Dan Auerbach

Premier Guitar meets up with Dan Johnson - guitar tech to Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys and pulls out the Harmony H78 at 13:29, "This is probably the one that people are going to be most familiar with. It's a Hamony H78. And he's been playing this for several years. Boy, maybe five years or something. This is what he still uses in the middle of the set when they do a few songs as just a two-piece again. Even though they have a bass player and keyboard player that are playing with them now, they walk off for four songs or more. And he plays this guitar because it has a very distinctive sound because it's totally hollow and has these kickin' pickups in it. I've seen a lot of guitars that have this model of them in it but this one in particular sounds amazing. I don't know what model they actually are but they are usually referred to as Gold Foils because they came in so many different guitars. But this guitar has three switches, one for each and volume and tone for each. We've never really used anything but the bridge pickup. He's always collected guitars so he's had quite a lot of them over the years, but this one he's had in his operation for some time. He bought it from one of my helpers at the guitar shop in Akron. I had a guy helping me working on this thing and it needed a little bit of work. He wasn't working on it at the time because we had other things to work on. Then Dan came in one day and saw it and said 'Woo, how much for that one?' So he didn't buy it that day, but we got it ready for the next time he came by - and he sure did. So he's been playing that for quite a while."

You can see and listen to Dan Auerbach playing the Harmony H78 during this live performance for SiriusXM.

An interesting interview with Dan Johnson - Dan Auerbach's guitar tech.

Photos of Auerbach with H78: Unknown, 2009, Dauwpop, 2009, Islington Assembly Hall, 2023.

Perfromances of Auerbach with H78: "ThickFreakness", BBC Radio 1, 2012, "Same Old Thing", Governor's Ball, 2015, "Have Love Will Travel", NOS Alive, 2023

"This is the one that is his current favorite. It's a '64 Guild Thunderbird. It has a Bo-Diddley look to it. You don't see too many people through the history of rock-n-roll guitars playing this model for some reason. And I don't know why because it's awesome. It's got an amazing headstock shape. It's just not symmetrical. And I don't believe it's on any other Guild model either. I did have to do some work to it, but it's largely original. Of course, I did a setup, I did some fret work, I carved the saddles a few notches and other stuff to fine tune it. This bridge pickup didn't work so we had to have some coils made for it. Dan bought this shortly before we did Saturday Night Live last December. In fact, very shortly. He came in and said 'I need this guitar to work,' and it was a bit of a project. You would see this bridge and tremolo arrangement on a Hagstrom from the mid to late 60s too. I'm not sure who made them, maybe Burns or something like that. It's a great tremolo; it stays in tune great. Dan uses the tremolo a lot but he uses it gently, or fast but still gentle. He never tries to get crazy with it. The most amazing weird feature is that it has a stand built right into the back. It has a magnet too to keep it from coming up, but it doesn't work that great. We don't use that because I have a fancier stand that holds the set of guitars," says Dan Auerbach's guitar tech about the Guild S-200 Thunderbird Electric Guitar.

Auerbach's guitar tech about Supro Martinique:

We have this Supro. I have to admit there are so many models of these that I don't remember this one off hand. But I am very familiar with them, I've had several of them myself. The Supro and the National are pretty much the same guitar really. The shape is different. It's a fiberglass body bolted together. It has a very interesting bridge pickup too. There's a piezo pickup and some coils inside the bass of that bridge. It's an interesting sound. It kind of sounds like an acoustic guitar but not really. I mean not compared to modern standards. This has the typical National hot single coils - they really crunch. It has lots of knobs; everyone likes that. The thing about it is I've had to do quite a lot of work to it. I've had to refret it and adjust the bridge and secure too so it would stay in tune. This has a truss rod in it, but it's the old box style, like an old Martin would have. It's not adjustable. Unfortunately, on a rock-n-roll guitar to have good action that's playable and clear you have to be able to really fine tune that. The only way to do that is not in the field, it's in the shop because you have to rig it up with the right amount of bow and then you have to test - take the strings off a lot of times until you get it right. Then you can finally polish and recrown the frets and finish the job off. It's a little bit of a process but it's super stable. I did that probably three years ago and hasn't needed anything since then. This song is mostly used for the Brothers - anything from the Brothers. Not every song but ones like 'Tighten Up' and 'She's Long Gone' and a couple of other ones too.

