Every Dave Grohl guitar is memorable from early days of the Foo Fighters to his more recent work. Each on reflects Dave’s style and sound.
Dave Grohl has had an enviable life in the music business. As a teenager in the 1980s, he emerged from the Washington, D.C. punk scene playing drums for the hardcore band Scream. He rose to worldwide fame when Nirvana tapped him to be their new drummer before recording the seminal grunge album “Nevermind.”
Grohl proved to be a talented guitar player and singer as well as a drummer. In his spare time he began writing his own songs. After Kurt Cobain’s death in 1994, Grohl decided to record a handful of these songs. Inspired the name given to a series of UFO sightings over Japan, he called his project “Foo Fighters.” Dave played nearly every instrument on the record, and formed a touring band shortly after its release.
Although Foo Fighters has undergone a dizzying series of lineup changes over the years, the band has released multiple Grammy winning albums, become one of the biggest rock acts in the post-grunge era, and inspired an entire generation of aspiring musicians. Grohl has remained the central driving force behind the band, with chart-topping songs like “My Hero,” “Everlong,” and “Best of You” among the most well-known. He often finds time to work with other bands, and has appeared with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Queens of the Stone Age, Melvins, Them Crooked Vultures, and his metal project Probot. Throughout his prolific career Dave Grohl has favored different guitars to achieve his signature sound.
Complete List of Dave Grohl’s Guitars & Gear
Contents
Here is a chronological list of Dave Grohl guitars that he used in the Foo Fighters during his career on his album, tours, and recordings.
Dave Grohl’s Electric Guitars
Gibson Trini Lopez
Dave Grohl has used a Gibson Trini Lopez throughout his career. Named for a popular guitarist and singer from the 1960s named Trinidad “Trini” Lopez III, this guitar model was originally manufactured by Gibson from 1964 until 1971. Built much like a Gibson ES-335, with two humbucking pickups and semi-hollow body construction, it has distinctive diamond-shaped f-holes in the body and a slab headstock shape based on the Gibson Firebird. Dave first bought a vintage cherry red Trini Lopez while on the road with Nirvana, having never seen one before, and has used it extensively both onstage and in the studio. He calls the Trini Lopez “the sound of Foo Fighters,” saying that it “can be heard on every Foo Fighters album.”
The Gibson Custom Shop honored Grohl’s use of this guitar by making the DG-335 guitar series, based on his original Trini Lopez, in a Pelham blue finish. This custom guitar differs from the original in having a stop tailpiece rather than the “trapeze” style tailpiece found on the older Trini Lopez. Dave now owns several DG-335 guitars in various colors.
Gibson Explorer
Released in 1958, the Explorer was part of Gibson’s attempt to update their more traditional, “old-fashioned” line of guitars. Having grown tired of always playing catch-up to the modern Fender guitars from California, Gibson designed new, radically shaped guitars for the 1957 NAMM trade show, including the Explorer and Flying V. The original Explorer, made of solid African Korina wood and voiced with a pair of PAF humbucking pickups, was a commercial flop at the time. It quickly disappeared from Gibson’s product catalog. Only about 19 of these guitars were made between 1958 and 1960, making it one of the rarest (and most expensive) of all vintage guitars from the classic era.
The Explorer design was later revived when musicians playing heavier music began to discover the punchy tone made by these unique guitars, and it continues to be popular today, although they are now usually made of mahogany wood rather than Korina.
Dave Grohl has used several Explorer guitars live with Foo Fighters, and he relied heavily on an Explorer during the recording of his collaborative metal record “Probot.”
Gibson Firebird
The Firebird was created in 1963 when Gibson company president Ted McCarty hired car designer Ray Dietrich to create a modern-looking guitar that would be easy to produce in large numbers. These early Firebirds are commonly known as “reverse” models due to the longer body horn on the treble side, rather than the usual bass side, and the banjo style tuners sitting six-in-line on the underside of the headstock. Later in the 60s the Firebird was redesigned, and the body flipped again to create the “non-reverse” models. Gibson used Roman numerals I, II, III and IV to name the four Firebird types. Each came with different pickup and bridge combinations. Using a long neck of alternating mahogany and walnut strips that extended through the body, it had mahogany “wings” glued on either side to make a full body shape. Along with its unique construction, the Firebird was equipped with smaller humbucking “Firebird” pickups that produced a distinctive biting, nasal tone.
