What guitars does Noel Gallagher use? The instruments that will power the Oasis Live ’25 reunion tour (2024)

“The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come see. It will not be televised.” With those words Oasis, one of the biggest and most influential guitar bands of the last 30 years, announced that, despite everything, they’d be reforming in 2025 for a series of anniversary gigs to mark the 30th anniversary of their seminal, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? album.

• READ MORE: “I realised that I’m actually not very good at playing the guitar”: Noel Gallagher on why he opted to write his own songs

There were few bands more important than Oasis in the 1990s, and there are few more influential guitarists to come out of the latter half of that decade than Noel Gallagher. In the 15 years since they broke up, it seemed impossible for Noel or his little brother Liam to get in front of a microphone without their drama – which ultimately led to Oasis’s downfall in 2009 – gaining a fresh chapter, but the tabloid stuff often eclipses a deeper truth.

Noel – both in Oasis and in later years with his High Flying Birds – is a truly brilliant songwriter, and a guitarist with a rare gift for melody and memorable lines. He’s an unapologetic rock star in the most traditional sense – uncompromising, opinionated and never more in his element than when he’s playing his timeless songs to thousands of people joyfully singing along.

There are few guitarists of the last 30 years to have inspired more people to pick up the instrument – and no doubt 2025’s reunion shows will inspire a new generation. But what will Noel be using to bring Oasis’s stellar back catalogue back to life after all this time? Below we chart the varied and interesting guitars that he used to weave his magic, and debate how likely they are to make an appearance when Oasis step out onto the Principality Stadium stage in Cardiff on 4 July 2025.

The Les Paul Era

Oasis came to define British working class music in the 90s, and so it stands to reason that when they first started out, the gear at their disposal was pretty humble. In fact as the band went into record their seismic debut album Definitely Maybe, Noel’s primary guitar was an Epiphone Les Paul Standard.

That guitar had been Noel’s weapon of choice as Oasis made a name for themselves on the UK toilet circuit, was used in writing and demo sessions prior to the album’s recording, and then prominently featured in the video for the band’s first single, Supersonic– it’s currently up for auction and expected to fetch as much as £80,000.

But for the album itself, Noel needed a proper Les Paul, but as Noel was still unemployed at the time, he certainly couldn’t afford one – enter another Mancunian guitar legend. Johnny Marr had become friends with Gallagher in the years prior, and the former Smiths man let him borrow his beautiful 1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard that had previously been owned by Pete Townshend of The Who.

Marr is famously not precious about his instruments, and apparently neither was Noel – the guitar was used on Slide Away and Live Foreverbefore he managed to break the guitar’s neck. Such is the generosity of the man, Marr duly loaned him another guitar from his collection – a black Les Paul Custom (which Gibson released as a limited edition signature model last year) – while it was in for repair.

Interestingly, while the guitar was getting its neck repaired, it turned out that the neck wasn’t an original Gibson one – you’d imagine famous gear-smasher Townshend might have had something to do with that – but once it was fixed it came back to Noel. And there it stayed – Marr never asked for the guitar back, and Gallagher still owns it to this day – regularly using it in the studio.

Another notable Noel Les Paul was probably his most unique – a silver-sparkle finished Custom Shop one-off with F-holes that he somewhat hyperbolically once described as “the best guitar in the world” when he got it in 1997. Despite this bold claim, it was used as a touring guitar for a couple of years but never became one of his primary instruments, and has been sold at auction several times in the last few years.

Noel hasn’t been much of a Les Paul man since the 90s however, leaning far more into Gibson semi-hollows in the decades since, so we think it’s pretty unlikely – though not impossible – that he leans on a single-cut during the reunion shows. It almost certainly won’t be theactual Epiphone if he does want to throw it back to the old days, however, as that’s due to go up for auction later this year.

If you’re looking to capture the vibe of the Definitely Maybe era, you’re spoiled for choice with plenty of great Epiphone Les Paul Standard options that probably sound better than Noel’s did in 1994, while the Gibson Les Paul Standard 50s will get you even closer.

The Epiphone Hollowbody Era

While both Noel and fellow Oasis guitarist Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs had owned Epiphone hollowbodies in the Definitely Maybe era (Noel’s appears on the record, while Bonehead can be seen using his live while Noel was still using his Les Paul), it would be during the writing and recording of the follow-up – the epoch-defining (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? album that they truly embraced the sound.

Part of this was because of Noel’s deep love of the Beatles of course, who remain the poster boys for Epiphone hollowbody guitars to this day. But while Paul, George and, especially, John were great lovers of the Casino model, Noel and Bonehead ended up buying themselves Riviera models – with full-sized humbuckers rather than P-90s.

The Riviera would be the springboard to a period where Gallagher was rarely seen without an Epiphone hollowbody, and he still owns both his original and Bonehead’s Rivieras today. What’s more this guitar would be the springboard to Noel’s most recognisable guitar a Sheraton II modded with a Union Jack paintjob, Frequensator tailpiece and mini-humbuckers.

