Don Felder Talks Eagles Gear, "Hotel California" and His Slide Guitar Influences

Here's our Dear Guitar Hero feature with former Eagles guitarist Don Felder, who released a new studio album, Road to Forever, in 2012.

For the remainder of this interview (where Felder discusses his signature Gibson Custom Shop "Hotel California" EDS-1275 and 1959 Les Paul), head here.^[1]

You grew up in Florida around Duane Allman, Tom Petty, members of the Eagles and other famous musicians. What was in the water in that part of the state? — Damien Linotte

Don’t forget Stephen Stills and I had a band in Gainesville called the Continentals when we were 15. And, of course, you had Lynyrd Skynyrd in Jacksonville. I don’t know if it was something in the water or something we were smoking, but yeah, an unusual number of people from there went on to be Hall of Fame artists. We all kind of learned from each other.

Tom Petty was one of my guitar students, I knew Duane, and Stephen and I had a band. When he left, Bernie Leadon moved to Gainesville. His father was a nuclear physicist who was sent to the University of Florida to start their nuclear research facility, so he and I became friends. He taught me bluegrass guitar, mandolin and banjo. We had a bluegrass band and a cover band. Everybody influenced everybody. If you’re gonna steal, steal from the best—or at least the best people around you.

Exactly what guitars and amps did you use on “Hotel California”? — Christopher Thumann

The acoustic guitar in the intro is a Takamine 12-string with a DeArmond pickup. We miked the acoustic and put that in the center of the mix. Then we took the pickup’s output and ran it though an Echoplex and a Leslie. We miked that in stereo so it has