15 GUITARS from Your Favourite FILMS, TV & Videogames!
Do you get excited when you spot a guitar in a movie or TV show? I know I do. I invariably leap up from the sofa and start pointing at the screen, eager to yell out about how clever I am for recognising the guitar on screen.
If you are also like that, then this blog is for you. Today, I’ve collected together some of the better-known examples of when guitars have popped up in movies, TV shows and also videogames. I’ll identify them - if they can be identified - and I may also include a few surprises, along the way.
The one thing I’ve avoided is movies that are either music biopics like Bohemian Rhapsody, because that’s a never-ending list of gear that you probably already know about. I’ve also left off Spinal Tap and School of Rock. They just seemed to be pretty obviously covered. Did I make the right choice? As you’ll see soon, there was plenty more to choose from!
Sound fun? Okay, let’s go…
The Movies, Shows and Games at a Glance
Back to The Future
Back to the Future is one of the most famous ‘guitar movies’, thanks to Michael J Fox’s Marty McFly character being a notorious show-off.
Only kidding, but his overplaying at the start - on an Ibanez Roadster, folks - gets his band booted from the talent show.
Philistines!
There are a number of guitars in BTTF. Marty pal Doc Brown has the most unusually tiny guitar ever in the form of a Hondo Quiquita: it’s the one he plays through the massive speaker which knocks him off his feet, bless ‘im.
Most significantly, of course, is the red guitar he plays during his epic solo moment at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance.
Stuck in 1955 with only a slim chance to return to his present day 1985 (now further back in the past to us than the 50s were for him, which is sobering), McFly does the only thing any of us would do: he grabs a guitar and makes a racket. To be specific, he borrows a Cherry Gibson ES-345 and rocks a particularly modern version of Johnny B Goode for the startled attendees.
No, I know: the ES-345 didn’t exist until 1959 but stop ruining things! He had a time machine, ok? Great Scott!
Wayne’s World
What was the guitar Wayne Campbell lusted after in that Aurora, Illinois music store?
Oh yes: “64 Fender Stratocaster, classic white, with triple single coil pickups and a whammy bar!"
Quite. Pre-CBS, then, as Cassandra correctly noted in the movie. Good taste, Wayne!
The nerd in me does, however, seek to get some facts straightened here. ‘Classic white’? What’s that? Olympic White? Maybe so, but it would’ve been a special order back in 1964, since there was no catalogue choice for any white colours back then. Also, my eyes tell me that the movie ‘Excalibur’ isn’t a 1964 Strat at all, but a 90s reissue from Japan.
Lastly, the Strat was the guitar that Wayne aspired to own during the course of the movie, but what was the guitar he actually had on his lap for most of the film?
A Washburn G-23V, if I’m not wrong!
Wayne, Garth and the rest of them were clearly dedicated to all things rock, from a time when guitars ruled the earth.
Part on, Wayne! Party on, Garth!
Purple Rain
Prince’s ridiculous semi-true biopic has so many over-the-top scenes in it that I can’t even begin to list them. While not by any means an objectively ‘good’ film, it’s essential viewing for all guitar fans. There’s a ton of performance footage in it - with many career-best tunes from the Purple one - and lots of high drama. By that I mean yelling, slapping, crying and running away.
It’s great.
Guitar-wise, Prince begins with his famous Hohner Mad Cat Telecaster copy (actually made in Japan by HS Anderson and rebranded), but spends a good deal of the plot eyeing up another guitar: the spectacular Angel Cloud guitar. This gorgeously eccentric axe was a custom build by a Minneapolis luthier called Dave Rusan, and was based on a bass guitar that Prince already owned.
Subsequent Cloud guitars were made by Schecter for Prince, and as I understand it, nobody has permission currently to build them. Rare! One of the 4 made for the movie sold at auction for $563k back in 2020!
