Gilby Clarke

I have this ’91 Les Paul Classic that’s all burnt up. I’ve had it since it was new. And that’s pretty much my main Les Paul. I got this guitar for the GNR tour and it was just a brand new Les Paul Classic that was completely stock and tobacco sunburst. But I would never play it because it just looked too damn new. It was just too pretty, so I always just used my black Les Paul and my Tele. My tech, Elwood, would keep handing me the guitar and telling me that it sounds great and I should play it, but I never would.

So one day, he comes up to me with it and it looked like it had been in a fire. He just did this artistic work on it, where he kept lighting it on fire and putting it out. He burnt the pickup rings, the knobs – everything. When I first looked at it, my reaction was, “You son of a bitch! You burned my guitar!” But then it was, “Wow! That looks really cool.”

So I changed the pickup rings and the knobs, and just left the finish. But since then, it’s been my main Les Paul. I love that guitar and it’s stock – stock pickups, stock everything, except for the pickup rings and knobs.

"Clarke’s “holy grail” guitar is this ’94 Zemaitis Custom Deluxe Silver Top. “Tony made it for me in ’94 and it’s the best guitar I’ve ever owned,” he said. “Danny O’Brien did the engraving, it has Seymour Duncan ’59 pickups, an ebony fretboard with medium LP-style frets. Tony used the logo from a GnR pic I left for him to engrave the tailpiece, and I played it when GnR was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. Ron Wood came up afterward and told me, ‘Nice guitar!’ It completes me.”"

"Clarke modded this ’79 Gibson Paul Deluxe with Seymour Duncan ’59 pickups. His most-played LP, it has served in Candy, Kill for Thrills, GnR, MC5, as well as with Heart and Nancy Sinatra. “I grew up with this guitar, so it’s very special to me,” he said."

"Clarke scored this ’91 Gibson Les Paul Junior after scoring the gig with Guns ’N Roses. “I owned only four guitars at the time, and one was my J-45,” he said. “I played this a lot on the GnR tour; it has that classic P-90 sound.”"

"Clarke scored this ’91 Gibson Les Paul Junior after scoring the gig with Guns ’N Roses. “I owned only four guitars at the time, and one was my J-45,” he said. “I played this a lot on the GnR tour; it has that classic P-90 sound.”"

“When I was younger, I had one of these that I routed and put a humbucker in,” Clarke said of this ’59 Gibson Melody Maker. “It started my love for thin, mahogany guitars, and I now have two – this one and a 1960. I gave one to my daughter when she started to play guitar.”

"Clarke loves the feel and classic P-90/“Johnny Thunders in his prime” sound of this ’59 Gibson Les Paul Junior. “I play it a lot; it has a big, baseball-bat neck and it’s not too heavy.”"

"This ’77 Gretsch White Falcon came from Clarke’s “wish list.” “You can’t beat it for that jangle,” he said. “It’s one of my two guitars with a vibrato.”"

"That came a couple years later. Like with the electrics, once I had an acoustic Zemaitis, I was hooked. Before, my acoustics had always been Martins; I have a ’69 D-35 and a ’46 D-28. But, when I got the heart-hole… there’s just something Tony knew about making guitars."

"That came a couple years later. Like with the electrics, once I had an acoustic Zemaitis, I was hooked. Before, my acoustics had always been Martins; I have a ’69 D-35 and a ’46 D-28. But, when I got the heart-hole… there’s just something Tony knew about making guitars."

"This ’68 Telecaster was Clarke’s first guitar, acquired when he was in his early teens. “It was perfectly stock when I got it, but I routed it for the PAF after I found the pickup while rooting through a parts drawer in the store. I asked, “Hey, what is this?” and they said, “It’s an old Gibson pickup. You can have it.” A bit of research revealed it to be a late-’50s PAF and after installing it, he discovered its sound wasn’t quite right, so he sent it to Seymour Duncan to be re-wound. The guitar was also given jumbo frets, which were popular at the time. “I can’t tell you how many ’50s Teles went through my hands that I put humbuckers in,” said Clarke. “I wasn’t even 20 years old, so I didn’t know anything about the value of vintage guitars. Later, I had a conversation with Seymour, and asked him, ‘Why can’t we have a humbucking pickup that fits in the lead position on a Tele?’ So, Seymour’s Little ’59 was actually my idea, and he gave me the prototype for it.” "

Gilby and Dan Armstrong plexi

Gilby Clarcke and Thunder Custom model with Dallen P51 pickups

Gilby & Gibson SG Les Paul Custom

Featured Avalon 30 Artist

Gilby Clarke - Clubman and HC-30

"In GnR, with Slash being a Les-Paul-and-Marshall guy, too, our parts would blend in the mix. So, I played a Vox AC30 for a while."

Gilby & Marshall JCM 800 with Marshall 1960 Cabinet. 2014. Szolnok, Hungary Source:

"So I always used an AC-30 or, on The Spaghetti Incident?, it’s a ‘62 Fender Deluxe on pretty much the whole record."

"I have an old MXR Blue Box that I love and I’ve used that quite a bit. I didn’t use it that much on this record though, but I used it on my last few records," Gilby Clarke says, in this article.

"…Boss tuner pedal, the TU-2. I love that thing! I just can’t believe that I can step on a pedal and actually tune a guitar and see it. I don’t know what took so long to come up with it. That’s my favorite new box." - Gilby Clarke.

"My fuzz pedal is a Marshall Blues Breaker. I’ve collected about six of them, since they stopped making them. So I always keep one in the studio and one for live." - Gilby Clarke.

"I’ve got a modified Wah-wah from Dunlop" […] "It’s a standard Cry Baby, but I had them put the lights on top so I can tell when it’s on or off"

"The Line 6 pedal is just the standard DL-4. I have a couple of delays in their and then one I usually tap the tempos"

Gilby and Pedaltrain Metro 16

"For my live rig, I use the Electro-Harmonix Soul Food for solos or even if it’s just a little bit of a harder song that needs a little more gain."

"But in the studio I use a lot of different things. I love that Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal that works great with almost anything. A good old green Tube Screamer works great with anything."