Zakk Wylde Guitar - [ Full list of Wylde's Guitars, Amps, Pedals & Gear ] -

Every modern Zakk Wylde guitar is easily identifiable with his bullseye color scheme and crazy shapes, but Zakk didn’t always play these guitars. In this article, we will look at the guitars that Zakk Wylde used throughout his career to craft his signature metal sound.

Maintaining his gruff almost Viking style looks, Wylde is easily seen as one of the most influential guitarist of the last few decades. With his bullseye guitar finishes and virtuosic guitar playing he is instantly recognizable. Born as Jeffrey Phillip Wiedlandt in Bayonne, New Jersey. Wylde started to play guitar at a young age but only took it up more seriously around the age of 15.

He was inspired by guitar greats such as Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads who he would eventually replace in Ozzy Osborne’s band. Wylde’s career has spanned multiple decades and he has played in world renowned bands. Zakk started out in a band called Stone Henge and later joined another band called Zyris. Both of these bands were still based in his home state of New Jersey.

After the death of Randy Rhoads Wylde auditioned for Ozzy Osborne’s band and he would become the guitarist for the band from 1987 up to 1995 and would return from 2001 till 2009 and then from 2017 onwards. Wyle also enjoyed success with his own band called Black Label Society.

Gibson and Epiphone was the guitars he would almost use exclusively during his playing years and only in the last few years (since 2015) he established his own brand of guitars called Wylde Audio. The reason Wylde changed from Gibson to his new company was purely based on the fact that he wanted more control over the distribution of his guitars and economic stability. In this article however, we will be taking a look at his more conventional guitars from Gibson, Epiphone, Dean and Alvarez.

Chronological List of Zakk Wylde’s Guitars & Gear

Contents

1 Chronological List of Zakk Wylde’s Guitars & Gear
2 Zakk Wylde’s Electric Guitars
3 Zakk Wylde Acoustic Guitars

Here is a complete list of Zakk Wylde guitars that he used throughout his career on records, tours, live shows, and magazine covers.

Zakk Wylde’s Electric Guitars

1980s Gibson SG Firebrand Deluxe

The first guitar we will be looking at is the 1980s Gibson SG Firebrand Deluxe Wylde used. The Firebrand was interesting in the sense that it wasn’t such a success as the SG series. It had a very short production span from 1980 until 1984. Zakk would use this guitar during his mid teenage years as this was the first guitar he ever bought. What it makes it special is that it can be seen as the guitar which Zakk started to craft his skill on.

This guitar never featured on any albums as Wylde would eventually go on to sell the Firebrand to buy another guitar. The guitar recently appeared on the website Reverb which auctions guitars and it sold for $7500. Zakk often refers to this guitar as “the one that got away” simply because of its rarity due its short production time.

1980s Gibson Les Paul Goldtop

The next guitar we will look at is the 1980s Gibson Les Paul Goldtop. Not a lot is known about this guitar and Wylde rarely mentions the guitar and his whereabouts. What we do know is that Zakk Wylde used this guitar somewhere in the middle 80’s after he bought and sold his Gibson SG Firebrand Deluxe.

There is however video footage from 1985 showing Wylde playing this exact guitar while playing for one of his first bands which we mentioned earlier called Zyris.

It’s interesting as this guitar is widely popular and is used by world renowned musicians such as Slash, John Frusciante and Josh Homme. It is not known if Zakk Wylde still owns this guitar or if he actually sold it at some point.

1981 Gibson Les Paul Custom “The Grail”

Two years after the video footage of Zakk playing 1980’s Goldtop he would buy a 1981 Gibson Les Paul Custom after he joined the Ozzy Osborne band. The guitar was also known as “The Grail.”

This guitar would become one of his most important guitars as it would be used on all the Ozzy Osborne recordings up to somewhere in the 1990’s when the guitar was lost after it fell off a trailer during a tour. The guitar would eventually resurface years later at a pawn shop somewhere in Texas where Wylde bought it for around $250 again. The 1981 Custom Les Paul guitars came out with stock standard humbucker pickups. Wylde would eventually change these pickups to an EMG 81/85 set. The bullseye decal was inspired by the movie Vertigo which was made by famous film maker Alfred Hitchcock.

