Steve Morse's relationship with Ernie Ball Music Man goes back a long way, prior to his decades-long tenure in Deep Purple, before Lynyrd Skynyrd revitalized his career with an onstage guest spot, and, oh, before he took time off his music career to become a pilot.
Despite this now 40-year relationship, though, the seeds for Morse's Ernie Ball Music Man signature guitar go back further still, to the purchase of his first serious six-string.
Unsatisfied with the limitations of that first serious purchase, a Strat, Morse took matters into his own hands, a lá Eddie Van Halen.
“The first serious guitar I bought with my own money was a new sunburst Strat in 1967,” he told Guitarist in a recent interview. “I later took the neck off that one, put it on a Tele, and ended up with humbuckers and single-coil pickups – my ‘FrankenTele.’ The pickup layout became the starting point of my [Steve Morse signature] Music Man guitars.”
As you'd expect, the Morse signature, the guitarist – who recently (and apologetically) became the latest in a long line of guitar heroes to salute Jeff Beck with an onstage rendition of his signature tune, Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers – elaborated, is the anchor of his rig.
“It all starts with the guitar: my Music Man signature with four pickups – plus, usually, a Roland synth pickup GK-2,” he told Guitarist. “This guitar gives me control over volume and tone and allows me to bring down the gain and boost the high-end back up as I do so by selecting one of my single-coil pickups mounted further from the strings.
“The neck pickup is designed to be in the exact spot it’s mounted, which keeps the guitar down to a 22-fret fingerboard – but there is that all-important fatness in the neck pickup as a result.”
Since his amicable departure from Deep Purple, Morse has kept plenty busy, getting his solo band back together, and releasing a feature-packed signature 20W tube head with Engl.
To read the full interview with Steve Morse – which covers his guitar-buying highs, lows, and tips – pick up the new issue of Guitarist at Magazines Direct.
