All Steve’s touring guitars (solid bodies only) are Gibsons. While it’s a well-known fact that he has an endorsement with Gibson, could the real reason be that he is a Gibson freak?
SOURCE: YOUNG GUITAR MAGAZINE | APRIL 1988
Translation for STEVE CLARK GUITAR In Loving Memory by Lingo 24 Ltd
A
s we said in last months issue, Steve’s main guitar of late is a white [Gibson] Les Paul Custom. This is mounted with three Gibson PAF 1959 Les Paul Reissue humbucking pick-ups with their covers removed. In addition to the familiar circuit where the pick up selector switches between front / centre + rear / rear positions, the volume pot for the centre + rear position uses a push pull type pot which acts as a coil tap switch to allow the centre and rear pickups to be simultaneously switched to single coil. The tremolo system is a Kahler #2200K.
The black Les Paul Custom is a new acquisition and differs slightly from his older one. The circuitry is the same as on the white one but the black one differs in that there is a Gibson Dirty Fingers mounted in the rear pick up position and for the tremolo he has chosen a Kahler #2200B. Also, the twelfth fret position marker has his name “Steve Clark” and the pegs are different [Grover]. The only point of difference with his black Les Paul Custom from before is the coil tap part, so for the most part they look the same.
The [sunburst] Gibson Firebird is a limited production 1976 Firebird, which was made to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the founding of the U.S.A., is mounted with a Kahler #2200B tremolo. While it looks similar to a vintage Firebird III, there is no binding on the fingerboard and the quickest way to tell them apart is by the unique red, white and blue Firebird logo on the scratch plates with stars and a small “76” – standard Firebird logos are plain and all red.
This is the most visible way of noticing one. On the rear of the headstock it should also have Limited Edition stamped on the back and if it was made in 1976 the serial number should begin with a “00”.
The other [red] Gibson Firebird with 3 pick-ups was custom made for Steve. It resembles a vintage Firebird VII but the position marks are trapezoids and the pegs are Grover Mini Rotomatics. Also, the centre / rear volume pot is a push-pull type coil tap switch for the centre and rear pick-ups.
The last guitar is a familiar Gibson EDS 1275 W-neck (photo 10). This model is a relatively newly built 6-string 12-string combination.
Both Phil [Collen] and Steve use a sound system [for this tour] consisting of a Randall RG100 guitar pre-amp and T.C.1210 from TC Electronics (Expander + stereo chorus / flanger) and a T.C.2290 (digital delay).
Source for above content: Young Guitar magazine – April 1988.
On the later part of the Hysteria Tour when Love Bites was released as a single Steve would be seen on stage with a Fender Stratocaster – which was a fairly rare thing to see with Steve being primarily a Gibson man (and endorsee at this point in his career).
This Stratocaster is the one that he uses in the video for the Love Bites single and also used live on tour in 1988. Steve had stated in an interview in Guitarist magazine in 1988 that he had a Fender Stratocaster fitted with Bill Lawrence pickups. Bill Lawrence pickups are renowned for their excellent tonal qualities. I assume that it is this guitar he’s referring to regarding those pickups, but I cannot be 100% sure.
After years of research and investigating I believe Steve’s “Love Bites” Strat is a Fender American Standard Stratocaster and I’ll tell you why. After a long time being convinced that Steve’s was a US-made Stratocaster, I was finally swayed towards the Japanese-made Standard Model 2 from 1987, with the standard SSS configuration. These particular Strats were made for a short time only between March and December of that year at the famous Fujigen factory. Steve’s guitar looked identical to the spec. of those Made In Japan Model 2’s. They had a rosewood fingerboard version, 22 frets, with factory fitted Kahler “Traditional Series” 2520 fulcrum tremolo unit and locking string clamp positioned behind the nut on the headstock. The logo on the headstock was the newer CBS style logo. But, there were two slight discrepancies that didn’t fit. The Japanese Model 2 Standard did not come with string trees on the headstock and it was not issued in Gunmetal Blue, but Lake Placid Blue. Steve’s Strat does have the string trees on the headstock and I am 99.99% convinced his is finished in the lovely Gunmetal Blue. Therefore, I have concluded that Steve’s guitar is most likely an American Standard Stratocaster (which came with 2 string trees and in Gunmetal Blue in 1987) and he’s had the Kahler unit fitted in place of the stock Fender tremolo, which would make sense at the time as he had Kahlers fitted to all of his guitars that required a tremolo system.
Most of the guitars featured on this page were the main guitars Steve used on the Hysteria World Tour from the start. However, we know that he ordered up more from Gibson as the tour progressed and was later seen with another black Les Paul Custom with all-black hardware, and a white EDS-1275 double-neck custom fitted with a Kahler Flat Mount Tremolo system on the six string neck and custom pick-ups on the 12-string neck which are believed to be Bartolini mini soap-bars. Again, for this specific guitar I cannot confirm 100% about these pickups.
David Plastik
