John Mayall

"All the guitars in my past have been hand-me-downs and not very good, but the one on the cover of A Special Life is my personal favourite.

That one is an Eric Johnson Stratocaster in origin, but with all the guitars I have, I cut them up and make personal designs out of them. I cut out the parts I don’t need, tear out everything except one pickup and volume control, then whatever shape is left, I decorate it."

According to this photo from an issue of Guitarist magazine.

According to this photo from an issue of Guitarist magazine, Mayall uses Squier Stratocaster and Bullet models that are sawed down to size. One example can be seen here and here from the same source.

"'It’s been sitting in a closet for a while. The guitar on A Special Life album was what I was using on the road for that particular album. But then I found the semi-acoustic one, the Gibson you’re talking about. I thought I’d give that one a try, because it is really light-weight, and it’s just a different feel. So, I’ve been using it all this year, and maybe a bit through last year too. It’s very responsive. It’s light-weight, so you can just have it slung over one shoulder Freddie King style. It’s run through the Roland Jazz Chorus, that’s what I always use for my guitar, that’s the sound.'

(...) John Mayall’s 1958 Gibson ES-125 - all stock. The only alteration made to the instrument is Mayall’s carvings around the edge of the body. Mayall uses .009 gauge strings on the guitar."

From this interview with Gibson:

But then I found the semi-acoustic one, the Gibson [ES-125] you’re talking about. I thought I’d give that one a try, because it is really light-weight, and it’s just a different feel. So, I’ve been using it all this year, and maybe a bit through last year too. It’s very responsive. It’s light-weight, so you can just have it slung over one shoulder Freddie King style. It’s run through the Roland Jazz Chorus, that’s what I always use for my guitar, that’s the sound.

Mayall is credited with playing a Cembalet on the album John Mayall Plays John Mayall.

Playing Roland RD-700GX in this video.