Ry Cooder

Ry can be seen playing a Fender Strat in this image.

This site states that Cooder owns a Gibson SJ 200.

This site states that Cooder uses a Takamine J-15E.

This site states that Cooder uses a Fender Stratocaster Daphne Blue.

"The guitar was a vintage Gretsch Duo Jet tenor from 1959. “I went into the store and asked about the guitar, and the guy was really snotty with me,” she remembers. “He said, ‘I’m saving that guitar for Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick!’ And then I heard this voice go, ‘Let her try it out, he’s probably not even going to buy it!’ It was Tom Petersson from Cheap Trick, who happened to be in the store! And he saved my ass. The store owner didn’t want to look bad in front of Tom, so he let me try it and I loved it. I started making payments on the guitar. The owner was such a weird, cocaine cowboy--I don’t know if he’s a cokehead or not, but he sure acted like one--he was really condescending and alienating. And he tried to tell me the guitar was part of the Tsumura collection, which I kind of believed, but I’ve seen the Tsumura collection books and my guitar isn’t in there. What he didn’t realize was that the guitar had belonged to Ry Cooder. There was a receipt for Cooder in the case from a repair store in Los Angeles! " - Neko Case on her tenor guitar collection: Fretboard Journal #2 cover story (Summer 2006)

Ry Cooder's main acoustic guitar, according to his guitar repairman Rick Turner, is a Gibson Roy Smeck model from the mid-30s. Frets were added to this guitar, which was originally designed for lap-style playing.

Cooder still owns a 1950s Martin 000-18, which Turner believes he used to record the theme from Paris, Texas.

“Boris” is the name Cooder has given to this 1937 Martin D-28 that was retopped sometime in the ’40s at the Martin factory. Cooder picked the instrument up from TJ Thompson, who also replaced the neck with one from a ’35 Martin.

Cooder is the proud owner of three instruments that came from Mike Seeger: a 1926 Gibson F-5 that belonged to Bill Napier (seen on pages 71-72 of FJ #32), a 1929 Martin 000-28 and this Gibson Style 6 Granada banjo. Both the banjo and the F-5 have matching diamond block inlays.

"I have often been asked how I got involved in the guitar pedal business. In 1982 Ry Cooder came to me asking if I could make him a tremolo pedal, as none were being made at the time. After some experimentation, and Ry's old Fender twin amp as a sound model, the Tremulator was born."

This site states that Cooder owns a Jerry Jones 12 Shorty.

This site states that Cooder uses a Rickenbacker Electro Spanish Model B.