Mike Stern

Mike's original "mutt Telecaster that he bought from Danny Gatton.

"Yamaha modeled it on a mutt Telecaster that I had been playing since back when I began recording with Atlantic, and that guitar was itself actually kind of a copy of a Tele I got from Danny Gatton, who got it from Roy Buchanan. Danny souped it up and sold it to me for $500, because he wanted to buy a used car. It was stolen from me at gunpoint many years ago."

Mike has long used a Pearce G1 to power his two JBL 2x12 cabinets (along with a Yamaha G100-212 II for the other stereo side).

He places it on top of the single space rack that houses his SPX-90.

You can see it clearly at 7:40 in the video.

Have you always played Teles?

Even though I’m a “jazz” player, I play a Telecaster-style guitar because I grew up playing rock and blues on Teles and Strats, and when I got into jazz I just stuck with them. I did have a Gibson ES-175 for a few years when I was studying jazz with Pat Metheny at Berklee. That was a great guitar, and everybody there was playing jazz guitars, but when I would play my rock, blues, and funk stuff, it would just start feeding back. At one point Pat heard me playing a Tele and said that it sounded great, and that I should stay with it.

Mike can be seen in this image with his signature PAC1611MS.

If you ever see Mike's rig, you'll see he carries a Yamaha SPX-90 in a single space rack.

Guitarist Mike Stern uses Fender '65 Twin Reverb amplifiers as his backline while touring. This was evident during his performance at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley in Seattle, as noted in GuitarPlayer.

In this video Mike Stern plays through the new waza craft pedals and a Roland Blues Cube amp.

At 1:30 of this video, Mike Stern of Yellowjacket and DR Big Band shows us his pedal board containing a Boss DS-1 Distortion pedal.

Dean Brown says: I love the way this Acoustic 134 sounds. Solid State, but very heavy. Back in the day, Mike Stern used to use two of these bad boys with an MXR stereo chorus. The jazz sound of the late 70s!

Mike Stern used a Fender Strat for with Miles Davis in the early '80s.

Mike claims the old combo has a quite good warm sound. Plus a solid-state combo is easier to take around!

In this video Mike Stern plays through the new waza craft pedals, and this one is clearly visible at 2:39.

Mike Stern uses an old BOSS SD-1 Super Overdrive modified by Robert Keeley. The pedal is visible at 18:29 in this video.

His Yamaha has SH-1 and Hot Rails.

At 1:30 of this video, Mike Stern of Yellowjacket and DR Big Band shows us his pedal board containing a Boss OC-2 Octave Pedal.

Mike Stern uses a BOSS MO-2 Multi Overtone pedal which is visible at 18:29 in this video.

His signature model has Hot Rail by Seymour Duncan in bridge position.

On this artist page for Mike Stern of Yellowjacket and DR Big Band, we see the many TC Electronic pedals he uses, among them being the TC Electronic Corona Chorus TonePrint.

On this artist page for Mike Stern of Yellowjacket and DR Big Band, we see the many TC Electronic pedals he uses, among them being the TC Electronic Hall Of Fame Mini Reverb.

Dean Brown says: I love the way this Acoustic 134 sounds. Solid State, but very heavy. Back in the day, Mike Stern used to use two of these bad boys with an MXR stereo chorus. The jazz sound of the late 70s!

The source from Guitarism-tr indicates that Mike Stern uses a Fender '65 Vintage Reissue Twin Reverb, not the Fender '68 Custom Twin Reverb.

He plays with this effect on this video.

In this article, the video at 0:35 displays Mike Stern of Yellowjackets and DR Big Band creating his custom preset for the TC Electronic Toneprint. He states in the article, “The guitar is a very percussive instrument – especially if you play with a pick. This [TonePrint], kind of, gives it a singing ambience sound.”

On this artist page for Mike Stern of Yellowjacket and DR Big Band, we see the many TC Electronic pedals he uses, among them being the TC Electronic NM-1 Nova Modulator.

"I’ve been using BOSS pedals for about 15 years, maybe more … maybe closer to 20 years … and I dig ’em a lot. And I also used the guitar synthesizer, the very first blue one [Roland GR-300], then, in the ’80s, I used the GR-50. Now I have the most recent one [GR-20], and that thing is amazing."

In the YouTube video titled "Guitar pedals Mike Stern 'Guitar Instructional Video (Equipments)'," there is a brief glimpse of the Boss PSM-5 Power Supply & Master Switch on Mike Stern's pedalboard. Additional photos of this setup can be found on other sites, such as the Musette Japan blog.

Mike Stern uses the Boss CH-1 Super Chorus pedal, as shown on his pedalboard featured on Jazz Apparatus.

Mike Stern uses a BOSS AW-3 Dynamic Wah pedal which is visible at 18:29 in this video.

Hello, I heard MIKE STERN BAND featuring AKIRA JIMBO, DANNY WALSH & EDMOND GILMORE Live at Blue Note Tokyo on aug. 5, 2019. I took a picture of MIKE STERN's equipment and reported it on my website. So, I noticed BOSS DA-2 Adaptive Distortion that was not shared so far, so I added it here. `

At 1:36 of this video, Mike Stern of Yellowjacket and DR Big Band shows off the Boss DD-3 on his pedal board.