Steve Cropper

In their October 2008 issue, Steve Cropper told Vintage Guitar Magazine that "Some of the earlier stuff, if you go back to “Green Onions,” I used a little Fender Harvard amp."

The Fender Harvard changed very little between '51 and the end of the tweed era other than a switch from octal preamp tubes to modern small-bottled eqivalents.

"My first guitar, on “Green Onions,” was an Esquire – had to be early-’50s. I sanded it down and painted it purple in my parents’ garage at home. I don’t know what year that white Tele was – probably a ’62 or ’63. I bought it new."

-Steve Cropper in the October 2008 issue of Vintage Guitar Magazine

the guitar in question would almost certainly be a '53 or 54 Esquire judging by cosmetics in photos and Steve's comment that it was 'early' 50s so I went with '54 since someone had already added this item to Equipboard and I am lazy... -JM

I play a Fender The Twin live—usually the red-knob version. They distort too much if you turn them up, and their volume and tone controls are totally different than those on other Fenders, but if you back the bass off and turn the treble up, you’ll get a really good clean sound.

Billy Gibbons gave me a Bixonic Expandora that I’ve used on a few things, but not very much. I’m mainly just a clean rhythm Tele guy, and when I play a solo, I usually just bear down and play a little grittier.

In the October 2008 issue of Vintage Guitar, Steve Cropper said that "Later I moved up to a Super Reverb, and I think the mic was a Neumann U-67. That’s on all kinds of stuff, like “Soul Man.” But on “Dock Of The Bay,” I brought my old Harvard back to play the licks – which, of course, Otis never heard."

GP: There’s a shot of you playing a Gibson ES-335 at the Atlanta Pop Festival in 1969. SC: I love that guitar, and I’ve been using it in the studio a little bit. But after that show in Atlanta, [original Booker T. and the MGs drummer, the late] Al Jackson said to me, “Bring the Tele next time.” And when Al Jackson spoke, you listened.

What do you use to get that big tremolo sound? Lately, I’ve been using a Voodoo Lab Tremolo.

"I think it was just on-the-job training. I had this small amp that I recently donated to the Smithsonian – a small Fender Harvard amp – and it came with my first electric guitar that my dad bought me. Used, but the guy threw in an amp with it."

Cropper isn’t much of a collector and he’s not much into acoustic guitars, but when the economy tanked nearly a decade ago, as an investment for his children he bought several Gibson J-200s that people were selling.

Steve Cropper is seen using a Fender Rosewood Telecaster at 1:37 during the performance of "Hold On, I’m Coming" with Sam & Dave on "The Midnight Special," recorded on May 17, 1974.

In this interview, Steve Cropper says

Yes, it was the Victoria 80212, modeled after the Fender Twin. It has a tweed covering, and it’s all handmade, even the vacuum tubes.

In this interview for Fuzz.se, Steve Cropper says

What gauge strings do you use?

• I’m still using Ernie Ball Slinkies, the green packet with the black writing - 010 through 046.

In this interview for Fuzz.se, Steve Cropper says

Do you use The Twin in the studio?

• Sometimes I still use my old Quad Reverb - I still use an old Fender Harvard with one ten-inch speaker sometimes, you can hear it on all the old Otis Redding stuff - it’s got a volume and a tone control, and that’s it. It works great for studios

Sounds crazy, but Steve Cropper did play on a modified Peavey 5150, made by Hartley Peavey himself.

Now we’ve got one that Hartley (Peavey) put together for me that is a great amp, but is a big, big outdoor theatre amp. It’s a modified Eddie Van Halen 5150, and they built me a big 2 x 15 inch woofer cabinet. It is just great.

Steve Cropper is seen playing a Peavey Generation S1 in a post on his official Facebook page. Peavey later developed a signature model, the Cropper Classic, based on this guitar.

In this article frome Vintage Guitar Magazine, it's stated that Steve Cropper did use a Marshall Bluesbreaker II pedal

Cropper’s never been an effects guy, but on this album he added a Marshall Bluesbreaker 11 pedal for some dirt.

Guitarist Steve Cropper confirmed in an interview with Guy Guitars that he uses the Roland Blues Cube amplifier, stating, "I’ve got a Roland too, the new Roland Blues Cube that they gave me to try that is a real good amp, I’ve used it a lot. So I mix it around quite a bit."

Guitarist Steve Cropper confirmed the use of the Maestro Echoplex EP-3 on some tracks of the "One More" album with Booker T, stating, "Back in the 70’s when we did that 'One More' album we were trying to get cute and I used an Echoplex on some of the Booker T songs. And everybody liked it, but I got tired of carrying it on the road." This information is sourced from an interview on Guy Guitars.

In a 2024 interview with Guitar World, Steve Cropper discusses why he believes his Custom Shop Peavey guitar sounds better than a Telecaster. The interview, conducted by Joe Matera, provides insight into Cropper's preference for the Peavey, underscoring its superior sound quality in his opinion.

Steve’s silverface Super Reverb is at Stax Studios in Memphis as part of the museum.

During their first UK tour, they didn’t realize their American amps wouldn’t work cause of difference in voltage so they had to use Marshalls.