Steve Stevens isn't one of those musicians who need a separate country estate just to house their guitars — he estimates that at most he owns 30 — but his collection is noteworthy for its eclecticism and its customised peculiarities. Though his main instrument is the Hamer that bears his name, each of his Steve Stevens models is modified in fanciful, almost eccentric fashion.

Most extraordinary is the Raygun guitar, finished in black metal flake. Why is it called the Raygun? Hamer's Jol Dantzig explains: "Steve has this huge collection of toys, including robots and rayguns. We put one of the rayguns into the guitar and created a separate compartment in the back for the electronics so that you could actually 'play' the raygun through the amplifier. There are three momentary buttons and a slide switch on the face, arranged just behind the bridge. The varying combinations of buttons give you different pulse patterns. Steve played it for the first time at Live Aid with the Thompson Twins, and I'm sure that most people thought it was a synthesiser."

Pickups are a Seymour Duncan custom Allan Holdsworth model in the bridge and two Duncan APS-Is in the neck and middle positions.

The original Prototype SS Stevens is called "the Pac Man guitar with the Barney Rubble paint job," because its cracked day-glo finish has reminded some of Barney Rubble's shirt, according to Dantzig. It's gone through so many mutations by the finicky Stevens, JD Dworkow refers to it as "the testing pad." Pickups are the same as those on the Raygun. "We also just threw on an old non-fine-tuning Floyd Rose tremolo," says Dworkow, "one of the very first ever made." Much of Stevens' work is done by Manhattan luthier John Suhr, who's serviced instruments for the likes of Mark Knopfler, Mick Jagger, Brian Setzec, and Eddie Martinez.

Other unique examples of guitars that combine practicality and self-indulgence are a phosphorescent seafoam-green Hamer with a built-in Roland GR-700 controller; "the Christmas Tree," a three-quarter-size, three pickup Jackson Soloist painted in what Dworkow calls "this ridiculously grotesque purple-maroon metal-flake and strange green colour"; and a 1976 Ramirez Spanish acoustic "built before they stopped using the really good Rosewood. Steve picked it up in Chicago, and it's a beautiful guitar."

Rumours that Stevens is currently devising an electric six-string with portable bar, rotisserie, electric can opener and Waterpick are entirely unfounded. For now.

This guitar was played on "Oh Well" parts 1 and 2

According to a listing from a Heritage Auction, as discussed on the Drum Forum website, Tommy Tedesco's collection includes two Ramirez Natural Classical (Spanish) guitars, confirming his use of this specific gear.