THE HARDWARE
Guitars, Strings, and Picks

Frank's first guitar was an f-hole acoustic that he bought for $1.50 when he was 18. Three years later, he got his first electric, a Fender Telecaster that he rented from a music store. Later on, he bought a Fender Jazzmaster, and then purchased an ES-5 Switchmaster hollow-body archtop electric with the money he made from composing the music for the movie "Run Home Slow". He used this on the first three albums. After that, Zappa owned a succession of Gibson solid bodies. He played a Gibson Les Paul Gold-Top for a while, then switched to a gibson SG, which was his main guitar throughout most of the '70s. A fan in Phoenix, Arizona , custom-built an SG-style guitar for him that featured 23 frets and a built-in preamp.

Some of Zappa's SG's had Barcus Berry contact pickups installed on the bridge. He also owned a cherry sunburnt Les Paul Custom with DiMarzio pickups that he frequently played onstage. From the latter part of the '70s through the '80s, Zappa preffered Fender Stratocasters an Strat-style guitars. He owned a Fender Stratocaster that once belonged to Jimi Hendrix (picture above), who set it on fire at the Miami Pop festival in he late '60s. This Strat had Barcus Berry contact pickup installed in the neck, a built-in preamp, and an out-of-phase switch. Zappa also played several custom Strat-style electrics with Floyd Rose tremolo systems. "The strat has a drier sound it has more of an acute, exact sound- and I use The Gibson for more of a sweat hog type of sound,". Zappa told Tom Mulhern of Guitar Player magazine. He also played a few unconventional electrics, including an acoustic fretless guitar, D'Mini miniature Les Paul and Stracoster copies, and a Fender Electric 12. Zappa used acoustic guitars only occasionally. He rarely played acoustic on his records and he only played electric guitars onstage. He once owned a J-200 and various Martin and Ovation Guitars. Zappa used heavy-gauge
Fender picks and .009, .012, .017, .024, .024, .034, .046, .052 Ernie Ball strings.

  
  GIBSON SG                                           GIBSON SG REMODELED                               GIBSON LES PAUL

  
FENDER TELECASTER                  CUSTOM STRAT                                         HENDRIX STRAT

 
  GIBSON ES-5 SWITCHMASTER                    GIBSON J160 E

Amplifiers, Effects, and Devices

Zappa used a Fender Deluxe amp on his first album with the Mothers, Freak Out! In the late '60s, he started using Acoustic and Marshall 100-watt amps onstage, and in the '80s he added a Carvin 100-watt head to his setup. He usually connected the amps to a Vox 4-12 speaker cabinet and a Marshall cabinet loaded with four 12-inch JBL speakers. In the recording studio he often played through a tiny Pignose practice amp. Occasionally he experimented with other setups, such as a 200-watt Marshall head connected to an 18-inch speaker
.
Zappa used a variety of effects, but he mainly relied on a Wah-Wah pedal and a phase shifter. One of his favorite effects was Mu-Tron Bi-Phase. He used other Mu Tron effects, including an Octave Divider and a wah-wah pedal. He generally employed the wah-wah as a tone control, instead of sweeping the pedal back and forth. Some of his other more conventional effects included a '60s Octavia pedal and an Echoplex.
 
Many of Zappa's effects were unusual custom-made units or studio devices. He used an Oberheim VCF, which was triggered by a sample-and-hold unit to generate rhythmic figures. he also had a Systech harmony Energizer equalization unit, several MXR digital delays, Mic Mix Dynaflangers; and Aphex compressors.

Zappa frequently experimented with guitar synthesizers. One of his first was an Electro Wagnerian Emancipator unit built by Bob Easton at 360 systems. It worked as a frequency follower, playing chords that tracked single notes. He also used a guitar interface with his synclavier, but eventually he preferred to use the typewriter keyboard to enter data into the system.