Which guitar did John Lee Hooker most often use?
Later in his career, John Lee Hooker used an electric, the Gibson ES-345. You can see it in many of his pictures that are available of his playing. Rather famously, T-Bone Walker gave John his first electric. John said it was an Epiphone Les Paul… it’s a hollow body. which John can be seen with in his earlier pictures, and that’s what he recorded a lot of early his hits on. Be warned, I believe he changed the pickups to p90s and did some other modifications, so if you’re looking at buying to sound like him, I’d do a little research on what he did to the guitar! He also used a Stella for his acoustic with a DeArmond Pickup. Also, fyi, Epiphone released a special JLH-named guitar called the “1964 John Lee Hooker Sheraton” and the “Sheraton II”. (He played a Sheraton for a while) Also, I’ve never owned or played one, but it is my understanding that one should stay away from the Sheraton II.