The Crow
It’s all about Hohner! They don’t make electric guitars any more, but Hohner were a big name in the 80s and 90s. As we’ve already seen, Prince’s main guitar was a Hohner, and this next iconic axe comes from them, too.
The Crow is a movie steeped in lore. It was already becoming a cultural zeitgeist in 1994 due to its moody rock star hero, its gothic vibe and its stonking soundtrack songs. Then tragedy struck when lead actor Brandon Lee (son of martial arts legend Bruce) was fatally injured on set, and everything took on a different significance.
The Crow marks Brandon’s final film performance, and he went full-Method for it, taking months of guitar lessons in order to convince as doomed rocker Eric Draven. The guitar he owned and practised with is the one he used in the movie. It was an all-black Hohner Rockwood LX100G, a Strat copy with a painted neck and a slightly thinner body.
None more goth? For sure, but how cool is it that this affordable guitar model has become an icon?
Crossroads
Crossroads is famous mainly for having the Karate Kid face off against Steve Vai in a guitar duel, and beat him. There is a whole film before that scene, but that’s by the by.
Anyway, Ralph Maccio uses a nice old blonde Telecaster that seems to change colour a bit throughout the movie! What’s it’s vintage? I’ll be honest: I do not know this, and it seems that nobody else does either, apart from it being maybe between 1969 and 1983, which is not exactly a narrow net! Still, it’s a cool Tele and Ralph apparently still owns it.
As for Vai, this was back in his pre-JEM days, and so this guitar is a Jackson, a red Dinky superstrat with a maple fretboard that was custom made for him. Fun trivia: Vai played all of the guitar parts for the duel - that is, both characters’ parts - apart from the slide bits, which were played by Ry Cooder. The only guy who can beat Vai is clearly…Vai.
The Last Of Us
First of all it was a videogame sensation, then it became a television event. The Last of Us is a drama about ‘infected’ civilisations (zombies by any other word) and those few survivors who remain. It’s dark, intense, sad, and massively popular.
Music gets us through all of life’s hardships, and so it is here, with a character playing a special Taylor acoustic in the game, and then again in the show. Now, Taylor would be crazy not to release a tie-in guitar for this hit series, and thankfully that’s what they’ve done. We’ve seen an ultra-limited edition model for the first season, and another one - the Taylor The Last of Us 314ce - is currently available to order.
Zombieland
Do you like zombies? Do you like banjoes? Then there’s one scene in Zombieland that I’m sure you love! For everyone else, this tie-in may have come a little later than expected, but Deering’s new limited edition Zombie Killer III is a way-cool nod to that scene.
Rather than a replica of the banjo in the movie scene (Woody Harrelson’s banjo is a pretty standard looking thing), this Deering has zombie skull fret markers, ‘Apocalyptic Rust’ hardware, a logo that’s dripping blood and a black maple rim which is ‘durable enough to fend off a horde’.
Too good!
Stranger Things
I have a feeling that most guitar fans will already know which scene I’m going to be referring to here, right?
Poor Eddie Munsen. He stepped forward to be a hero in the only way he knew how, by providing a decoy for his pals’ escape by attracting monsters to his guitar playing. All through the season, we see Eddie swooning over his beloved BC Rich Warlock guitar, and so it’s inevitable that such a weapon must be used eventually. Triumphantly, it’s by blasting Metallica’s Master of Puppets from the roof of a building.
Hateful Eight
Vintage guitar fans, prepare thyselves. In Tarantino movie The Hateful Eight, Kurt Russell’s character (well, Kurt Russell himself in fact) smashes an antique, century-old Martin acoustic in a fit of anger.
Big Kurt presumed it was a prop and was apparently encouraged to ‘keep going’, but quickly regretted his performance when the truth was revealed.
It’s not like you can just glue it back together, Kurt!
Twin Peaks
David Lynch and Mark Frost’s sensational TV show Twin Peaks created a universe of its own, filled with characters, locations and music that were dreamlike and ‘other’ in a way that still strongly appeals.