Zakk Wylde stated that he wanted his guitar to look different than that of Randy Rhoads who used the same guitar. The guitar was used on the albums “No rest for the wicked” (1988), “Just say Ozzy” (1990) and “No more tears” (1991). The bullseye decal makes this guitar instantly recognizable and you immediately know that this is a guitar belonging to Zakk Wylde.

1980s Gibson Les Paul Standard “Shattered Glass”

The 1980s Gibson Les Paul Standard “Shattered Glass” is a guitar which was popular amongst the early days of Ozzy Osborne. It was seen in photographs as early as 1987 after Wylde just joined the band.

Wylde has stated that he owned this specific guitar even before he joined the band. The Shattered Glass would go through multiple cosmetic changes from featuring his own heroes up until most recently when it got the same finish as the Fender Telecaster owned by Jimmy Page.

Not a lot is known about this guitar as it was never as prominent as the bullseye Les Paul.

1989 Gibson Les Paul Custom “The Rebel”

As the trend suggests, Zakk Wylde loved his Gibson Les Paul guitar as the next guitar we will look at is 1989 Gibson Les Paul Custom known as “The Rebel”. This guitar would become his second most famous instrument right after his bullseye Les Pauls.

According to Wylde the guitar was a standard black Les Paul but being inspired by the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd he decided to paint the rebel flag on it and stick beer bottle caps on the body of the guitar. Wylde has stated that Osborne never really liked the guitar due to its Southern Rock look and attempted to set the guitar alight once. Luckily he did not succeed.

The guitar carried on with the tradition of having an EMG set of pickups instead of the humbuckers. He got the guitar during the recording of “No more tears” and might possibly have used it during the recording sessions.

1957 Gibson Les Paul Junior

The next guitar we will take a look at is the 1957 Gibson Les Paul Junior. What’s interesting about this guitar is that Zakk Wylde never used it for live performances. He would however use it for most of the clean guitar recordings in studio.

This guitar would by default then have featured on many of the recordings between 87 and 95. Ozzy Osborne bought the guitar as a gift for Wylde for his 20th or 21st birthday. The guitar features a single P-90 pickup in the bridge section with a single cutout.

The guitar was built in 1957. According to Wylde he still uses it to this day!

1980s Gibson Les Paul Standard “Red Bullseye”

The 1980s Gibson Les Paul Standard “Red Bullseye” was a bit different compared to the other bullseye guitars as it was a standard and not a custom Gibson guitar. The earliest sightings of this guitar were around 1989/1990. It was featured on the June 1990 cover of Guitar World magazine.

The most distinct difference between this guitar and the other bullseye guitars is merely the fact that the bullseye is red instead of black and painted over the natural finish. Like the custom guitars it also features EMG pickups.

Over the years the Red Bullseye went through a few cosmetic changes where he changed the knobs and replaced the white pickup rings with black pickup rings.

The Glory Guitar by Andy Beech

The next guitar is actually one of the few guitars not manufactured by Gibson and is quite an interesting one. The guitar is called the “The Glory” and was custom built by then guitar tech Andy Beech who is now a luthier.

It’s built out of a flame maple top and Mahogany chambered body for better weight distribution. The neck is also made from mahogany. The inlays feature bird and block pearl. Like almost all of Wylde’s guitars up to this point the guitar features EMG pickups.

Apparently Zakk Wylde added the cutaway himself as he struggled to reach the higher notes he frequents when soloing. Zakk used this guitar during 1992 on the “Live and Loud” tour.

Gibson Les Paul Custom “Mirror”

During the late 1990’s Zakk Wylde started to use another Gibson Les Paul Custom which he called the “Mirror.”

It followed to design of all his previous Les Paul customs except for having the bullseye painted on featured some sort of Mylar film in the shape of the bullseyes.

It also featured EMG pickups and not the standard humbuckers. This is one of the coolest bullseye patterns in my opinion because the white lines in the pattern are mirror like and reflect light on stage while the black lines are regular guitar finish. It’s also a really difficult guitar to photograph.

1978 Gibson Les Paul Custom “Camo”

Following in the tradition of Wylde using Les Paul custom guitars he had quite a rare guitar in the 1978 Gibson Les Paul Custom called “Camo”. The reason for the rarity of this guitar is that the neck is made from maple and features white inlays.

