STEVE’S GEAR:
In the early days, Steve played mostly a Gibson Les Paul Standard and a Hamer Double Cutaway. He was occasionally seen with a Dean.
Towards Hysteria, Steve had endorsed Gibson Guitars. His gear during the Hysteria world tour consisted primarily of two Les Paul Custom’s (both equipped with Kahler trem units), two Gibson Firebirds and two Gibson Doublenecks (EDS-1275 models).
The Les Pauls and Firebirds were equipped with coil tap switches to split the humbucker pickups. It is believed that Steve also had four additional Doublenecks on order from Gibson at the time of his death. Steve was also known to play Fender guitars occasionally in the studio, due to their unique sound. All of his stage guitars were strung with GHS Boomers.
Steve’s amplifiers consisted of primarily Marshall JCM series throughout the period of the first three Leppard albums. Again towards the Hysteria era, both Steve and Phil [Collen] were both endorsed by Randall Electronics. Steve’s rigs through Hysteria consisted of primarily Randall with some TC Electronics equipment.
He also used the following effects: Morley Preamp, Boss Delay and Boss Chorus.
Steve always stated that he was more of a traditionalist when it came to guitars. This can be seen in his selection of gear. At the time of his death, it was estimated that he owned approximately 75 guitars. I think it is safe to assume that a very large portion of those were Gibsons, and a large portion of those Gibsons were probably Les Pauls.
A note about the pickups:
I’m not 100% sure what pickups Steve used in all of his guitars. It is assumed that he used Gibsons stock PAF. The pickups in the Firebirds were Gibson mini-humbuckers. Gibsons custom shop built all of his guitars and he stated that Gibson did the electronic work, including the coil taps on the volume pots of the Les Pauls. This is why it is assumed that he used Gibson pickups.
Steve has also stated in an interview (see Def Leppard Spot Check: Guitarist interview from 1988) that most of his guitars are fitted with Gibson PAF’s and one Les Paul is fitted with a “Dirty Fingers”.
He also has a Fender Stratocaster fitted with Bill Lawrence pickups.