Ron Asheton

Can be seen using the guitar in this pic of a live with Destroy All Monsters. He also said in an interview from vintageguitars.com that “It had the good pickups, and it just barked“

Ron also had a signature model from Reverend Guitars

According to an interview with Vintage Guitar "Asheton then bought a Gibson Melody Maker from Dave Alexander, when he started playing bass – it still wasn’t dirty enough."

According to this Vintage Guitar magazine article "Asheton’s finest Stratocaster – a ’57 Strat with a maple neck – ended up as the proverbial 'one that got away,' into the hands of Dan Erlewine, guitarist in the Prime Movers, a pre-Stooges blues band for whom Ron played bass."

Can be seen in this picture playing a Reverend Jetstream.

The Stratocaster remains one of Asheton’s primary guitars today (“..because of the whammy bar, and that good, clean sound it gets with wah-wah, that biting, hurts-your-ears sound”), but he also owns three Guild X79s (“It had the good pickups, and it just barked“), a Gibson SG Junior, and a 1969 Gibson Les Paul, which has “great sustain – but if you’ve got it on for a couple hours, it gets heavy on your shoulder,” he said.

The Stratocaster remains one of Asheton’s primary guitars today (“..because of the whammy bar, and that good, clean sound it gets with wah-wah, that biting, hurts-your-ears sound”), but he also owns three Guild X79s (“It had the good pickups, and it just barked“), a Gibson SG Junior, and a 1969 Gibson Les Paul, which has “great sustain – but if you’ve got it on for a couple hours, it gets heavy on your shoulder,” he said.

Seen at 0:38 in the trailer for Gimme Danger.

“My first electric was a brand new Telecaster because [Yardbirds guitarist] Jeff Beck was playing a Telecaster,” he said. “I wound up not keeping it, because it was too clean. I was looking for a more dirty sound.” He pauses to deliver the punchline, “Because the distortion hides your lack of prowess and technique.”

The amp head can be seen in the background of this pic

Asheton satisfied his guitar amp needs with the Vox Super Beatle (“Because the Beatles and the Stones had it”), until the Stooges supported Cream at Detroit’s famed Grande Ballroom.

For bass amps, Asheton relied on Sunn 2000s.

“It was a bigger improvement of the old Sunn 200s I had, and that was a mighty setup,” he said. “At times, I would get to use doubles [stacks] for awhile, and when you’re standing behind that, it rattles your chest, really shakes your innards up.”

Marshall 100-watt amps were mandatory to cut through the often-sludgy sound of that era’s arenas and coliseums, Asheton points out. In time, he crafted a double or triple stack, “Where they take 200-watt heads, and they’d use a 50-watt head as a preamp – so I had the big sound,” he said. “If I may use the overused word – it’s awesome.”

Marshall 100-watt amps were mandatory to cut through the often-sludgy sound of that era’s arenas and coliseums, Asheton points out. In time, he crafted a double or triple stack, “Where they take 200-watt heads, and they’d use a 50-watt head as a preamp – so I had the big sound,” he said. “If I may use the overused word – it’s awesome.”

For practice he prefers a Honeytone and the ubiquitous Pignose.

For practice he prefers a Honeytone and the ubiquitous Pignose.

Asheton now uses several amps, including a 100-watt 4 X 12 Marshall with a slant cabinet, and two 50-watt heads. He’s also excited by his 30 and 80-watt 4 X 12 Naylor amps, for different reasons.

In this interview with Vintage Guitar, Asheton claims “I just found better fuzzboxes, like the Fuzz Face; I had the Jimi Hendrix ambition.”

“I’ve still got the standard DOD distortion pedals, Boss pedals, flangers, the distortion box, and the graphic equalizer,” he said. “I collect those like candy boxes. They’re more expensive now – in the old days, I used to get Vox wah-wah pedals for $35. Now they seem to go for as much as $200.”

“I’ve still got the standard DOD distortion pedals, Boss pedals, flangers, the distortion box, and the graphic equalizer,” he said. “I collect those like candy boxes. They’re more expensive now – in the old days, I used to get Vox wah-wah pedals for $35. Now they seem to go for as much as $200.”

For effects, Asheton stands by an Ibanez box with a 60-watt chorus, tube screamer, and compressor.

Primary basses included a Gibson EB-3, on which he recorded Raw Power, and an Epiphone with three pickups, “Which was stolen at the airport,” said Asheton. “I could get that really tinny sound on ‘Raw Power,’ that trebly, abrasive, tinny sound

Here is seen playing a Guild JS II Bass. (circa 1973, Live at Whisky A Go Go)

According with this Instagram post, here is seen playing a P-Bass.