Leslie West

West is renowned for helping popularize use of the Gibson Les Paul Jr. guitar with P-90 pickups, along with the use of Sunn Amplifiers, to create a tone which became his trademark sound.

West frequently used two Les Paul Juniors, one "TV Yellow" and the other a sunburst. West also used a modified Gibson Flying V, with the neck pickup removed (he used the hole for an ashtray) and a P-90 pickup fitted at the bridge position, West also had a two-pickup Flying V which he used after the ash tray vee broke (the s/n of that flying V is s/n 906965). West also used a plexiglass Electra guitar, which is a Japanese copy of the better known Ampeg made Dan Armstrong guitar, for slide. He threw one of these into the audience at a Holyoke Massachusetts show during his "Wild West" tour in the 70s, tossing it into the air and shooting blanks at it from a pistol, then catching it and throwing it off the stage. West also played a Westone Pantera guitar. The only evidence for this guitar being associated with West is a previously unknown photograph of him playing it. From 1977 to 1982, he used a signature on-board effects MPC model guitar, created by the Japanese company Electra. He currently uses a signature model from Dean Guitars, the USA Soltero Leslie West Signature model, fitted with a custom-designed Dean pickup called "Mountain of Tone." Read Less