Watch Slash Play a Stratocaster During the "November Rain" Video Shoot
A very, very rare sighting indeed!
As the company's Global Brand Ambassador, Slash has become synonymous with Gibson, particularly the Les Paul.
Indeed, seeing the Guns N' Roses guitarist without a Les Paul in hand is almost as strange as seeing him onstage without his trademark top hat.
In the video above however, you can see Slash jamming with a couple of his Guns N' Roses bandmates playing a... gasp! Stratocaster.
Clearly, the video - filmed during the shoot for the legendary Guns N' Roses "November Rain" music video - is a fairly humorous one, given the setting, Slash's choice of guitar, and the fact that bassist Duff McKagan is playing drums and guitarist Gilby Clarke is on bass.
Though this is one of the (very) rare visual documents of Slash playing a Strat, that doesn't mean he doesn't enjoy playing them. When asked in 2018 by former Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones, on an episode of his Jonesy’s Jukebox radio show, if he ever buys “any Fenders or anything,” Slash replied:
“I have a bunch of cool Teles and some cool Strats. All things considered, I’m a Les Paul guy but I love good-sounding guitars. And as far as I’m concerned, you know, and Gibson probably wouldn’t want me to say it, but the Strat is hands-down probably one of the best, most versatile guitars there is.”
But, he added, “I’ve always gravitated to a Les Paul. There’s Strat guys and there’s Les Paul guys.”
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Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com and GuitarPlayer.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.
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