Spoilers from the merch store in Cardiff! (photo: WalesOnline)
With just a couple of days to go, the official merch store has opened in Cardiff: among the items on sale is an old-school tour programme, designed by none other than Brian Cannon of Microdot, the iconic designer behind so much of the Oasis golden era.
A few photos of it have already surfaced online. Inside, you’ll find archival shots by Jill Furmanovsky and new photos taken by Brian himself. And right there on pages 2 and 3? A vintage pic of Noel… plus a list and photo of the gear he’s bringing on tour. And yes… there’s a new guitar in there that no one saw coming.
If you’re avoiding spoilers until the gig, fair enough – just stop reading now. But if you’re curious, keep reading after the break to check out Noel’s touring setup!
With just a month to go before the first reunion gig, it’s hard not to start wondering what guitars (and gear) Noel will bring along for the ride.
Some picks are all but guaranteed, others are wishful thinking – and a few are deep cuts we’d love to see dusted off, even if the chances are slim. Noel’s not exactly known for wallowing in nostalgia… but hey, maybe a few rare gems will find their way back on stage.
Keep reading for some light-hearted, gear-nerd guesswork…
Spring is here and the Oasis reunion is just weeks away! Time flies…
This fairly extensive update doesn’t include any brand-new guitar pages (I promise — one of the long-missing “big ones” is on the way!), but there have been a few new bits you might find interesting. Here’s a recap.
UPDATED PAGES:
Two small photoshoots from recent weeks brought some interesting guitar sightings. Zoe Law (@zoelawlondon) captured Noel in his studio, strumming his Epiphone USA Casino in Sunburst finish. As one of his favorite guitars in recent years, could it make an appearance at the upcoming Oasis reunion gigs? A few minor updates were also made to the page for its twin – the Epiphone USA Casino in Royal Tan finish.
Since we’re in Les Paul territory… an email from a reader prompted me to dig a bit deeper into one of Noel’s Gibson Les Pauls in Cherry Sunburst — yes, the Familiar to Millions etc. model. Turns out, it’s a rare and historically significant model from 1993.
The page for the legendary black, ex-Johnny Marr Gibson Les Paul Custom has been updated with a couple of photos from the Standing on the Shoulder of Giants sessions at Wheeler End studios. A geeky follow-up blog post about this LP is coming in the next few weeks (and here’s the first one, in case you missed it).
Thanks to Tom Sheehan’s superb new book Roll With It (if you haven’t grabbed a copy, do — it’s easily the best Oasis photo book in years), we now have confirmation that the Goldtop Gibson Les Paul was indeed used to record Some Might Say in February 1995. During those sessions, the Gibson Firebird was also featured prominently — its page has been updated accordingly.
On the semi-hollow front… the page for the Gibson ES-345 stoptail has been fully rewritten with new photos and extra detail — including an exciting (?!) digression about its tuning machines.
Also revealed in Justin Downing’s shoot: a lovely Natural-finished Gibson ES-335 with a Bigsby vibrato. Is it a new addition or an old one? More digging needed.
The elusive Ebony Gibson ES-355 has had its page rewritten and expanded. And a reader pointed out another sighting of the unlucky Gibson ES-355 no.2 — yes, that guitar from Paris 2009…
Speaking of reader tips… since I admittedly know very little about Gretsch models, one expert rightly corrected my info about the Gretsch Country Gentleman. Its page has been rewritten. Thanks for the heads-up!
And finally… the page for the Surf Green Fender Telecaster has been expanded with new photos and a few added details. Strangely enough, it was the most viewed page on the site in March. Go figure!
This post came about after a little epiphany I had last week. I decided to dust off a guitar I hadn’t played in years – probably not since before the 2020 lockdown. Thanks to my relentless gear acquisition syndrome, it had been pretty neglected. Nothing major, but it desperately needed new strings, some fretboard conditioning, fret polishing, and, of course, a solid setup.
Once I sorted all that out, I plugged it into the amp, dialed in a crunchy, very Brit-sounding tone, and started strumming some chords. And… holy smokes! My subpar playing had never sounded closer to Definitely Maybe. How is that?
Only then did I realize something that should have been obvious – the guitar I was holding was equipped with a Dirty Fingers humbucker, famously (or infamously) known as Gibson’s highest-output pickup. And guess what pickup Noel Gallagher had in the Gibson Les Paul “conversion” that Johnny Marr gave him? Yep, a rather obscure variation of a Dirty Fingers.
Keep reading after the break for the usual geekiness…
Johnny with a replica of his red Les Paul, February 2025 (original photo from Gibson Gazette)
Everyone knows the story of the two Les Pauls that Johnny Marr gave to Noel Gallagher – the 1953 Sunburst conversion and the 1978 Black Custom (both extensively detailed in their dedicated pages). But there’s another Les Paul, arguably Johnny’s most played guitar (!), that also made its way into a few of Noel’s recordings.
The guitar in question is a 1984 Les Paul Standard in Cherry Red, fitted with a Bigsby B-5 vibrato and Seymour Duncan pickups. Over the last two decades, it has developed a cult following and earned the nickname “Meat Is Murder Les Paul“. Now, it’s been faithfully replicated in a limited run of just 20 pieces, available exclusively through the Gibson Garage in London.
