Tom DeLonge's guitar strings and rig: the Blink-182 Starcaster era, sourced
Documented gear Tom DeLonge runs with Blink-182: Fender Tom DeLonge Starcaster with a Seymour Duncan SH-5, Ernie Ball Paradigm strings (.011 to .052 with a wound G), and a Fractal Axe-FX III rig. Sourced from Premier Guitar's January 2026 Rig Rundown.
Blink-182 · reviewed by the Change Your Strings editorial team ·
Tom DeLonge currently strings his Fender Tom DeLonge Starcasters with Ernie Ball Paradigm sets, .011 to .052 with a wound G, per his tech Justin Sweet in Premier Guitar's January 2026 Blink-182 Rig Rundown. The Starcasters carry a single Seymour Duncan SH-5 Duncan Custom and one volume knob, DeLonge's career-long one-pickup-one-knob formula. His amps are gone: the live rig is a Fractal Axe-FX III modeling a jumpered Marshall plexi and a Soldano X88-IR.
At a glance
Role
Active
Affiliations
- Blink-182 (founding guitarist and co-vocalist)
- Angels & Airwaves (founder)
- Box Car Racer (1998–2003)
- Fender (Tom DeLonge Stratocaster + Tom DeLonge Starcaster signatures)
- Gibson (Tom DeLonge ES-333 signature, mid-2000s era)
Notable credits
- Blink-182, Enema of the State (1999)
- Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001)
- Blink-182 (2003)
- One More Time... (2023)
Official media
Who Tom DeLonge is
Tom DeLonge co-founded Blink-182 in 1992 and wrote the guitar vocabulary most people hear in their heads when someone says pop-punk: downstroke eighth-note power chords, one humbucker, one volume knob, no tone controls, no apologies. He left twice, founded Angels & Airwaves, chased UFOs into a Pentagon-adjacent second career, and returned in 2022 for the reunion era that produced One More Time... (2023) and the Missionary Impossible tour. Premier Guitar caught that tour in January 2026 with his tech Justin Sweet, which is the primary source for everything below.
Guitars
Current main · Signature, launched April 2024
Fender Tom DeLonge Starcaster
Offset semi-hollow with a single Seymour Duncan SH-5 Duncan Custom and one master volume (treble bleed behind it). His touring examples were built by Brian Thrasher for the 2023 tour and have stayed in service. One carries a gaff-tape paint job courtesy of DeLonge himself; another, "Milo," got stickers and Sharpie within a day of arriving.
Source: Premier Guitar Blink-182 Rig Rundown (Jan 2026); Fender product page.
Heritage signature · Reissued 2023
Fender Tom DeLonge Stratocaster
The early-2000s cult classic: one Seymour Duncan Invader, one volume knob, nothing else. Reissued by Fender in 2023 in Daphne Blue, Sea Foam Green, Black, and Graffiti Yellow after years of used-market price inflation.
Source: Fender Tom DeLonge Stratocaster page; Guitar World reissue coverage.
Retired era · Gibson signature, mid-2000s
Gibson Tom DeLonge ES-333
Semi-hollow with a single Dirty Fingers humbucker, debuted live on the 2003 self-titled tour. Retired from the road when he returned to Blink-182 in 2022 and moved to the Starcasters. Same formula, different decade.
Source: Wikipedia: Gibson ES-333.
Strings
Documented current · Custom gauge run · Wound G
Ernie Ball Paradigm (.011–.052, wound G)
Per tech Justin Sweet on camera, every touring Starcaster wears a Paradigm set at .011 to .052 with a wound G. That's not a stock SKU; the wound G is the giveaway. A plain G under DeLonge's downstroke attack drifts sharp and snaps; the wound G adds mass and stability for a rhythm style that is nearly all open-position power chords at stadium volume. Paradigm is Ernie Ball's plasma-treated longevity line, which matters on a tour where one guitar carries a whole set.
Regular Slinky (.010–.046)
Why this one: The accessible starting point for the DeLonge lane. His documented set is a custom Paradigm 11-52 with a wound G; if you want the feel without the custom order, start at a stock Slinky and step toward 11s as your picking hand demands it.
Rig (the amps are models now)
DeLonge has left the Mesas, Marshalls, and Voxes behind on the road. Per the January 2026 Rig Rundown, the live rig is a Fractal Axe-FX III. The main drive sound models a jumpered Marshall plexi blended with a Soldano X88-IR, pushed through a Marshall 4x12 cabinet IR loaded with Celestion Vintage 30s. Cleans blend a Custom Audio Amplifiers 3+ SE model with a Fender Deluxe Reverb, through a Vox AC-30 IR. A Rupert Neve Designs 5211 preamp sits in the chain, and switching runs through a Fractal FC-12 backstage with an FC-6 at DeLonge's feet.
This mirrors the wider 2020s arena pattern CYS has documented on the Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield profiles: physical tube heads off the bus, modelers in the rack, the "amp" now a preset.
Next steps
- The other two thirds of the band: Mark Hoppus's bass rig and Travis Barker's kit.
- The neighboring Green Day pop-punk lane: Billie Joe Armstrong.
- String context: all five Ernie Ball lines compared.