he’d use a VOX AC30 (Colosseum II era), various Fender combos, and Soldanos.
As far as the effects, depending on the era, you’ll find that Gary used different types of pedals. Few worth pointing out are the Marshall Guv’nor that he used on SGTB and Ibanez Tube Screamer (TS-9 and TS-10) which he used throughout his career. Gary is also known for using rack effects units. He used a Roland SRE-555 Chorus Echo for tape echo in the 90s, and the Roland SDE-3000 Digital Delay.
As his main choice of strings, Gary usually went for Dean Markley’s either a .010-.052, or a .009-.048 set. For picks, his early choice at least was to go for extra heavy thickness celluloid picks. Closest to those sold today are the Dunlop 483P05XH Genuine Celluloid Extra Heavy picks.