Welcome To the Hotel California Rigs

In the early ’70s, the Eagles were heading down a country path. That was all well and good, but they wanted to rock.

So in ’74 they hired Don Felder, a great guitar player, a rock guy who grew up in Gainesville, Fla., gave a young Tom Petty some lessons down there and had at least one lesson from Duane Allman.

Then, in ’75, the already well-known Joe Walsh was brought into the band, for the same reason: rock!

Neither guitar-slinger disappointed, the best testimony to this being the first album with both on it: 1976’s Hotel California, one of the best and best-selling albums of all time.

The single “Hotel California” – known as “Hotel Cali” by the rap crowd (lol) – is of course known by us guit-heads as the song with one of the best lead breaks of all time. For me, hearing it never gets old. Song craft – remember those days?!

Here we take a look at the gear Don and Joe used on the title track. Warning to those with GAS: Though Joe, in particular, does have bad GAS, studio rigs back then were very simple…no doubt a big reason they sound so great.

Don’s Gear

Don and his '59 LP.

This was Don’s tune, so we’ll take a look at his gear first.

For the 12-string intro, he said he used a Martin 12-string acoustic (not a Takamine, as some have said) through a Leslie rotating speaker. Sounds like the guitar was mic’d acoustically and with a DeArmond soundhole pickup.

The electric guitar he used was a ’59 Gibson Les Paul, which he bought in 1975. He ran that straight into a stock Tweed Deluxe: He still loves those amps and uses reissues now. That’s it.

During that period he also used an Echoplex, but that was not on the track. Here’s a quote from him about that from an online interview: “’59 Les Paul and Fender Tweed Deluxe amp. No effects at all.”

His favorite strings now are Ernie Ball Slinkys (10s), not sure if he used those back in the day.

His use of the ’59 prompted Gibson to build the Don Felder “Hotel California” 1959 Les Paul, announced last year. One of those limited-run, uber-expensive jobs.

Since he used a Gibson doubleneck live for the tune, Gibson also made replicas of that guitar. Worth noting is that the doubleneck has two jacks, the second one added by Don himself: The 12-string ran straight to a Leslie, the 6-string ran to his board and then to his amps.

Joe’s Gear

Not sure if this is the Tele used on the album. Note the Strat pickup in the neck.

Joe used a Fender Tele through a ’59 Fender Tweed Deluxe amp that some say was modded but I could not find a reference to. Should’ve said above that the Twwed Deluxe is a small amp, but still sounds great. It obviously suited both players and the song.

Here’s a brief demo of a ’59-’60 Tweed Deluxe. You can hear kind of what it would sound like in the right (pro) hands. These amps do have a 12-inch speaker, a Jensen P12Q (reissue version here).

For some reason, I can’t find anything solid about what phaser Joe used on the track. Sounds lush. Most people think it was an MXR Phase 90.

Bottom Line

Hmmm. Now I want to at least mess around with an old Tweed Deluxe. Here are the fellas playing this tune live.

‘Hotel California,’ Live, ’77
> Love the backstage singing that leads off this vid. That’s talent, man!
> Notice Joe has a Strat pickup in the neck position.

More

> Hotel California album producer Bill Szymczyk on the recording the tune’s guitar-battle end (from here): “one of the most amazing times that I’ve had as a producer. Don and Joe were with me in the control room, and we ran their mic cords out to amps in the studio so they could hear exactly what was happening. Don Felder was on one side of me, Joe Walsh was on the other, and we were punching in all of these incredible guitar parts which had not really been written before we started to do it. So we were doing a lot of what we call search-and-destroy — ‘Well, let’s try this and let’s try that. If I did that, then the harmony would be this…’ Just overdubbing all those leads was a basic 2-day process, and man, what a ball that was. They’re both great, great players, and the two of them were on fire.”

> Don knows guitars. Not only did he rewire his Gibson doubleneck himself, he says he puts custom pickups in his Strat, either wound by himself or by MJ in the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop. He also has custom humbuckers made that match the output of the humbuckers of his ’59 for his new Les Pauls. Wonder if us mortals can get a set….

Category: Don Felder, Joe Walsh, Les Paul, Leslie, Martin, Seymour Duncan, Telecaster, Tweed Deluxe