Tom Morello

Arguably Tom Morello's most famous guitar, the "Arm The Homeless" custom electric guitar, which he used extensively with Rage Against The Machine. In a MusicRadar interview, he talks about the origins of this guitar.

He got it in 1986, from a place in Hollywood that builds guitars. After getting the first version of it, Morello was extremely displeased with the way it looked, felt, and played. Over the next two years, he ended up switching out almost all of its parts, save for the wood used for the body.

After trying dozes of necks, pickups, and whammy bars, he settled for a graphite knock-off Kramer neck (which he found at Nadine's Music store), EMG pickups, and an Ibanez Edge whammy bar.

He then goes into how the pickup sound contributed to his Rage Against The Machine guitar sounds: "The bounce that's in my contribution to the riffs of Rage Against The Machine have a lot to do with that front pickup. I never really liked that sound; in fact I was quite disappointed with it, because it has a very single-coil sound. But that is the sound – that front pickup."

The source MusicRadar article can be found here.

At 2:06 into this video named "Tom Morello Guitars & Home Studio," Morello talks about his 1982 Fender Telecaster "Sendero Luminoso." It appears to be a standard American Telecaster (he reveals in other interviews it is a 1982 model), with a black finish, white pickguard, and a maple neck. From the looks of it is stock, and is adorned with several stickers. He says:

"This is my main drop D tuning guitar for my entire career. Inexpensive, made in the USA Telecaster. I traded my roommate (he was in a band called Liquid Jesus). He needed a Marshall head and I needed a guitar that I could tune down, play grunge-worthy heavy riffs with. And so the exchange was made, and this is in a song with all the Rage [Against The Machine], Audioslave, Street Sweeper [Social Club], The Nightwatchman songs that are in drop D tuning. Killing in the Name, Freedom, Testify, all those that are in drop D, played and written with the band on this."

Tom Morello discusses his Fender American Deluxe Designer Series Stratocaster, known as "Soul Power," in an interview. He explains that during his transition from Rage Against the Machine to Audioslave, he sought a new sound and vibe. This guitar became central to Audioslave's recordings and performances, replacing his other guitars for six years. The source photo on BlogSpot captures Morello with "Soul Power."

This guitar was custom made for Tom in the late 90's. It has been used exclusively live for Guerilla Radio, though it has been used in the studio

"This is my main drop D tuning guitar for my entire career."

"This was my main guitar that I practiced my countless hours on...I ruined it's sound by putting in a Kahler Tremolo bar..." says Tom Morello, about his Gibson Explorer, at 0:44 in this video.

Tom Morello utilized the Fender Telecaster American Designer Edition for his album "The Atlas Underground," as indicated in his Instagram post.

This is Tom’s main steel string acoustic guitar which he’s been using as The Nightwatchman. The guitar is completely black and features Morello’s own design on the left of the bridge which combines the Kenyan,Italian and American flags along with the hammer and sickle symbols.

The guitar is dubbed “Black Spartacus”, and Tom even wrote a song about it called “Black Spartacus Heart Attack Machine” – name inspired by Clash’s Mick Jones Clash who referred to his guitar as “heart attack machine”.

"This here is my very first guitar...still doesn't stay in tune very well but it's a good old friend," says Tom Morello, at 0:20 in this video, about his Kay SG Style.

In this live performance of "How I Could Just Kill A Man", Tom is seen playing his custom Ibanez Talman at :29s.

Tom used this guitar in rage against the machine to play The Ghost Of Tom Joad, and also he used it in Prophets Of Rage to play the Cypress Hill song How I Could Just Kill A Man

Tom Morello uses the Ibanez Roadstar Custom as a backup for his iconic "Arm the Homeless" guitar. This model features similar specifications, including a killswitch, EMG pickups, and a Floyd Rose tremolo system, as shown in the user-uploaded photo on Guitarchina.

From Tom Morello's Instagram, he reveals he used a Gibson Les Paul Standard in what looks to be Cherry Red finish, purchased in 1992, so there's a high probability it's an early 1990s model. The headstock features the "Standard" truss rod cover. Tom Morello says:

In the studio with this old friend yesterday. Bought this guitar in 1992 from West LA Music. After borrowing an engineer’s Les Paul to do overdubs on the “Bullet In The Head” demo I decided I needed my own Les Paul. Why did I choose this one? Because it was the color of Taco Bell hot sauce, a staple food group of mine at the time. It became my principal overdub guitar and is heard on “Killing In The Name”, “Freedom”, “Township Rebellion” and many others, backing up my tele. Still sounds great.

