Leslie West

"Mountain's first gig was at Fillmore West in 1969,” remembers Leslie West. “I had been using Marshall amps, and that’s what I expected to find when I opened a bunch of cartons that had arrived from the airport, but instead I got a Sunn - and it wasn’t even a guitar amp. The cartons contained a Sunn Coliseum P.A. head and four 4x12 cabinets, and I thought, ‘There’s no way I can get a good tone out of this thing.’ But the head had four microphone inputs and a master volume control, and when I plugged in and turned it up I got this amazing tone, which became my sound.

"And remember, this was years before amps had master volume controls. The head had huge transformers and gigantic KT88 tubes, and the cabinets were loaded with Eminence speakers, which never hurt your ears even with the treble all the way up. That’s the amp I used on Mountain Climbing, which included ‘Mississippi Queen.’”

“I have a Planet Waves tuner, a Morley A/B box, a Zoom 9000, a Boss Blues Driver, a Fulltone OCD box, a TS-9 Tube Screamer, a Boss Chorus and a Line 6 delay.”

"I have two: an SG Junior and a Les Paul Junior. I gave a ‘57 Junior to Pete Townshend years ago and I think his brother Simon has it now. I gave another one to a friend of mine. I tried a double cut Junior once, but it kept going flat and sharp in my hands because the neck moved around too much, so I stayed with the single cutaway models."

“I have a Planet Waves tuner, a Morley A/B box, a Zoom 9000, a Boss Blues Driver, a Fulltone OCD box, a TS-9 Tube Screamer, a Boss Chorus and a Line 6 delay.”

As said and built by Ed Roman: "Flowers Of Evil Guitar Leslie West

Flowers of Evil Paint Graphic, Single Cutaway, Ebony Fingerboard

Chrome Hardware, P-90 Pickup !!"

“I have a Planet Waves tuner, a Morley A/B box, a Zoom 9000, a Boss Blues Driver, a Fulltone OCD box, a TS-9 Tube Screamer, a Boss Chorus and a Line 6 delay.”

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Leslie West discusses his use of the Gibson Les Paul Junior, highlighting its role during Mountain's iconic performance at Woodstock '69.

Two were used with The Vagrants, as reported by Analog Man from conversations with Gene Cornish and Ira Stone on its official Astro Tone Fuzz product page.

This was the first pedal that Analogmike cloned, way back in about 1994. Mine was really a clone, down to the artwork on the board and the board mounted pots. Still works very well! I met Gene Cornish from The Rascals at at the Long Island, NY Classic American Guitar show in the mid 90's where I brought this prototype pedal. Gene told me that he was using one in the 60s and Leslie West saw him use it. The next time they met, he saw that Leslie was using TWO of them in line! Ira Stone, who played with and knew Leslie back then (and came to my shop to check out some pedals recently) confirmed this, saying "Leslie used two Sam Ash fuzz tones in line many times with the Vagrants".

“I have a Planet Waves tuner, a Morley A/B box, a Zoom 9000, a Boss Blues Driver, a Fulltone OCD box, a TS-9 Tube Screamer, a Boss Chorus and a Line 6 delay.”

“I have a Planet Waves tuner, a Morley A/B box, a Zoom 9000, a Boss Blues Driver, a Fulltone OCD box, a TS-9 Tube Screamer, a Boss Chorus and a Line 6 delay.”

"Two Marshall JCM900s with Greenback Celestions loaded inside. They sound great, but I’m negotiating a deal on a new line of amps. They’re 80 watts – a little less wattage – but because the deal isn’t done yet, I can’t mention any names."

"Two Marshall JCM900s with Greenback Celestions loaded inside. They sound great, but I’m negotiating a deal on a new line of amps. They’re 80 watts – a little less wattage – but because the deal isn’t done yet, I can’t mention any names."

https://www.guitarplayer.com/players/leslie-west-decodes-his-mississippi-queen-tone

In a photo on Photobucket, Leslie West is shown using a Gibson Les Paul Junior Double-Cutaway, highlighting his preference for this solid body electric guitar.

