Myths about Slash’s gear that people believe

Few guitarists have more signature gear in the world than Saul Hudson, but while the route to nailing Slash’s tone might seem simple (signature Gibson Les Paul into signature Marshall amp with a few of his signature pedals thrown in) but the reality is a lot more complex. From rented amps to dubiously authentic instruments, there’s a huge amount of debate, conjecture and straight-up myth surrounding Slash’s hugely influential tone and the gear he used to create it. Let’s set the record straight…

By the time Guns N’ Roses recorded their epoch-defining debut record, Appetite For Destruction, in 1987, Slash had pawned many of his guitars, and so entered the studio with the only ones he had left, which he recounted, all sounded terrible. So the band’s manager went out to a local guitar shop and purchased a beautiful single-cut instrument that featured a gorgeous flamed maple top. This is the guitar that was used on Appetite For Destruction and would come to define Slash’s iconic look and tone to this day. But even though the guitar said Gibson Les Paul on the headstock, it was not a Gibson Les Paul. In fact, the guitar was a custom-built replica of a ’59 Sunburst Les Paul with a couple alternative specifications including Seymour Duncan Alnico II Zebra pickups. Quite who actually built this guitar is also something that has been subject to a great deal of speculation.  In his autobiography, Slash claims that, “It was made by the late Jim Foot[e], who owned MusicWorks in Redondo Beach.” Now, Foote shared a shop space with another luthier named Kris Derrig – Foote did own the shop, but Kris built most of the guitars. Foote has since confirmed that it was Kris Derrig who built the guitar. Unfortunately, Kris Derrig passed away before he could get the credit due to him for building the iconic guitar, in fact he sadly passed away of throat cancer just a few months prior to the release of Appetite For Destruction in 1987. Kris’ son, Dale, estimates that his dad made “about 20, maybe more” of these Les Paul replicas. Slash now owns three of them.

These Derrig ‘Les Pauls’ have become highly sought after in the years since, but obviously they are very hard to track down. It’s ironic though that one of the most iconic Les Paul tones in the history of recorded music (not to mention one that has spawned endless Gibson signature models) wasn’t even a real Les Paul. When GN’R signed to Geffen records they were given $370,000 to record their debut LP. Now, according to Slash they spent most of it on heroin instead, which would explain why a lot of the gear on Appetite For Destruction was rented rather than bought. As a result it’s been tough to pin down what exactly was used on the sessions. Some have claimed Slash used a Marshall Silver Jubilee for AFD, and while he did use it on subsequent tours, it wasn’t released until 1987 so can’t have been in the studio. Instead, in the spring of 1986, Slash went into S.I.R. (Studio Instrument Rentals) in LA to test out amplifiers to use on the album and finally found one he loved – a Marshall Model 1959T Super Lead Tremolo – pre-master volume, and post-Plexi (it had a metal faceplate). The amp had stenciled lettering that read: “Stock #39”. When the band went in to record the album (between August and December of 1986) Slash specifically requested Stock #39 from S.I.R. But there was a problem, George Lynch had rented the amp to use on Dokken’s 1986 tour, which ended 13 September in Irvine, California. So, that amp not available to be delivered to Slash in time to use during the recording session, but the company still had an obligation to deliver a comparable amp for the sessions.

Now, Stock #39 was not, ironically, a stock Super Lead Tremolo – it had been modified by a tech who worked for the company named Tim Caswell. Tim modded the amp by taking the amp’s unused tremolo circuit which had an additional preamp tube and turning it into an extra preamp stage. The amp sported EL34 power tubes (they were typically shipped to the US with 6550s in those days). He also added a master volume. In short, Tim was a great tech with an affinity for gain stacking. Tim left the company in 1985 and was replaced by a guy named Frank Levi. Tim’s modded “Stock #39” had become a favorite among those looking to rent gear, so Frank was tasked with making more amps like the “Stock #39”. Frank’s first test subject was an amp dubbed Stock #36 which was a Model 1959 Super Lead but was not a Tremolo, therefore, it didn’t have the existing tube and circuit to convert, so the extra gain stage (tube and circuit) was added right next to the existing three preamp tubes. Frank ended up swapping out some capacitors from “donor amps” some of which were allegedly, old Fenders until he got it to sound like #39. There were only a couple main differences – on #39, you could switch the fourth pre-amp tube on and off via a toggle switch mounted in place of one of the input jacks (#36 was just “on” all the time). #36 also had a master volume knob mounted in a different spot. According to a supervisor at S.I.R. at the time, Glenn Buckley, S.I.R. sent Slash #36, although they never told Slash that, perhaps hoping he wouldn’t notice, leading to many false tales of the legendary Stock #39 being used on Appetite…. Slash never seemed to notice and was very happy with #36. He actually tried to duck S.I.R. in order to keep the amp, but they eventually came down to the band’s rehearsal space and took it back.

Furthermore, there was another amp, known as #34 that was also modded by Frank Levi that Slash bought and used for Use Your Illusion and many subsequent albums. Some claim it was #34 on Appetite For Destruction, but rest assured, it was #36. Slash and Marshall go way back – in fact the 2555SL was the first ever signature Marshall head ever. That amp was based on the 1987 2555 Silver Jubilee amps he used on the Appetite… tours, but with Dagnall Transformers wound in Malta instead of Bedford. Back in 2010, Slash got a new signature amp, the AFD100, which was the result of over a year of collaboration between Mr Hudson and the boffins in Bletchley to create an amplifier that faithfully recreated the tones of that iconic debut album. Now, some people take that to mean that the AFD is an exact replica of the ‘Stock #36’ amp modded by Frank Levi and rented from S.I.R. as detailed above, but while it certainly delivers Slash-centric tones, this is not the case. In fact, it features two modes, #34 and AFD. #34 is modelled on Slash’s favorite JCM800 2203, which was also modded by Frank Levi and used on Use Your Illusion and most albums since then. AFD mode is, of course designed to replicate the tone of Appetite… and brings in additional gain that’s modelled on that fabled Stock #36 amp rented from S.I.R. – but there’s one very good reason that it’s not an exact replica. Nobody know where it is. Somehow one of the most important amplifiers in the history of rock guitar has fallen off the face of the earth.

Without it, Slash and Santiago Alvarez worked together listening to Slash’s tracks from the original master tapes to create the tone circuit based on their listening sessions. Sonically it might be pretty damn close (and it definitely is!) but it’s not a schematical copy of the original amp – if it ever turns up, maybe that will chance. The AFD100 also has a feature called Electronic Power Attenuation, which is a further refinement of the technology used in Yngwie Malmsteen’s signature head. The attenuator knob works as a power soak. We spoke with Slash’s tech, Ace Bergman for a lesson on what a power soak is and how Slash uses it: “A power soak goes between the power amp and the cabinet and basically “soaks up” some of the amp’s power by turning it into heat,” he explains. “It lets you run your amp with the master volume high and still cuts some volume out. The only time we ever used that feature was with the talk box, so it doesn’t rattle your teeth so bad.”