Players such as Eric Clapton and Johnny Winter have used Firebirds in their careers. Dave Grohl used both black and Pelham blue versions of this guitar during the “In Your Honor” period of Foo Fighters in 2005.
Gibson Les Paul
The Gibson Les Paul was introduced in 1952, and is one of the most iconic electric guitars of all time. Perhaps only the Fender Stratocaster is more well-known. Some of rock’s greatest players, from Jimmy Page and Duane Allman to Slash and Zakk Wylde, have built their careers playing these legendary instruments.
Les Paul himself was a guitar virtuoso and inventor who experimented with making a solid body guitar in the 1940s. Leo Fender beat him to the punch in 1948 with the guitar that became the Telecaster, but Les soon teamed up with Gibson to make their own solid mahogany guitar. The first Les Paul Model guitar came out in 1952, and had a pair of P90 pickups, a trapeze tailpiece, and a carved maple top painted metallic gold. Later in the 50s the single-pickup student model Les Paul Junior was introduced, as well as the richly appointed Les Paul Custom, with its fancy binding and inlays. Changes to the “goldtop” Les Paul culminated in the cherry sunburst model made from 1958 until early 1960, which had two PAF humbucker pickups and a combination stop tailpiece and adjustable “tune-o-matic” bridge.
Dave Grohl played a black Les Paul Custom in the “Learn to Fly” video, and has also used a white Les Paul Custom on occasion. He honored the memory of famed NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt by using a Budweiser-themed Les Paul given to him by Earnhardt during a performance the day after the driver’s fatal crash.
Gibson SG
Despite its place among the most valuable vintage guitars today, the original Les Paul was not selling well in the late 1950s, so in 1961 Gibson released a radically new version of the Les Paul Model. Les hated the new cherry red design, with its ultra-thin body, pointed horns and deeply sculpted angles. After Gibson’s contract with Les Paul ended in 1963, the guitar was renamed the SG, short for “Solid Guitar.” The SG has been used by countless players over the years, from Angus Young of AC/DC to Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath.
Dave Grohl used several Gibson SGs from 1995 to 2000, and owns one in cherry red, one in black, and two in white.
Ampeg Lucite Dan Armstrong Plexi Guitar
In 1965, luthier Dan Armstrong started “Dan Armstrong’s Guitar Service,” a popular guitar shop on west 48th St in New York City. After the building was torn down in 1968 to make way for 30 Rockefeller Plaza, Armstrong moved his shop to the Greenwich Village area of Manhattan. At the same time, the Ampeg company asked Armstrong to help them update a line of their guitars, and he responded by creating the Lucite Dan Armstrong “see-through” guitar in 1969. Featuring a body made from a clear piece of solid Plexiglas, and weighing a back-breaking ten pounds, they had a standard bolt-on maple neck with 24 frets. Six interchangeable single-coil pickup cartridges with names like Rock Treble, Rock Bass, and Jazz Treble offered a wide palette of different tones. Keith Richards, Paul McCartney and Leslie West are among the players that have used these guitars.
Dave Grohl owns several of these instruments, and during the “One By One” era he used them as his main guitars.
1972 Fender Telecaster Custom
The Fender Telecaster was the first commercially available solid body guitar when released in 1948, becoming popular with artists of the 1950s and early 60s for its bright, twangy sound. But the thicker sound offered by Gibson guitars had become more prominent in the rock music of the late 1960s. Telecaster owners began replacing their thin-sounding neck pickups with humbucker pickups to achieve a more overdriven rock sound. Fender took notice, and in 1972 released the Telecaster Custom, which had a control layout like the Les Paul, with two volume and two tone knobs, a pickup selector in the upper corner of the body, and two humbucker pickups. Keith Richards was an early fan of these guitars, playing one throughout the 1970s.
The Telecaster Custom was manufactured from 1972 to 1981, but was later reissued as the ’72 Reissue series due to popular demand. Dave Grohl plays a black ’72 Telecaster Custom with a humbucker in the neck and a regular single coil Telecaster pickup in the bridge position.
