In pictures: the stunning, cool and downright weird guitars of the Grammy Awards 2026
While most people are tuning into the Grammy awards for the fashion, the celebrities or the chaotic potential for someone to go off-script in an acceptance speech, here at Guitar.com we’ve got our eyes peeled for one thing, and one thing only – guitars.
READ MORE: Slash, Duff McKagan, Andrew Watt, Chad Smith and Post Malone lead fiery Ozzy Osbourne tribute at the Grammys
Despite the ever-present grumbling about the lack of overt guitar-centric artists in the big hitter categories, the ceremony itself is always a reminder that regardless of how prominent it ends up being in the studio recording, the guitar remains a uniquely potent weapon in the live arena – and there were plenty of eye-catching guitars on stage throughout the many superstar performances.
What was particularly interesting about this year’s crop was how many weird and leftfield instruments we noticed on the Crypto.com Arena stage across the evening – so often the ceremony is wall-to-wall Fender, Gibson and occasional Martin, but 2026 was certainly a little more diverse in that regard.
Let’s dive in to some of our most notable highlights from the show.
Justin Bieber’s Yamaha RGX
Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Where else can you start really than with the most eye-catching performance of the night, where Biebs himself decided to pair some blue silk boxer shorts with an… 1980s Yamaha RGX?!
Yep, it’s weird man. We certainly didn’t have Bieber becoming the world’s most notable standard-bearer for obscure Asian-made SuperStrats of the late shred era, but here we are. Nice colour too!
María Zardoya’s Fender Mustang
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
The frontwoman of bilingual indie-pop The Marías is usually seen wielding a Fender Duo-Sonic, but for the band’s performance – a celebration of their nomination in the Best New Artist category – she traded up for a seriously cool black Mustang.
Interestingly, the headstock looks like the ‘Mustang’ part of the decal has been worn or sanded off, implying that this might be a vintage or at the very least well-loved guitar.
Bruno Mars’ Gibson Les Paul Custom
Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Mars had the distinction of performing twice during the Grammy ceremony, including opening the festivities with the performance of his Record Of The Year-nominated duet with former Blackpink member Rosé, APT.
Despite being a honoured as a Fender signature artist just over a year ago, Mars opted to perform on the evening using a classic ‘Tuxedo’ Gibson Les Paul Custom – it certainly fit the vibe of the black tie performance nicely.
Leon Thomas’ custom mirror Strat
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Fender has some form for producing custom guitars for artists to use for the Grammys – remember H.E.R.’s transparent Strat for the 2019 ceremony? – and rising R&B phenom Leon Thomas clearly noticed as he traded in his usual sunburst Strats for something altogether more unique to celebrate his six nominations (and two wins).
While the lighting of the performance probably didn’t show it off to its full magnificence, Thomas rocked a custom mirror-finished HSS Strat, with matching headstock and pickguard. Good luck keeping the fingerprints off that one.
Slash’s flamey black Les Paul
Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Gibson’s most loyal and long-term endorsee playing one of the innumerable Les Pauls Gibson have probably sent to him over the years isn’t exactly headline news, but most of the Cat In The Hat’s current signature line-up sit squarely in the ‘autumnal’ colour palette.
The guitar he used to perform in the Grammys tribute to the late great Ozzy Osbourne was certainly not that – instead it was a dark, almost black, burst with a lovely flamed maple top underneath. A fitting guitar to pay tribute to the Prince Of Darkness, but might we see this being added to the Slash Les Paul line-up soon too? Don’t bet against it.
Andrew Watt’s Jaydee Custom
Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Over on the other side of the stage to Slash for the Ozzy tribute was Grammy-winning producer, guitar nut and veteran rock star whisperer extraordinaire Andrew Watt. But rather than go down the obvious path and pick up a Gibson SG for the performance, Watt came out using something that only true guitar nerds and Sabbath aficionados would recognise.
Back in the late 70s, a Birmingham-based guitar tech and luthier called John Diggins built Tony Iommi a guitar. That SG-shaped guitar – ‘Old Boy’ – would become one of Iommi’s most famous and beloved instruments, while Diggins would continue building guitars and basses under the Jaydee Custom Guitars brand for the next 40 years.
Diggins died suddenly in 2024, prompting Iommi to pay tribute to his skill, and call him “a very dear friend”. For the Grammy performance, Watt walked out with a white, relic’d Jaydee SG – paying guitar nerd tribute both to Iommi himself, but also the luthier whose work he relied on for so many years.
Lukas Nelson’s Gibson Byrdland
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Performing at the In Memorium segment alongside fellow country stars Reba McEntire and Brandy Clark (who was herself sporting a lovely battered old Martin 000), Nelson stole the guitar show somewhat with a suitably classy big Gibson.
The Byrdland is something of a rare duck in the Golden Era Gibson stakes. Introduced in 1955 as a thinner-bodied version of the L-5, it was the basis for the more stripped down ES-350T that Chuck Berry made his own, and then later got a Florentine cutaway and became Ted Nugent’s guitar of choice. Nelson’s black version has the original cutaway, and might be a 1970s version.
Wyclef Jean’s Taylor T5
Photo by Johnny Nunez/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
One of the highlights of the ceremony saw Fugees legends Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean reunite to lead an all-star tribute to two sadly missed musical legends we lost in 2025 – D’Angelo and Roberta Flack.
Jean was playing guitar as part of the performance and brought out a lesser seen but still revolutionary piece of guitar history – the hybrid electric-acoustic Taylor T5z.
Raphael Saadiq’s Minarik Diablo
Photo by Johnny Nunez/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
It’s not often that you write the words ‘Minarik guitars’ and ‘Grammy awards’ in the same sentence, but we have former Prince bassist and Grammy-winning producer Raphael Saadiq to thank for this one.
While Minarik’s bizarre shapes and gaudy visuals make the brand great fodder for ‘what the hell is that?!’ videos from the NAMM show floor, Saadiq’s choice to play this for the D’Angelo/Flack tribute was actually a very poignant one. D’Angelo was a fan of the Diablo model, and regularly used a pearled-out custom model on stage – Saadiq’s decision to rock this more demure one in tribute is a lovely way of acknowledging D’Angelo’s guitar impact.
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