Short bio: Graham Leslie Coxon was born on March 12th 1969, in Rinteln, Germany. He was raised in England, first in Spondon, and later in Colchester, Essex, where he grew up to meet Damon Albarn, and eventually form “Blur” with him.
By the age of 12, Graham already learned how to play drums, flute, saxophone, and guitar. During the high-school and collage years, he started a couple of bands, including The Aftermath, Hazel Dean and The Carp Eaters From Hell, which were all short-lived. He recorded a demo tape with his latest band named “Seymour”, and sent it to a recording company. Food Records, the company in question, agreed to sign a contract with them – under one condition: They had to change their name. And so, the “Blur” was born.
Graham Coxon’s Electric Guitars:
1952 Fender Telecaster
One of his best known and most used guitars from the Blur era. This Tele is the reissue model of the original 1952 Telecaster,with maple neck, cream finish, and two single coil pickups.
1968 Fender Telecaster
Graham’s second Telecaster, which he started using more frequently in the late 90s, is also a cream colored ash body model. This one was made in 1969 (Graham referred it as a 69 in one of the interviews, but wasn’t quite sure. Other sources claim it to be a 68 model), and features a rosewood neck, single-coil pickup in the bridge position, and a Gibson PAF humbucker in the neck position.
1972 Fender Telecaster Deluxe
Used for the Blur reunion tour in 2009, and the following years.
Fender Telecaster
Used on “Happiness In Magazines” album and the following tour.
Fender Telecaster “Graham Coxon” Signature Model
Couple of years back Fender released GC signature model, and Graham often uses it live himself
The guitar is based on his 1969 Telecater, with only visual difference being the tortoise pickguard. It also features a different set of pickups than the original, with Seymour Duncan SH-1 humbucker in the neck, and Vintage-Style Single-Coil Tele pickup in the bridge position. The C shaped rosewood has a 9.5″, and medium jumbo frets.
Fender Musicmaster
The guitar used in “Beetlebum” and “Coffee and TV” music videos.
Graham’s Musicmaster is a 24″ scale model, with a few mods done to it. They include a humbucker added just behind the neck pickup and 3-way and selector switch.
1962 Gibson Les Paul SG
Graham’s SG features two P-90 pickups, and a fixed bridge, which replaced the original tremolo system judging from the remaining holes on the body.
He played it on “Freakin’ Out” and “I Can’t Look At Your Skin”.
Gibson Les Paul Custom Reissue
This is one of his earlier acquired Les Paul. He recorded with it on Blur’s first album, and used it live quite often.
Gibson Les Paul Custom Tobacco Sunburst
Seen live at Glastonbury in 2009. Graham used it for the song “There Is No Other Way”.
Judging from the pictures from the Blur days, this guitar had a black pickguard, but it has been recently removed.
1950s Gibson Les Paul Goldtop
Also seen during the concert in Glastonbury in 2009, on songs “Jubilee” and “Sunday, Sunday”.
This guitar features two P-90 single-coils, white pickguard, and trapeze-style bridge and tailpiece.
Gibson ES-335
Standard model with cherry sunburst finish. Graham played it on “No Distance Left to Run” and “This Is a Low”.
1967 Fender Jaguar
Seen in the music video for “Bang”, and during the Parklife tour.
Rickenbacker 330
Graham said that he does not use this guitar very often, but he had used it for a few recording sessions.
Burns London Sonic
Seen in the “You And I” music video.
Graham Coxon’s Acoustic Guitars:
Ralph Bown OM
This is a custom made guitar by Ralph Bown, and it has been Graham’s main acoustic for some time now, for both live and studio work (next to the other two OM models listed bellow)
It features a slight V shaped neck profile, and L.R. Baggs M1 soundhole pickup.
Atkin OM
Made Alister Atkin of Atkin guitars. Features the same pickup as Bown.
Fyldes OM
Custom made by Roger Bucknall. Features very similar design to the Bown, V shaped neck profile, and M1 soundhole pickup.
Martin OM-28V
Graham was seen playing it a a couple of times, and it was the first picking guitar he ever bought.
Gibson J-160E
Graham played “Parklife” and “Jubilee” on it at MTV Most Wanted in 1994
Graham Coxon’s Guitar Amps:
Marshall 1959 SLP
This is/was Graham’s main amp with Blur. He usually has two of them on stage, each one connected to the Marshall PB100 Power Brake.
The heads are connected to Marshall 1969 4×12 cabinets
He had also used a variety of different combo amps, primarily on his solo work, including a Marshall 1962 Bluesbraker and Orange rocker 30, which were seen on-stage during the 2009 tour.
Graham Coxon’s Guitar Effects:
Graham is quite a “effect junkie”, and it’s almost impossible to track all the effects without the direct help from Graham himself. Here’s our humble take on it:
– DOD FX76 Punkifier Used on the studio recording of “Song 2”. He still has it, and uses it quite often.
– ProCo RAT II Distortion One of his most used pedals.
– Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Reverb – Electro-Harmonix HOG2 Octave – Shin-Ei FY-2 Companion Fuzz – Boss GE-7 Graphic Equalizer Used mainly for acoustic.
– Boss BF-2 Flanger – Boss TR-2 Tremolo – Boss CS-3 Compressor/Sustainer – Boss DM-2 Analog Delay – Boss DD-3 Digital Delay – Boss DS-1 Distortion – Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor – Boss VB-2 Vibrato – Boss TR-2 Tremolo – Boss PN-2 Tremolo/Pan – Boss RV-5 Digital Reverb – Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeller – Line 6 FM4 Filter Modeller – T-Rex Mudhoney Distortion – Akai E2 Headrush Delay/Looper
– Dunlop 0.73mm Picks (turned upside down, with fingers close to the round edge)
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Here’s some 2018 videos on other pedals he’s using. I would say that other than the Rat, it’s fine to use other pedals to approximate his sound, like he himself is doing here. The key factors really are his Tele and playing style (which itself is pretty hard to replicate). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ijyk89uOCI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYN_VIbLkKw&t=11s