Wes Borland - Equipment

Equipment

Borland used Ibanez seven-string guitars exclusively from 1997 until 1999. However, he stated that he played a 6-string guitar on the entire Three Dollar Bill, Yall$ record. Shortly after embarking on a tour with Korn, Ibanez got ahold of Borland and gave him a number of seven-string Universe guitars, essentially for free, which he continued to use extensively. During the touring in support of Significant Other, Borland used two custom Ibanez RG seven-strings with the electronic setup of an Ibanez AX7521 (two volume knobs and two tone knobs rather than one volume and one tone). Nothing is certain about the type of pickups that he used, however, he did use EMG pickups at one point, stating in an interview with GuitarCenter that he was moving from "passive to active pickups". Borland also endorsed the rare Ibanez RG7 CST guitar, which is made from superior/high-quality materials and is also equipped with an L.R. Baggs designed piezo system on a locking tremolo. He is currently one of two American owners of one. Additionally, Ibanez also made him a 4-string baritone guitar modeled after the AX120 model, which he used on songs such as "Nookie", "Full Nelson", and "The One". This was eventually replaced by a custom-made Master Guitars "Cremona" 4-string.

During the recording for Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water, Borland switched to 6-string guitars. The entire album was recorded using a Master Guitars Cremona semi-hollow body guitar, which is visible in the video for My Generation. However, Borland did not tour with this guitar and instead used Paul Reed Smith guitars, one of which is a Standard 24 in a Platinum Metallic finish, the other one being a Custom 24 in a Black Slate finish. After the tour, they were not seen again. In a recent Facebook photo posted by Fred Durst, Borland is shown playing the Cremona again in 2012 for studio purposes.

In 2005, Yamaha approached Wes Borland about a new signature guitar, which was almost 100% designed by Wes Borland. The model CV820WB was released that same year. It is a semi-hollow body guitar with a large body and new Yamaha high-output split field humbuckers, made exclusively for that guitar. It also comes with the new Yamaha Quick Change finger-clamp locking tremolo system, which rids the user of having to cut the ball ends off of the strings, which is very unusual for a locking tremolo. This was Borland's main guitar for the recording of Black Light Burns' Cruel Melody and the touring behind it, as well as most of the touring Limp Bizkit did before the recording of Gold Cobra. Despite its innovative characteristics, it wasn't a popular guitar, per se, and was discontinued in mid-2011, when Borland switched to Jackson Guitars, more or less beginning with the recording of Gold Cobra.

Borland was endorsed by Jackson shortly before the release of Gold Cobra, and owned several Rhoads guitars, which he used on Limp Bizkit shows. He now plays a custom white Warrior model with black bevels, and a Gun Metal Grey Warrior, along with a white Randy Rhoads guitar. He does not currently have a signature model with Jackson. Additionally, Wes also uses a Fender Bass VI extended scale guitar, tuned to one octave below E standard tuning. He uses this song on "The Story" on The Unquestionable Truth (Pt. 1), and again on "90.2.10", "Walking Away", and "Back Porch" on the Gold Cobra album.

Borland tunes his guitars to C# standard tuning (C# F# B E G# C#) and to Drop B tuning (B F# B E G# C#). He also tunes his 4-string baritone guitars to a variant of this tuning with a low F# string, which is a bass string (F# F# B E). During the late 1990s when Borland played 7-string guitars, he played them like one would play a 6-string guitar by tuning the highest string to C# as well, while maintaning standard C# tuning all the way to the seventh string. This technique was later used by Stephen Carpenter of Deftones so he could play the songs he originally recorded on a six-string without losing the feel of a seven-string, as Limp Bizkit and the Deftones had toured together in the mid 90's.

Borland uses Ernie Ball .011-.052 gauge nickel-wound strings, where the G string is wound. For Limp Bizkit's first three albums, Borland used Mesa-Boogie Dual and Triple Rectifier amps, but has played mainly Orange Amps (specifically the Thunderverb 100 models) since touring in support of Cruel Melody began and has continued to use them since then. Borland has also used a Roland JC-120 combo amplifier to generate his particularly exceptional clean tones.