MusicRadar

From Gish right on to the present, Billy Corgan’s buzzsaw guitar roar - thick, turgid rhythms and searing leads - has been as much the heart and soul of the Smashing Pumpkins’ sound as his sneering vocals

Flying in the face of the back-to-basics aesthetics of grunge, Corgan was always a shredder at heart - Eddie Van Halen was one of his earliest heroes.

But while EVH gravitated to homemade Strat-style jobs, Corgan preferred the real deal.

His Signature Strat borrows heavily from Fender’s Highway 1 Series and features three DiMarzio humbucking pickups (a Chopper, along with a BC-1 and BC-2, the latter two Corgan designed himself).

Next page: Rory Gallagher