Mike McCready

"This was given to me by my wife Ashley for my 40th birthday. What I love about it, as many things, I love the New York Dolls, love Johnny Thunders - he had one of these probably when they were $150 back in the early 1970s. I loved how cool it looked and how it's cracked. This one had like a paint problem earlier on so they couldn't sell it, or they sold it for cheaper back in the day. But I got it from London - it wasn't cheap - I got it for my birthday. I think I use this for 'Mind Your Manners' which is one of our new songs on the new record because it's got this P90. It's got that that great sound. It just knows how to break up; it sounds tough! So I'm kind of gearing more towards these kind of pickups these days. This is a great guitar - 1959, again. I just love that year. I don't know what it is, there's just something about it. I even have it tattooed - 59. So that's it: the TV Yellow, it looked great on TV in the 50s. It looked white, I guess."

"I think that my newest favorite one is the White Falcon. That's a reissue. I just like how it looks. Pretty cool lookin'. So I'll use that on some stuff."

"Yeah, the double-neck... My kind of influence and brain at that time was way into Jimmy Page. I still have it and I think I used it on “Lifeless Dead” and a couple others. The one that sticks out the most and still kind of does in a haunting sort of way is the last song, “All Alone.” If you can hear that, you know what it is. I was playing the 6-string neck with the pickups off so you’re getting the relative harmonics off that with what is happening on the 12-string neck up top with the pickups on. That actually happened out of an accident, I was just messing around trying to get the 6-string neck to work but I didn’t have my switches on in the right order but I heard this chiming kind of thing coming out of the guitar. I was like ‘We gotta do something with this, let’s just jam on it’."

"Well there’s the King of Kings, the 1959 Gibson Les Paul that I love and cherish. I was very lucky to find it from Danny’s Music in Everett [Washington] about 17 years ago. Right around the time of the Mad Season record actually. It was ridiculously priced back then, it was like $25,000 or something. I’m probably not going to take it out as much coming up but it’s hard because nothing sounds or plays that good. I use it for “Alive” when we’re out there. I can’t get the tone from any other Les Paul that that thing gets. I mean to be Spinal Tap about it, with the sustain I can hold it, have a bite and come back. [Laughs] It’s totally true though, the thing just plays like butter and it’s beautiful, a little dinged up. That being said, I’ll probably bring it out on the road this year. I probably shouldn’t but guitars are meant to be played. I don’t want to hold it and be precious with it to the point that I don’t enjoy it and it makes the songs sound better to me when I use that guitar."

"It all started with the Strat because I was reading an article with Stevie Ray Vaughn a long time ago and the number 1959 stuck out to me for some reason. So I started searching those out as the band got more popular and I could actually afford one, and I found [this] one in Los Angeles. That is what introduced me to the whole world, the 1959s. My first '59 I got it because I had read somewhere an article with Stevie Ray Vaughn and he was into '59 Strats, and I was - was and still am - very much into his playing. Luckily I got to see Stevie four times when he was alive, in Seattle. He played at a crazy place in Everett. He played there, he played the Paramount and then the Gorge twice so I got to see him all four times... But that's why I got this guitar. I've used it on Even Flow consistently for years - over 10 years, 15 years probably. I've been mixing it up a little bit lately, but this one's the one I use mostly. I use this on 'Yellow Ledbetter', I use this I think for the Star Spangled Banner when I do it. I use it on a lot of stuff. It's one of my go-to guitars, though, for sure. For leads, it's really easy to play. And it's worn in and the neck is totally amazing. It's just trashed - in a good way! That's the beauty of it. That's what I love about it."

In this video at of Pearl Jam playing the Pinkpop festival in 1992, Mike McCready can be seen playing a Fender Stratocaster in Aged White. The guitar can be seen at 7:00 into the video.

He can also be seen holding the guitar in the picture linked. https://youtubemusicsucks.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/mike-and-stone.jpg

"The latest one that I love a lot is the David Gilmour Fender Black Stratocaster. Whew! Andy Wolf had one of those and I played it and I was like ‘This thing plays amazing!’"

"I also have a ’52 refinished Fender Telecaster."

Mike McCready played this guitar probably just once. He used it for the song "November Hotel" during the RKCNDY show with Mad Season in Seattle. After this song, which was the last of the set, he destroyed it live on stage. McCready turned the guitar upside down because he is a right-handed person. He pulled the strings the other way around and attached the strap to the other side of the guitar's body.