That guitar spawned Noel’s first ever signature model, dubbed the Supernova. This was effectively a Sheraton but with a tune-o-matic tailpiece and full-sized Epiphone humbuckers – it was available in Union Jack finish, or the more reserved options of red or his beloved Manchester City blue. The guitar was available between 1997 and 2005, but there’s scant evidence that Noel ever actually used it, because by this point his heart had been captured by another instrument…

The good news on the Epiphone front is that the Riviera and Sheraton are still in production today, there’s even a Gallagher signature Riviera that Epiphone launched last year.

Given that the reunion shows are marking the 30th Anniversary of (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? there’s a fair chance that we’ll see the Rivieras pulled out of storage – some of Noel’s Epiphones were recently featured in a museum exhibit so tracking them down shouldn’t be hard. And surely the iconic Union Jack Sheraton will arrive to throw things back to the pomp and glory of 1997 and Maine Road?

His True Love, The ES-355

In 1997 Noel Gallagher bought himself a cherry 1960 Gibson ES-355 and promptly fell in love. It became one of his primary writing and recording guitars, but felt that it was “too nice” to let it go out on the road. Then, in the mid-2000s he realised he didn’t want to leave this guitar at home and it quickly became his number one guitar on tour as well.

By the time Oasis reached their explosive climax in 2009, Noel was rarely seen on stage without one of his platoon of similar 60s Gibson ES guitars in cherry red – including a different ES-355 that would prove to have a key part to play in the band’s dénouement.

So the legend goes, an argument between the two brothers at a show in Paris in August 2009 ended up with Liam wielding the 355 “like an axe” and ultimately smashing the guitar in the course of the dispute. Within hours Noel had quit the band and Oasis was over.

As much as losing a Golden Era Gibson must have stung Noel, he must have been quietly relieved that it wasn’t his number one 355 that felt Liam’s wrath – the guitar has continued to be a constant companion throughout his post-Oasis career, and Gibson even issued a ultra detailed signature replica of the guitar created by the Murphy Lab – but they were $9,999 and just 200 were made. The destroyed 355 ended up being repaired and restored, and was sold at auction for €385,500 in 2022.

At the more realistic end of the market while you won’t find any non-Custom Shop Gibsons with a Varitone control like Noel’s, the Gibson Standard line ES-335 and 345 models are very good guitars, while at the more affordable end of the spectrum, the Epiphone Inspired By ES-355 is a wonderful guitar for the money.

As sure as anything else in this article however, you can bet your bottom dollar that these guitars will form the bedrock of Noel’s guitar choices for the reunion shows – they were his mainstays in the last days of Oasis, and have become even more essential to him in the intervening 15 years.

Strats, Jazzmasters and more

Gallagher has been one of the most visible users of Gibson and Epiphone guitars in pop over the last two decades, but as an undeniable guitar nut he’s been spotted using a huge array of electrics over the years.

Despite once jokingly claiming that “I’m not sure one should be seen in public with a white Stratocaster”, Noel has quietly used Strats for a long time – not least a 1965 model that he again borrowed from Marr and used on songs like, Wonderwalland Don’t Look Back In Anger.

Noel has also used various Telecasters and Esquires over the years, and in recent years has become something of a Jazzmaster fan, regularly using both a modded Fender American Professional model as well as some J-style offsets made by respected boutique luthier Bill Nash.

We don’t imagine that any of these instruments makes an appearance for the reunion shows however – Noel’s Oasis pomp was powered almost exclusively by Gibson-style guitars in a live setting, and it would both look and sound a little strange to see him trot out something Fender-y with Oasis.

Noel’s Acoustics

When it comes to Noel’s acoustic moments, we’re again primarily talking about Gibsons, and specifically Gibson Jumbos. In the early days, Gallagher started out on an Epiphone EJ-200 and then moved on to its Gibson counterparts, the J-150 and J-200. The only difference between a J-150 and a J-200 is that a J-200 has binding on the neck and headstock, and a J-150 does not, so sonically, they’re about as close as you can get.

But it’s the more humble J-150 that has been Noel’s favourite acoustic for the last two decades – a guitar that can easily be identified by a bootleg adidas sticker above the fingerboard on the guitar’s body. Gibson made a signature version of this guitar in 2021 but again it was limited to just 200 pieces.

There’s little doubt that that J-150 and its stablemates will be a key plank of the reunion shows – from Wonderwall to Half The World Away, some of Oasis’ most powerful and beloved tunes are driven by acoustic, and it would be hugely surprising to see Noel use anything else.

The good news about most of Gallagher’s gear is that broadly speaking he doesn’t mod his guitars too much, so if you track down a generic version of said instrument, you’ll probably get quite close to his sound. There are various Gibson J-150 and Epiphone J-200 models that will do the job here if you’re on a budget.