. . . Enter Kris Derrig Version
Whatever the lineage of the Hunterburst, at
some point it passed out of Slash’s hands.
In general, the band had a quick excuse any
time equipment went missing. “I think the
story was that someone stole it,” Hamilton
laughs. “Which was a common story with
those guys back in those days. Things just
sort of disappeared and I didn’t even know
that they were up on my roof doing drugs
and shit.”
When Guns N’ Roses entered the studio
in late 1986 to record
Appetite for
Destruction, Slash was apparently playing
an assortment of guitars that did not—
according to some—include a Les Paul,
whether replica or Gibson.
“Now, I was not there in the studio, but there
are too many accounts from Slash and other
people that a lot was recorded with a black
Jackson and a red B.C. Rich,” Rist says. He
claims that most of the record was recorded
with these instruments and that the second
legendary Les Paul replica did not enter the
picture “until Slash did all of the solo stuff.”
Other sources claim a Les Paul replica was
more prominent on the album. In Stephen
Davis’ 2008 book
Watch You Bleed: The
Saga of Guns N’ Roses, he writes, “Slash
cut most of the tracks with a Les Paul copy
plugged into a Marshall amplifier.”
But in a July 2010 interview with AOL’s
Noisecreep website, Slash himself seems
to confirm, at least in part, the assertion
that the LP didn’t show up until late in the
game, as well as rumors about the disposition
of his earlier instruments.
“I was really broke and I hocked all my
decent guitars before we went into the
studio to make
Appetite for Destruction,”
Slash tells the website staff. “All I had left
were a B.C. Rich Warlock and two Jackson
guitars, a Firebird, and a prototype archtop
Strat-style guitar. I brought them all
into the recording studio for the
Appetite
session and they all sounded horrible. I
was like, ‘F---, what do I do? I have to do
the overdubs and I have no instrument.’ So Guns N’ Roses manager, Alan Niven,
showed up the night before I went in to do
the
Appetite overdubs and brought me this
Les Paul. I went in the next day and it was
the most amazing sounding guitar.”
That instrument, the second Les Paul replica
in Slash’s epic journey, is widely reported
to be the work of the late Kris Derrig.
Luthier Baranet references this guitar when
he says, “And then the Derrig model came
in, you know, at the last minute for the
overdubs and solos.”
At first glance, that seems to conflict with
Slash’s own statement in his book that,
“It was made by the late Jim Foot[e], who
owned MusicWorks in Redondo Beach.”
However, guitar-building contemporaries
explain that Derrig shared space with Foote
(who is still alive), which probably accounts
for Slash’s statement in the book, especially
since band manager Alan Niven brought
the instrument to the guitarist. The rocker
did not go to the shop himself.
“Kris had a workshop in the back of Jim
Foote’s store,” Rist says. “Most guitar
builders, they just want to be left alone and
do their thing, and one thing you do not
want to do a lot is deal with customers. So
if you can have a buffer man out front, you
can do your own thing a bit easier.”
The Derrig model is presumed to be Slash’s
main guitar to this day. In the Gibson promotional
materials, when Slash says, “the
original,” he’s referencing the Derrig. Since
that instrument went directly to the guitarist,
the builders interviewed for this article don’t
have any firsthand knowledge of the guitar.
In this photo taken in 2001, Luthier Peter “Max” Baranet (left) stands with Slash and the Les Paul
replica he built for the gunslinger.
Photo courtesy of Peter Baranet