Nels Cline

"This is my main Jazzmaster, this is the first one I ever owned," Cline says in this premier guitar interview at (0:10). "I bought it from Mike Watt, my friend, inspiration, a fearless bass player," he said. "I've broken virtually everything on it at some point except for the knobs and the pickups," the Wilco guitarist said. "It has a Mastery bridge, as virtually all my guitars- Jaguars and Jazzmasters - have the Mastery bridge so the strings don't move around...The reason I love Jazzmasters," he says, "is everything about the shape, the feel of the guitar, the sound, strings behind the bridge, and virtual indestructibility."

"My guitar (the second one here, the 1959 Fender Jazzmaster) was purchased in the summer of 1995 from Mike Watt after the first tour by The Crew of the Flying Saucer. I had used my old '66 Jaguar on Watt's first solo record and really didn't know the difference between a Jaguar and a Jazzmaster other than the different pickups and switching configurations. I didn't know then that 1959 is one of the best years for Jazzmasters, and that this would end up being my favorite guitar. I first chose both Jazzmasters and Jaguars for their feel and because they have strings behind the bridge and single-coil pickups. I was copying Sonic Youth and Tom Verlaine, basically. But when I finally played the Jazzmaster, I was smitten with the whole feeling of the neck and body, the sound, and the inherent durability. Watt engraved his name on the base of the neck where it joins the body and on the base of the tremolo assembly. He engraves everything!

This guitar has done more tours and records than I can count: all the Mike Watt tours, the Geraldine Fibbers tours and Butch album, later records with the Fibbers' CarlaBozulich and Scarnella, dozens of recordings by various improvised projects, including all my solo records since The Inkling, tours with Wilco, and all three records I made with them. This guitar mostly lives in Chicago in the Wilco loft now, and I have a different '59 at home in Los Angeles so that I don't always have to fly back and forth with it. I have been extremely hard on it, as you can see — it was in perfect shape when I got it. I play hard. There is actually a very deep and ever-deepening gouge above where the strings stretch from the bridge to the tailpiece, where I play a lot and, apparently, with considerable vigor!

Admittedly, the finish was delicate. It is easy to scratch the paint, revealing a purplish hue, much like eggplant. I used to wear my keys on my pant loop, and after hopping up and down on stage with Watt, I created an interesting and rather sizable stippling on the back of the guitar. In the Geraldine Fibbers, I would sometimes throw the guitar to our drummer Kevin Fitzgerald and play my effects pedals while he savaged it with drumsticks, sometimes ripping out the strings, which is difficult to do on a Fender guitar, and bleeding on it. I have bled on it plenty. The Geraldine Fibbers' "Dusted" caused some wounds, and these days Wilco's song "A Shot in the Arm" might be another danger, though I am much smarter now about things like fret wear. The body, well ... I think it looks great. It's a work in progress, just like me." - Spin Magazine, 2011

Nels Cline was approached by Bill Henss of Henss guitars, who built this custom rosewood Jazzmaster-style guitar to compliment Jeff Tweedy's rosewood Telecaster. "I thought, for one thing, they were insane, but beyond that, I thought 'Sure! Why not?'" Cline said in this Premier Guitar interview at (3:00). "The only thing I asked them to do was put equidistant crosss inlays...and no, I am not Swiss," he said. The guitar has an extra Stratocaster pickup, and "Duncan antiquities [P90] pickups, which I really, really like," Cline said.

Throughout this video, Cline can be seen playing the Hofner 457/12 electric guitar.

Cline's modified 1969 Jaguar, affectionately called the "Silver Bastard", is heavily souped-up with an Aztec Silver paint job and a mirrored pickguard. His go-to "guitar-guru/friend" John "Woody" Woodland installed (in addition to his beloved Mastery bridge) a pair of custom-wound pickups -- a Seymour Duncan Charlie Christian pickup in the neck position and a super-hot Jaguar pickup in the bridge position.

