Johnny Marr

"It was very deliberate. It was right when I got a white Strat. I used it on [Unloveable] and I used it on “A Boy with A Thorn in His Side.” But “Unloveable” was the first time I deliberately used that Strat sound for a Smiths song.

I remember scratching my chin and thinking, Hmmm ok, Can I get away with this? You can particularly tell on that end. I used it on the outro of “Some Girls are Bigger than Others.” But “Unloveable” was the first of that whole row of songs."

This Strat was first seen in the background when the Smiths were interviewed by Tony Wilson for Granada Reports on Feburary 21st, 1985. The following day Johnny used it for the Smiths' Oxford Road Show performance. This was one of Johnny's main guitars on the 1986 tours. Johnny played it in standard tuning with no capo, while the '62 Strat was a dedicated capo guitar.

Source: www.smithsonguitar.com/2008/12/johnny-marrs-gear.html

In this picture Johnny Marr can be seen playing this guitar.

"This is my 1983 Black Rickenbacker 330 that I used throughout The Smiths. I got it from A1 Repairs on Oxford Road in Manchester and it was my main guitar at all the early gigs. It's the sound of the riff on 'What Difference Does It Make' and 'Reel Around The Fountain', all of the first album and on other albums too. I still use it now.

I've got my old faithful which is my Rickenbacker 330; a 6 string. I find that this one is the workhorse, it's the one that I use on most of the numbers live and in rehearsals."

This was a major guitar throughout the Smiths live and recorded history. Retired by Johnny sometime in early 1985 for live use, it was later used regularly by Craig Gannon in 1986 as one of his 3 primary live guitars. It has "button top" style higain pickups and Grover slimline tuners. These tuners were used on Rickenbackers for a very short transitional period, and are fairly rare.

Source: http://www.smithsonguitar.com/2008/12/johnny-marrs-gear.html

Johnny Marr gave a quote saying that he uses a Rickenbacker 360 12 String guitar.

"I met Sire Records boss Seymour Stein in late 1983 when the Smiths were about to sign to the legendary New York label. Seymour told me that he had once gone to a guitar store on 48th Street with Brian Jones to get him a guitar when the Rolling Stones were in town, so I suggested that if I signed with Sire he should buy me a guitar. We signed the contract on January 2, 1984, and true to his word, Seymour took me down to We Buy Guitars on 48th and bought me the 1959 Gibson 355. I took it back to the Iroquois Hotel and wrote "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" and "Girl Afraid". It became my main guitar for quite a while, and I'm told it inspired Bernard Butler and Noel Gallagher to get buy one of their own. It's still one of my favorites."

-Excerpt from Pat Graham's book Instrument, used with permission.

Used on Heaven Knows..., Nowhere Fast, and the 1984-5 Smiths tour.

"On the first tour I also ended up using the Gibson 355 quite a lot. As it was wired in stereo we just didn't have any power at all, so I got it re-wired and also put it through a Boss equaliser to give it some boost."

The first documented appearance of the guitar was January 26, 1984 on Top Of The Pops. It's last known documented appearance was Feburary 14, 1985 also on Top Of The Pops.

At 0:12 in this video of the song Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now, Johnny Marr can be seen playing this guitar.

Used on Heaven Knows... and Strangeways Here We Come.

"I've got a Telecaster, made by Roger Giffin, which is a phenomenal guitar; it's in a dark-green sunburst."

I have read rumours that this guitar was bought from Alan Rogan, who sold Johnny several of Pete Townsend's guitars. Roger Giffin made a lot of Tele's for Pete in the 80's. This guitar is pretty unique, though, and I have never seen Pete playing it. Note the mini-toggle switch between the volume and tone knobs, likely a coil-tap for the humbucker. The humbucker looks like it could be a Super Distortion.

Source: www.smithsonguitar.com/2008/12/johnny-marrs-gear.html

Johnny Marr says, "The 1963 Gibson SG that was my main guitar until it was stolen from the Healers show at the Scala, London in 2000. Amazingly this guitar was retrieved from the person who stole it in 2010," about his Gibson SG on this page of his official website.

It is unsure whether is this a 1963 or 1964 Gibson SG, because this Gibson article lists this story under fact number 33. "A theme is developing here. Ex-Smith Johnny Marr had his favorite red Gibson SG Standard (a ’64) stolen in 2000. The thief eventually confessed to police, returned it, and was sentenced to 200 hours community service. Watch a rarity: Johnny Marr singing and playing his ’64 SG on The Late Show with David Letterman". Apparently, this is the video Gibson talks about. He can be seen playing that guitar at 1:33 minute mark for song "The Last Ride" with The Healers.

This 1966 Gibson ES-335 12 String is also used by Johnny Marr. He is famous for his "guitar break" in the song "Shoplifters Of The World Unite" in this video.

