Jerry Cantrell's guitar strings: the Alice in Chains rig, sourced
Jerry Cantrell's documented gear: Ernie Ball Slinky RPS strings, the 1984 G&L Rampage 'Blue Dress', the Gibson 'Wino' Les Paul Custom, and his 2024 Fryette/Bogner rack rig. With citations.
Alice in Chains · reviewed by the Change Your Strings editorial team ·
Jerry Cantrell plays Ernie Ball Slinky RPS nickel wound strings, with the Regular Slinky gauge (.010-.046) as his commonly reported set. He is a featured Ernie Ball artist with his own String Theory episode. His main guitar since 1985 is the 1984 G&L Rampage known as Blue Dress, on nearly every Alice in Chains recording, joined today by Gibson signatures including the Wino Les Paul Custom and a champagne-sparkle Flying V.
What Jerry Cantrell reaches for
Sourced by the Change Your Strings editorial team · last verified 2026-06-11 · Affiliate links
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At a glance
Role
Active
Affiliations
- Alice in Chains (founding guitarist, co-vocalist, primary songwriter)
- Ernie Ball (featured String Theory artist)
- G&L (Rampage Jerry Cantrell Signature)
- Gibson (Wino Les Paul Custom, Songwriter acoustics)
- Dunlop / MXR (Firefly Cry Baby Wah, Firefly Talk Box signatures)
Notable credits
- Alice in Chains: Facelift (1990)
- Dirt (1992)
- Alice in Chains (1995)
- MTV Unplugged (1996)
- Black Gives Way to Blue (2009)
- Solo: Degradation Trip (2002)
- I Want Blood (2024)
Official media
Who Jerry Cantrell is
Jerry Cantrell is the founding guitarist, co-vocalist, and primary songwriter of Alice in Chains, formed in Seattle in 1987. Of the four bands at the center of the grunge era, Alice in Chains was the heaviest and the most harmonically dark, and that identity is mostly Cantrell's: sludgy riffs under twin-vocal harmonies he built with the late Layne Staley, and with William DuVall since 2006. Facelift (1990), Dirt (1992), and the self-titled 1995 record made him one of the most imitated rock guitarists of the decade.
His solo career runs on a parallel track, from Boggy Depot (1998) and the sprawling Degradation Trip (2002) through I Want Blood (2024), which features Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo and Faith No More drummer Mike Bordin. If you came here from our James Hetfield or Kirk Hammett pages, that Metallica connection is not a coincidence; the bands share a heaviness-first approach that shows up in everything from picking attack to string choice.
What he plays
Ernie Ball Slinky RPS nickel wound strings. Ernie Ball features Cantrell in its String Theory series, and his episode page links the Slinky RPS line as his set. The Regular Slinky gauge (.010-.046) is the commonly reported spec.
The current rig, sourced
Electric guitars
The stable, sourced from Premier Guitar's 2024 Rig Rundown, Guitar.com's Dirt gear breakdown, and the manufacturers' own product pages.
Acquired 1985 · Nickname "Blue Dress" · The career guitar
1984 G&L Rampage
Bought from the Dallas guitar store where he worked in 1985. Maple body and neck, single bridge humbucker, Kahler tremolo countersunk into the body so the low E stays seated under deep dives, locking nut swapped for a Floyd Rose nut. The pin-up decal that named the guitar was painted by Alain Aslan. By his own MoPOP estimate it is on 98.9 percent of everything he has recorded.
Reissued 2024 · Signature model
G&L Rampage Jerry Cantrell Signature
The Rampage was discontinued in 1990 after a six-year run; G&L brought it back largely because Cantrell made it an icon. He tours with vintage Rampages and the newer signature models side by side. The signature keeps the formula: maple body, single Cantrell-spec humbucker, one volume knob, Kahler tremolo.
Source: G&L, Rampage Jerry Cantrell Signature product page; Guitar.com, G&L announces return of the Rampage.
2024 tour · Stage regular
Gibson Flying V (champagne sparkle)
A champagne-sparkle-finished Flying V is one of his go-to stage guitars on the I Want Blood tour, sharing setlists with the Rampages. Cantrell has played Vs since the Alice in Chains heyday; this finish is the current tour's standout.
Custom Shop signature · Nickname "Wino"
Gibson Jerry Cantrell Wino Les Paul Custom
Gibson's Murphy Lab-aged recreation of Cantrell's Wine Red Les Paul Custom, sold signed in a limited Custom Shop run, with an Epiphone production version for the rest of us. Gibson also builds his Atone and Fire Devil Songwriter acoustics.
