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As you might have guessed from the picture, this update has a bit of a Standing on the Shoulder of Giants theme. The “Giants” era is one of the band’s most obscure yet fascinating periods, like the musical equivalent of a hangover after a wild night out.

A thread on the Live4Ever forum, where fellow fans shared their appreciation for this underrated album, inspired me to dig deeper into the recording sessions and the instruments used.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve completely rewritten several pages from scratch, adding lots of details and behind-the-scenes geekiness. And there’s more about Giants coming in the next update.

Keep reading for a quick recap of the latest changes!

Oh, and I’ve also added half a dozen new entries to the complete list – which means the website has now passed the 100 guitars milestone! I bet even Noel doesn’t remember all of them!

NEW PAGES:

Gibson Les Paul Deluxe (Cherry Sunburst)
This guitar was spotted among the instruments at Chateau de la Colle Noire, where Oasis were recording the album in May 1999. It was never played live and hasn’t been seen since.

Gibson Les Paul Standard (Wine Red)
This guitar’s story is tied to the previous one: Noel likely mixed the two up in a 2002 interview. It was used during the recording sessions, then sold to a technician in the summer of 1999.

UPDATED PAGES:

These aren’t really updates: they are full rewrites of the old pages, with loads of extra details added.

Epiphone Casino (Sunburst, reissue)
This elusive guitar has only ever appeared in the Sunday Morning Call video and an April 2000 photoshoot (unless new evidence turns up). I once thought it was a stock Made-in-Korea model, but it’s actually a 1999 “John Lennon 1965” reissue. The definitive confirmation came from an anonymous reader.

Epiphone Casino (Natural, various)
I had been working on a complete rewrite of this page for months. Finally, after a deep dive into footage from various 1999 and 2000 gigs – plus a book and a couple of magazines I got from Japan – I managed to confirm that there are actually four very similar Casinos that were used between 1999 and 2015. I won’t spoil the details, but beware: this page is now very long… and extremely geeky.

Gibson Les Paul Special (TV Yellow)
Only one known photo of this guitar exists: it was taken at Wheeler End Studios, where it was used to record I Can See a Liar. The detail comes from a still unknown 2000 interview, rediscovered in 2015 on the Live4Ever forum. I had completely forgotten about it until I stumbled across it again last week. More from that mysterious interview will make its way into the next update…

Rickenbacker 330 (White)
The ex-Paul Weller guitar, gifted to Noel in 1997, was used both during the album’s recording sessions and live on the 1999 USA mini-tour. The page has been expanded with more details, photos from a Jam exhibition, and the correct dating of the guitar.

Gibson Les Paul Custom (1978)
This is the ex-Johnny Marr custom, one of the main instruments used during the album’s recording. We can now narrow down its modification date (or ‘butchering‘, as Noel jokingly called it in 2023) to the summer of 1999. In May at Colle Noire, the guitar still had cream plastics and the original humbuckers, but by August or September, photos from Wheeler End show it with black plastics and Firebird pickups.

Outside of Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, I’ve also updated the pages for the Cherry Red Epiphone Sheraton, the blonde ES-335, the now-world-famous Les Paul with P-90 pickups, and the two late-’60s Rivieras.

Finally, you should check out Andrew MacPherson‘s Instagram page and website: he is the artist behind the album artwork, which is one of my personal favorites.