Music was actually central to the whole experience. Angelo Badalamenti’s themes are maybe even more famous than the show itself, and several characters in the show are musicians. One such is James Hurley (played by James Marshall), a sensitive biker and aspiring singer.
One fan favourite moment is when he sings Just You with characters Donna Hayward and Maddy Ferguson. A sweet 50s-style love song, James plays a Gibson L-5 CESN hollowbody during the scene, a cool choice of guitar that is very much in keeping with the show’s unique atmosphere. Rumour has it that the L5 was owned by Lynch himself!
Airheads
Top celebrity band The Lone Rangers hijack a radio station because nobody will listen to their music. I know the feeling! I say ‘celebrity band’ because this mighty three piece are no less than Brendan Fraser, Adam Sandler and Steve Buscemi!
During the movie, fontman Brendan Fraser plays a Fender Strat (the cover shows a red one, the movie seems to be black or sunburst), but at a certain point, he demands a PRS Dragon.
Because of course you would!
Crazy Heart
Jeff Bridges would make a great real life rock star, as would Colin Farrell! This is one of those movies where you know what’s coming, but still want to watch it regardless…
Anyway, Big Jeff Lebowski, I mean, Bridges plays a country music star with a drinking problem. He turns his life around with the help of a journalist and begins writing songs again. You’ll see Jeff strumming on a Gibson J-45 throughout.
Bill & Ted
Bill S Preston, Esquire! ‘Ted’ Theodore Logan! Yes, it’s the Wyld Stallyns, and I only noticed upon typing this that Ted’s name must be in quotes otherwise he’d be Theodore Theodore Logan!
These two chaps are semi-obscure in musical career terms, but massively legendary for their time-travel and dimension-hopping skills. Guitarwise, we all seem to remember the sweet Steinberger headless guitars gifted to the boys by their intergalactic pal Rufus at the end of the movie. But what were they playing earlier on?
I have answers for you: Bill played a Murph Squire II-T, and Ted had an Ibanez 2375. Both of these were cheap knock-offs at the time, and both now fetch several thousands each on the collector’s market!
Also, at the end of Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, the pair are on custom-finished Gibsons: a Flying V and an SG Special!
Mad Max Fury Road
When you’re out in the desert as part of an armada of death-dealing psychos, you need to choose your weapons well. And when your job is to relay orders to the masses via sonic means, your weapons are a van made from speakers and a guitar that spits out flames for 45 feet.
What am I talking about?
Mad Max Fury Road, of course, and everyone’s favourite character from that. He’s a blind bad guy who does nothing but play riffs and solos on the roof of his vehicle, and that pretty much makes him indisputably awesome.
But you can’t just do this job with a Fender Strat or even a Gibson SG. For this, you need to go fully custom. Michael Ullman was hired by director George Miller to make endless props for the movie, with the crowning glory being this guitar. It’s a double neck (guitar and bass) with a bedpan body, tuba valves, a broken cymbal, Chevy bumperplates and spark plugs for the tuners.
And a flame thrower, obviously. Do Rammstein want this one?
Cyberpunk 2077
Spectacular videogame Cyberpunk 2077 has a storyline that swivels around Johnny SIlverhand, a future rock star played by a digital Keanu Reeves. Yes, this is Keanu’s second time on today’s list, and this one is a belter!
The game’s insanely impressive, and without giving away too much, you do get to see a fair bit of his excellently customised electric guitar, the DeLuze Orphean. Reeves’ band are called Samurai, and their songs were created by real-life Swedish rockers Refused.
Now, there is no actual official DeLuze Orphean in existence to my knowledge, but that hasn’t stopped an army of fans modding their own! Here’s a good one below.
Guitars and Culture
Guitars go hand in hand with popular culture. They always have, and even though their mainstream focus ebbs and flows a little, in general terms they are the world’s most popular and most influential musical instrument.
It’s movies, shows and games like these that inspire people just as much as bands themselves, and long may that continue!
