Michael Bruce

Bruce points out that the SG meshed perfectly with his style of play. “My fingers aren’t very long, and other guitars just didn’t feel right,” he said. “I play really hard, and press down hard on the frets. It’s not exactly the feathery touch that someone like, say, Eric Clapton has. The SG allows me to play that way. I remember my first SG, which had a single-coil black pickup. Later, I got an SG Special, with two [P-90] humbuckers, and put my original single-coil pickups in that guitar. That gave it a really nice fat sound. Glen and I liked to do these long, droning things, and the SGs were perfect for that.”

I’ve also got a Yamaha SBG-500 on which I added a roller bridge and a locking nut. There are two things I need from a guitar – for it not to feedback, and not to break strings a lot.

Michael Bruce is seen using a Gibson Custom SG Standard Reissue with Maestro Vibrola in a user-uploaded photo on Photobucket.

In this still from a YouTube video, Michael Bruce's Gibson G-101 can be seen on stage during Alice Cooper's performance at the Cincinnati Pop Festival. The festival took place on June 13, 1970 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, Ohio and was later broadcast as "Midsummer Rock" on WLWT-TV in Cincinnati and syndicated across the USA. Full video here.

Michael plays the Gibson during the song "Black Juju." I could not verify if the Gibson was also the organ used on the studio recording of the song. Bruce can be heard playing the G-101 in live performances of the song through at least August 1970. Videos show that by 1971, Bruce had switched to a Farfisa VIP-255 organ.

In this screenshot, Michael Bruce can be seen playing a Farfisa VIP-255 on stage during a performance of "Black Juju" with Alice Cooper in 1971.

In this photo, Michael Bruce can be seen playing an RMI Electra-piano 300B on stage with Alice Cooper on November 1, 1972.