On his official website, Johnny Marr says, "1964 Fender Jazzmaster that I used for the Modest Mouse LP “We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank” and The Cribs “Ignore The Ignorant” LP. This guitar played the main riff on “We Share The Same Skies”

Johnny Marr mentioned using a Martin D-28, likely a model from the 1970s, as detailed on Smithsonguitar's overview of his gear.

On Johnny Marr's website, he lists a Gibson Les Paul Special among his guitars.

On his official website, Johnny Marr says,"The Gretsch Country Gentleman made for me in 2008. I used this guitar to write and record “Satellite Skin” for Modest Mouse."

"A lot of 'The Smiths' was actually recorded with a '54 Telecaster belonging to John Porter. I used a Rickenbacker 360 12-string as well, and that was the guitar which subsequently got all the attention, but in fact it was mainly the Tele, and a bit of Les Paul.

"This Charming Man" was the first record where I used those highlife-sounding runs in 3rds. I'm tuned up to F# and I finger it in G, so it comes out in A. There are about 15 tracks of guitar. People thought the main guitar was a Rickenbacker, but it's really a '54 Tele."

John Porter said this about the guitar in a 2008 interview: "I also have one that's a refinished guitar, back to butterscotch. It's a 1954 I got from an old friend Alan Rogan when all my guitars were stolen. It had a route for a humbucker, a couple of frets were missing, the pickguard was in pieces, and the nut had fallen out... I bought it for £17 and Roger [Giffin] refurbished it. It became a fantastic guitar! When I was working with the Smiths, Johnny only had two guitars - a Rickenbacker and a Gretsch Super Chet, I believe. It was a bit limited; to my ear we needed a good Tele. I brought in the refin, and Johnny really loved it. So every record I did with the Smiths, on every single song, most of the chiming Rickenbackers are in fact the Tele!"

Source: www.smithsonguitar.com/2008/12/johnny-marrs-gear.html

Johnny Marr talks at length about his signature model Jaguar guitar by Fender in this video interview.

He regularly plays one of his many signature models in various available colors, blue, metallic orange, or green live in concert or in the studio. He can be seen playing in this video from the Jimmy Fallon show. The guitar is shown throughout the video.

He can be seen holding one in a natural finish in an Instagram post he captioned:

Jag time. Album 4. @fender @souldierstraps

Bought for Meat Is Murder tour, also used on 'How Soon Is Now?'.

"My other Les Paul is a mid-'80s one with a Bigsby retro-fitted; that's the one I used on 'How Soon Is Now?'.

The Les Paul I used on the second Smiths album is the one I've still got now, the cherry one. I put a retro-fit Bigsby on it. I also put on Seymour Duncans and a coil tap.

I was looking for a harder sound for the Meat Is Murder album, and I tried a few different guitars before coming around to the Les Paul. There are a lot of traditional rock cliches associated with this make of guitar, so I had to work past that. This was used to write Nowhere Fast, That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore and I Want The One I Can't Have. I used it to record The Headmaster Ritual."

This was Johnny's first "main" Les Paul, which had it's first documented appearance on December 1, 1984 and it's last appearance was at the Smiths final show on December 12, 1986. There were periods where it saw less use, when the '72 Custom took over as Johnny's go-to Les Paul, but it was one of the 3 Les Paul's he regularly used on the final Smiths tour. The Bigsby was installed in mid-March, 1985.

Source: http://www.smithsonguitar.com/2008/12/johnny-marrs-gear.html

"Noel [Gallagher] still has the Les Paul. It was a 1960 sunburst (refinished) that was given to Pete Townshend by Joe Walsh. The machine heads were replaced before I got it. I used it on "Panic" by The Smiths, also "London", "Ask" and "Half A Person"."

This was one of Johnny's main live guitars during 1986. It has a very pronounced flame top, and more of a cherry finish than his '59 Les Paul. The bridge humbucker is uncovered with white/cream bobbins. This guitar was previously owned by Pete Townshend, and I'm assuming that it was in the group of guitars that Johnny bought from Alan Rogan. It was given to Noel Gallagher in 1994(seen here, here, here and here), it was used in the "Live Forever" video. Noel broke the guitar during a stage fight, and was subsequently given Johnny's 1972 Les Paul Custom as a replacement.

Source: http://www.smithsonguitar.com/2008/12/johnny-marrs-gear.html

The 1963 Epiphone Casino that I used to record the main tremolo sound on 'How Soon Is Now'. I recording the rhythm part and then sent the track out to four Fender Twin Reverbs all with tremolo on and had to keep stopping the song when the amps went out of sync. It took quite a long time. I wrote 'Nowhere Fast' on this guitar and played it at the Glastonbury Festival in 1984. The picture on the inside of Hatful Of Hollow was taken in the dressing room before we went on stage so I have the guitar on in that picture.