References: 15:27 to 17:00 in video https://youtu.be/7GRSH8yxWjc http://www2.fender.com/experience/artists/interesting-mods-nels-clines-69-jaguar/

Played live on tour 2021

Wilco guitarist Nels Cline also plays a Jerry Jones model Neptune 12 string guitar. "He made Danelectro style guitars out of Nashville," Cline says at (6:30). "I love Jerry Jones' guitars, all of them...it's one of the speediest 12-strings to play," he said. "I've never played a 12 string that played so easily and sounded so glassy and delicious as the Jerry Jones."

In this video, Nels Cline tells the story of why he started playing a Gibson Barney Kessel. It turns out Jeff Tweedy is a lover of this guitar and he had some around the Wilco loft, prompting Nels to try it and like it enough to buy one.

Nels Cline also owns a faded Gibson Les Paul double cutaway guitar fitted with two P90s. According to Cline, the guitar was, "given to [him] by Jeff Tweedy when [he] joined the band...but it's the guitar I play in open tuning, which is GGDGGD," (4:53). "It's vitrtually indestructible for a Gibson," he said, at (6:00) "although the headstock did snap off at some point."

According to Bilt's website, another one of the custom-made guitars they built for him is a Bilt SS Zaftig guitar.

Nels discusses the guitar in a feature profile in Fretboard Journal: https://www.fretboardjournal.com/features/almost-stuck-to-it-the-gear-of-nels-cline/

One of Cline's weirder guitars is a Jerry Jones Double Neck Longhorn guitar, spotted in this Rig Rundown video at (8:20). According to Cline, it's "a very unusual one...It had to have been made for either somebody famous or someone he knew, because it's all white...12 string and baritone neck...extremely weird."

Another guitar in Nels Cline's eclectic collection is at 1960's Hopf Telstar Standard. According to Cline, "It's very luxurious of me to be able to play these guitars live," Cline says at (11:50). "I record with these guitars quite often for their weird tonal qualities and not bring them out on tour...but now of course with Wilco I'm completely enabled."

Nels Cline says in an interview that the Gibson J-200 was one of the guitars he used to record the album "Lovers".

Sifting through gig bags, he calls out, “Here's one for you!" He fishes out a black case fron the bottom and hands it to me. Inside is his sunburst 1966 Fender Jaguar, the guitar that set off his “offset" obsession in the 1980s.

Nels mentions at 17:05 that Bill Nash gave him this guitar at a show in Seattle. He admits that while he had been consciously avoiding Tele style guitars, he immediately loved this guitar for its look and feel as well as the Lollarpickups it is fitted with. He also mentions that he has set it up with 0.11s to facilitate bending and achieve a classic Tele twang.

In this 2009 photo of Cline, he is visible with the Fender Lee Ranaldo signature Jazzmaster.

At the 2010 Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Nels Cline is seen playing a Fender Thurston Moore Jazzmaster, as captured in a user-uploaded photo on BlogSpot.

Another one of his guitars is a custom-built Bilt "El Hombre", which has a custom paintwork done by Norton Wisdom.

In this photo, Cline is visible playing Bilt "The Relevator" electric guitar.

On December 8, 2022, Nels Cline was photographed playing a Godin A11 Glissentar during a live performance.

Listing in Wilco's Reverb Store: "Here is Nels' Meazzi Hollywood Acoustic Jupiter. It's a super rare model with sliding tone control (almost acts like a low/high pass filter) and a VERY thin neck profile. This guy has experienced a headstock snap but was very professionally fixed. There are a couple body cracks on the front near the lower bout. Tone knob is missing its top. Ultimately this guitar has been ridden hard and put away wet more times than not... been through a few things but is super fun to play and sounds great"

Listing in Wilco's Reverb Store: "1933 Gibson L-50 Archtop Sunburst Acoustic. This inspiring guitar will come with a signed certificate of authenticity showing that yes, this belonged to Nels Cline"

Nels Cline, the guitarist, is documented using a Mule Mavis during a live performance in a video shared by Mule Resonator Guitars on Instagram, where the caption reads: "Trying to stick that cheat code on NBA Jam. Nels Cline taking his Mavis for a journey. They’re tools, build what you want with 'em. #hesonfire #boomshakalaka Video sent by @tacos_al_trebor."