T. Rex

Marc Bolan's T. Rex stripped rock to its most primal and glamorous elements — a Gibson Les Paul through cranked amplifiers, doubled and layered until the riffs shimmered with an almost orchestral thickness. The addition of a Leslie cabinet gave Bolan's guitar a swirling, vocal quality that set T. Rex apart from heavier contemporaries. His Fender Stratocaster work on later recordings introduced cleaner, thinner tones that balanced the warm saturation of the Les Paul, proving Bolan's ear for texture was as sharp as his instinct for melody.