Kristin Hersh

"I’m playing a Tele Thinline, and that’s what I used on most of the record. It has a little more character, a little more balance, and I can put chromes on it and the character doesn’t suffer." said Kristin in this interview

"I play a Strat and a Telecaster with Throwing Muses"

Hersh reads from her 2010 memoir, Rat Girl, while another of her favorite guitars, an ESP Xtone, hangs on her shoulders. “That became my most solid, roadworthy guitar for a while,” she says. “It takes effects well without feeding back.” Photo by Tony Nelson

Kristin Hersh’s favorite acoustic is a one-of-a-kind, Collings C10 cutaway, handbuilt for her by Bill Collings. She selected the body shape. Note the “K” on the headstock.

Another distinctive acoustic sound comes from a Nashville-tuned Gibson J-45. “We’ve been using that on almost every solo record,” Rizzo says. “A lot of people think she’s playing a 12-string, but what’s happening is it’s the 6-string and the Nashville played together. She can play the exact same thing from take to take so they sound like a 12-string, which is pretty cool. And sometimes it sounds very physical. Her hands can be so strong that it’s like, ‘How the hell is she playing that?’”