Gretsch White Falcon
In 1954, the Gretsch Guitar Company displayed the first White Falcon at the NAMM trade show, calling it “the guitar of the future.” With triple body binding, fancy mother-of-pearl fingerboard inlays, and gold hardware, the striking white instrument had a large 17″ hollow body, like the Gibson Super 400. Brought to NAMM to display the skills of Gretsch’s craftsmen and luthiers, the White Falcon was not slated for mass production itself. But high interest from dealers and sales representatives at the show led the company to begin building the ornate guitars. A high price tag of $600 kept the White Falcon out of the hands of many working musicians, but it gained popularity with the rockabilly players of the 1950s. Brian Setzer and U2s Bono are among the most famous users of these guitars today.
Throughout the “Monkey Wrench” video, Dave Grohl can be seen playing a Gretsch White Falcon.
Dave Dearnaley Flying V
The Flying V body shape was first released by Gibson in 1957 along with the Explorer (see above), and proved to be far ahead of its time. Dismissed as a curious but impractical guitar at the time, not many were sold, and many Gibson dealers chose to simply hang them in their shop windows as decoration. In the meantime, musical styles evolved, and by 1967 an updated Flying V had been reissued by Gibson when originals began to gain popularity with players such as The Kinks’ Dave Davies and blues man Albert King.
Other manufacturers have released their own versions of the Flying V over the years, notably Hamer Guitars in the late 1970s, and Jackson guitars in the early 80s, with the iconic Randy Rhoads and V2 Flying V models. In the video for the song “Rope,” Grohl played a custom Flying V made by Welsh guitar maker Dave Dearnaley.
Dave Grohl’s Acoustic Guitars
Manson MA Custom
Manson Guitar Works was started by a British luthier named Hugh Manson, and has been making guitars for four decades. Notable users of Manson instruments include John Paul Jones, Matthew Bellamy and Martin Barre.
At the 2011 Pink Pop Festival in the Netherlands, Dave Grohl used an unusual silver Manson Custom guitar that had circular holes of different sizes cut through the body like Swiss cheese. Looking a bit like a Telecaster, the Manson featured a P90 pickup with a polished metal cover in the neck position. The bridge pickup was a narrow-looking humbucker, also with a metal cover.
Gibson Elvis Presley Dove
Dave’s main acoustic guitar is the Elvis Presley version of the Gibson Dove. Heavily influenced by Martin’s Dreadnought guitar shape, the Dove was introduced in 1962, and featured maple sides and back with solid spruce top. It also had a 25.5″ scale length, rather than the typical Gibson scale of 24.75″, giving it a brighter tone than the other D-style Gibson acoustic, the Hummingbird.
The Elvis Presley Dove is based on a guitar made in 1969, and played by the King in the early 1970s. Grohl’s Dove is painted solid black, and can be heard on many acoustic Foo Fighters songs.
Martin D-28
Dave Grohl used a Martin D-28 acoustic while performing Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” on the Craig Kilborn show in 2006.
Introduced in 1931 by the C.F. Martin Guitar Company, the legendary D-28 features rosewood back and sides with a solid spruce top. One of Martin’s “Dreadnought” series, named after a famous British battleship, it had a bigger and deeper body than most guitars of the time, which gave it a somewhat louder and deeper tone. D-28s are among the most widely used acoustic guitars of all time. Those made before WWII are prized by both players and collectors for their exceptionally rich tone. These guitars have been used on countless folk, country, and rock recordings, and have been played by artists such as Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Joni Mitchell and Hank Williams.
Taylor 900 series
Based in El Cajon, California, Taylor Guitars is one of the largest acoustic guitar makers in the US. Founded in 1974 by luthier Bob Taylor, many well-known players use Taylor Guitars, including Zac Brown, Dave Matthews, Jewel, and Taylor Swift.
Dave Grohl owns a 900 series Taylor, which features solid rosewood and spruce construction. It has an onboard electronics system designed by famed engineer Rupert Neve, and is finished with intricate binding and fretboard inlays. He used it during a live performance of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”.