“It was the worst guitar I’d ever played. I’d spent all my money making it. I was stuck with it. So I started writing songs”: Arm the Homeless was a disaster, then it changed rock history. Tom Morello reveals how Fender replicated its misfit charms

Fender's Tom Morello Arm the Homeless guitar.

It started life as the worst guitar its owner had ever played, and was modified with a grab bag of parts from bargain bins. It features arguably the most provocative slogan to be scrawled on a guitar since Woody Guthrie added “this machine kills fascists” to his acoustics in 1943. And it’s covered in cartoon hippos.

As an instrument, Arm the Homeless is an unlikely candidate for the signature guitar treatment – but 30 years at Tom Morello’s side has cemented it as one of rock’s most iconic electric guitars.