Rick Nielsen

Rick talks about his Hamer 5 Neck in this Rig Rundown from Premier Guitar. At 9:54, he says, “I have three. I have an orange one, which is the first one, and this was the second one. The first one it had pegs that went out like this and you just kind of get your hands caught in here. So I said make this one with a violin or banjo tuning pegs. So those got banjo tuning pegs on it.”

Rocky Robert, Rick Nielsen’s guitar tech, talks about the guitar as well. At 10:42, he adds, “It’s a challenge to tune this thing because I have to set it on a stool and you got obviously 12 strings here, which the rotating switch, you got five position poles which correspond to each one of those guys and he plays this one the most and I rarely tune this one. I tune it every once in a while and he has never played it. Every occasion, he will play the fourth neck, but he mostly sticks with this second neck. He varies. He jumps around, jumps around necks. This is an interesting sound because he sound is pretty distorted. So 12-string, it gives you a unique sound, very unique sound. Obviously this one has got a whammy bar and the fretless is a challenge to play because you got to reach all the way down there. It’s pretty heavy. I don’t know how much it weighs. I want to weigh it. I don’t have the specs on it. Obviously I have to tune. If you got 15 songs in it, I got 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20. I got 20 guitars to tune during the show.”

Rick also talks about the origin of this guitar here.

The Hamer 5-Neck can also be seen in this performance.

At 2:42 in this video interview, Rick Nielsen points about his Checkerboard Hamer Standard. “This is the one that was made after the sink blew up in Ottawa because my other one is at Rick’s Picks. The original checkerboard one that I had made years and years and years ago, they replaced it. The other one still plays, but it was about time. It got more wrecked up in Canada because – I didn’t even want to go into that. But Hamer made an exact duplicate of it and it sounds the same with bow tie inlays, pickups all covers. So this is just like the one that was made in 1979, but it was made this past year... They made it exact. If you go to Rick’s Picks or go to the exhibition, you’ll see it’s got people. It’s got Todd Rungren and Joe Elliott, Slash and Chad Smith, the Chili Peppers and just tons of people are playing it. It’s pretty cool because they’re all playing it. Dave Grohl plays it. He took it up onstage in Milwaukee and played it. They all said kind things. You’ll see that the guitar plays itself and plays great. After getting it smashed, I didn’t get it back for quite a while. It didn’t get smashed, but it still plays great. I wish I had the other one out there, but it’s in the museum right now.”

Rocky Robert, Rick Nielsen’s Guitar Tech, chimes in at 4:53 saying, “He uses this one on Dream Police most of the time and we chunk out a bunch of picks.”

Rick also speaks about his 1978 Hamer with Guitar Aficianado here.

This guitar can also be seen in this Letterman performance.

At 7:00 in this video interview, Rick Nielsen talks about his mandocello. “This is the original mandocello. This one was made in 1977 or ’78. This is the first electric mandocello that was ever made. He made it for me because they had none. On our first album, we had a song called Mandocello and then Heaven Tonight we did with a mandocello and then we did another album with, I can’t remember what the song was. It’s such a cool-sounding thing. It’s tuned C, G, D, A double strings.”

At 12:28 in this video interview, Rick Nielsen points out his 1977 Deluxe Reverbs, saying, “These are Deluxe Reverbs I have in here. I have the guts in here and these were made by Paul Rivera actually. If you look at it, it has a fat and thin switch on it, with a heavier duty transform in it and a master volume, which the normal Deluxes didn’t have.”

Rick Nielsen talks about his multiple 1958 Explorers, "I bought the cleaner of the two Explorers in the late Seventies for $4,000 from George Gruhn, who you’ve all had the pleasure to meet in this issue. That may seem like the deal of the century, considering that, recently, one of a dozen Explorers Gibson built in 1963 from leftover Fifties bodies and necks sold at auction for $611,000. But at the time I bought this Explorer, Sixties Strats were worth only about $750, and Bursts were going for $2,000. Under the circumstances, that was a hell of a lot of money to spend on a single guitar.