Tom Morello is seen with a Fender Stratocaster Electric Guitar in his studio, as shown in his Instagram post captioned "#StratTherapy #SingleCoilSelfHelp."

At 0:26 in the music video for Carry It, by Travis Barker, Tom Morello can be seen using an Ovation Breadwinner.

He has this Ernie Ball St. Vincent in Red finish with the blackguard.

Tom had at least two of these. First one was used in the earlier years and had bare metal finish and two Hot Rails pickups, while his second Steelcaster has Hot Rails in the bridge and Alnico pro II in the neck position and features red star graphic finish.

In this Instagram posted by Tom Morello, his backstage practice setup for Prophets of Rage can be seen. The guitar is a D'Angelico EX-DC in Surf Green finish with gold hardware, hooked up to a small Orange practice amp. He says:

"From small things big things one day come. Warming up backstage in Massachusetts. @prophetsofrage"

In this video of Tom Morello's guitars and his home studio, he says that he bought this cream colored ST George Goya Rangemaster Copy guitar for 40 Canadian dollars. He talks about it 2:46 into the video:

"This was a guitar of indeterminate name and origin that I got at a pawn shop in Toronto for 40 Canadian dollars, because I sort of liked the way it looked. I’m not even sure it’s made of wood! But I liked the way it looked, which is sort of my main criteria for getting guitars at the time. And we wrote and recorded Rage Against the Machine song Tire Me entirely with this guitar and with a 20 watt solid state amp, which is in that room over there... and that was our first Grammy."

The bridge pickup looks to have been replaced with a black DiMarzio DP218 Super Distortion S Strat Humbucker Pickup.

you can see Tom hold this Guitar on this photo

The guitar was gifted to Morello by Matt Bellamy of Muse on 9th June, and pictured on his Instagram.

In this video from Fender, Tom Morello tells stories about his signature "Soul Power" Strat and performs a set.

In an IGTV video on his Instagram, Tom Morello plays a Gibson Les Paul Classic Custom Ebony while performing Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" with Ben Harper.

"Working on the follow up to #TheAtlasUnderground with this badass #PaulStanley riff ripper!"

Marques Guitars sent to him this custom T-Style guitar built made out of ammo boxes from WWII.

Tom Morello captioned the post:

Strummin’ some anti-fascist chords today with this guitar that is literally made out of ammo boxes from WWII. Great axe by @marquesguitars

In this Instagram post, Tom Morello says "This guitar was used to record “Tire Me” on Rage Against The Machine’s Evil Empire album. The guitar, which I’m not even sure is made out of wood (plywood?) cost 40 Canadian dollars at a Toronto pawn shop. The song won our first Grammy."

In this user-uploaded photo, Tom Morello is seen signing a Fender Telecaster for a charity event.

Tom talks about this nylon string guitar in this Music Radar article saying "That ended up being the Galvador, which turned out to have a really beautiful sound. Much of The Nightwatchman catalogue was composed, from that point forward, on the Galvador, because it did have a pickup – you could plug it in anywhere. I went on a tour in 2003 with Billy Bragg and Steve Earle, and with the Galvador I could be a professional performer (laughs). So it's the 'Whatever It Takes' guitar."

This is Tom's back up for Arm the Homeless. This is the only picture I have ever found of it. It is a Ibanez AX custom. It has an EMG either 85 or 81 in the bridge (I forget, same as ATH) and a EMG SA in the neck. It has a Floyd Rose style bridge (presumeably and Ibanez Edge, like on Arm the Homeless). This AX features solid maple neck and a black headstock. It has an ATH esque toggle switch like and vol,vol,tone setup. I have heard rumors of a bulit in whammy pedal (note extra knobs and switches) and knowing Tom, not unreasonable. This guitar appears to be toms tribute to one of his cars, it has large-small raceing stipes, a Demon Sticker and, a 340 sticker (for explanation see cars). Another weird and wonderful Ibanez/Morello colaboration. A very bitchen guitar.

"Tom got this guitar around the time he was heading of the college, and used it with Lock Up and in the early days of the RATM. The guitar is basically a cheap Ovation knock-off with steel strings."