The finish was also a “camo” finish instead of the typical white or black paint. It kept in line of the tradition of Wylde using EMG pickups. This guitar would eventually inspire signature models from Gibson as well as Epiphone.

Gibson Les Paul Custom Pelham Blue

The second last Les Paul Custom we will look at is a much more recent built. The Gibson Les Paul Custom Pelham Blue is very special as it is a one of a kind guitar because it was specially built for Zakk Wylde.

The colour of this guitar is based on the very first guitar we discussed in this article, the 1980s Gibson SG Firebrand Deluxe which Wylde sold to buy another guitar. Gibson built two of these guitars for Wylde.

One of them was actually stolen from his tour bus after using the guitar during the Experience Hendrix Tour in Chicago during March 2014. Luckily for Wylde, the guitar was recovered a few days later at a local pawn shop. This must have been a relief for Wylde as the guitar is valued around $10 000 and the fact that it is one of a kind!

Gibson Les Paul Custom “Buzzsaw”

The final Les Paul custom we will take a look at is the Gibson Les Paul Custom “Buzzsaw”. Even with guitar being one of the more recent designs it is still very similar to that of the other Les Paul Custom guitars. The only real visible difference is that of the bullseye being replaced with a jagged pattern. It has a maple neck with an ebony fretboard like most of the others and the traditional EMG pickup Wylde preferred.

Looking at all the Les Paul custom guitars one would see there isn’t much of a difference between all of them except the finishes on the guitars. Most of the materials as well as the hardware on the guitars are very similar if not exactly the same. We will now take a look at some of the guitars Wylde used which are a bit different from the Les Paul custom guitars.

Gibson Bullseye Flying V

The first of the more different models we will take a look at is the Gibson Flying V guitar. When looking at this guitar one can see Zakk Wylde really liked the bullseye design. Even the fact that it is a completely different guitar model he kept with the same look.

The guitar even features the same EMG pickup setup he preferred on his Custom Les Pauls as well as the ebony fretboard and maple neck. What made this guitar a bit different is that it had a Floyd Rose tremolo setup which would keep the strings more in tune after bends and using the whammy bar.

Wylde eventually received a signature model of this guitar which he would use for many years until he crossed over to Wylde Audio.

Gibson EDS-1275 Double Neck Guitar

The next guitar is a bit different compared to all the others we have discussed thus far and it is the Gibson EDS-1275. What makes this guitar so much more different when compared to the others is the fact that it is a double neck guitar featuring one with twelve strings and the other with six.

According to Wylde he owns two of these guitars but they are quite different from one another. The one is a stock standard guitar even keeping the standard pickups which it was released with while the other one has been outfitted with EMG pickups and a mirror front plate.

Wylde eventually went on to get a Gibson EDS-1275 with the bullseye finish to nobody’s surprise!

Gibson Epiphone ZV

Continuing with more odd shaped guitars inspired by Wylde we will look at the Gibson/Epiphone ZV. When one looks at this guitar you can clearly see how the Gibson SG body shape inspired the top part of the guitar’s body and then the bottom by the flying V shape.

The structure of the guitar is slightly different than that of the others because the body is built from mahogany, the neck is maple and then finally the fretboard is made from Rosewood. Besides the previously mentioned differences the rest is very much similar to his other guitars. It even kept in line with the usual bullseye finish!

Epiphone Graveyard Disciple

As far as odd shaped guitars goes, this one pushes the boundary. The Epiphone Graveyard Disciple is a guitar Zakk designed with Epiphone. In an interview with Guitarist magazine Wylde said that the body is pretty much like that of the Gibson SG in the sense that it is built from mahogany.

The neck is maple and the fretboard can be Rosewood or Ebony. It has EMG pickups and features a Floyd Rose bridge system just like the Gibson/Epiphone ZV. The edges of the guitar are also pin striped to give it a very distinctive look.

Karl Sandoval Polka Dot Flying V

Now we are going to break away from the tradition of Gibson and Epiphone guitars which have been very much the focus of this entire article and we will look at one of Wylde’s most iconic guitars. The Karl Sandoval V guitar was one which Wylde used extensively at live performances.

