Their Name on the Guitar: Bluesmen Who Personalized Their Instruments

In the blues, a guitar was never just a tool. It rode in the back of cars, played juke joints and cheap studios, and a lot of bluesmen marked it as theirs: with their name, a nickname, or hardware-store letters stuck on one by one. That simple, personal gesture is where the name plates on The Stubbs come from.

Earl Hooker: letter by letter

Earl Hooker with E-A-R-L and HOOKER letters on his double-neck Gibson — Cover of *2 Bugs and a Roach* (Arhoolie, 1969). Photo: Chris Strachwitz. © Arhoolie Records / Smithsonian Folkways.

Earl Hooker (1929–1970) was one of the most admired guitarists in 1950s and '60s Chicago, a slide master his peers held in a league of his own. On the cover of 2 Bugs and a Roach (Arhoolie, 1969) he holds his double-neck Gibson, and his name is right there in loose letters: E-A-R-L on the 12-string headstock and HOOKER on the body. No logo, no custom paint job: individual letters, applied by hand, each one in its place. That is exactly the idea behind the plates on The Stubbs.

Stevie Ray Vaughan: SRV

Jimmie Vaughan next to Stevie Ray Vaughan's Number One Stratocaster with SRV letters on the pickguard — Jimmie Vaughan next to "Number One", SRV letters on the pickguard. Photo: LBJ Library (public domain).

The most famous Stratocaster in Texas blues, "Number One", carries three stick-on letters on its pickguard: SRV. Stevie Ray Vaughan played it throughout his career, and those initials became as much a part of the guitar as its worn finish. Today it sits in a museum, letters and all.

B.B. King and Lucille

B.B. King's Gibson Lucille with his name on the fretboard — "Lucille" on stage, with B.B. King's name on the fretboard. Photo: Werner100359, CC BY 3.0.

B.B. King called every one of his guitars "Lucille" from 1949 on, after he ran back into a burning dance hall in Twist, Arkansas, to save his; the fire had started in a fight over a woman named Lucille. The name stuck for good and ended up on the headstock and fretboard of his Gibsons. Naming your guitar, or putting your own name on it, is a way of saying there is no other one like it.

T-Model Ford, "The Taledragger"

Dan Auerbach's Peavey Razer with T MODEL THE TALEDRAGGER letters — Dan Auerbach's Peavey Razer, a tribute to T-Model Ford. Photo: Premier Guitar, Rig Rundown: The Black Keys (2019).

Mississippi bluesman T-Model Ford played a Peavey Razer covered in stickers spelling out his name and nickname: "T Model — The Taledragger". Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys has called him one of his biggest influences, and in 2019 he toured with a Razer wearing the same letters as a tribute. The name on the guitar passed from one player to the next, like an heirloom.

Matt Stubbs and GA-20

Matt Stubbs' turquoise Waterslide with STUBBS on the pickguard — Matt Stubbs' Waterslide. Photo: Premier Guitar, Rig Rundown: GA-20 (2026).

Matt Stubbs of GA-20 keeps the tradition going: his Waterslide guitar wears STUBBS across the pickguard, as you can see in the band's Premier Guitar Rig Rundown. Matt used The Stubbs prototype to record GA-20's new album, and that is where the pedal got its name.

Your name on The Stubbs

The Stubbs name plate configurator: type a name and see it on the pedal — Try it yourself: on The Stubbs page, choose *Custom name* and type yours to see it on the pedal.

The Stubbs puts two circuits in one box: our rite'67 silicon fuzz and a transparent boost. On the custom edition we swap the "STUBBS" plates for your name (up to 6 letters or numbers), made with aluminium letters we apply by hand, one at a time, in our Madrid workshop, just like they did. You can preview it before you order on the The Stubbs page.

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