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This was probably the biggest “hole” left to fill on the website. There are still a couple of iconic guitars to cover… they will come, have faith!

Despite being the most famous of all Noel Gallagher’s guitars, surprisingly little information has emerged about ES-355 #1. Everyone knows it’s a 1960 model, that he got it in 1996 or 1997, and that it’s been his favourite guitar ever since. That’s about it.

Over the last month or so, I decided it was finally time to put everything together: years’ worth of notes, books, video bootlegs, printed articles from 15 or 30 years ago, and plenty more. I’ve always had a bit of an obsession with 355s!

The result is a very detailed (but hopefully very enjoyable) reconstruction of the guitar’s history and peculiarities. The 58 footnotes (!) are perhaps the best testimony to the almost pathological level of research that went into creating this page.

As usual, if you have any hints, suggestions or corrections, please get in touch via email or in the comments section. The website was born and continues to grow thanks in no small part to the many fans who have shared whatever they knew.

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NEW PAGE: Gibson ES-355 TDSV (Cherry Red with Bigsby, #1)

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UPDATED PAGES: sticking with the 355 theme, the pages for ES-355 #2 and the NG signature ES-355 have also been updated.

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One less enjoyable part of putting all this together is knowing that some of this research will probably end up elsewhere without proper credit. It’s part of the game, I guess. I’m not trying to sound hostile or bitter, but it is a little sad to see people (and companies!) making money from work that has been made available for free, from one fan to fellow fans. Bootleggers do know a thing or two about that, don’t they?

Anyway, I’ll keep sharing everything I’ve researched and reconstructed. I’ve never been one for keeping interesting stuff to myself when part of the fun is sharing it with other fans. And completely free of charge, by the way: this website is not monetized and never will be (no ads, no sponsored content, nothing).

That’s the spirit I’ve always associated with the Oasis community, which I’ve been part of for more than two decades. Thanks for reading, and enjoy!

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The Fender Jaguar isn’t a guitar you’d normally associate with Noel Gallagher. During the Who Built the Moon? era, he was much more of a Jazzmaster guy. Jaguars? Definitely not. That’s more of a Johnny Marr kind of guitar.

Even so, two Jaguars are among the most mysterious guitars Noel has owned. One was his main guitar at some of the earliest Oasis gigs in 1992, the other appeared at the Be Here Now artwork photoshoot in 1997, only to disappear without a trace afterwards. For years, some believed they were the same instrument, but thanks to a few recent events, it’s now possible to reconstruct the history of both guitars. A third Jaguar, an uncommon Crafted in Japan variant, was spotted on a couple of occasions during the 2000s.

By the way, the lovely Jaguar Mk.II Convertible pictured above (Noel bought it in 1997 but never drove it – even though it appeared in the Flying on the Ground video more than two decades later) was sold last year by a classic car specialist in Hampshire.

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NEW PAGES:

Fender Jaguar (Blue):
This is the Jaguar that Noel played for a short time in 1992. It’s actually a bit of a Frankenstein, assembled from a mix of vintage and 1970s parts. This page dives into all the geeky details, thanks in no small part to reader Rob and his sharp eye for obscure Japanese guitar hardware.

Fender Jaguar (Sonic Blue):
A genuine vintage model, seen only during the Be Here Now album photoshoot in 1997 and never again. A story has emerged that could explain its disappearance, even if the timeline doesn’t quite add up.

Fender Jaguar HH (Sunburst):
An unconventional Japanese variant featuring two humbucker pickups and a fixed stop-tail. It was spotted at Wheeler End studios during the 2000s and made a single known live appearance when Noel played it on New Year’s Day 2008.

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UPDATED PAGES:

Speaking of Jaguars, the page for the orange Johnny Marr Jaguar featured in the This Is The Place video has also been updated.

Other minor updates: Les Paul with P-90s, Cherry Sunburst LPs, 1978 Les Paul Custom, Jetglo Rickenbacker 330, Nash S-63.

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2025 has been an incredible year for oasis fans: easily the best we’ve had in the past two decades.

You may have noticed things have been a little quiet here recently. Apologies for the lack of updates on the website: work got in the way more than expected, and a few guitar-related projects kept me busy as well. You might enjoy what’s coming, though…

That said, the research about Noel’s gear behind the scenes has never stopped: a new round of updates is definitely coming soon in the New Year!

Thanks for reading and for sticking around. I hope you have a relaxing festive season and a great start to the year ahead.

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It looks like Gibson and Epiphone may be preparing to release some Oasis-related or Oasis-inspired guitars in the coming months. Clues have been floating around for a while, especially after some interesting instruments were spotted at the fan-exclusive exhibition held at the gig venues.

These won’t be ultra-limited, ultra-expensive models like the recent Gibson Garage Les Paul with P-90s: they’re more likely to be regular production models, similar to the Noel Gallagher Riviera released in 2022 and still available today.

Keep reading for hints and speculation… though the photos above might already give you a pretty good idea of what’s on the way.

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This update follows the previous one dedicated to Standing on the Shoulder of Giants – arguably the band’s most underrated era. The period between 1998 and 1999 remains poorly documented, so I’ve dug deep into 25-year-old news archives and fansites (thanks to the Wayback Machine) to piece together a detailed chronology of the Giants sessions and how they unfolded.

Alongside a few brand-new pages, many existing guitar backstories have been expanded with fresh details.

Below, you’ll also find what I believe is a fairly accurate recap of the key events between the final gig of the Be Here Now tour in March 1998 and the release of Standing on the Shoulder of Giants in February 2000.

For archival purposes, I’ve also included a collection of original news articles from late 1998 to late 1999: it’s fun to look back and read stuff from that era in hindsight.

Keep reading…

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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!

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This update features a brand new page – and it’s a big one.

It has been a long time in the making. The first draft on my computer dates back to 2014 – almost a decade before this website even existed. The history of this guitar is murky, with obscure moments and twists, but I believe the reconstruction I’ve put together finally makes sense. I’ll let you be the judge.

So, what finally pushed me to finish it? Well… the fact that I was wrong.
One of the guitars on stage during the Live ’25 tour isn’t what I originally thought. With better footage now available (and a hint from a sharp reader who was there), it’s clear: an old favourite is back.

Keep reading after the break for the full story & a detailed list of various updates…

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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.

Another shoot, this time by Justin Downing (@justindowning1), showed Noel “in the studio noodling around” with the stunning Gibson Les Paul Standard in Sweet Cherry Red – a fairly recent addition to his collection.

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!

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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.

Onwards.

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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!