Mick Ralphs

In this video Mick is using a Les Paul Standard from 1958.

In 2001 Vintage Guitar interview, Ralphs mentioned his 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard, although he mentioned that it "doesn't look that great."

In this video Mick is using a sunburst Stratocaster.

As seen in this video, Mick was using Ampeg V-4 amp heads.

The Discogs page for Mick Ralphs features a photo of him with his white Fender Esquire, distinguished by its black pickguard and maple neck and fretboard.

In 2001, Ralphs mentioned having a 1957 Fender Esquire in Vintage Guitar interview.

I’ve got an old Fender ’57 Esquire I used to play all the time, then I stopped playing it and I had it hanging around. When I started playing it again I realized it’s a really great guitar.

He elaborated on the guitar in 2013 Music Radar interview.

"This is my old '57 Esquire, which I've had for years and years. I love it to bits. I found it in a shop in LA for $75 or something like that, during the Mott days. But somebody had put a humbucker in the neck position, so when I got it home I took that out and put a plain Fender Esquire plate in to cover up the hole. A '57 Esquire should have an off-white pickguard, but I've got a black one because I thought it looked cooler, like Jeff Beck or whatever. And I've used that ever since. When I first started working with Paul Rodgers it was just him and me initially, writing songs. I played him Can't Get Enough and I'd written it in an open G tuning, which is quite standard. But he said, 'Well, I like the song, but can you change the key?' So we figured out what key was good for him and it ended up being C, and I thought, 'Bloody hell - how do I do this?' I'd tuned the guitar up really high so the open chord was C. And, of course, I was popping strings. Even now it's quite a tight guitar to play, but it just had a certain ring, a certain sound. I used that on Movin' On and Can't Get Enough particularly.

In this picture he is playing a sunburst Les Paul Junior with the pickguard taken off. Ralphs used Juniors throughout his career with Mott the Hoople. He was inspired by Leslie West of Mountain, who also famously played Juniors.

According to 2013 Music Radar interview:

I used that [Les Paul Goldtop] in the early days of Mott up until the point where we went to America and I saw Leslie West playing a Junior and thought, 'I've got to get one of those.' It was such a great sound - so I played Juniors pretty much after that in Mott.

Ralphs also owns a doublecut, 1958 Les Paul Junior, according to the same interview with Music Radar.

Back in the day we used to find Juniors in pawn shops in America for $75. The first one I bought was like this one, a double-cut. I said, 'How much is that red guitar in the window?', pretending I didn't know what it was. And the guy behind the counter said '$100' and I couldn't believe my luck. But I said '$100?' And he said, 'Okay, $75' [laughs]. Those were the days when you could get bargain like that. This one is a '58 Junior that I bought when I was on the road with Bad Company earlier this year. It's a great guitar, but I paid about $5,000 for it!

[V.G.]: How are your Stratocasters set up?

[M.R.]: I have the tremolos blocked off – I don’t use the wang bar at all. It’s too trendy. In fact, I don’t even screw in the bars.

[V.G.]: What kind of strings and picks do you use?

[M.R.]: Ernie Ball Regular Slinkys, .010-.036, and Herco gold picks. I like that rough grip they have. When I play, I turn them around and use the round side so I can get harmonics. I grip so there’s only a little bit of plastic showing, and use the rough edge to scrape the strings.

Mentioned as a part of his rig in 2023 Vintage Guitar interview.

Ralphs’ classic sound onstage typically came from a Strat plugged into a Roland Boss Chorus (or earlier, an MXR Phase 90 or 100 set a slow speed) and Echoplex with only an occasional use of a wah (“Movin’ On”). In the studio, he harnessed a Morley for the Leslie heard effect on “Bad Company.”

Mentioned as a part of his rig in 2023 Vintage Guitar interview.

Ralphs’ classic sound onstage typically came from a Strat plugged into a Roland Boss Chorus (or earlier, an MXR Phase 90 or 100 set a slow speed) and Echoplex with only an occasional use of a wah (“Movin’ On”). In the studio, he harnessed a Morley for the Leslie heard effect on “Bad Company.”

Mentioned in a 2023 Vintage Guitar rundown.

In the mid ’60s, Ralphs relied on a pair of Vox AC30 amps, but by ’69 upgraded to Marshall 100-watt stacks with Mott.

Mentioned in a 2023 Vintage Guitar rundown.

His main acoustics were a Martin D-76 Bicentennial and a ’30s Gibson parlor, and played Kirke’s Ramirez classical for the “Crazy Circles” solo.

Mentioned in a 2023 Vintage Guitar rundown.

He also had a Jazzmaster, Telecaster bass, Tele with maple board, Tele with Strat neck (once owned by Clapton), Travis Bean, Greco doubleneck, Ibanez Artist, Danaelectro electric sitar, Silvertone amp-in-case, and red National with aluminum neck.

Mentioned in 2023 Vintage Guitar rundown.

By ’79, his collection included ’58 and ’59 Les Paul Standards, a ’58 Flying V, blond ’59 ES-335, a Firebird I, and a humbucker-equipped L-5S.

Mentioned in 2023 Vintage Guitar rundown.