In 1990, I brought the Explorer to the Dallas Guitar Show, where I was performing at a party with Cliff Williams of AC/DC and Joe Walsh. I had my son, Miles, who was 14 at the time, carry the guitar onto the show floor, and a guy offered us $75,000 cash for it, right there on the spot. For whatever reason, even though I could have used the money and had brought the guitar there to sell it, I thought about it and said no. I’m glad I didn’t do it.

As for the more beat-up Explorer (which is my favorite of the two, because it just looks like it should sound better), I bought it in 1981 from Larry Briggs at Strings West in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It looks the way that I got it, complete with all the dings and doweled holes on the top where a different bridge was installed. The guitar also has a neck-joint repair that you can see at the heel or if you look into the neck pickup cavity.

I think Larry was asking around seven grand for the guitar, and we did a retail-to-retail trade where I gave him a couple of Stratocasters and a Firebird or two and $650. You can see me writing the check in this snapshot, a little piece of Rick Nielsen history that Larry was kind enough to dig out of his archives."

Seen at 5:05

"This guitar was almost ruined. It's a very nice likeness of me. Except the only one thing different is, uh, my head doesn't come off quite as easily. I made this years ago..."

The Guitarrista forum discusses Rick Nielsen playing a Gibson Les Paul Studio Custom XPL with an Explorer headstock, highlighting its unique design.

Rick Nielsen briefly points out his Fuch Train II amps in this video interview, admitting at 12:24, “I thought that [H] was a K when I bought it.”

Rick Nielsen’s checkered Fuchs Train-45 heads are shown briefly at 13:05 in this Rig Rundown from Premier Guitar. He notes, “They copied the heads to match my speaker cabinets that Gibson actually made for me.”

In this Instagram posted by Orange Amplifiers, Joe Perry is playing through Rick Nielsen's custom Rockerverb MK3 combo at Johnny Depp's home studio. Orange confirms this in the caption:

"Joe Perry playing Rick Nielsen's custom Rockerverb MK3 combo at Johnny Depp's home studio. Goodnight."

The guitar was shown on the show "American Pickers." It now sits in the Antique Archeology store in Nashville, TN.

"If you're looking at this listing, chances are you've probably been browsing through the guitars on Rick Nielsen's Reverb shop. And if you're doing that, maybe you're on the prowl for a guitar that truly captures Rick's particular vibe and character. Well, here it is. A Dean-made "Pyschobilly" model with Bigsby-style tremolo and white and black checkerboard on the sides," reads the entry for Rick Nielsen's Dean Psychobilly Cabbie guitar, on Reverb.com.

In this Rig Rundown from Premier Guitar, Rick Nielsen talks about his “Disco Dick” Hamer Electric. At 2:08, he says, “This is called Disco Dick. This is actually the drum finish from the Bun E. Carlos signature kit and we sent the actual drum laminate and sent it to Hamer and they made this for me. Ludwig, Mother of Pearl or whatever they call the finish. We look like ZZ Top without beards when we come out there.”

At :24 In this video interview from Premier Guitar Rick, Nielsen talks about his Jeff Beck Esquire, saying, “This is the Jeff Beck Esquire and Jeff loaned it to me. It’s a beauty. I love it. It plays great and it’s beat up and so am I.”

Rick Nielsen talks about his ’58 Gibson Les Paul at 14:30 in this video interview. “It’s nice and pretty. It has never been played much. It’s not relic.”

Rick Nielsen talks about his Billy-Bo in this Rid Rundown from Premier Guitar. At 8:16, he says, “It sounds good. I use this when we do a song called “I Know What I Want.” It has got a good Malcolm Young kind of...”

At 8:30, Rick Nielsen’s guitar tech, Rocky Robert, adds, “It’s a very nice guitar. Low floating bridge. It’s very light. It feels like it’s got some hollowness to it or it’s a light wood.”

At 5:19 in this video interview, Rick Nielsen talks about his custom Hamer Box Guitar.