Live performance of Never In My Life from “Climbing!” in 1988

In the beginning of the vid, West talks about the guitars that he was using at that time and mentions that he uses a Steinberger. It then cuts to the song, and he’s clearly using an M series, probably a Gm-1, and obv the black one. There’s also a video from the same show of “Theme for an Imaginary Western” where he plays the same guitar.

Leslie West uses the Dean Leslie West Signature White guitar, as discussed in the My Les Paul Forum.

“I have a Planet Waves tuner, a Morley A/B box, a Zoom 9000, a Boss Blues Driver, a Fulltone OCD box, a TS-9 Tube Screamer, a Boss Chorus and a Line 6 delay.”

In the article photo, the Boss CH-1 Super CHORUS is visible, however.

Leslie West is associated with the Dean Leslie West Standard, as highlighted in an article by Ward Meeker for Vintage Guitar® magazine.

Leslie West is associated with the Dean Leslie West Signature electric guitar, as mentioned in an article by Ward Meeker in Vintage Guitar® magazine.

Dean Leslie West Signature Model

Leslie West is noted for using a Gibson Les Paul (SG) Standard with Sideways Vibrola from 1961 to 1962, as highlighted in a review on Rock Guitar Daily.

Leslie West is associated with the 1980 Electra MPC Leslie West model in black and silver, as evidenced by a user-uploaded photo on Reverb.

Gibson Flying V used by Leslie West http://imagesvh1-a.akamaihd.net/uri/mgid:ao:image:mtv:421925?quality=0.8&format=jpg&height=495&width=660

Leslie West, known for his powerful sound with The Vagrants, used the Guild Newark St. Collection Starfire IV - Flamed Maple. This is documented on Spoonercentral.

Guitarist Leslie West is associated with the Double Neck Leslie West electric guitar, as evidenced by a user-uploaded photo on Lobueguitars.

http://www.edroman.com/detail_sheets/images/lsr/lsr-wb-1-leslie-west-guitar-2000.jpg

In this February 26, 2014 interview, West mentions using a Joe Perry "Boneyard" slide and a Dean Flying V for the slide guitar sections on his recent album.

KNAC.COM: "Tell us about the gear you used. Was it different from your usual set up?"

WEST: "I changed amps on this album. I started using a Blackstar Series One 100 head with the channel-switching foot pedal for clean, fat clean, a little dirty and then full-out gain. I’m not using the “confidence” pedals anymore and the Blackstar worked out really well for me. Mike Goldberg didn’t EQ my guitar, so what you hear on the record is the sound coming from the amp. For effects, I used a TC Electronic digital delay and an octave pedal. That’s it."

"I played four of my model Dean guitars which all have my MOT Mountain of Tone pickup in them. It sounds like a P-90, but it’s a humbucker. The new Mudflap Mama model has a stainless-steel mudflap girl inlaid on the neck and it’s got the biggest sound of all of them. The Mississippi Queen sounds different all together and the graphics are amazing. I also used a Dean V that’s set up for slide. The slide I use is a Joe Perry Boneyard slide that’s made of porcelain. Porcelain works really well because you don’t hear any of the squeaking or clanking of metal. I like playing slide with open tunings."

"All of the acoustic guitar parts were played on a Laravee jumbo that I got a few years ago. It has a great sound for recording. David also used it for the acoustic parts he played."

KNAC.COM: "How are your guitars set up? What string gauge do you prefer?"

WEST: "I use half and half. I use .009s for the top three strings (E, B, G) and the bottom three (D, A, E) are from a set of .010s. I like to break it up so I get a nice fat sound with the bottom strings and I can stretch the shit out of the top strings. I guess the action is about medium, not too low, on all of them except on the V for slide."

KNAC.COM: "What type of picks do you use?"

WEST: "I use thin picks. Most people use heavy picks, but I like the thins. When they break, I like to use the corners. It’s different than playing with the smooth edge and you can get harmonics out of them."