By ’79, his collection included ’58 and ’59 Les Paul Standards, a ’58 Flying V, blond ’59 ES-335, a Firebird I, and a humbucker-equipped L-5S.

In 2001 Vintage Guitar interview, Ralphs mentioned having an ES-335 reissue.

Mentioned in 2023 Vintage Guitar rundown.

By ’79, his collection included ’58 and ’59 Les Paul Standards, a ’58 Flying V, blond ’59 ES-335, a Firebird I, and a humbucker-equipped L-5S.

Mentioned in 2023 Vintage Guitar rundown.

By ’79, his collection included ’58 and ’59 Les Paul Standards, a ’58 Flying V, blond ’59 ES-335, a Firebird I, and a humbucker-equipped L-5S.

Mentioned in 2023 Vintage Guitar rundown.

While working with Jimmy Cliff in ’69 he acquired a ’61 Gibson SG/Les Paul with sideways vibrola. He played it on Mott’s debut album before replacing it with a modified ’54 Les Paul with stop tailpiece and P-90 pickups on Mad Shadows.

Ralphs also mentioned SG/Les Paul Standard in a 2013 Music Radar interview, using it mainly during The Shakedown Sound era (between 1967 and 1968).

1954 Custom Shop Stratocaster was used by Ralphs during recording of "The 'Original' Bad Co. Anthology", according to 2001 Vintage Guitar interview.

For my rhythm tracks on all of the songs, I used either a Japanese ’50s reissue Strat or a blond Custom Shop ’54 reissue Strat. I used the Custom Shop Strat for all the slide parts.

Mentioned in 2001 Vintage Guitar interview as his strings of choice.

Ernie Ball Regular Slinkys, .010-.036 [sic], and Herco gold picks. I like that rough grip they have. When I play, I turn them around and use the round side so I can get harmonics. I grip so there’s only a little bit of plastic showing, and use the rough edge to scrape the strings.

Mentioned in 2001 Vintage Guitar interview.

I’ve also got two cheap Epiphone solidbodies, one is like a Les Paul Junior and the other is an LP100, which is like a plain Les Paul Standard with a thin body and a bolt-on neck. It sounds great.

Mentioned in 2001 Vintage Guitar interview.

I’ve also got two cheap Epiphone solidbodies, one is like a Les Paul Junior and the other is an LP100, which is like a plain Les Paul Standard with a thin body and a bolt-on neck. It sounds great.

Used for recording "All the Young Dudes" in 1972.

"I was still using the old Marshalls, but probably a 100-watt head by then. And I had a very early Les Paul Goldtop, with two P-90s - the ones with the stop-tailpiece - that I'd found in the Orange shop in London years ago. I was looking at it and it was, like, £200. Of course, they're worth much more now, but it was a great guitar. So I went to Guy Stevens who was our mentor at Island Records. I said, 'I've just seen this guitar and it's great,' and he said, 'You've got to have it now!" And I said, 'Well, I haven't got any money,' and he said, 'I'll get the money from Island, don't worry.' Because he was very good at recognising that, if you found a guitar you like, you play it to the max.

Used during Mott The Hoople's 2009 reunion, according to 2013 Music Radar interview.

Last time we did Mott, my tech managed to get me some JTM45 hand-wired amps, which is the closest thing you can get to the old Marshall heads. They're really, really good and I used two of those

Mentioned in 2013 Music Radar interview as one of Ralphs' favourite guitars.

I came across these guitars some years back when I was on the road with Bad Company. Someone explained to me that it was made by Gibson when they bought Epiphone out, back around 1957. They made the slab-body Coronet that I've got for maybe one or two years in the late 1950s. They're basically like a Les Paul Junior, but they've got the Epiphone 'New Yorker' pickup in the bridge and some old radio dials!

In this 1975 photo of Ralphs performing with Bad Company, he can be seen with his Greco signature model, MR-1000.

He used a .010-.052 Ernie Ball set on most guitars

He used an Ernie Ball .009-.042 set on open-tuned guitars.

According to the article "Fretprints: Mick Ralphs" by Wolf Marshall in Vintage Guitar Magazine, Mick Ralphs had a Fender Telecaster Bass in his collection by 1979.

Mick Ralphs is confirmed to use the Maestro Echoplex as part of his classic onstage sound, typically combined with a Stratocaster and a Roland Boss Chorus, or earlier, an MXR Phase 90 or 100 set at a slow speed. This information is sourced from Wolf Marshall's article "Fretprints: Mick Ralphs" in Vintage Guitar® magazine.

Mick Ralphs confirmed his use of a Fender Telecaster (1966) in his early gear lineup, stating, "What I did was trade the Burns and some money for a Telecaster. It was just the regular, stock mid-’60s model, probably a ’66. It was second-hand." He described his setup as "two AC30s and a Fender Telecaster," running the guitar straight into the amps and adjusting the bridge pickup to avoid excessive high frequencies. This information is supported by a quote from an interview on GuitarPlayer.com.

Mick Ralphs used a 1954 Les Paul Goldtop, as he recounted trading his SG Les Paul and £100 for the guitar at a shop in London. He specifically mentioned using this Goldtop on the album "Mad Shadows" with Mott the Hoople. This information is supported by an article from GuitarPlayer, where Ralphs discusses his guitar choices.