it for recording, it has been retired from live performances since 2008 due to its value, which is reportedly enough to buy a house. He now mainly uses a 1955 Goldtop or a black 1975 Les Paul Custom. The Goldtop's paint is rubbed down to the wood, earning it the nickname . Its pickups and tailpiece were already altered when he acquired it, the former having been swapped out for humbuckers. The black 1975 Custom is nicknamed or , and he has owned it since his amateur days. Since X Japan's reunion, Pata occasionally uses a wine red 1976 Custom, which has a Tom Holmes 453 pickup in the rear. He has owned several other Les Paul Customs, including a white one nicknamed . In addition to his lineup of Les Pauls, Pata owns several other guitars such as an acoustic-electric by Takamine. His 1990s Gibson EDS-1275 double neck guitar has had all of its pickups changed, including the 12-string side to Burstbuckers, and its tailpiece changed to "Jimmy Page specifications". As of 2022, he had recently stopped using it live due to its heavy weight. Around 1995, Pata had a signature model guitar made by Burny, the EX-85P or its higher-end EX-240P, based on the 1958 Gibson Explorer. Pata's own copy of the guitar is made of korina and has Tom Holmes pickups. Before X Japan's 2014 concert at Madison Square Garden, Burny presented Pata with the prototype of his former bandmate Hide's signature Kujira model. Pata prefers to change guitars on stage as little as possible. He uses four or five with X Japan due to their different tunings, but only about two for Ra:IN; one for regular tuning and one for drop tuning. Pata previously used D'Addario 011-049 strings, but found it difficult to bend the top string. While recording Art of Life (1993) in America, he happened to buy La Bella HRS-010-048 strings at a local music shop and has used them ever since. Similarly, he bought a Dunlop 0.73mm nylon guitar pick at the same time, and has used them ever since. Although he sometimes uses a slightly stiffer one for acoustic guitar. Pata uses two old Marshall guitar amplifiers, which originally did not have master volume knobs, but have been altered to have them. Because the bass tends to get "muddy" when using distortion, the older amp on top is used for the main