Nils Lofgren Guitars & Gear: Strats, Jazzmasters, Fuchs Amps and the Documented Rig

The two 1961 Strats are the guitars Lofgren calls his favourite old instruments in the 2009 Premier Guitar interview, where the gearbox that accompanies the article lists them alongside various reissue Strats in wood finishes. Vintage Guitar’s 2023 interview adds a specific use: Lofgren says he played the lead part on “I Remember Her Name” on a 1961 Strat while a Gretsch Black Falcon, fingerpicked, carried the main part. Whether the 2023 guitar is one of the same two as the 2009 pair is not stated in either piece, so we do not claim it.

In the 2016 Vintage Guitar interview Lofgren names a reissue 1961 Strat fitted with Bill Lawrence pickups as the electric on his Face the Music Tour live album, alongside the Takamine acoustic that was his main guitar for the record. Lawrence pickups are an older thread: Tony Bacon’s April 1986 Making Music piece describes a Strat with a Lawrence pickup, but Bacon does not say it is the same instrument, and neither do we. What it does show is that the combination has lasted across decades of interviews.

Lofgren says in 2009 that he played a Telecaster for about two years when he started, before moving to Strats. Nothing in the sources identifies the model or its year.

The 2009 gearbox lists a 1956 Jazzmaster plus various reissue Jazzmasters, which Lofgren says he plays onstage with Springsteen. The gearbox gives the strings as D’Addario 13-56, heavier than the 11-52 set he lists for the Strats. The 2016 interview, seven years later, repeats the heavy-string approach in his own words and describes a Jazzmaster as the warmer third guitar in the E Street Band. No brand or gauge is given in the 2016 piece, so we treat the 13-56 figure as a 2009 detail.

The 2009 gearbox lists two Black Falcons and two Black Penguins, and Lofgren says in the interview that Fender supplied them for use with Springsteen. In 2016 he lists Black Penguins and Gretsch Country Gents among a touring collection. In 2023 a Black Falcon is the main part on “I Remember Her Name”. If you want background on the family these guitars belong to, our Gretsch White Falcon guide covers the Falcon line, though not Lofgren’s own examples.

In 2009 Lofgren names a 1952 Goldtop as the guitar he used on Neil Young’s Trans Tour, and an Epiphone Les Paul as the one he used on Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band tours. At the time of the interview he said he used both only in the studio. Our Neil Young guide also mentions a 1952 Goldtop in Lofgren’s hands for songs Young plays piano on, but we did not use that as a source for this article.

Two sources agree on this one, and both are Lofgren’s own account. In 1986 he told Making Music that Young gave him an old Martin D-18 as a present for making the album After the Gold Rush, and that he still had it. In 2009 he repeated the account to Premier Guitar and called the guitar his most treasured, saying he used it on The Loner. For the model’s wider story, see our Martin D-18 guide.

Lofgren is a Takamine endorser, and both a six-string and a twelve-string appear in the 2009 gearbox. Takamine’s December 2021 feature, written by Jeff K., calls the Legacy Series EF508KC koa cutaway the acoustic most closely associated with him and says he has done plenty of gigs with an earlier NP15C, which the article calls similar to the current Pro Series P3DC. The same article does not describe either as a signature model, and in our reading of the sources none exists. The article quotes him on playing the brand for decades in concert and in the studio; we paraphrase it here because a fuller quotation would not add anything.

The 2009 gearbox lists Carter pedal steels, Owens/Zeta resonators and five vintage lap steels, and Lofgren says in the interview that he plays Dobro and bottleneck as well. Peterson’s artist page lists an eight-string lap steel, a ten-string pedal steel and a Dobro-style resonator among his instruments, and prints his statement that he became the band’s “swingman” by playing lap steel, pedal steel, Dobro and bottleneck guitar. The page carries no date, so we cannot place it in time beyond “current as of our 2026 access”. Players who want to compare approaches to the instrument will find the Junior Brown guide and the Taj Mahal guide useful.

When Prown asked about the album Mountains in 2023, Lofgren’s answer listed a Strat, a Zemaitis, a hybrid Telecaster/Mustang one-off, a PRS, a Hagstrom electric 12-string, a Kay electric, a Fender Jazz bass, a Takamine, Martin D-18 and D-35 acoustics and a Gibson J-50. None of these comes with a year or a model detail in the interview, so we list them as used and nothing more.

In 2016 he told Vintage Guitar that he took about 52 guitars on the road, with around 30 set up each night, including 12-string acoustics, baritones, Country Gents and Black Penguins. It is Lofgren’s own figure and a single-source claim, so treat it as an account of one period and not a standing fact.

In 2023 Lofgren says he ran most of his guitars through a Fuchs combo, sometimes with a Bassman beside it for stereo imaging, with no model named. The 2016 interview is more specific about the live rig: Fuchs amps with two 2×12 Buzzy Feiten cabinets for touring with the E Street Band, which he credits with the clarity he wanted after the 10-inch speakers failed on the low end. The 2009 Premier Guitar piece does not mention Fuchs at all, which means the switch happened between 2009 and 2016 or that the interview simply did not raise it. We cannot tell which.

In 2009 Lofgren says his early rigs used blackface Super Reverbs with four 10-inch speakers. Tony Bacon’s 1986 piece also has a Super Reverb and a Music Man amp in the rig behind the Lawrence-pickup Strat, in his own narration rather than a quote from Lofgren. For a companion read on a guitarist who built a rig around the same amp, see our Tom Verlaine guide.

The 2009 interview says Lofgren moved from Super Reverbs to Hot Rod DeVilles for electric gigs and lists one in the gearbox. In 2016 he says he used Hot Rod DeVilles on tour for a long time but that the 10-inch speakers could not handle the low end, which is why he moved to the Fuchs and Feiten cabinets. Our Hot Rod DeVille 212 IV review looks at the 212 model; the amp Lofgren describes in 2016 is the 4×10 version.

Lofgren lists Vibro-Kings with three 10-inch speakers in 2009 as part of the progression after the DeVilles. Our Vibro-King guide describes the amp itself.

Two Twin Reverbs sit onstage with Springsteen in the 2009 account, carrying his low-end effects. The same interview has him saying he likes his Fenders turned up to around seven or eight for a warm saturation.

In 2016 he says he uses a Blues Junior and a Barber Burn Unit for acoustic things, and he also mentions a great old Marshall head and bottom. No model or year is given for the Marshall.

The 2009 interview lists a Poly Octave Generator in the rack setup, and the 2016 interview describes a mini POG as an occasional separate lead voice. In 2023 an Electro-Harmonix Micro POG appears in the list of pedals used on Mountains. Our Electro-Harmonix Nano Clone article is a different pedal but the same maker.

Two Barber Burn Unit overdrives appear in the 2009 rack setup and one again in 2023. The 2016 piece pairs a Barber Burn Unit with a Blues Junior for acoustic work; it is an overdrive pedal, as the 2009 and 2023 pieces describe it. Lofgren describes light overdrive as an occasional lead tone, with fuzz used sparingly so the string tone is not lost.

The 2009 rack has a Line 6 delay, which Lofgren describes as the green one with the backwards sounds and the gearbox lists as a DL-4, and a Boss DD-3. In 2023 he names a TC Electronic Nova Delay for reverse reverb and a Strymon Brigadier delay.

The 2009 interview lists two Boss octave pedals, shown as OC-3 in the gearbox, and a Guild Rotoverb, a late-1960s Leslie simulator that Lofgren said he had been trying to find more units of. The 2016 interview adds compression and light chorus on the acoustic setup for the live album.