What piece of gear did you pick up because "so and so" uses it?

I don't think I'd ever buy a piece of gear simply because one of my favorite musicians used it.

It has to sounds good and serve a purpose for me to buy it.

 

Dickey is definitely the amazing composer in the ABB, but I love them both as players. However, I love Duane's regular solos more than his slide. The same is true of Derek. I like to hear him playing with fingers more than slide.
I saw them several times when they reformed the band with Warren. Dickey and Warren were an incredibly formidable combination too

 

Stratocaster, because I worship Hendrix and I play lefty.... First guitar is my '79....

Eventually sold some motorcycle parts that were near and dear to me and bought a '68 RI Strat, because of Woodstock, I love that guitar.

I love CBS Strats, and pre CBS too....

 

....and I bought a Red, left handed Les Paul because of Elliot Easton, love that pickup switch/kill switch thing...

 

Way early on, a strat because of Dick Dale.

Just recently a Big Muff because of Jack White. (Actually, I bought a $29 Mosky rip-off version called the Mini Muff)

 

For me, my first real real experience with with the Allman Brothers Band was Brothers and Sisters. I was maybe 9-10 years old at the time. My dad had 1/4" reel to reel, and I wanted to play around with recording on it. So, he gave me a tape he thought was blank. I was playing around with it, and I could he this weird sound in the background after recording and playing it back. I didn't know it immediately, but it was bleed through from the other tracks on the tape. It was a four track, so when I enabled the other tracks, I suddenly had this odd bluesy music playing in reverse. I flipped the tape over, and there it was. I had no idea what it was, but it spoke to me like nothing else I'd ever heard.

 

Not current, but I did put a Joe Barden bridge pickup in my first tele because Bill Kirchen and Danny Gatton used them.

 

Cool video, thanks. Loved the cars back in HS. Still have all their vinyl albums. But I never saw such an early video. Beginning to find a new appreciation for Elliot Easton.

 

I feel this. I love the Ovation Breadwinner/Deacon, but I was never into any of the artists that either shilled for them or played them (Steve Marriott, David Cassidy, Roy Clark), I just thought they looked cool. I bought a used '83 Fender Bullet because it was all I could afford. I bought maybe 5-10 crappy solid-state amps over the years because it was all I could afford. A couple of them I even got for free from friends. I built an op-amp Big Muff because a friend of mine had one and let me borrow it to copy the circuit, and that was years before I heard Billy Corgan liked them.

If I had the money and bought gear because of artists I admired, I'd have a Mesa Boogie Mark IIc+, Marshall JCM800, a white Explorer, a white Strat, a black SG, and a Tube Screamer and Crybaby Wah. I don't have any of that now. Actually, I do have a white Strat, but it's a Squier with the larger CBS-style headstock that I bought in pieces in a box at Goodwill for $2.99; nope, that's NOT a typo, and really it's the only reason I have it.

The last thing I want is to be caught saying is "I bought this guitar/amp/effect hoping I would look and sound like (name of player here)." Ugh. No. Slap me if I ever say that... Hard.

 

When I was first starting out on electric, I wanted a single cut semihollow because I was a fan of Richard Thompson and the cover of the Fairport Convention greatest hits album showed a guy holding an ES-275. Turns out that was the other guitar player in the band. (I couldn’t afford an ES-275, so I had bought an Ibanez AS75.)

Then a few years ago I saw a YouTube video of Fairport Convention from way back and Thompson was playing the ES-275! Maybe the other guy borrowed it for the photo shoot? Not sure.

 

Oh, also I bought a small-bodied archtop because of David Rawlings. Again, couldn’t afford a vintage Epiphone Olympic, so I ended up with a Framus 5/51 Studio. Cool guitar, still have it.

 

Just about every specialty pick I bought for a long time was a signature pick of someone famous. LOL.

I once owned a SRV signature strat because SRV.

 

And I still don’t sound like Vai or Satch, worse luck

 

tweed deluxe - neil young

ram's head big muff - j mascis

 

Stratocasters because of Ritchie Blackmore.
Telecasters because of Francis Rossi & the late Rick Parfitt.
Barden Pickups because of Danny Gatton.
A Roland Cube amp because of Ed Bickert.
A Fender Princeton Reverb because of Jim Campilongo.
Fred Kelly Slick Pick because of Scotty Anderson.
A Phaser pedal because of Ol' Waylon.

 

Now that I think about it, quite a bit of my gear has been, at least in part, because of someone I admired used it.

• Rickenbacker 360/12 - The Beatles, The Who, Tom Petty, Carl Wilson, etc
• Gretsch Projet - The Beatles ( I know it's the wrong model, but it's still a Gretsch)
• Rickenbacker 4003 - The Beatles, God-knows who else
• Rickenbacker 620 - Tom Petty
• Gibson SG Classic (with P90's) - Pete Townshend
• Vox Amps - The Beatles (seeing a trend here yet)

There is one piece of gear that I bought specifically because of one song, and that was an Adrenalinn III. ""Bigger Than My Body" by John Mayer is a preset, which is initially why I got it. However, the amp models are incredible, and it has a spot on version of a Hiwatt DR103, which made everything I play sound like "Live at Leeds".

Just about the only major piece of gear that I bought that was not influenced at all by who else has played one is my G&L Bluesboy.

 

Fuzz Face, because Jimi Hendrix and Eric Johnson.

 

kill switch - Buckethead

 

I have bought gear that I became aware of because players I like used it so I checked it out and decided it would work for me.

I've never just ran out and bought something because so-and-so used it.

 

My first guitar - a black Tele. Joe Strummer's fault