Using this playing Little Wing

At around 29:19 you can see him playing a Tele with some sort of paint or stickers on it

Mike McCready discusses his collaboration with Fender Custom Shop, who remade his 1960 Stratocaster:

Two huge pivotal moments in my life were associated with Fender Stratocaster. And the cool thing about the Stratocaster is like I knew I could really rip on it. I knew it because it was such a good guitar. My first recordings with the Stratocaster were the Ten record and Temple of the Dog. I'm Mike McCready and I play in a band called Pearl Jam and this is my 1960 Fender Stratocaster that I bought many many years ago around 1992 and I've had it ever since. It's probably is my first favorite guitar. I was really interested when Fender offered to recreate this Stratocaster because it was a huge honor. ... Is this the custom shop one I have in my hand? Again, I literally just forgot that this is not the real one. So yes, this is my, the Mike McCready, 1960 Fender custom shop Stratocaster that I thought was the real thing. That's a good sign, right there. Vincent Van Trigt, who was the master builder did a fantastic job. It plays identical to how my original 1960 plays. All of this scratching and all this stuff, this was years of me strumming like that on the regular one and ripping the finish off by playing live. He did a great job of making it look exactly like my real one. Now these aren't original, even on my own but these look like the ones that aren't original on my own. Even this false serial number that someone else put on the guitar, which is under the real serial number, it's on this one too. He did that much of a thorough job, even down to the this how the chip came out, which I'll never forget. ... And Josefina Campos who wound the pickups to the specific quality of my original 1960. She did a fantastic job. She got the warmth of the pickups. She got the same sound of the out of phase, the same sound as the treble pickup. I don't know how she did it. There's an art to that that I don't understand but she did a phenomenal job and I can tell by hearing it. I know I haven't figured out everything that I can do with this guitar and I never will but I'd like to be able to expand what I've done over the last thousand shows, whatever, you know?

"I bought a single-cutaway Gibson Les Paul Junior."

"This is an SG Jeff Tweedy model. I love the Pelham blue color of it."

Used during vs. tour as seen in this picture of Verona '93

here he is actually playing a gibson firebird (not a tele)

Acccording to Premier Guitar, Mike McCready owns a Gibson 1957 Yellow Les Paul Special Electric Guitar.

In this photo, one can see Mike playing a black S-100 Polara.

Featured in this October 18, 2018 Instagram post by Wire Instruments.

Seattle’s finest, Mike McCready of @pearljam looking quite dapper backstage @aclfestival with Wire Instruments Sleepwalker #23 of 27 built! #rareguitars #industrialdesign #seattle #austincitylimits #mikemccready #pearljam

"I have a Gretsch Billy Zoom model."

Mike McCready with Gibson ES-390 Red

Mike McCready seen throughout the YouTube video playing this guitar only in this exhibition with legendary local 80s Seattle rock band, Shadow.

Mike McCready can be seen using a Gibson Flying V.

Mike McCready of Pearl Jam fame shows how the 2013 song 'Sirens' was made on his old 1974 Martin D-28

You can see McCready using a white 70s style flying v with block inlays when Pearl Jam play Alive at the home shows in Seattle (2018)

Mike can be seen using a cherry sunburst les paul standard in this photo, he can also be seen using it during multiple songs during pearl jam's set at pinkpop 1992.

In this Pearl Jam concert at Lollapalooza in 1992, you see Mike McCready using his Stevie Ray Vaughan Signature Stratocaster in multiple songs throughout the show, specifically starting at 15:48, you get to see an up close solo where Mike is using this guitar.

In this video from Fender, Mike McCready discusses his signature Stratocaster.

In the video "Pearl Jam - Do the Evolution (Live from Monkeywrench Radio)" by PearljamVEVO, Mike McCready can be seen playing an Ibanez Flying V from 2:43 to 2:51.

In an interview with Mike McCready from Vintage Guitar, Mike talks about his ’57 reissue Fender Stratocaster:

Which Strat did you use to record “Yellow Ledbetter”?

Mike McCready: That was a ’57 reissue with a maple neck that I bought around the time Jeff and Stone bought the ’62 reissue for me. But I did use the ’60 to play “Ledbetter” live forever because I knew it would sound good and deliver what I needed.

Do you still have the ’57 reissue?

Mike McCready: Yes, it’s in many pieces somewhere, along with the ’62 reissue I smashed to pieces during a Mad Season concert at the Moore Theater [in Seattle]. They were both really cool guitars, but when we were hitting those highs, and me being a fan of Jimi Hendrix and The Who, all of these things going through my mind and I was breaking s**t. It just happened because it always felt so good.