James Bay

James Bay's first ever guitar. He captions his Instagram photo, "#Tbt to the first guitar I ever bought. Hand painted when I was 14 and still hanging in my room at my parents house"

The body shape, pickups configuration, knobs, switch, and rosewood fingerboard match those of a Epiphone Les Paul Special II electric guitar. James Bay's is of course hand painted by him.

James talks about selling his Yamaha Pacifica to buy the Epiphone Les Paul Special II https://youtu.be/3DQJSkYl5rY?t=13m31s

This might be a photo from his earlier work, he using a strat

Photos taken on July 25, 2010 at the Rythms Of The World festival in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, UK. Playing with the James Bay Band. Photos taken by James Boardman, who was the bass player in an earlier band James played guitar in, called RoadRunner

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jboardmanphotography/4838401297/sizes/o/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jboardmanphotography/4839007662/sizes/o/

In this screenshot of a James Bay Instagram story, he can be seen playing a Fender Custom Shop Bob Bain "Son of the Gunn" Telecaster in Butterscotch Blonde. In the caption he says:

for the geeks: ... Fender @paul_weller_fender custom Bob Bain Tele

In this Instagram photo, James Bay shows off the headstock of a Harmony Stratotone Electric Guitar, and his caption implies it's the guitar he's going to play that day: "Today's mighty axe #steelreinforcedneck" (posted April 2014)

James Bay uses a red Gibson SG junior electric guitar in this video of him performing "(You Know) I'm Losing You" at Brixton Academy on Sept 30, 2015 (with special guest Ronnie Wood). A good look at the guitar can be had at 1:56.

James Bay interview with Bonedo Das Musikerportal during the Hurricane festival on June 25th 2016 Interview in German translated with Google translate.

James talk about the Gibson Les Paul Junior "And for loosening I have a 1965 Les Paul Junior SG: Just two pieces of wood, neck and body, a P-90 pickup, one volume and one tone knob. I love them - so simple".

Full interview (in German) here: http://m.bonedo.de/artikel/einzelansicht/gearchat-james-bay.html

James Bay official Twitter Page: "#tb to me, @andycortes87 & Jack Duxbury stopping by @collingsguitars Austin,TX. Thank you for this very tasty 290"

Total Guitar Magazine December 2015: Under the picture of the Gibson les Paul Junior it says: "James' SG-Shape Les Paul Junior comes out for 'Best Fake Smile' in the live shows. He's also been using a Collings 290 DC S for that song"

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nemi72/24440261560/sizes/o/

In this photo on James Bay's Instagram, he is seen holding a Gibson Les Paul Special Double-Cut Electric Guitar.

You can see him using it on Instagram It has an Bigsby and a Humbucker

At the beginning of the video around the 1:50 mark he explains it’s a 1963 Fender Jaguar. He then procedes to play one of his songs on it and break it down

In this Instagram video, James Bay is in the dressing room after a June 2015 show in Köln. He can be seen jamming on a black Danelectro DC 59M NOS electric guitar. He admits it isn't owned by him, and instead belongs to "Jack". He says:

"Came off stage in Köln last night, didn't want to stop! Post show #dressingroomjam on Jack's new axe"

He just buying this Fano

James Bay bought his Fano Guitars Alt De Facto SP6 at Chicago Music Exhange https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP6TxqbeFho

Using his Fano guitar during "Best Fake Smile" at Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival 2015, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco CA USA in August 9th 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPpJtkkjijU

This beautiful SG is used by James Bay during the recording of his song "Best fake smile".

In the second photo in this post on James Bay's Instagram, he is seen holding a Gibson SG Special Electric Guitar with P90 pickups.

James is pictured in the music video for song 'Pink Lemonade' playing a White Signature model from Frank Brother's Guitars, though he usually plays a black model on stage.

At BBC Biggest Weekend festival in 2018 James opened his set using an Epiphone Coronet for the song 'Wasted on Each Other' and is pictured on his official instagram holding the guitar before going on stage. He also says in an interview with Epiphone prior to the 2nd album release: "There are a few Epiphone solid body guitars, like the Coronet, that I'd love to spend some time with."

In this video from Fender, James Bay talks about the 1965 Vintera II Stratocaster as he demonstrates one in Candy Apple Red finish. He says:

My bedroom guitarist years it was only a strat, until I left home when I was 19. It's all I played, that was my electric guitar. Probably even beyond then, 20, 21. If I played electric, it was my Strat. I could trust it. I loved it. I beat it up a bit, you know.

So many great players put such a vivid stamp on that guitar; Hendrix, Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan. So many made a strat sound so stratty in such a brilliant and unique and powerful and bold way, the rest of us are going on the journey every time we pick it up of getting away from just doing impressions of those guys and trying to find something a bit more signature.

Strats vary in so many ways. I was playing down low, I was playing up high, I was getting really high and combining all those different ranges with all these different pickups. Every sound was as strong and as true as the last. There's something glassy about a strat tone that is always what I want from a strat, but these pickups are fuller sounding. They make a bigger, broader noise. It's just there's an effortlessness to this that I recognize, even picking this one up.