A rundown of Frank Zappa’s favourite guitars
A workaholic, perfectionist and fearsome bandleader, Frank Zappa is one of the most revered guitarists in the American rock canon. Throughout the 1960s, he criticised the rampant hypocrisy of the hippie subculture while establishing himself as a world-famous rock musician, filmmaker, producer, businessman, social commentator and orchestral composer. Here, we’ll be taking a look at some of his favourite guitars.
One of Zappa’s most treasured instruments was nicknamed ‘Baby Snakes’. The Gibson SG hybrid was the bandleader’s go-to guitar for the bulk of the late 1970s and may well have inspired the title of his 1983 album of the same name. Though it looks, from a distance, like a standard SG, it’s actually nothing of the sort. In fact, it’s the creation of “a guy in Pheonix” who approached Zappa backstage after a concert and sold it to him for $500. It probably plays a lot like a Gibson SG but features a number of non-Gibson details, including decorative inlays and a 23rd fret. Rex Bogue, the luthier who managed to salvage the next guitar we’ll be talking about, added several gadgets to this guitar, including a phase switch and an onboard preamp, giving Zappa unparalleled control over his tone. Zappa had another SG, a genuine one this time, known as ‘Roxy’, which was used on 1974’s Roxy & Elsewhere album.
Zappa was also the proud owner of the sunburst Fender Stratocaster destroyed by Jimi Hendrix at the 1968 Miami Pop Festival. Given to him by one of Hendrix’s former roadies, the guitar spent many years in Zappa’s basement before Rex Bogue fixed it up, adding a selection of electronics for good measure, including a Dan Armstrong Green Ringer and a Barcus-Berrry contact pickup buried in the neck. The neck itself is not original – this was destroyed during Hendrix’s Miami showpiece, as was the tortoise-shell pickguard.
The other Strat in Zappa’s collection was his 1988 custom-made Performance solid body. Complete with concentric knobs and adjustable trimpots to accommodate minuscule tone tweaks, this vibrant yellow guitar was used on Frank’s final tour. According to his guitar tech Midget Sloatman, “The trimpots are identical parametric filter circuits. One trimpot is dedicated to bass frequencies from about 50Hz to 2kHz, and the other one affects the top-end frequencies from about 500Hz up to 20kHz”. These filters, which also featured a resonant frequency knob, allowed Frank not only to control the feedback of his ring in any hall but to quite literally “tune his guitar to the room” and “determine how the room responded to the amplifier”.
Back to Gibsons now with Zappa’s beloved Gibson ES-5 Switchmaster, which he used on the first three Mother of Invention albums. For his Freak Out! record, Frank plugged this sunburst semi-hollow body into his Fender Deluxe amp, which must have created a very beefy sound indeed. Later, he fitted the jazz guitar with Barcus Berry pickups and a load more switches and tone knobs. Of course, every guitarist needs a workhorse. Zappa’s was his trusty Les Paul Custom, the one pictured on the cover of Shut Up ‘n Play Yer Guitar. Zappa had this guitar fitted out with Seymour Duncan humbuckers and a nine-positon rotary switch that allowed him to select single-coil/humbucker and out-of-phase pickup configurations.
Though known to the world as an electric guitarist, one of Zappa’s all-time favourite guitars was his Martin D-18S 12-fret Dreadnought acoustic. Featuring a slotted headstock, a Brazilian rosewood fretboard, head plate and bridge, and mahogany back and sides, this beautifully made guitar was used during the 1974 recording of ‘Sleep Dirt’ and The Grand Wazoo track ‘Blessed Relief’. Zappa actually traded his Telecaster to get this Martin from its owner, Mark Volman, who played in Zappa’s Flo and Eddie lineup in the early ’70s.
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