Auerbach acquired Supro Martinique around 2007, and the guitar was used on "Howlin' for You", according to 2022 Rolling Stone interview.

It has like a DI sound that’s really weird and we used it a bunch on that record. It’s got three positions. Forward is this pickup [the neck], back is this [the bridge pickup] and when you go here [the final setting] there’s a piezo pickup, which I think is under the bridge. It’s sort of like an acoustic pickup, which is not intended to go through a fuzz pedal, you know? [laughs]. Which is what we did and you get this weird, buzzy, thin, cool sound and we used this a bunch throughout the record.

Photos of Auerbach with Martinique: Lollapallooza, 2009, Unknown, 2013.

This guitar was commonly used by Dan early in his career. In this live performance of Thickfreakness, posted in 2007, you can see the guitar clearly at around 1:35. In 2017 Vintage Guitar interview, Auerbach mentioned that he used a late 60s Fender Telecaster on his 2017 solo album, "Waiting on a Song". It's possibly this Telecaster, visible in a 2017 performance of "Cherrybomb".

Auerbach used another Telecaster in 2018 at his Capitol Theatre performance. Judging by the color, and the white binding, it could be a 1960 or 1966 Telecaster, as seen in the photo.

"Dan's next guitar, chronologically, would be this one, another Harmony. It's a StratoTone. It's obviously had a lot of work done to it too. It has different tuning keys; I made new knot for it. Dan's dad deals antiques, and one of his cohorts or accomplices in the antique business gave Dan this guitar. But it didn't have any parts at all. It didn't have any tuners, no pick guard, no pickups, no Bigsby or anything. I think it had that [white] switch. Anyway, he said 'I want to make this work,' and so I got a set of Lindy Fralin pickups. This old Bigsby I think I had in my shop already. I made that pickguard. I was able to figure out, well it was pretty obvious, when you take the pickguard off its bright red underneath there because this awesome two-tone burst used to be a three-tone burst, like many from around maybe 1962 or whenever this is from - that era. The red on many sunbursts just dissipates, it just comes out, it just disappears like a three-tone stratocaster a lot of times becomes over time. So I just copied the image and made a pickguard to fit it. I put these Fralins in, the Bigsby on. Nothing really fancy. He plays this one in open-G tuning. For right now he's only playing it on one song, 'Run Right Back,' which is on the new record. Although he recorded a few of the other songs in that tuning, he's transposed them to standard just for ease. But this one particular song has that powerful open-D on the bass string and it has to be in that tuning to make it and be effective. It's heavy duty, and it's got a pretty heavy-duty sound as well because those are P-90s, they just crunch as they should," says Dan Auerbach's guitar tech about the Harmony StratoTone Electric Guitar.

In the video you can see Dan Auerbach using a white Ibanez Custom SG with three humbucker pickups, while his band "The Black Keys" perform "Set You Free". During 2023 and 2024, Auerbach uses white Custom SG mostly for "Gold on the Ceiling", as seen on this 2024 KROQ performance.

"This is a great Mustang for anyone looking for a cool looking Mustang. It plays better than any Mustang I’ve ever used! And i’m not just saying that!" says Dan Auerbachs, as quoted in this article.

In this photo, Dan Auerbach is seated playing a white Fender Stratocaster next to Patrick Carney. The guitar was also mentioned in Auerbach's interview with Guitar World (published in November 2022 issue). Another Fender Stratocaster from 1954 was used to record "Lonely Boy" and was used throughout "El Camino".

In 2012 Vintage Guitar interview, Auerbach mentioned that he used a 1958 Fender Stratocaster on "El Camino". This could possibly be the guitar that he is seen with on Hermanos Gutiérrez 2022 music video for "Tres Hermanos".

Dan Auerbach is pictured playing a Reverend Flatroc in a user-uploaded photo on Imgur, showcasing his preference for this solid body electric guitar.

Used on 2019 album "Let's Rock", according to 2019 Music Radar interview.

I used a couple of guitars, but one I used a ton was a Guild Starfire III, with the mini-humbuckers. There’s a really specific time period where they were really good. It’s like from ’63 to ’67. I got one of those and I had it set-up at Gruhn’s in Nashville and it is just a horse. It is a motherfucker. It’s so good.

Dan is here playing a Silvertone 1429, with an exception that this model (unlike the Harmony he is often seen using) is a single cutaway, with a tremolo arm and different colored knobs.

