James Dean Bradfield

“I've always loved this guitar. It has such amazing resonance, you can practise without an amp. But as I said before, me and Richey swapped this and the Gordon-Smith, so he got this one. We only had these two decent guitars at the time, everything else was taped-together rubbish. It’s been on pretty much every album.

“And here’s the dirty secret. The main riff on Motorcycle Emptiness is not my Les Paul, it’s this Tele. Me and (Generation Terrorists producer) Steve Brown were A/B-ing both and he insisted the Tele’s sound won out. He was EQ-ing a lot, scooping all the top out and compressing, and putting ‘top’ back in on mixing. I was part-thinking, ‘No! It should be a Les Paul’ - but the Tele just worked.”

James Dean Bradfield prominently uses a Gibson Les Paul Custom as his primary guitar for every Manic Street Preachers album and tour, as shown in the user-uploaded photo on Imgur.

Used for the main riff in "Motorycle Emptiness" along with "a Marshall Shredder pedal".

A Hyper Fuzz pedal can be seen on James' pedalboard at 29 seconds in the "Manic Street Preachers' James Dean Bradfield talks guitar and plays Manics hits" video.

In this photo of James' pedal collection from this MusicRadar article, a TS9DX can be seen in the bottom right hand corner. The same article says the pedal was used on the chorus of the track "Auto-Intoxication".

DigiTech Mosaic can be seen on James's Pedalboard at Newport studio. [https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg6iKOEDM-A/ P.S. keep scrolling right]

James Dean Bradfield used the white Gibson Flying V during the Lifeblood era. It can also be seen in the video for "Empty Souls".

Bradfield can be seen playing the John 5 Signature Telecaster for "Tsunami" in the video linked above.

“Bought during the worst hangover of my life, from Fat Rick’s Vintage Guitar Emporium in London. Sweat was dripping off my nose and I don’t imagine even Richard Burton ever felt so terrible. But I wanted an acoustic with a bit of midrange.

"It’s my ‘songwriting guitar’. If You Tolerate This..., Masses Against The Classes, The Everlasting, Show Me The Wonder, some of Your Love Alone... were all written on this" "I met up at Rick’s with my tech then, ‘Deptford John’, I bought it, went home, and passed out. Woke up the next day and was like... ‘What the f**k have I bought?’ But I don't regret it.

"If I’ve been struggling for a while, I go back to this. I hate falling into the traps of saying ‘there’s magic in the wood’, or ‘there must be a Ley line running through this guitar’, but it’s got something. I always keep it close to me. It’s my most versatile acoustic. A lucky guitar.”

– James Dean Bradfield on his 1973 Gibson J-45 via Music Radar

This photo-article from MusicRadar/Guitarist magazine details all of the gear Bradfield used during the making of the Manic Street Preacher's 2010 album Postcards From a Young Man. The SD-1 is depicted in James' pedal collection.

In this photo gallery interview, James Dean Bradfield says, “I don’t know what year it is, but I do know it’s a pig of a guitar! It must have the smallest fretboard of all time. I’ve got small hands anyway, but f***ing hell!

"And I can’t stop it feeding-back for some reason, so I need to find a spot for recording. I tend to use Line 6’s Amp Farm with this one. I do that quite a lot to be honest, to get the best tone.

“I like the Mosrite’s sound, yet it’s horrible to play [laughs]. But it’s cool, it’s interesting; it’s old, but not original 1960s Mosrite I don’t think. I used this lots on Lifeblood and Journal For Plague Lovers.”

On this page of Mesa Boogie's website, it says James Bradfield uses a Mesa Boogie Lone Star 2x12 Combo amp, and includes a picture of him with one.

In this September 2014 interview with JDB, in Guitarist Magazine, it is revealed that Bradfield has a Fret-king Ventura 60. Of it he says, "I really like those guitars, great necks." He can be seen using it in this photo

One of the guitars listed in this September 2014 interview with JDB, in Guitarist magazine, is Bradfield's Burns Brian May.

Bradfield mentions using a Marshall JCM 900 amp in this interview, in the section on his Gretsch Chet Atkins.

In this video, shot for Guitarist magazine, Bradfield demonstrates several of the riffs he composed for the Manic Street Preachers. He is playing through a JCM 900, which he identifies early in the video.

In this video clip of a live performance by the Manic Street Preachers in 2016, we can see Bradfield playing an S2 Vela (visible from the 0:10 second-mark onward).

MXR Micro Flanger can be seen on James's Pedalboard at Newport studio. [https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg6iKOEDM-A/ P.S. keep scrolling right]

In this photo gallery interview James Dean Bradfield says, “There’s a lot of this on Lifeblood. Those songs weren’t asking for my Chuck Berry-isms or my soft-metal-isms. Jazzmasters are great studio guitars, but I just can’t get on with them live."

James can be seen using this guitar throughout the entire music video 'The secret he had missed'.

In this photo gallery interview, James Dean Bradfield says, “It just looked lovely, and I had no concerns about the action, pickups or anything. But it really helped Everything Must Go - the title track, Enola Alone, quite a few other songs. It’s got a really range-y sound."

In this photo gallery interview, James Dean Bradfield says, “I first played one in 1996 - what an amazing guitar. Sean (Moore, Manics drummer) found my first second-hand and it’s all over Futurology. I also have a recent reissue, too.

"Starcasters have one of the best fretboards, Fender or otherwise, I’ve ever played, and a great sound. On Futurology, I was really trying to find riffs on this, not so much chords. Effect pedals chime out on this, too.

"They’re an anomaly of a guitar, aren’t they? They probably should have sold better than they did. I’ve only ever seen (Radiohead’s) Jonny Greenwood, (Morrissey’s) Boz Boorer and (The Killers’) Dave Keuning play them otherwise.”

On this page of Bradfield's interview with Acoustic Magazine, it says that he uses a Taylor 414ce. The article says he uses Taylors and Cole Clarks for his live performances, because of their pickup systems.

This photo-article from MusicRadar/Guitarist magazine details all of the gear Bradfield used during the making of the Manic Street Preacher's 2010 album Postcards From a Young Man. The Rat is depicted in James' pedal collection.

This photo-article from MusicRadar/Guitarist magazine details all of the gear Bradfield used during the making of the Manic Street Preacher's 2010 album Postcards From a Young Man. The Hot Head is depicted in James' pedal collection.

EHX Soul Food can be seen on James's Pedalboard at Newport studio. [https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg6iKOEDM-A/ P.S. keep scrolling right]

In one of the images accompanying this article, we can see a Micro Amp pedal in the lower-right corner of James' studio table.

An Ampeg Reverbrocket Trans Am Combo amp is listed in this interview among other amps Bradfield owns.

This photo-article from MusicRadar/Guitarist magazine details all of the gear Bradfield used during the making of the Manic Street Preacher's 2010 album Postcards From a Young Man. The CS-3 (boxed, at left) is depicted in James' pedal collection.

This photo-article from MusicRadar/Guitarist magazine details all of the gear Bradfield used during the making of the Manic Street Preacher's 2010 album Postcards From a Young Man. The Germanium OD (boxed, upper left) is depicted in James' pedal collection.