Keep reading for a VERY detailed, in-depth look at this legendary instrument, which has shaped so many iconic tracks from Johnny Marr’s career with The Smiths and beyond…
Let me get a few things off my chest. For almost fifteen years, I’ve been gathering information and materials to piece together every tiny, seemingly insignificant detail about the guitars Noel Gallagher played in Oasis and High Flying Birds. I’ve spent countless hours researching, connecting the dots, organizing, cataloging, and writing. I’ve spent a significant amount of money on books, magazines, clippings, and maintaining a website.
The result of all this effort has been online since September 2023: free, accessible to everyone, with no ads or financial gain. I’m not protective of the information I’ve painstakingly compiled over the years – if I were, I wouldn’t have made it available for everyone on the site. But, as stated on the homepage and every single page of the site, I only ask that my work is acknowledged and properly credited when used. Not for fame or clicks – just out of respect for years of passion and research.
I was disappointed when a couple of specialized magazines took information from the site without citing the source. Oh well, that’s just how media works these days, right?
But I was even more disheartened recently when I came across a site (which I won’t name) that catalogs the gear of famous guitarists, including Noel. I’d seen it before; it was just a basic, not-so-detailed list. Interestingly, over the past few months, it’s been updated with a lot of specifics about many guitars – I’d estimate that about 90% of those pages mirrors the content on this site. It’s been rephrased or synthesized, maybe even with the help of AI. Many conclusions I’ve drawn (sometimes with the help of other fans) are repeated there. Several images are identical (most of the file names weren’t changed). Even the cited sources match mine exactly. And yet, by coincidence, the name of this site is never mentioned! There are monetized links to Amazon, Reverb, and other sources all over the website, but not a single acknowledgment (let alone a link) to the years of work I’ve put in! Shame on you, Dan. I bet you’re reading.
Nothing new, you might say. True. It happens everywhere and to everyone online. But it’s incredibly disappointing for someone like me, who goes out of their way to respect others’ work (I get annoyed when I can’t find the source or author of a photo to include in its embedded image description).
The phrase on every page of my site isn’t just decoration. Respect other people’s work. That’s all I’m asking.
There are some updates in the works, but for the time being I’ve lost a bit of my enthusiasm. I imagine many of you can understand the frustration.
Noel Gallagher’s guitars on the Whatever video set (original photo by P. Slattery)
To celebrate 30 years since the release of the single Whatever, the official Oasis social media accounts posted an upgraded (or let’s say, AI-upscaled) version of the iconic video clip.
While it is often remembered for a messy Noel Gallagher eating chips and sweeping the floor with a broom (“I’d been out the night before to the pub. I woke up in a bus shelter in Maida Vale!”), for us guitar geeks the video is a nice display of the guitars that were in Noel’s possession in late 1994.
Keep reading after the break for a detailed list of the instruments. I also want to take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and thank you for putting up with all the fussy details about guitar knobs and stickers!
A vintage-correct replica of the iconic Johnny Marr / Noel Gallagher Gibson Les Paul Custom
Since the very first days of my oasis obsession, few guitars have captured my attention like Noel Gallagher’s black Les Paul, forever immortalized in the Whatever video clip which – not by coincidence – was filmed on this very day 30 years ago, on December 5, 1994.
I wasn’t such a guitar nut back then, but that Les Paul looked badass and truly special. And it really is, given its background history: it is a 1978 Custom model, formerly owned by Johnny Marr, who used it to write and record various songs for the album The Queen Is Dead. For all the historical details, check out the dedicated page, which will be updated in the next few days with plenty of new material.
In February of this year, to coincide with the opening of the Gibson Garage in London, a gorgeous, uber-limited, and uber-pricey replica of Noel’s black Les Paul was released: only 20 pieces worldwide, and they were only available in-person to attendees on the official opening day. Getting one was never an option for me, but its release prompted me to assemble my own vintage-accurate replica – something I had wanted to do for years.
Keep reading this post for everything you’d like to know about the 2024 Gibson reissue and how to build a proper vintage replica.
This November, Oasis fans in Japan have a special opportunity: the “Live Forever: Oasis 30th Anniversary Exhibition” at the Roppongi Museum in Tokyo showcases a collection of memorabilia, including some of Noel’s guitars. The exhibition runs from November 1 to November 23, 2024.
All these guitars have been displayed before in the last decade, but it still is rare chance to see these iconic instruments up close.
Keep reading this post for more details and a photo gallery!
Oasis photographed by James Fry at Nomad Studios – November 1993
It’s been a long and busy month, but now it’s time for some updates on the website. Nothing really major, but there are definitely a few interesting tidbits to share!
UPDATED PAGES:
Three guitars were auctioned last month by Sotheby’s, and their pages on the website have been updated accordingly. These guitars include the Supersonic Epiphone Les Paul, Johnny Marr’s Flying V, and the early ’70s hollow-bodied EA-250.
A couple of fans pointed out that the Gretsch was not a Tennessean but a Country Gentleman model, and they are indeed right! Also, I had forgotten about these backstories: allegedly, the guitar was owned by John Squire, and Noel wrote Live Forever and recorded Married With Children on it!
After careful examination, involving detailed analysis of grainy old photos (I love this kind of stuff!), I believe I have managed to identify the correct model of the bridge pickup on the famous Gibson Les Paul Burst conversion, also known as “Johnny’s old one.”
The Chief's Guitars - Noel Gallagher's guitars: a complete guide - Oasis and NGHFB 