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Frontman Mike Ness’ longtime #1 is a 1976 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe that was modded with custom-wound Seymour Duncan Antiquity P-90s. Ness got the idea of swapping in P-90s when he opened for Neil Young and was blown away by his raw, powerful tone throughout the RaggedGlory tour. He prefers ’70s Deluxes because they’re more affordable than older, holy grail Les Pauls and he gravitates towards mid-decade models—’75–’76— because they shifted from all mahogany models to a mahogany-body-maple-cap-and-neck construction. He feels the added maple brightens up the overall tone of the guitar, which meshes well with his heavy use of a capo on the second fret. All of his guitars use custom-wound Seymour Duncan Antiquity P-90s, Ernie Ball 2215 Skinny Top/Heavy Bottom strings, and he prefers .88 mm Dunlop Nylon picks.
Here is a backup to his main Deluxe—a goldtop 1975 Les Paul Deluxe with custom graphics that read “From a G to a Gent.”
This is one of Ness’ few live guitars that isn’t a goldtop—a sunburst 1975 Les Paul Deluxe.
Ness’ main amp—stage or studio—is a 1967 Fender Bassman modded by Divided by 13’s Fred Taccone. Ness on his modded Bassman: “I don’t exactly know what he does to my amps, but I know that I look for a hotter, more overdriven tone at a lower volume. To get a great, rockin’ tone with most older amps, you need to push the amp and its power tubes. I was just looking for a way to heat ’em up at a lower volume so I wasn’t blown off the stage.”
The ’67 Bassman powers a Marshall 4x10 loaded with 30-watt Celestion speakers because Ness feels they cut through with a bit more midrange honk.
When it comes to pedals, Ness is a complete minimalist as he enlists just a Boss TU-2 Tuner and a non-descript pedal that he only describes as a “Klopy.” He did say that the upgrade from the Boss SD-1 to this 3-knob OD was evident instantly because the “Klopy” is much more transparent, less noisy, and doesn’t suck his natural guitar-to-amp tone.
Guitarist Jonny Wickersham can’t decide so he currently has two #1 guitars—this is one is a 1957 Gibson Les Paul Junior tuned down a half step with a capo on the second fret. All of his guitars are loaded with Ernie Ball 2215 Skinny Top/Heavy Bottom strings and he prefers to play with .92 mm Dunlop Tortex picks.
The second #1 axe for Wickersham is a 1959 Les Paul Junior doublecut that is tuned to standard. The reason he uses this one without a capo and in standard tuning is because it has a more drastic neck pitch that doesn’t play nice with a capo and overall it has a more rock ’n’ roll aggression that really shines with power and barre chords from the band’s earlier songs off Mommy’s Little Monster and Prison Bound.
Jonny collaborated with Echopark Guitars’ Gabriel Currie to great this Downtowner signature model that he says is a combination of a ’50s Gibson Les Paul Junior and a Supro. This particular model has a slab mahogany body, one-piece mahogany neck with an East Indian rosewood fretboard, and is loaded with a single P-90 custom-wound by Gabriel. The current tour has the guitarist busting it out for the cover of Hank Williams’ “Alone and Forsaken.”
One of the only new guitars on the road with Social Distortion, Wickersham picked up this Gretsch Masterbuilt Black Penguin at the beginning of the tour and has used it on when covering the Stones’ “Wild Horses.”
Jonny travels in pairs when it comes to amps and cabs. The Satellite FM36 half-stack on the right is his main rig. On the left is his backup Satellite Atom 36 head. Each head is routed through a General Radio Company Variac Autotransformer to its own Marshall 1960TV 4x12 loaded with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers.
Hands-down the pedal freak of the band, Wickersham travels heavy with three stompboxes—a Boss TU-2 Tuner, an MXR Micro Amp that he utilizes as a clean boost to push the amp a bit more while still retaining the guitar’s natural tonal characteristics, and a J. Rockett Audio Designs Archer that he uses as a fairly-transparent dirt box that fills his tone out and adds harmonic richness.
In typical fashion, Jonny travels with drool-worthy acoustics, too—this is his 1947 Gibson J-45 with a LR Baggs Anthem pickup. His other acoustic is a '41 J-35.
This is what Wickersham says about his Asher T-Deluxe: "I love the way this guitar gets something unique from a Tele. It's very versatile. It can sound similar to a Les Paul Junior or it can get almost Strat-like tones in the middle and neck positions."
Chris Kies has degrees in Journalism and History from the University of Iowa and has been with PG dating back to his days as an intern in 2007. He maintains the website and social media, occasionally writes an artist feature, regularly hosts Rig Rundowns, and shoots/edits video for NAMM show coverage. Other than that, he spends time with his pitbull and enjoys non-guitar-related hobbies.
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