Stephen Malkmus

"His jazzmaster is an early 60’s with a few changes, and a lot of quirks."

The other main axe is a 70’s hard tail strat.

In this photo, Stephen Malkmus is holding his Guild S-100 electric guitar. In an 2014 article from The Current, he talks about it:

What kind of guitar are you playing?

This is a Guild; I think it's called the S-100. This is the same guitar that Kim Thayil from Soundgarden uses, and I was looking for a SG-style guitar, but I just thought I could take it in a more creative direction and get something a little more off the radar.

Do you remember where you got it?

My friend Reuben Cox sold it to me in Los Angeles. He's married to a good friend of mine named Miwa, and Reuben had just started a guitar store in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles. He was just kind of getting his feet wet, and Miwa said, like, "You should just buy this."

She kind of really wanted me to buy it, but I did also. It wasn't like I was doing charity work — not in the least — but I wanted to buy it from Reuben. And now, his business is expanded to a point where, you know, he's really successful and is going great. So this reminds me of him and his business and how he's getting his feet.

How long ago did you get it?

Only like four years ago. It's relatively new in my arsenal. I'm known as a Fender player by most people. I don't know how geeky this series is, but it's not that geeky to say there's Fender people and Gibson people, and there's kind of a divide there.

But this guitar kind of bridges the gap in a certain way because it's not purely — well, Guild is kind of Gibson, but not dyed-in-the-wool Gibson, so my Fender side doesn't get offended. "O-Fender-ed"!

What do you like about the tone of it?

It's how you play it. Like any guitar, it can sound good if you play it right. Almost any guitar.

And I'm still learning how to play it with my amp and everything, and how to hit the strings, hard or soft. I like how it is when you don't bash on it too hard. It's kind of nice. But it's hard to remember to be a little light-handed with your right hand when you're playing a concert. You want to dig in. But a lot of great people don't really dig in.

Is that something you've been trying to work on?

Yes. I play with my fingers a lot more, too. You can kind of create more dynamics when you play with your fingers. You can have your guitar quite loud, but you can not hit it as hard.

And of course, with the distortion pedal, you can get all the sustain you need. You don't need to be picking. You can just pluck it a tiny bit and it will ring out forever.

Did you write a lot of the album on this?

No, I write on acoustic. That's just my way. I don't play electric guitars except in concerts or in rehearsal. I'm all totally acoustic when it comes to songwriting. That gives you a more round sound, it enables you to imagine a band a little more, and to sing along with that is easier than with electric guitar.

I mean, you can write songs on electric guitar if you have a practice room with a microphone and you can kind of fantasize, "I'm in a band when I'm doing this!"

But I don't really do that in the songwriting phase; I save the electric guitar for later with the whole group.

Malkmus can be seen playing the guitar in several photos.

Throughout the video, Stephen is seen playing a Fender Mustang

Around 1:10 into the video he talks about the guitar

Malkmus can be seen playing the guitar in this video.

According to an article by Luke Ottenhof in Premier Guitar titled "Meet the Hard Quartet, the New Malkmus-Led Supergroup," Stephen Malkmus uses a 1965 Höfner Verithin as part of his guitar setup for The Hard Quartet.

According to an article by Luke Ottenhof in Premier Guitar titled "Meet the Hard Quartet, the New Malkmus-Led Supergroup," Stephen Malkmus uses a Vintage Gibson Firebird as part of his guitar setup for The Hard Quartet.

From Pavement live at Primavera Sound (2022) At 31:55 in their set he is playing this guitar in 'Perfume-V' https://youtu.be/QgCJJY23i7o?list=RDQgCJJY23i7o&t=1915

In this Acoustic Set Stephen Malkmus did for Pitchfork, he is seen playing a Gibson Limited Edition Songwriter Deluxe 12 String Acoustic Electric throughout the entire performance.