Nils Lofgren

For sale from the official Nils Lofgren Reverb Shop is a vintage blackface Fender Princeton Reverb. Nils picked this amp up in the '70s and would bring it along to play with a friend's rockabilly trio at Moose Lodges and VFWs.

The amp is fully functional and has a small switch mod by the input jacks. It's listed in Fair condition because the reverb and vibrato do not turn off and the footswitch is broken.

Mesa Boogie evolved out of Randall Smith's experiments modding Fender amps in late '60s California. In the '70s, the Mark series of Boogie combos set a standard for high-end, high-wattage guitar amps that continues to present day.

1985 marked the start of the Mark III era which saw a few revisions. It introduced a third channel, a "crunch" rhythm sound right in between the rhythm and lead channels. This amp has a dual footswitch system: one footswitch alternates between the current rhythm mode and the lead mode, and the other selects either the clean rhythm mode or the crunch rhythm mode. The two rhythm modes share all of their controls, while the lead mode only shares the rhythm modes' , featuring independent gain and master volume controls. All Mark III's contain five 12AX7 tubes in the pre-amp section, including reverb as well.

Nils' Mark III combo works, but lead drive when pulled tends to screech. It could use some love in that regard. We recommend this amp be serviced and are therefore listing it in poor condition.

Here we have the Takamine EAN16C acoustic/electric dreadnought featuring all solid wood construction with spruce top, rosewood back and sides, cutaway body for easy access to higher frets, CT-4B preamp with built-in tuner, high-gloss finish, and gold hardware with Gotoh tuning machines. It has been shared on tour with duo touring partner Greg Varlotta. Its also been used many times in Nils's home studio. Includes original hard shell case. Could stand to have a little relief in the neck. At lower tunings the action becomes a little too low. One larger mark in the bottom bout. Some light marks in random spots around the guitar.

Nils uses two 1961 Fender Stratocasters on stage, this is one of them. Guitar.com reveals that he used his 1961 Stratocasters on 2021 record "Barn" by Neil Young and the Crazy Horse. He also reveals that he does not use 1961 Stratocasters live because of safety concerns.

Elsewhere, Lofgren tuned into a reflective spirit gear-wise, bringing out the go-to ‘61 Strats that he used on Tonight’s The Night along with a Gretsch Black Falcon that added some muscular tones on Colorado. “Change Ain’t Never Gonna Come and Shape of Things, I put on the ’61 Strat,” he says. “When I do my little club touring, I take great Strats that are reissues. I just can’t safely take my ’61s.

One of Nils' acoustic guitars is a Takamine PT508. He has used this on-stage, and in the studio.

"With E Street, I've gone through so many different configurations. Way back in the old days, it was my [Fender] 4X10 Super Reverb blackface, and then I got to using two Music Mans – kind of an imitation of that run together."

According to Premier Guitar's interview, Lofgren uses the Fuchs Four Aces combo amplifier.

Nils' Martin D-18 is mentioned, in this interview, as a gift from Neil Young.

"'The building's burning down - what guitar from your collection would you save?'

"'That's a rough one, but probably the Martin D-18 that Neil Young loaned me to make After The Gold Rush. Mostly, I was playing piano on that album, but one day, we were gonna do Tell Me Why and Neil wanted it played on two acoustics sat across from each other. I didn't own one - so he handed me this D-18, and gave it to me at the end. It doesn't leave the home.'"

In 2017, Nils Lofgren opened an online account on Reverb's website, on which he sells his own pieces of gear. So far, a lot of items have been sold, including the Fender Vibro King amplifier.

FN: How do you build parts in a group like the E Street Band, in which three or four people are playing guitar?

NL: If the song needs an electric, I found that if I took a Fender Jazzmaster® guitar and put the heaviest strings you can buy on it, it lets me really dig in with my thumb pick. It’s just a very wide, warm sound that fits between Steven’s Strat® and Bruce’s Tele® very well.

Here we have an excellent newer six string single cutaway Takamine acoustic with a cedar top and mahogany back and sides. Used for rehearsals and recording in Nils's Home Studio. Includes original hard shell case. Very clean aside from some light marks on the back.

"I think it was on the Tunnel of Love tour that I had all of these foot pedals with chorus and delays running together, and they got so noisy! So I challenged myself to learn how to use a rack-mounted thing. That's how I acquired those [Roland] GP-8s, which are programmed for the E Street Band and my solo work."

"And then with all the effects and octave dividers, I was using the POGs – the low end was blowing up the 10s. Even though I like the saturation and warmth of them, there just wasn't enough clarity. So I went into this phase of using these 12s, like the Twin Reverbs."

