Gary Rossington

"To me, it’s the Les Paul Standard. Humbucking pickups are great. I love the warm tones that you can get, and if you turn the treble up really high on the amp, you can get kind of a Fender sound, too, with a Les Paul. But you can’t get a Les Paul sound with a Fender." That was Gary's answer when he's asked about 'the perfect Les Paul'

As can be seen here, Gary Rossington used a 1959 Gibson Les Paul throughout most of his career until the value of it became too much for him to tour with it. It's nicknamed Bernice after his mother, and many other pictures of him with it can be seen here.

In the 2003 Vintage Guitar Interview, Rossington explains how he got the guitar:

The first time we were ever in Nashville, playing a club called the Briar Patch, a girl said she had a Gibson Les Paul in her closet. That’s all she knew. So we went to her house and it was a nice Les Paul. It was in great shape, but you could see it hadn’t been picked up for a long time. They didn’t know what they had and they wanted to sell it for $1,000. So I went back with $1,000 and they said, “No.” Somebody told them it was worth $2,000 to $3,000. I told them not to sell it. A few weekends went by and we were playing that club again, so I went over and got it.

At 3:59 in this video, Gary's Gibson Access Les Paul is mentioned. His guitar tech says, "It's very thin, very light."

"When I went to the studio I also took a Strat, a Gretsch Tennessean, a Telecaster, an ES-335… hopefully to get a different sound than Skynyrd."

Featured on his gear page on Premier Guitar since their interview with him.

In this photo Gary can be seen playing slide at a concert on a white 1969 Gibson SG Standard beside Ronnie Van Zant. This guitar was stolen in 1973. Allen Collins was the original owner of the guitar and it was originally cherry red. Allen used aerosol cans from a local hardware store to paint it white. This guitar was used for their first album, and may have been used on the studio version of Freebird by Allen.

Gary's '61 SG Standard is featured on this list compiled by Gibson of 50 Essential Facts on the SG.

According to Scribd this is the Goldtop that was owned by Allen Collins. It was Gary’s main guitar until it was stolen in 1973. It was one of the guitars used on their first album.

"When I went to the studio I also took a Strat, a Gretsch Tennessean, a Telecaster, an ES-335… hopefully to get a different sound than Skynyrd."

In this photo from Premier Guitar, Gary Rossington is pictured playing his Gibson Custom Shop Gary Rossington Les Paul.

"When I went to the studio I also took a Strat, a Gretsch Tennessean, a Telecaster, an ES-335… hopefully to get a different sound than Skynyrd."

In this YouTube Video, Gary is seen with a Epiphone SG, it includes a tremblo which is often not seen with his Gibson.

Gary Rossington is confirmed to have used a Gibson SG Deluxe as one of his guitars, as documented in Sean's "Lynyrd Skynyrd - Gary Rossington Equipment History" on Scribd. The guitar was first seen in 1974 and is now housed at the Hard Rock Cafe.

According to the document titled "Lynyrd Skynyrd - Gary Rossington Equipment History" by Sean on Scribd, Gary Rossington used a Gibson Les Paul Special for the recording of "Gimme Back My Bullets."