Tom Morello
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Thomas Baptiste "Tom" Morello (born May 30, 1964) is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist best known for his tenure with the bands Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, his acoustic solo act The Nightwatchman, and his newest group, Street Sweeper Social Club. He was featured as one of the guitarists in Rolling Stone's "The Top 20 New Guitarists" article and was ranked #26 on Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". He is also an outspoken political activist.
Equipment
Guitars
Morello uses heavily modified guitars from various manufacturers, but he has never had an official endorsement deal with any company.
- Mongrel Custom, aka "Arm The Homeless" - Morello's most famous guitar, and his main guitar for standard tuning since 1991. The original guitar was originally made by Performance Guitar for Morello after his exact specifications. When he got it, he hated the guitar and completely reassembled it. The only thing that remains from the original guitar is the body. It has a blue body with the words "Arm the Homeless" written on it in black and red, 4 Hippos (painted) on the front, one large hippo (upside down) painted on the back, and a hammer and sickle symbol sticker. Its neck is a 22 fret Performance Guitar neck with a rosewood board and a "banana" headstock; it has an EMG 81/EMG 85 set of pickups and a Ibanez Edge Floyd Rose Tremolo. The guitar is tuned to standard E.
- Fender Stratocaster, "Soul Power" - It has a black finish with white binding and a color-matched headstock. It also has a mirror pickguard, Ibanez Edge Floyd Rose Tremolo, a toggle switch wired as a kill switch, a Seymour Duncan Hotrails pickup in the bridge and Fender Noiseless pickups in the middle and neck positions. It has the words "Soul Power" on the top of the body in silver paint and is his main guitar in Audioslave for songs that are in standard E tuning.
- Fender Telecaster, "Sendero Luminoso" - A black stock 1982 Standard Telecaster, his main guitar for use in drop-D in Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave.
- Ibanez Artstar Hollowbody (Custom) - Made especially for Morello. Based on an old Vox Ultrasonic, it contains several on-board effects (wah, echo, dist, treble/bass boost) and is painted red and black paint. Used live on the song "Guerrilla Radio" by Rage Against the Machine but rarely seen anywhere else.
- Goya Rangemaster de Greco, "St. George Creamy" - Bought by Morello at a Canadian pawnshop for $60. It was modified with a Seymour Duncan hotrails pickup in the bridge position. A toggle switch was also added that is dead in the middle position, resulting in a "hummingbird chirp" when toggled. Used as a drop D guitar for some songs on the Rage Against The Machine record Evil Empire. Currently, it is tuned to drop B. Used in Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave.
- Ibanez Talman (Custom) - Has 3 single coil pickups, an Ibanez Lo-Pro Edge Floyd Rose Tremolo, and a killswitch. It has a custom Kenyan flag finish and it was used on "Revolver", "How I Could Just Kill a Man", and "Pistol Grip Pump" for Rage Against the Machine and "Exploder" for Audioslave. He owns a second talman in a cream finish with a tortoiseshell pickguard.
- Gibson EDS-1275 (Double Neck SG) - Tuned to drop-D on the 6-string neck, and only seen used live on "The Ghost of Tom Joad".
- Ovation Breadwinner - Tuned to standard E, used for "Ashes in the Fall" for Rage Against the Machine. Also used with a MusicMan amp and Tone Bender pedal to capture the Korean radio station audio heard at the end of "Sleep Now in the Fire." He owns 2 others and confines them to the studio because he thinks they look weird.
- Gibson "Budweiser" Les Paul - Used during the recording of Audioslave's third album "Revelations". He hated the Budweiser logo on the guitar and thus decided to burn it off using a lighter. He liked the new appearance and modified the guitar with "Zebra" Dimarzio pickups.
- Gibson Les Paul Standard, #1 - orange burst finish. Tuned to drop-B for use in Audioslave.
- Gibson Les Paul Standard, #2 - Red finish. Rarely used live until Audioslave's Out of Exile tour where it was tuned to drop-D and only used for Soundgarden covers.
- Gibson Les Paul Standard, #3 - tobacco sunburst finish. Tuned to standard E and used in Street Sweeper Social Club. Can be seen in the music video for "100 little curses".
- James Trussart Steelcaster - A Telecaster style guitar with a body made in steel, finished with red star graphics over a holey front. Seen occasionally on the Rage Against the Machine reunion tour, Tom also owns one with polished finish that was used on early tours.
- "Whatever It Takes" guitar - A custom Ibanez Galvador nylon string acoustic guitar he uses during concerts as The Nightwatchman. Plain body with 'Whatever It Takes ((star))' left of the bridge.
Morello's amplifier and effects setup has been practically the same throughout his career in Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave.
Pedalboard
- Digitech Whammy WH-1- Dunlop Crybaby Wah
- Boss DD-2 Digital Delay
- Boss TR-2 Tremolo
- MXR Phase 90
- DOD FX40b Equalizer
- Ibanez DFL Flanger
- Marshall JCM800 2205 (50-watt)
- Peavey 4x12 Cabinet
From: wikipedia
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