Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) guitar rig

Jimmy Page is an undisputed guitar god, the driving force behind Led Zeppelin and the inspiration for countless guitar riffs. As you'd expect of someone of 'guitar god' status, Page is reputed to own in excess of 1,500 different guitars. Obviously trying to list every piece of gear Page has used over the years is all but impossible, and time consuming, so instead of trying to do that, I'll focus on the gear he has relied upon most commonly to form the core of his guitar tone, or the other 'stand out' pieces of kit.

While playing for the Yardbirds, Page would often be seen playing a 1958 Fender Telecaster, that was given to him by Jeff Beck. Page repainted this Telecaster to feature a psychedelic Dragon. It's often referred to as Page's Dragon Telecaster. As well as being used with the Yardbirds, the Dragon was used on early Led Zeppelin tours (1968-69), as was used to record the solo of "Stairway To Heaven".

His number one guitar, and the one most commonly associated with him, is the Gibson '59 Les Paul that was given to him by Joe Walsh. The neck was shaved so that it was similar to the '58 neck, and the bridge was rounded slightly so that he could play all the strings with his bow. Without the rounded bridge he would only have been able to play the low and high E's. Two additional switches were added, one used to switch the pickups in and out of phase, and the other to switch the pickups to series/parallel mode. The tone knobs were replaced with push-pull knobs for coil tapping and also allowed him to play with the four coils in parallel. The original tuners have also been replaced. For the hardcore fan or trivia nut, the serial number is #91703. This is also the guitar that the Jimmy Page Signature Les Paul, that was released in 1999 and 2004 was based on.

His number two guitar was a Gibson '58 Les Paul, that underwent several neck modifications, leading to the loss of it's serial number. The original tuners were also replaced with gold plated Grovers.

Another well known guitar Page used was the Gibson '60 "Black Beauty" Les Paul Custom, that was stolen during the 1970 tour. The Black Beauty also featured a Bigsby vibrato arm. The serial number was 06130, and even after issuing an ad in Rolling Stone, the guitar has to this day, never resurfaced. This guitar has also been reissued as a signature model in 2007. The 2007 model has some additional pickup modifications, including a 6 was pickup selector switch, and coil tap on the bridge pickup.

The double neck guitar Page used most often live was a 1971 Gibson EDS-1275, while other guitars used were a '59 Danelectro 59-DC, tuned to alternate tunings for songs like Kashmir and In My Time Of Dying.

Amplifier wise, Page favored a Marshall SLP-1959 100-watt amplifier which was modded to run KT-88 tubes and boosted to an output of 200 watts. Live he was also seen playing Hiwatt Custom 50 and Custom 100 heads.

If you watch the Song Remains The Same DVD you might catch a glimpse of an Orange amplifier used in conjunction with a theramin. A Supro 1x12 combo amplifier was also reported to have been used in the studio during the recording of Led Zeppelin I.

Other amplifiers in his arsenal included Vox AC-30's, a Fender Dual Showman, Fender Vibro-King.

In terms of effects, with the Yardbirds and early on with Led Zeppelin, Page was using a Gibson overdrive pedal that had been customised for him by Roger Mayer. Generally though, most of the overdrive came from his amplifier, more often than not the Marshall 1959 SLP.

He used a Vox Wah Wah primarily, but has also been reported as using a Dunlop Crybaby. Live, he used a Maestro Echoplex for his on stage echo/reverb.

An MXR Phase 90 was used on Achilles Last Stand and the Wanton Song, while an MXR Blue Box is known to have been used for the guitar solo on Fool In The Rain.

In more recent outings he has also used an Eventide H949 Harmonizer as well as a Digitech Whammy Pedal.

If you want to chat about Jimmy Page's rig, or put forward additions or correction, feel free to post them in the forum here.