Randy Bachman

“This is one of the only Gretsches that Fred Gretsch didn’t get when he bought my collection,” Bachman says. “Chet Atkins had read in Rolling Stone magazine about my 6120 being stolen and decided to call me. The first two times he called, I was out in the backyard, building a tree house for my kids. My daughter came out and said what sounded like, ‘Chad is on the phone and wants to talk to you,’ I thought she was talking about Chad Allen from the Guess Who and told her to say I’d call back. The third time the phone rang, she came back and said, ‘He really, really, really wants to talk to you. He’s calling from Tennessee and he’s got a weird accent.’ So I went to the phone, and he said, ‘Howdy, this is Chet.’ I could barely speak, because this was my idol. He asked me, ‘Did you ever get back the 6120?’ I said, ‘No, I’m never gonna get it back.’ And he said, ‘Okay, what’s your address?’ Four days later, this Super Axe shows up. The string tree was a mod that Chet did himself, because the strings kept popping out of the nut.”

“I got it from Bob Heil, who developed the Heil Talk Box,” Bachman says. “This is the guitar I played on ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet’ and ‘Lookin Out for #1.’ People ask me if I played a Les Paul on those tracks, but it’s this Strat on the neck position. It used to have a Canadian flag sticker on it, and if you look at the back of the neck, you’ll see that I took off the finish and sanded the neck like a violin, because violin was the first instrument I played. I’ve done this to several of my Strats, because I do a lot of sliding and find the stock finishes to be a bit too tacky sometimes.”

“Around 1974, I walked into a store in Westchester, Pennsylvania, and saw this and another Custom with P-90s hanging on the wall and asked if I could play them. Phenomenal! I asked if they were for sale, and the guy said, ‘Not really. Keith Richards’ roadie brought them in for fret jobs about two years ago and no one ever came to pick them up.’ I told the guy that since the work was not paid for, he could invoke a mechanic’s lien, where you send the owner a letter saying that you’re entitled to be paid for your work, and that if you’re not, you can sell the instruments. I asked the guy to send a registered letter to the Stones’ label, which he did, and then a few months later he sent another one, neither of which they responded to. So the guy was free to sell the instruments. I once had to take a pickup out to fix something, and out came a matchbook from the Bag O’ Nails in London, which is a club where the Stones used to play.”

“Roger guitars were made by the German luthier Wenzel Rossmeisl,” Bachman explains. “His son’s name was Roger. This was Wenzel’s top-of-the-line instrument, and it’s absolutely a work of art. The lamination of the woods on the neck is just stunning, as is the carving of the top. Roger moved to the United States in the mid Fifties and worked at Rickenbacker. He then went to Fender in the late Sixties and designed the LTD, which, as you can see, also features that distinctive German carve on the top. They made 12 of these before Fender decided that they were too expensive and stopped production. Mine, which I got from J. Geils, is the 12th. Roger then designed the less-expensive Fender Montego, which also failed, as well as the Coronado.”

“Roger guitars were made by the German luthier Wenzel Rossmeisl,” Bachman explains. “His son’s name was Roger. This was Wenzel’s top-of-the-line instrument, and it’s absolutely a work of art. The lamination of the woods on the neck is just stunning, as is the carving of the top. Roger moved to the United States in the mid Fifties and worked at Rickenbacker. He then went to Fender in the late Sixties and designed the LTD, which, as you can see, also features that distinctive German carve on the top. They made 12 of these before Fender decided that they were too expensive and stopped production. Mine, which I got from J. Geils, is the 12th. Roger then designed the less-expensive Fender Montego, which also failed, as well as the Coronado.”

“The first time I saw a Hoyer Bianka, I thought, Those sound holes look exactly like the lightning bolt painted on David Bowie’s face on the cover of Aladdin Sane!” Bachman recalls. “The back of this guitar is scalloped, just like the top, which like most of these guitars features a ‘German carve’ that goes in on the edges. This compresses the sound inside, and it makes for a really unique tone that cuts through on any track I’m recording. It’s like it’s got its own built-in EQ—tight but crisp, with a lot of upper midrange.”

At 4:08 minute mark, Bachman shows his Gretsch White Penguin. He estimated the value to "couple of hundred thousand dollars".

According to Yamaha's website, Bachman uses the Yamaha AES-FG guitar.

In this photo, Bachman can be seen playing the Yamaha Pacifica 912J.

In this 2015 advert for "Rock Out with Randy Bachman", he is seen playing the Epiphone Slash signature Les Paul model.

In this 2011 photo of Bachman performing, we can see him holding the Epiphone Emperor Regent.

“My Scharpach Vienna guitar was well worth the wait. With merging of the old wood and modern technology Theo has created a guitar that for me is a one of a kind. What I noticed when I played my Vienna for the first time was that the acoustic tone is totally balanced across every string in every register and part of the neck. Then when I plugged it in and heard the same deep, clear, resonant sound from the pickup that Theo designed and had made, I realized what a special instrument it really was. The craftsmanship, the design, the body, the finish. the engraved headstock and tailpiece are not only beautiful but add so much to the sound of the guitar. I look forward to playing this instrument forever.“

Randy Bachman received this guitar from Brian May himself, as said on the official Brian May website.

In this 2014 photo, Bachman can be seen holding the Epiphone Les Paul Standard.

"Randy Bachman played the Headline Stage at Winterfest in Ottawa, Ontario on Friday, February 2nd with his Epiphone Les Paul Ultra."

At 3:43 minute mark, in his Gretsch collection, there is Gretsch G6040MCSS synchromatic cutaway visible to the left.

At 4:05 minute mark, there is Isana Jazz guitar visible at the bottom, judging by the inlays and the headstock.

"I took dozens of guitars to Metal Works Studio, but ended up using the same black Supro Val-Trol because it has amazing pickups that gave me quite a different sound than I’ve ever had.”

Randy With Dick Clark on Bandstand in 1978 with a green Gretsch 6120. His original 59 orange one was stolen in 1976 at his hotel.

Bachman endorsed the Garnet amplifiers back in 60's-70's. In this advert, we can see him with Garnet Herzog.

I a-a-a-absolutely love the Tonebone pedals. I have tried them out extensively and will be incorporating them into my stage setup. They are truly toneful, expressive and totally rock.

"The only pedal I used was a Boss BD-2 Blues Driver to push the front end of the amps for solos."

"I play jazz licks once in a while. So I want those to be pretty clean. And then I've got an OCD that overdrives and cleans just a little bit. And I’ve got the two Roland Blues Drivers that I absolutely love. And a wah pedal, and that's it."

"Totally full blast. I had two of them, and I had an old Roland Chorus, that's the metal one that you put on the floor, that you plugged into a wall -- there's not a wall wart -- it's a real AC plug." - furthermore, in the article there is Boss CE-1 pictured.

According to Radial's website, Bachman is a user of Radial JD7 System.