John Flansburgh

In this photo, John Flansburgh can be seen playing a Fender Telecaster.

John can be seen playing a black Danelectro U-2 while preforming "Tender Is The Mind"

John Flansburgh can be seen with a red Fender Jazzmaster in this photo.

Mr. Flansburgh can be seem playing the guitar here.

In this video, at 0:43, Flansburgh can be seen playing a Gibson ES-335.

Flansburgh also owned a right-handed model restrung for left-handed players, but it was stolen from his apartment early in the band's career.

In this photo, Flansburgh is seen with Gretsch G6118T Anniversary model.

In a user-uploaded photo, John Flansburgh is pictured with a Danelectro Coral Longhorn, which appears to have had a pickguard added. This is a rare sighting, as he has been seen with this guitar only once. The guitar might be a Thinline model, though no additional photos are available to confirm this detail.

This guitar was custom-built by Chris Cush of the now-defunct Mojo Guitar Shop in New York at the request of John Flansburgh. Its first public appearance was in the music video for "The Statue Got Me High" and was used in many recordings since then. It is painted in a golden color on the front and a black color on the back, has a rosewood Telecaster-like neck as well as a vintage Telecaster bridge, a Gretsch Filtertron pickup near the neck, and a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails pickup on the bridge. An unusual feature of the guitar is that it has a working VU meter near the control knobs. One promotional photo suggests that it had a black pickguard at one point. It was built for left-handed players.

In this image taken around 1990, you can see Flansburgh holding a Fender MIJ '62 reissue telecaster, in a left-handed orientation. Some key aspects of this guitar are the white binding around the body and the softer 'woodgrain' effect due to the sunburst finish used. The video reveals another aspect of recognition at 0:55, being the slightly more orange headstock due to the lacquer used.

In this video, at 3:33, one can see Flansburgh playing Fender American Deluxe Tele.

JF (shortened for John Flansburgh) wrote this on TMBG's Facebook profile.

"JF: celebrating with my new Airline bighorn guitar--just in time for International Left-Handed Day! Sinistrophobes take cover, lefties unite and take over!"

Flansburgh posted a photo of his Danelectro on Instagram with the caption "When it really comes down to it, this is where I'm always at."

In ‘88 I also got another Fernandes but this was a metallic purple Strat (!) which is any whammy bars you hear on Lincoln (Purple Toupee) It’s on a lot of Lincoln actually-but came and went as things did. - John Flansburgh (source: https://tmbgareok.tumblr.com/post/182271580271/over-the-years-ive-noticed-you-played-various)

Flansburgh claims to have bought this guitar in 1988 but this concert footage is from 1987. It's possible that Flansburgh misremembered the year he bought this guitar. The tone knob for the middle pickup appears to have been missing/replaced.

Throughout the video, Flansburgh is seen with a FG-160-BK

John Flansburgh used a Gibson SG Standard in the 2000s, as noted on the TMBW: The They Might Be Giants Knowledge Base.

According to the official wiki :

Fender Mustang (light blue) - "My first guitar was electric. It was a baby-blue Fender Mustang. I learned to play while working at a parking lot in Washington D.C."[5] He started out with only the top three strings, as it was easier to wrap his hand around and form chords. There are photos of him playing it in about 1980-81, during The Blackouts and The Turtlenecks period.

According to the official wiki

Gibson ES-330 (cherry red) - One of Flansburgh's earliest guitars. "I never even thought about other guitars I enjoyed it so much. […] It is the double speed guitar on the recording They Might Be Giants—flown in from the original demo made five years before the album) but alas it was stolen in a big apartment theft."[13] This was the guitar used at the El Grupo De Rock And Roll show.

According to the official wiki :

Gibson L1 acoustic guitar - Custom built during the John Henry sessions.

According to the official wiki :

Gretsch Bo Diddley prototype (firebird red) - Borrowed for use in the video for "(She Was A) Hotel Detective" (1986).

This Instagram post shows various guitars owned by Flansburgh, including the Fender XII. Flansburgh also posted a closeup photo of the headstock here -> https://www.instagram.com/p/bzQbk8K1wN/

John Flansburgh is pictured with a Gretsch 6120 guitar in this promotional photo.