This guitar is the same in a hardware sense when compared to all his other guitars but what makes it distinctly different from the others is the finish. This guitar features a polka dot paint job and is seen as homage to Randy Rhoads who played for Ozzy Osborne before his death and he also used the same guitars.

This guitar can be seen in many live recordings and also famously in the music video for “Suicide Massiah”

Dean Razorback

The last electric guitar we will look at also breaks away from the Gibson tradition and is none other than the Dean Razorback. Now, what makes this guitar so very special is that it was a gift from the guitarist of Pantera, Dimebag Darrel shortly before his death.

This is obviously a guitar that holds great sentimental value to Wylde as he has only he used it live once when he performed the song “In this river” as a tribute to his friend Dimebag. Besides that one instance Wylde has never used it in a live setting again. He does however own a guitar of this make and model with a bullseye finish.

Now that we have looked at the most influential and iconic electric guitars owned and played by Wylde we are going to take a look at some of the acoustic guitars owned by Wylde.

Zakk Wylde Acoustic Guitars

Gibson Chet Atkins SST

The first of these acoustic guitars we will look at takes us back to the Gibson Company and it is the Gibson Chet Atkins SST acoustic guitar. When looking at early videos and photographs Wylde is already seen using this guitar. He used the guitar most notably on “Mama, I’m coming home.”

It has been established that Zakk Wylde still owns the guitar as he has posted photographs on social media. It obviously holds great sentimental value as it has been with him since his early days of the Ozzy Osborne band. Wylde has stated in interviews that he uses Gibson Chet Atkins SST nylon string to rehearse on during tours as it is quiet and writes songs on it as well.

Gibson Dove

Looking at the final Gibson guitar on this list we will be taking a look at the Gibson Dove acoustic guitar. Wylde has stated that this acoustic guitar was one of the first decent acoustic guitars he actually owned.

The Gibson Dove was used to record on “Book of Shadows” including “Mama, I’m coming home.” The guitar was never really used in a live setting but a video does exist where Wylde played it during the 1994 “Pride & Glory UK” Tour.

Alvarez 12 string Acoustic Guitar

The next acoustic guitar we will take a look at is the Alvarez 12 string acoustic guitar. On the album “Sonic Brew” by Black Label Society one can hear the Alvarez guitars in action as Wylde stated he needed a guitar that can play fast.

On his solo album “Book of Shadows” one can hear this specific guitar very prominently on the track “Way beyond empty.” The guitar started to appear around the time when Wylde started to work on his solo albums and he still owns the guitar presently.

Here’s Zakk playing As Dead As Yesterday on the 12-string.

Loucin Guitars Zakk Wylde “Fiddle of Doom”

The second last guitar that will be discussed is the Loucin Guitars Zakk Wylde “Fiddle of Doom”. What makes this guitar a bit more special than the other acoustic guitars is that it was hand built specially for Wylde meaning it’s one of a kind.

The guitar is based on the Loucin LD design butt with a few modifications specified by Wylde. It has a rich bass tone with an overall loudness like that of a larger acoustic guitar. The guitar also has an EMG AT125U Piezo pickup and the typical bullseye finish seen on almost all of his electric guitars.

The guitar can be seen and heard in the music video for “Sleeping dogs” from Wylde’s solo album “Book of Shadows II.”

Epiphone Masterbilt EF-500RCCE

The final guitar that will be discussed is the Epiphone Masterbilt EF-500RCCE. Like the previously mentioned Loucin acoustic guitar, the Epiphone Masterbilt EF-500RCCE is also one of his more recent guitars. The guitar is built from a cedar wood top and with Rosewood on the back and sides. He has modified the guitar to use an EMG ACS active pickup. There is also a very distinct Black Label Society logo on the body of the guitar. In 2013 EMG posted a video to their YouTube channel showcasing Wylde playing on one of these guitars with the Les Paul Trio.

And there you have it, a brief of the most important guitars found in Zakk Wylde’s arsenal of guitars. Some of these are quite rare and difficult to find information on as he doesn’t talk about them as much. So from all sorts of bullseye electric guitars to twelve string acoustic guitars I hope you have enjoyed the read!

Zakk Wylde Guitars