Details start at 16:50 in the video interview. This is a single-owner 1959 Gibson Les Paul that Dan Auerbach bought in 2019. "I had no intention of buying a 'burst'", says Auerbach. "I've never even seen one before I walked into that guitar store and bought it from the owner's sister." According to November 2022 Guitar World interview, Auerbach used the guitar while recording the song "Good Love".

In Episode 4 of "Guitar Moves" on YouTube, Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys is seen playing a Martin D-18. Auerbach's 1960 D-18 was later put for sale at Gruhn Guitars, as a part of "Dan Auerbach Collection".

"This guitar is the Howlin' For You guitar. It's basically the same guitar as the Supro, it's just a National instead. It has different inlays. It's the same neck, same non-adjustable neck. I spent a lot of time fixing that one up. Same pickups, same funky bridge pickups. It does have this really cool trim on it though. The stainless steel arm is pretty unique. There's a really interesting spring system under there too. Of course, you can select any of the pickups that you like too here. There's lots of knobs again. Same fiberglass construction. It gives it that sort of hollow guitar sound. Like the Harmony guitar, it's totally hollow and that's a big part of the sound Dan gets when he's playing especially the two-piece stuff. When it's just him and Patrick on stage feedback is a big part of the show because he's playing really loud and he's got the Big Muff on, and it's exploding," says Dan Auerbach's guitar tech about the National Westwood 77 Electric Guitar.

Behind Dan Auerbach is a Supro Lexington that is sitting on a guitar stand while Dan is playing a song.

Dan can be seen here holding a mid sixties Gibson J-160E. In 2012 Vintage Guitar interview, Auerbach mentions that he used J-160E on 2011 album "El Camino".

The Black Keys play The Anthem in Washington DC, Oct 12, 2019. The concert was part of the "Let's Rock" 2019 North American tour. (photo by Ari Strauss)

Dan can be seen playing a Hofner 176 in this image.

Dan can be seen in this image playing a Rickenbacker 360. According to this article from Drowning In Guitars, Dan sold a Fender Mustang to fund the purchase of this 360.

In a live performance photo, Dan Auerbach is seen playing a Teisco SS-4L electric guitar.

In this photo, Auerbach can be seen playing a Gibson Hummingbird.

In may 2017 Auerbach can be seen using a Gibson J-180 on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Auerbach also used J-180 Everly on "Waiting on a Song", live at Music Hall of Williamsburg, 2017, as well as2018 NPR perfromance.

In an episode of "American Pickers" (Season 13, Episode 8), Dan Auerbach is seen checking out a Gretsch G6120TM Chet Atkins Signature Hollowbody guitar. In 2019 Music Radar interview, Auerbach mentions a Gretsch Chet Atkins guitar (that he calls "Rudy") being used while recording 2019 album, "Let's Rock".

Then I also played a Gretsch Chet Atkins a bunch, with the humbuckers in it. I’d never played Gretsch humbuckers and I’d never played Gretsches, so I didn’t realise that it’s the sound of that big, AC/DC-type rock ’n’ roll chord. It had never really dawned on me. So I got into that one on this record and I use that guitar all the time - it’s just a real player. That guitar’s name is Rudy. It’s a one-owner guitar. I bought it from the family of the original owner and he played the shit out of it, so it’s got a real soul to it.

Here, Dan is holding what is a Framus 5/296 Texan 12 string guitar with some psychedelic artwork on the body of the guitar.

Dan in this photo, is seen playing a Harmony Rocket.

The Black Keys play The Anthem in Washington DC, Oct 12, 2019. The concert was part of the "Let's Rock" 2019 North American tour. (photo by Ari Strauss)

In this Q&A at the Reverend website, Auerbach states that he has been playing a Club King RT.

Dan uses this emerald green beauty for El Camino and Turn blue, and can be seen playing it during the 2015 Concert for Valor. Auerbach uses this guitar mainly for "Fever", as seen in this Glastonbury 2014, and Governor's Ball, 2015.

Dan Auerbach plays a 1965 Tesico Del Rey ET 300 on his solo album "Keep It Hid," as shown in a user-uploaded photo on Amazon. In 2012 Guitar World interview, Auerbach mentions a blue Teisco Del Rey as one of his first guitars.

In a Guitarworld interview, Dan Auerbach discusses his use of the Kent Americana guitar.