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The Doors outdoors (© Michael Ochs Archives/Corbis)

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Robby Krieger is the latest guitarist to be honoured by an 'Inspired by' instrument from the Gibson Custom Shop. The August issue of Guitarist magazine - onsale now - features an in-depth review of the new, very cool Gibson Robby Krieger SG VOS.

Meanwhile, The Doors' legendary six-stringer took the time to shoot the breeze with Guitarist about his signature instrument, the guitar loves of his life and the small matter of why The Doors never had a live bassist...

Why did you get an SG in the first place?

"It was kinda of an accident. I'd seen Chuck Berry play one night back in the days when he was great. He was really great. Up until that time I was really just playing flamenco guitar and folk music, stuff like that.

"I hadn't really got into electric guitar but I saw Chuck and thought I had to get into electric guitar. So I went down to the music shop, a place called Ace Loans in Santa Monica, a pawnshop but he specialised in guitars.

"I saw this red guitar and I thought, it looks like Chuck's (laughs) even though, of course, it wasn't. Chuck had his ES-335 semi hollow but it looked close enough. It was also the cheapest guitar they had. It was the SG Special with P90s, this was 1964."

So you were very new to the electric guitar when you formed The Doors?

"Yes, absolutely. I'd only been playing electric for about a year."

But aside from it being red, what attracted you to the SG?

"I liked how it looked. I liked the two horns that kinda looked like a devil's pitchfork, you know? It had a really cool look and I said man, look at all the frets on that, you can get up really high on that.

"Ray had to play the bass lines on automatic pilot so that made made our sound hypnotic." Robby Krieger

"And it sounded good. I got this great old Magnatone amp, two 12-inch speakers, it just sounded great through that amp. Anyway, that was the guitar I used on the first Doors album. That original one got stolen unfortunately but I bought many others after that."

Isn't your Gibson 'Inspired by' model is based on the 1967 SG Standard you play?

"Yes, I got that one about 12 years ago and it's become my main SG. It was just a lucky find. My roadie, Marco Moir, was in this guitar shop and he said I should check it out. I went down and liked it and I've been using it ever since."

We understand that the new SG's neck is a hybrid of that '67 Standard and a '61 SG owned by a friend…

"It's kinda wider and flatter at the back I always liked that kinda neck – that's why I liked the ES-335 because its similar. But you never seem to find that on the SG unless it's one of those Les Paul/SGs, the earlier ones. So my neck is a combination."

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