Guitarists Mike Ness and Jonny Wickersham show off their tried-and-true rock ’n’ roll machines.
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.
