The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead

Johnny Marr talks about his 1962 Epiphone Coronet on this page of his website. He says, "This is a 1962 Epiphone Coronet. Shortly after I got it I put it in “Nashville Tuning”, which means putting on an electric 12 string set (the bottom four strings are an octave higher than standard). It feels like your playing backwards because the higher strings are at the bottom. I used it to double a lot of the Rickenbacker arpeggios on Smiths records, most notably on “William It Was Really Nothing”, it’s also the main guitar on “Half A Person”."

In this picture Johnny Marr can be seen playing this guitar.

"The Gretsch 6120 that I used to write and record "Stretch Out And Wait". You can hear it on "Is It Really So Strange?" too. I got it from The Who and It's one of the best old 1960's Gretsch's that I've played. I got introduced to a guy called Alan Rogan who used to work for Townshend, Clapton and Keith Richards. I ended up getting a load of guitars off him. That's where the Gretsch 6120 came in. It's the one Townshend played on loads of Who stuff. I don't know why he sold it to a geek like me."

Johnny used this 6120 on 5 out of 6 documented dates of the Smith's final 1986 tour, for Meat Is Murder only. It was tuned to Open G, the same tuning used on "Stretch Out And Wait" and "The Headmaster Ritual".

Source: http://www.smithsonguitar.com/2008/12/johnny-marrs-gear.html

At 1:00 in the music video for the song Boy With The Thorn In His Side off of The Queen is Dead,Johnny Marr can be seen with this guitar.

"This is a 1954 Gibson 295 or "Scotty Moore" that I used in the video for 'The Boy With The Thorn In His Side' and on some of 'The Queen Is Dead' album."

Source: http://www.smithsonguitar.com/2008/12/johnny-marrs-gear.html

"A lot of 'The Smiths' was actually recorded with a '54 Telecaster belonging to John Porter. I used a Rickenbacker 360 12-string as well, and that was the guitar which subsequently got all the attention, but in fact it was mainly the Tele, and a bit of Les Paul.

"This Charming Man" was the first record where I used those highlife-sounding runs in 3rds. I'm tuned up to F# and I finger it in G, so it comes out in A. There are about 15 tracks of guitar. People thought the main guitar was a Rickenbacker, but it's really a '54 Tele."

John Porter said this about the guitar in a 2008 interview: "I also have one that's a refinished guitar, back to butterscotch. It's a 1954 I got from an old friend Alan Rogan when all my guitars were stolen. It had a route for a humbucker, a couple of frets were missing, the pickguard was in pieces, and the nut had fallen out... I bought it for £17 and Roger [Giffin] refurbished it. It became a fantastic guitar! When I was working with the Smiths, Johnny only had two guitars - a Rickenbacker and a Gretsch Super Chet, I believe. It was a bit limited; to my ear we needed a good Tele. I brought in the refin, and Johnny really loved it. So every record I did with the Smiths, on every single song, most of the chiming Rickenbackers are in fact the Tele!"

Source: www.smithsonguitar.com/2008/12/johnny-marrs-gear.html

Smiths main acoustic. Martin D28. Well I Wonder, There Is A Light, Bigmouth Strikes Again, I Know It's Over. "I wrote 'The Headmaster Ritual' on acoustic. It's in an open-D tuning with a capo at the 2nd fret. There are two tracks of Martin D28."

“Smiths Fender Pro. 1985-‘87. Used on Meat is Murder, Queen is Dead, Strangeways Here We Come and live shows.”

Andy Rourke’s 1966 Fender Slab body Precision bass in white. A very rare bass which only few musicians have owned. It is said that around 20 to 30 have been made ever. It was a special production line specifically for the UK. A notable player of this bass is John Entwistle of the Who. A major influence on Andy Rourke.

This bass can be seen most predominantly during the 1986 Smiths era in TV appearances and live performances on the Queen Is Dead tour.