He says, “Here’s another one that Hamer made for me. This was made for the Rockford Album. This one actually sounds really good too. It’s got the graphic from the Rockford album and it’s a cool box guitar. Conan O’Brien played this a number of times and I played it quite a bit. It looks like a Bo Diddley, kind of the square box and all that stuff, but it actually sounds terrific. I wasn’t sure that it would, but it does.”

Rick Nielsen speaks about his Sgt. Pepper’s guitar in this Rig Rundown from Premier Guitar. At :48, he says, “I had this made for me for when we did Sgt. Pepper. It’s called “Uncle Pepper,” and Hamer made it and Shannon did the airbrushing on this. This is all airbrushed. It’s a hum bucker. It’s just one simple thing on the back 40 years ago for the Beatles, Sgt. Pepper commemorating that. There’s actually a second one of these that was made that we’re donating in Liverpool for the Liverpool Children’s Hospital. It sounds great. I use this on the flame every night.”

"This Les Paul Junior is a double stuffed oreo of classic rock majesty. Not only did this guitar come from the personal collection of Rockford's own Rick Nielsen, but it also comes from the absolute golden era of Gibson production and origin of all Les Pauls. Wrap-around tailpiece (replacement), classic sunburst finish, smoking P-90 pickup -- everything you want out of a LP Jr shines on this guitar in high style," reads this entry on Reverb.com.

Rick Neilsen was shown holding the guitar in December of 1989. It later appeared in the "Rick's Picks" exhibit.

The guitar has been played on stage at ChicagoFest 81 during "Day Tripper."

Vintage Gibson icons are great and all, but sometimes you just need something a little more unique. Something custom crafted for your style and sound. For Rick, that means this 5-necked behemoth with his signature black and white checkers. This guitar was made by long-time Rick collaborator Hamer in the early '90s.

While Nielsen has also offered up some of his more eye-catching axes – like his Dean Psychobilly Cabbie, his Fender Floral Tele and his "Nash Fucker Shitblaster" – he hasn't – and probably won't – put his trademark custom-made, five-necked checkerboard guitar on the block.

Rick Nielsen talks about his custom Hamer Standard in this Rig Rundown from Premier Guitar. At 4:19, he says, “It’s supposed to be black and white, it’s a little yellowed. But it’s got every pick design I’ve ever made at that time. All the graphics are my picks. I had them made. There’s my name up at the top just in case I forget during the show."

Rocky Robert, Rick Nielsen’s Guitar Tech, chimes in at 4:40 and says, “He used to play it on Surrender, but he has been playing the five-neck recently on Surrender. So I will have it for Goodnight after we take the five-neck off and he uses this one.”

At 1:26 in this Rig Rundown from Premier Guitar, Robert Nielsen shows his yellow Hamer electric and says, “This is just yellow, but it’s got a whammy bar on it, so the few songs that I use with a whammy bar. I wish it weren’t so complicated, but when I need a whammy bar, I don’t like it to go out of tune.”

This video interview shows Rick Nielsen talking about his Chrome Normandy guitar. At 5:48 he says, “They made it for me. I wanted it with the real Bigsby on it and it looks pretty. I may drive it out of here later.”

Rocky Robert, Rick Nielsen’s Guitar Tech, also talks about the guitar at 4:53 saying, “He hasn’t used this one a whole lot. If I ever popped a string, I will have this one ready to go. But yeah, it’s a sweet guitar. They have a unique sound. The metal adds to more of a high endy twangy sound."

At 6:23 in this video interview, Rick Nielsen shows his James Trussart Steel Deville and says, “James Trussart made this one for me. Usually they have ebony necks. I have actually about three or four of these. I said ‘I want the neck and the fingerboard to be the same...’ It’s just a more brittle or more metallic sound, but not heavy metal.”

According to Shure's artist page, Cheap Trick uses Shure's Beta 57A microphone for their guitar cabinet.

According to Shure's artist page, Cheap Trick uses Shure's SM57 microphone for their guitar iso box.

Built in 2006 for the album "Rockford." Was shown off in the "Rick's Picks" exhibit.