Santana currently endorses PRS Guitars, and is in fact one of Paul Reed Smith's first customers. He uses a Santana II model guitar using PRS Santana III pickups with nickel covers and a tremolo, with .009-.042 gauge D'Addario strings. His Signature Series models vary greatly from this in some cases, such as the Santana SE and Santana III guitars (which have ceased production). The Santana III has covered pickups instead, and no abalone stringers between the pickups (a feature unique to his official guitar). The Santana SE guitar has 22 frets, tremolo, a basic sunburst top, and a pickguard.

Santana's guitar necks and fretboards are constructed out of a single solid piece of Brazilian Rosewood, instead of the more traditional mahogany neck/Indian rosewood fretboard combination found in stock Santana models and other PRS guitars. The Brazilian Rosewood helps create the smooth, singing, glass-like tone that he is famous for.

The P-90 classic single coil is known for big mid-range when used clean, and chainsaw grind when pushing an amp hard.

This pickup comes with adjustable poles, ALNICO bar magnets and a choice of covers: Soapbar or Dogear, Black or Cream.

Wound with 42 Plain Enamel wire to specs, from 20% under to 10% over. (Because stock P-90’s have 10,000 turns we use the number of turns instead of an ohm reading for model options. We also recommend 10%-15% difference between neck and bridge.)

NOTE: Also available is an ALNICO pole piece version for a clearer, less distorted sound. In Dogear covers, this pickup will surface mount on hollow or solid bodies. The ALNICO version is wound from 6 K - 10 K.

The guitar John played on stage in Hamburg was his blonde Ricky (the Rickenbacker 325 model). Exploiting the Ricky's unique tone, he played a very famous rhythm guitar riff in "All My Loving."
"I play a pretty mean guitar in back." John Lennon on "All My Loving" Rickenbacker Capri 325, a small semi-hollow body with three pickups, a 3/4 sized neck and body, and a Bigsby vibrato unit. John Lennon bought his first in Hamburg, Germany, in the early 1960's. Originally in a light natural wood finish, he painted it black later. It became a signature Lennon Beatle instrument through 1965; played on all the early records, TV performances and tours.

In "All My Loving," John played the main rhythm guitar part in the verses and choruses. This was an aggressively strummed triplet rhythm figure, somewhat like an updated banjo strum, using simple four-note chords moved around the fingerboard in a manner almost like a chord solo. The scale length and feeal of the Rickenbacker's shorter neck makes the fast-moving part much easier to play than on a standard guitar, and lends a brighter, tighter unique sound to the chords.

James Patrick Page OBE (born 9 January 1944) is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he co-founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.

Page has been described as "unquestionably one of the all-time most influential, important, and versatile guitarists and songwriters in rock history". In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Page #9 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, once as a member of The Yardbirds (1992) and once as a member of Led Zeppelin (1995).

The Ventures are an American instrumental rock band formed in 1958, by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle, two Tacoma, Washington masonry workers. They have also contributed to the surf music genre, though they are not strictly a surf band. In 2008, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 2001 (his induction speech was given by longtime fan, Keith Richards), James Burton's pioneering contributions have also been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Critic Mark Demming writes that "Burton has a well-deserved reputation as one of the finest guitar pickers in either Country or Rock... [Burton is] one of the best guitars players to ever touch a fretboard."

Since the 1950s, Burton has recorded and performed with an array of notable singers, including Rick Nelson, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dale Hawkins, John Denver and Elvis Costello.

In late 1969, Clapton made the switch to the Fender Stratocaster. "I had a lot of influences when I took up the Strat. First there was Buddy Holly, and Buddy Guy. Hank Marvin was the first well known person over here in England who was using one, but that wasn't really my kind of music. Steve Winwood had so much credibility, and when he started playing one, I thought, oh, if he can do it, I can do it." First was "Brownie" used during the recording of Eric Clapton which in 1974 became the backup to the most famous of all Clapton's guitars, "Blackie." In November 1970 Eric bought six Fender Stratocasters from the Sho-bud guitar shop in Nashville, Tennessee while on tour with the Dominos. He gave one each to George Harrison, Steve Winwood and Pete Townshend.

Clapton assembled the best components of the remaining three to create "Blackie", which was his favourite stage guitar until its retirement in 1985. It was first played live January 13, 1973 at the Rainbow Concert. Clapton called the 1956/57 Strat a "mongrel". On 24 June, 2004, Clapton sold "Blackie" at Christie's Auction House, New York for $959,500 to raise funds for his Crossroads Centre for drug and alcohol addictions. "Brownie" is now on display at the Experience Music Project. The Fender Custom Shop has since produced a limited run of 275 'Blackie' replicas, correct in every detail right down to the 'Duck Brothers' flight case, and artificially aged using Fender's 'Relic' process to simulate years of hard wear. One was presented to Eric upon the model's release.

Brian May has been referred to as a virtuoso guitarist. He has used a range of guitars, most often the "Red Special", which he designed when he was only 16 years old. It was built with wood from an 18th century fireplace. His comments on this instrument, from Queen In Their Own Words (ed. Mick St. Michael, Omnibus Press, 1992, p.62) are:

Rickenbacker manufactures three distinct pickups for their current standard models: Hi-gain, Vintage Single Coil Toaster Top, and Humbucking. All three pickup designs share the same footprint, allowing them to retrofit into most current or vintage models.

Most models come with single-coil Hi-gain pickups as standard equipment. Many post-British invasion Rickenbacker players such as Peter Buck, Paul Weller, and Johnny Marr have used instruments with these pickups. Rickenbacker's humbucker/dual coil pickup has a similar tone to a Gibson P-90 pickup, and comes standard on the Rickenbacker 650 C. The pickup itself is also available for purchase at Rickenbacker's online boutique. Vintage reissue models, and some signature models, come with Toaster Top pickups, which resemble a classic two-slotted chrome toaster. Despite their slightly lower output, "Toasters" produce a brighter, cleaner sound, and are generally seen as key to obtaining the true British Invasion guitar tone, as they were original equipment of the era.

Within the Toasters, there are four subgroups based on impedance and time of release. The original pickups were used from approximately 1956 to 1968 (although 4001 models continued to use the Toaster for a neck pickup until around July 1973). Later came the Vintage Reissue pickups of the mid-1980s and 90s; with approximately 12 kilo-ohms of resistance, they had a similar impedance and sound to the high-gains, and are seen by many to be strictly for aesthetic purposes. In the late 1990s, more accurate, scatterwound pickups were made, with about 7.5 kilo-ohms of resistance, closer to the originals. The final group are found only on 325C58 models, and are designed to replicate the toasters of the 1950s, with about 5 kilo-ohms of resistance.

In addition to the standard pickups, some vintage reissue bass models are equipped with Horseshoe wrap-around style pickups, very similar to the pickups on the earliest Rickenbacker Frying Pan models.