Source: Gibson, Wino Les Paul Custom product page; MusicRadar coverage.
Amps
2024 tour · Rack rig
Bogner Fish preamp + Fryette Two/Ninety/Two + Fryette LX II
The current touring amp is a rack: a Bogner Fish all-tube preamp feeding a Fryette Two/Ninety/Two stereo tube power amp, with a Fryette LX II stereo power amp in the same rack. The Fish is a thread that runs all the way back to Dirt, where a Fish handled the low-end rhythm track.
Dirt sessions, 1992 · Three-amp rhythm chain
Bogner Fish + VHT (lows), Bogner Ecstasy (mids), Rockman direct (highs)
Producer Dave Jerden split Cantrell's guitar to three amps tracked simultaneously: Fish preamp into a VHT power amp and Marshall cab for lows, an Ecstasy for mids, and a Rockman taken direct for highs. Each pass was doubled and panned, six tracks per rhythm part. Bogner custom-modified both units to sound as brown as possible, per Jerden.
Source: Gearspace, Dave Jerden interview, 2022; Guitar.com summary.
Dirt sessions, 1992 · Lead amp
1988 Marshall Super Lead (Mike Moran mod, 6L6)
Leads on Dirt went through Jerden's own 1988 Marshall Super Lead, converted to switchable 100/50 watts and given an extra preamp stage by Mike Moran, running 6L6 tubes instead of EL34s. Jerden compressed guitars with Summit compressors and recorded flat, no EQ.
Effects
Signature pair · The only pedals at his feet
Dunlop JC Firefly Cry Baby Wah + MXR JC Firefly Talk Box
Everything else lives in the rack; these two signatures stay on stage with him. The wah is the modern chapter of a Cry Baby relationship that goes back to the Hendrix-model Cry Baby he used on Dirt. The talk box is the Man in the Box voice.
2024 tour · Rack drawer
Rack pedals, MIDI-switched
MXR Smart Gates, MXR Timmy, Strymon Ola, MXR Six Band and Ten Band EQs, Barber Direct Drive, Boss DD-500, MXR EVH Flanger, Boss CE-5, MXR Poly Blue Octave, Ibanez TS808HW, MXR Reverb, Line 6 MM4, and an MXR Talk Box, all switched behind the scenes by a Custom Audio Electronics RS-T MIDI foot controller run by his tech.
Strings
RPS is the detail that makes sense of the whole rig. A Kahler-equipped guitar with deep dive-bomb range stresses the ball-end twist of a plain string more than a hardtail does, and Ernie Ball's Reinforced Plain Strings wrap that twist in brass to stop breakage at exactly that point.
Endorsed · String Theory featured artist
Ernie Ball Slinky RPS, Regular Slinky gauge (.010-.046)
Ernie Ball's String Theory episode page links the Slinky RPS nickel wound line as Cantrell's set; the .010-.046 gauge is the commonly reported spec. In the episode he tells the story himself: the first strings he ever bought, replacing them one at a time from the single-string bins because money was tight, were Ernie Ball.
The non-RPS equivalent
Ernie Ball Regular Slinky (.010-.046)
Same gauges, same nickel wound construction, without the reinforced ball end. If you play a hardtail or a non-locking tremolo and want the Cantrell gauge without the RPS premium, this is the set.
Why this fits the rig
A .010-.046 set half a step down lands in a sweet spot Cantrell more or less defined for heavy rock: slack enough that bends and his signature moaning vibrato come easy, tight enough that low-string riffing stays articulate through a high-gain amp. Most of the Alice in Chains catalog is commonly reported a half step down, with drop shapes below that on songs like Them Bones, so the gauge has to cover both without a setup change.
The RPS construction is insurance for the Kahler. Deep tremolo work cycles string tension hard, and plain strings fail at the ball-end twist first. Reinforcing that twist is a cheaper fix than going up a gauge, and it leaves the feel of the .010 set intact. If you want to go lower than a half step on a 25.5 inch scale like the Rampage's, read our Drop D guide for where tension starts demanding a heavier set.
If you want this rig
Regular Slinky RPS 2241 Nickel Wound (.010-.046)
Why this one: The set Ernie Ball's own String Theory page links for Cantrell. Reinforced ball ends survive Kahler tremolo abuse; the .010-.046 gauge handles Eb standard and drop shapes alike.