Gary Clark Jr

“I love everything about the Casino... I love its P-90 pickups, its shape, how hollow and light it is, and even the way it sounds unplugged when I’m playing it around the house. I feel like it was made for me. I was into Otis Rush, Freddie King and B.B. King’s sound, with their big semihollow Gibson guitars, and I wanted one too, but when I saw and played the Casino I said this is what I need in my life. It’s a beautiful instrument.”

"I think I got my dream guitar. It's a '67 Gibson 330. I'm way into that instrument. I got it at Rivington Guitars in New York, just shopping around. It's a fairly new purchase, so I didn't get a chance to use it on the album. I still haven't decided if I'm going to play it live. It might be one of those things I keep to myself."

-Gary Clark Jr., Music Radar

Gary's gear has also been checked by Rebecca Dirks of Tone Report. Gary uses "D'Addario 10s or 11s, depending upon the guitar, medium Dunlop picks, and Dunlop glass slides" on this guitar for the song "Numb".

Gary's tech, Dave Holman, was interviewed by Premier Guitar. He says that the ES-330 was his main guitar, but has been used with a harmonica. The guitar is described as also having a much softer sound.

As discussed in the video interview, Gary Clark Jr. uses a 1970s Fender Princeton Reverb.

Gary Clark’s guitar tech, Dave Holman on the Gibson ES-125:

“It’s basically flat wound strings so that it has that antique sound but yet with a modern pickup with a Piezo (P90) put at the bottom of it. This one’s my favorite. If I had a choice, this one is my favorite, absolutely. When he plays this he usually won’t play with the full band, he’ll just play it by himself and you just get a sense of Gary.”

Gary Clark Jr. uses a Fender Telecaster in this video. We think it's an American Special Fender Telecaster in vintage blonde with a white pickguard.

There's a clear shot of Gary Clark Jr holding his Gibson SG 1961 Les Paul Tribute, at 0:24 in this video.

“I was sitting in with this guitar player in Austin I knew—Alan Haynes—and he let me check out this Vibro-King he had just bought... Before I got off the stage I knew I needed one. Zapata had one, and he really didn’t like it, so I snagged it up from him quick. I love how it breaks up. It’s really chunky and nasty, and it has very pretty-sounding reverb, too."

In the source, the article, is a photograph of his pedal board. This includes the Strymon Flint. It is also mentioned in the article: 'Next is the Strymon Flint, set for the '70s setting for reverb (it's a little dirtier) and '63 for tremolo.' The pedal is also mentioned in the 2019 Premier Guitar interview with Clark.

Gary Clark begins talking about his amps at 4:00:

No I didn't bring my Vibro-King, I brought a head, so I'm just putting that through the Twin Reverb and the Princeton.

At 4:03, you can see all three amps together.

At the 2020 Grammys, Gary Clark Jr. performed with a Gibson Flying V configured with 3 P90 pickups. He also used this guitar on his Staturday Night Live performance of Pearl Cadillac.

In this video of Gary Clark Jr performing his song "If Trouble was Money", one can see him playing a Fender Telecaster in a Butterscotch blonde finish with a white pick guard, at 0:36.

"The Tube Screamer is a go-to pedal. I was wondering what Stevie was steppin' on, and it was one of those green boxes."

At around the 0:19 mark in this video of Gary Clark Jr. performing "Numb", you can see a round blue pedal on his pedalboard. This is the Jimi Hendrix Fuzz Face Mini Distortion pedal.

"I have a...Fulltone Octafuzz."

In the background both on stage and the room he is on you can see a silver face 68 reissue princeton. Also seen on the latest PG rig rundown although incorrectly labelled. Gary's tech talks about this amp at around 12:00 on rig rundown. Calls it the 65 Blueface reissue, but think he just misspoke because it is clearly the 68 custom Princeton.

In the Christmas of 1996, at age 12, Gary Clark Jr's received his first guitar, an Ibanez RX20 electric. "As soon as I got a hold of a guitar, my grades suffered. My parents were telling me, 'Keep your studies up,' but I felt I was getting the best education possible down in the clubs" says Clark.

In an interview with Guitar World, Gary Clark Jr. mentions experimenting with and enjoying his Analog Man King of Tone Overdrive pedal.

The video in this article, displays Gary Clark JR's Epiphone. At the top of the article, it states, "NPR is featuring audio from Gary Clark Jr.'s show at the Newport Folk Festival last weekend where Gary rocked the crowd on his Ltd. Ed. 50th anniversary '61 Reissue Epiphone Casino."

Clark Jr started to play this model back in 2001, and continued throughout 2018 and 2019. It is also listed in his Premier Guitar interview.

In this performance of Nextdoor Neighbor Blues, Gary Clark Jr uses a Dobro Hound Dog resonator.

In this interview with Epiphone, Gary Clark Jr says:

"I'm playing the Dobro Hound Dog, too. I played it in London and that was really cool."

Fender Guitar says in this Facebook post "Gary Clark Jr's #FenderCustomShop Strat!". An article from Tonereport.com confirms this and says the following:

"King Zapata complements Clark's semi-hollowbody tone with his main guitar, a refinished 1963 Fender Strat. A Strat guy ('I'm from Austin,' he says, matter-of-factly), Zapata found something special in this guitar. 'It's just one of those guitars that everything works on—took me a long time to find that. It sounds good in every pedal, not a typical Strat sound…you can hear my fingers, you can hear me'".

In an interview by Epiphone with Gary Clark Jr., he talks about how the Black and Blu Casino became his main guitar:

"I just recently got two "Blak and Blu" Casinos which I'm so stuck on at the moment. They're all so amazing. 'Blak and Blu' with a Bigsby! They're a dream."

Also interviewed by Premier Guitar, he describes the guitar which has not changed since the Epiphone interview. He describes the combination of hollow-body and P-90 pickups gives it "round, pretty tones" especially with the neck pickup.

This pedal is featured in rig rundown of Premier Guitar. The pedal is also mentioned in the 2019 Premier Guitar interview with Clark.

When asked if he was still playing the Masterbilt EF-500RCCE on stage as a main acoustic guitar Gary Clark Jr said, "I am actually."

At 31:33 into this video of Gary Clark Jr live at Glastonbury 2016, his Fulltone Fulldrive2 MOSFET Overdrive/Boost pedal can be seen.

"I'm playing around with a couple of wahs, rotating between Vox and Dunlop and trying to figure out the best one."

At 3:20 we can see in Gary's pedalboard a Black Cat Super Fuzz

Gary Clark Jr. is shown using an Electro-Harmonix B9 Organ Machine on his pedalboard in a photo shared by Jim Dunlop USA on Instagram.

As far as effects go...sometimes the original Cry Baby. I've been going back and forth between that and the Real McCoy. Wah, I'm trying to get it right.

The pedal is also mentioned in the 2019 Premier Guitar interview with Clark. However, it is unsure whether it was that specific wah in question or any other wah pedal from Dunlop.

In this note we can see that Gary uses a Fulltone Octafuzz OF-1. The note also has a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41e0TRdmiM) and at 15:45 we see the pedal. The pedal is also mentioned in the 2019 Premier Guitar interview with Clark.