In 2017, Nils Lofgren opened an online account on Reverb's website, on which he sells his own pieces of gear. So far, a lot of items have been sold, including the Carr Slant 6V amplifier.

In 2017, Nils Lofgren opened an online account on Reverb's website, on which he sells his own pieces of gear. So far, a lot of items have been sold, including the Alesis Nano Compressor.

In 2017, Nils Lofgren opened an online account on Reverb's website, on which he sells his own pieces of gear. So far, a lot of items have been sold, including the Fender Hot Rod DeVille 410 4x10 guitar amp.

In 2017, Nils Lofgren opened an online account on Reverb's website, on which he sells his own pieces of gear. So far, a lot of items have been sold, including the Zoom 505II multi effects pedal.

"I have a real nice ’52 Goldtop Les Paul that I played when I did the Trans Tour with Neil Young years ago. It was a nice combination with his “Old Black” Les Paul. I also have an Epiphone Les Paul I used when I did the tours with Ringo Starr & The All-Starr Band. Now, I just use those guitars in the studio."

Premier Guitar interview:

I went to take out my accordion but Neil kept kind of pacing around and we looked at each other and said, “Why don’t we try this song and see what it sounds like with two electrics?” And we put on our electric guitars. I used my ’52 goldtop for that and, sure enough, there was a ragged kind of beauty that spoke more as a Crazy Horse production.

Interview with Guitar.com reveals that Lofgren used the Les Paul Goldtop for 2021 album "Barn" with Neil Young and Crazy Horse:

“We started getting a little interplay there that was beautiful, and we meandered for about eight minutes. That was one of my favourite moments. I have this old ’52 Goldtop Les Paul that I used on the Trans tour. Larry Cragg agreed to come out of tech retirement and help us with all our instruments. Larry’s been on tours with me and played in my band, so it was great to have him there. He was the one who put the Bigsby on this ’52 Les Paul so I could ghost Old Black if Neil wanted to go off and do something else and still have that shimmer from the wang bar.”

“I’m using a Fender Blues Junior and a Barber Burn Unit for acoustic things where I’ll play lead but don’t want it to be just fuzz. I don’t like losing the metal of the strings inside the fuzz, so I keep it to a minimum."

This item was used by Nils Lofgren, and sold on his official Reverb shop in 2017.

In this live tour from London in 2013 Nils Lofgren uses a Candy Apple Red Fender Jazzmaster in this rendition of Bobby Jean at 1:05

Small body six string Fender acoustic with a single Acoustic cutaway and onboard pickup and electronics. Used in home and to sing National Anthem at events. Hand written National Anthem lyrics are taped to the guitar. Guitar is a funky little plucker. Light. Small. Short scale and easy to play.

For sale from Nils Lofgren is an absolute classic: A Brownface Fender Concert Amp from the early '60s. The combo has undergone a number of mods including: an early recap on a few of the key caps, four new 10" Weber Vintage Series speakers, new tubes, and a custom route on the side with what looks to be a mount for a fan (fan not present). The amp has plenty of where wear throughout and is missing the handle, as well as the volume, treble, speed, and intensity knobs. You can tell Nils loved this one and likely toured with it heavily.

Nils talks about his oldest guitars in this interview.

"I've got an old, beat-up Gibson L-10 from the '20s. But a number of years back - this was on the Magic Tour with The E Street Band - I went to a great guitar exchange in Chicago and I found two little gut-string parlour guitars in an alligator case. One was from the 1930s, the other was made in 1897."

In 2017, Nils Lofgren opened an online account on Reverb's website, on which he sells his own pieces of gear. So far, a lot of items have been sold, including the Line 6 DL4 delay modeler.

In 2017, Nils Lofgren opened an online account on Reverb's website, on which he sells his own pieces of gear. So far, a lot of items have been sold, including the Boss BD-2 Blues Driver.

In 2017, Nils Lofgren opened an online account on Reverb's website, on which he sells his own pieces of gear. So far, a lot of items have been sold, including the Zoom 505 multi effects pedal.

In 2017, Nils Lofgren opened an online account on Reverb's website, on which he sells his own pieces of gear. So far, a lot of items have been sold, including the DigiTech Crossroads Eric Clapton pedal.

In 2017, Nils Lofgren opened an online account on Reverb's website, on which he sells his own pieces of gear. So far, a lot of items have been sold, including the Danelectro Reel Echo Tape Simulator pedal.

"I’ll occasionally kick in a light overdrive and a mini POG which to me, is another voice and lead sound. It was nice to have a few different sounds.”