Wet Leg have established themselves as heavyweights of the British indie rock scene – and they’ve done so by slinging some rather unexpected guitars.
After wielding a Player Plus Meteora and an HSS Stratocaster in 2022, their breakout year, lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist Rhian Teasdale pushed the boat out and has since been sporting an acrylic B.C. Rich Mockingbird on recent tours and festival appearances in support of their sophomore album, Moisturizer.
Now, lead guitarist Hester Chambers is revealing her go-to guitar, and it’s another left-field choice for the genre – a Kramer Jersey Star, originally released as Richie Sambora’s signature model in the late ’80s.
“I acquired it maybe a year ago, and if I’m honest, I don’t know heaps about it,” Chambers tells Reverb.
“I don’t know heaps about Bon Jovi. It’s the first time I’ve ever used a Floyd Rose. It felt very scary for me at the time. Being like, ‘This guitar is not for me, but I can’t put it down at the moment.’”
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Original features such as the three humbuckers, pointy headstock, gold hardware, star-shaped fingerboard inlays, and, of course, the Floyd Rose locking tremolo were carried over to the more recent reissues, with the “Jersey Star” moniker serving as a nod to Sambora’s – and, by extension, Bon Jovi’s – New Jersey origins.
Reflecting on the release of his signature model with Kramer, Sambora told Vintage Guitar (via Vintage Kramer), “Dennis Berardi [one of Kramer’s co-founders] was doing extremely well with Kramer at that point, thanks to Eddie Van Halen. We got to be friends, and he asked me if I wanted to do a model, and I said ‘Sure.’
“So I tried to put something together that would give me the dexterity I needed. It had stars on the fretboard, a Floyd Rose, and DiMarzio pickups. I played them every night, too. A guy named Rod Schoepher, who had also made me a few custom instruments, would fix them to my liking when they came out of the factory.”
In 2022, Chambers spoke to Guitar World about the band’s unorthodox road to rock stardom – and how her co-guitarist, Rhian Teasdale, didn’t know how to play guitar before starting Wet Leg.
