Hillel Slovak's Guitars, Amps & Gear List

Hillel was seen playing this guitar in his early years, with his band Anthym, when he was around 18 years old. According to the Behind The Music VH1 2002 documentary, he received his first guitar at age 13 as a bar mitzvah present, but that was a completely different guitar (model and make unknown at this moment)

Hillel got the Musicraft Messenger guitar from Alain Johannes, who played alongside Slovak in early bands like Anthym and What Is This?

I had a Musicraft Messenger, which was kind of rare. Mark Farner [from Grand Funk Railroad] used to play one. It had an aluminum neck going all the way through the body. It was red, with a Bigsby on it, and I gave it to Hillel. That’s what he played in those early years, until he got his Strat.

Forgotten Heroes: Hillel Slovak

In most photos of Hillel Slovak available online, he is seen playing a sunburst Fender Stratocaster with a rosewood fretboard. The guitar features a large headstock and a black Fender logo with 2 patent numbers, indicating it was manufactured in the late 1960s, around 1968 to be more precise. This distinguishes it from the early-60s Strats favored by his successor in the Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Frusciante.

Although there is limited information regarding Hillel’s guitars, it is highly likely that he relied on one primary instrument, as photographic evidence shows a clear increase in wear on his Stratocaster over the years. He likely maintained backups as well.

Again, we’re just guessing, but it’s very likely that this 1968 Fender Stratocaster was Hillel’s main guitar on all the stuff he recorded with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, since it’s the one he used pretty much always for live gigs.

Hillel was seen using a Danelectro 3923 Doubleneck Guitar/Bass in the music video for the Red Hot Chili Peppers song “Blackeyed Blonde (Thrashin’)” (1986). It’s very likely that the guitar was only used as a prop for that occasion and that it didn’t even belong to Hillel, as it’s the only time he ever appeared with it.

Hillel was seen playing this Gibson Les Paul guitar in the Red Hot Chili Peppers music video for the song “Fight Like a Brave,” and in a few rare photos taken during live gigs. Unfortunately, not much is known about the guitar. Hillel obviously liked and used the guitar, since he had a bunch of stickers on it.

He had a giant RHCP logo sticker on it and a gold foil sticker between the pickups (if you know who it is on the sticker, please leave a comment below). In some photos, the guitar also had an oval “D” (meaning Deutschland) sticker below the pickups, which was a standard sticker German cars had to have when traveling to other countries in Europe.

According to Hillel’s brother James, he took the guitar after Hillel died, and had it for a while, until it was stolen from his house.

Hillel Slovak’s main amp was a 1974 Marshall Model 1986 50W bass head, which at the time, he played through a hand-painted 4×12 cabinet. The amp was modified to add a master volume.

Slovak’s amp was a Marshall Super Bass head. He ran that through a hand-painted, straight-front 4×12 cabinet. “It was very open-sounding and had this great clarity in the midrange,” Johannes says. The Strat plus the Marshall was the foundation of Slovak’s sound. “He knew. It was like one big instrument to him, the way that Marshall was.”

Forgotten Heroes: Hillel Slovak

After Hillel’s death, the amp remained with his brother James, who still owns it. Just recently, in 2026, the amp was serviced by Gabe Maske—an effort apparently organized by the JF Gear website. They published a full interview with James, where they talk a bit about what happened to Hillel’s gear.

The 1988 VPRO interview, which provides what is essentially the only publicly available look at Hillel’s pedalboard, shows a Boss CE-2 Chorus among his gear. This pedal was later cited in a 2015 Premier Guitar article, though it is probable that they were referencing the same VPRO interview as their primary source.

Slovak used a number of pedals, including a Univox Super-Fuzz, a Dunlop Cry Baby Wah, an MXR Distortion+, and a Boss CE-2 Chorus.

Forgotten Heroes: Hillel Slovak

Hillel used an MXR Distortion+ as his primary distortion pedal during his early career. At the start of the The Uplift Mofo Party Plan tour, the pedal was reportedly fried after a beer was spilled on it, prompting a switch to a Boss OD-1. Although this story requires verification, if true, it would mean that Hillel recorded both Freaky Styley (1985) and The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (1987) using the MXR.

Hillel was seen using this pedal during a short rig-rundown interview with VPRO filmed in 1988. Allegedly, he had switched to it after his MXR Distortion+ got damaged at the start of the Uplift tour.

Hillel was seen using this pedal in an interview filmed by VPRO in early 1988. It is a discontinued model with a notable design quirk: it operates exclusively on battery power and lacks a power adapter input altogether.

A gnarly box I have is the Super-Fuzz, that I got from a friend. This has very- (starts playing very heavily distorted, fuzz sounds on his guitar to demonstrate).

Hillel Slovak for VPRO

Hillel’s primary wah-wah was a Dunlop GCB-95 Cry Baby. This is confirmed by an early 1988 rig-rundown interview with VPRO, during which he showcased the pedals on his pedalboard.

According to a 2015 Premier Guitar article, Hillel used gray 1.00 mm Dunlop picks. However, in most of the photos of Hillel available online where he can be seen using a pick, it’s practically always an orange pick – which would most likely be a Dunlop Orange Tortex 0.60 mm, the same pick John Frusciante uses.

Slovak used a number of pedals, including a Univox Super-Fuzz, a Dunlop Cry Baby Wah, an MXR Distortion+, and a Boss CE-2 Chorus. He usually strung his guitars with .010 sets and used gray 1.00 mm Dunlop picks

Forgotten Heroes: Hillel Slovak

Since we don’t know the source that Premier Guitar used in their article, we’ll leave the option of that being true open. But again, photos clearly show Hillel using Dunlop Tortex 0.60 mm orange guitar picks.