I've also got an old Epiphone Casino. That's one of my favorites. I shopped around for it because I saw a few of them with P90 pick-ups on. I knew I'd seen one with a Bigsby, but I didn't know where. As it turned out I think it was Ray Davies who used to have a Bigsby on his instrument. John Porter, our producer, advised me against getting one with a Bigsby on, because of tuning problems. It doesn't seem to be so bad on the Epiphone.

Source: http://www.smithsonguitar.com/2008/12/johnny-marrs-gear.html

"I've had this guitar longer than any other. It cost me £900 in the early Eighties, which was a fortune back then. I wrote quite a few Smiths songs on this, including Well I Wonder and Cemetry Gates."

Source: www.smithsonguitar.com/2008/12/johnny-marrs-gear.html

On this page of Johnny Marr's website, one can see his 1960 Les Paul Custom, of which he says, "My 1960 Les Paul Custom that I used on the Boomslang album."

Johnny Marr talks about his 1962 Epiphone Coronet on this page of his website. He says, "This is a 1962 Epiphone Coronet. Shortly after I got it I put it in “Nashville Tuning”, which means putting on an electric 12 string set (the bottom four strings are an octave higher than standard). It feels like your playing backwards because the higher strings are at the bottom. I used it to double a lot of the Rickenbacker arpeggios on Smiths records, most notably on “William It Was Really Nothing”, it’s also the main guitar on “Half A Person”."

In this picture Johnny Marr can be seen with a blonde Fender Telecaster.

As said on Johnny's website:

"This is the 1963 Black Jaguar that I got from Isaac Brock when I joined Modest Mouse. Isaac didn’t like it but I loved it and I fixed it up and got it going. I wrote “Dashboard” on it and used it on the tour. Me and Jeremiah Green went out to Walmart in Oxford Mississippi at three am on a break whilst recording the Modest Mouse album and bought a load of stickers."

In this picture Johnny Marr can be seen playing this guitar.

In this picture Johnny Marr can be seen playing this guitar.

"The Gretsch 6120 that I used to write and record "Stretch Out And Wait". You can hear it on "Is It Really So Strange?" too. I got it from The Who and It's one of the best old 1960's Gretsch's that I've played. I got introduced to a guy called Alan Rogan who used to work for Townshend, Clapton and Keith Richards. I ended up getting a load of guitars off him. That's where the Gretsch 6120 came in. It's the one Townshend played on loads of Who stuff. I don't know why he sold it to a geek like me."

Johnny used this 6120 on 5 out of 6 documented dates of the Smith's final 1986 tour, for Meat Is Murder only. It was tuned to Open G, the same tuning used on "Stretch Out And Wait" and "The Headmaster Ritual".

Source: http://www.smithsonguitar.com/2008/12/johnny-marrs-gear.html

Johnny Marr has a 1980 Gibson Flying V listed among his guitars, on his website.

At 0:39 in this performance of William it Was Really Nothing on Top Of The Pops on August 30 in 1984, Johnny Marr can be seen playing this guitar.

Custom guitar made by luthier Danny Ferrington for Elvis Costello, used on August 30th 1984 in a performance of "William, It Was Really Nothing" on Top Of The Pops. This guitar was apparently loaned to Johnny by Elvis for this performance. It was also used by Aztec Camera on another episode of TOTP, after which Roddy Frame had Ferrington make two guitars for him inspired by this Costello acoustic.

Source: www.smithsonguitar.com/2008/12/johnny-marrs-gear.html

"1968 Gibson 345 Stereo converted to Mono. Used for a lot of Electronic’s 2nd and 3rd LP and Boomslang by The Healers," says Johnny Marr, on this page of his official website.

Nevern Square, Earls Court. William It Was Really Nothing, Please Please Please, How Soon Is Now writing session.

"I got this J160 from Denmark Street when I moved to Earl's Court in 1984. I wanted one because John Lennon used one on the early Beatle's albums and I liked 'I Should've Known Better' and 'I'll Be Back'. I wrote 'Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want' on it and 'William It Was Really Nothing'."

Source: www.smithsonguitar.com/2008/12/johnny-marrs-gear.html

My 1972 Telecaster that I bought from Louisville Kentucky in Summer 2007. I used it at Coyote’s the night I bought it on the song “Broke”. I play “King Rat” on it too. www.johnny-marr.com/guitarchestra-2/1972-telecaster

On his website, Johnny Marr says, "Gibson Chet Atkins CE Nylon string Classical Electric guitar I used on La Cassa by K-Klass."

Johnny Marr's website lists a Gibson SG, described as a "1962 Gibson SG with no Vibrato bar."