David Bowie Guitar Player: The Unsung Riff-Maker
Everyone talks about the voice. The costumes. The way he could change his entire persona like most people change their socks. But honestly, if you look at the DNA of his biggest hits, there is a specific, jagged, and rhythmic foundation that people often overlook. That’s David Bowie. The guitar player.
Most casual fans assume Bowie just stood there looking pretty with a 12-string while some virtuoso did the heavy lifting. While he definitely hired the best hands in the business—we’re talking Mick Ronson, Robert Fripp, and Stevie Ray Vaughan—Bowie himself was a rhythmic powerhouse. He didn't just "strum." He architected the movement of the songs.
Take "Rebel Rebel." You know that riff. It’s one of the most famous pieces of rock and roll ear candy ever recorded. Most people bet their house that Mick Ronson played it. They’d lose that house. It was Bowie. He played lead on almost all of the Diamond Dogs album because he wanted a specific, amateurish-but-deadly "trashy" sound that a session pro might have accidentally cleaned up too much.
The 12-String Obsession
If you see a photo of Bowie from the late '60s or early '70s, he’s usually clutching a 12-string acoustic. It wasn't just a prop. For Bowie, the 12-string was a wall of sound. He used it to create this shimmering, slightly out-of-tune chorus effect that became the backbone of "Space Oddity" and "Starman."
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He had a weirdly sophisticated way of playing. He wasn't a "shredder" by any means, but he had this "stunt" rhythm style. He’d use open strings to create drones while shifting chord shapes underneath. It made a simple folk song sound like it was coming from a different planet.
The Gear That Defined Him
Bowie wasn't a gear snob, but he knew what looked cool and sounded "wrong" in the right way.
- The Hagstrom I Kent: This was the red, plastic-looking guitar from the "Rebel Rebel" era. It looked like a toy, but it had this thin, biting tone that cut through a mix like a razor.
- The Supro Dual Tone: Late in his career, especially during the Reality era, he fell in love with this 1960s vintage Supro. He even had a luthier, Flip Scipio, inlay rainbow colors into the top five frets. It became his "main" electric toward the end.
- The Harptone 12-String: This was the "Ziggy" acoustic. It had a massive headstock and a booming low end.
The Director of Six Strings
Bowie’s real genius as a david bowie guitar player wasn't just his fingers—it was his ears. He acted more like a film director than a bandleader. When he brought in Robert Fripp for "Heroes," he didn't give him sheet music. He basically told him to play "to the feeling" of the moment. Fripp ended up using feedback from his speakers to create those soaring, infinite notes.
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Then you have the Stevie Ray Vaughan era. Imagine being the biggest pop star on earth in 1983 and hiring a virtually unknown Texas bluesman to play on a dance record. It shouldn't have worked. A Stratocaster playing blues licks over Nile Rodgers' disco funk? It sounds like a train wreck on paper. But Bowie saw the connection. He saw the "rhythm" in the blues.
Why His Rhythm Playing Matters
If you want to play like Bowie, you have to stop trying to be "perfect." His playing was always about the "chug." On tracks like "Queen Bitch," he’s just slamming an acoustic guitar with a pickup in it, trying to mimic the Velvet Underground. It’s messy. It’s trebly. It’s perfect.
He understood that the guitar is a percussive instrument. He didn't think in terms of scales; he thought in terms of "shapes" and "vibrations." This is why his collaborations worked so well. He provided the "clank" and the "thump," which gave his lead players the freedom to go wild.
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Mastering the Bowie Style
If you’re looking to channel that specific Bowie energy in your own playing, you’ve gotta start with the 12-string. It’s the gateway drug.
- Ditch the pick thickness: Use a medium or thin pick and really "dig in" to the strings. Bowie’s acoustic work was never polite.
- Open string drones: Learn to play chords like Fmaj7 while letting the high E and B strings ring out. It’s that "spacey" sound from the Hunky Dory era.
- Think percussively: Your right hand is more important than your left. Focus on the "up-down" syncopation.
- Embrace the "wrong" notes: Bowie famously told musicians that if they felt safe, they weren't in the right place. Go a little further into the water than you can stand.
Bowie proved that you don't need to be the fastest player in the room to be the most influential one. You just need a vision and a really loud 12-string.
To truly capture the Bowie sound, start by stripping back your effects. Focus on the raw acoustic rhythm of a song before you ever plug in an electric. Use a 12-string guitar for your primary songwriting to hear how the natural chorusing of the strings adds depth to simple chord progressions. When you do switch to electric, look for "lo-fi" tones—think bridge pickups and slightly overdriven small amps—rather than high-gain modern sounds. This creates the "brittle" texture that defined his mid-70s output.