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."

3:34 into this video shows some of Tom Morello's pedals in his home studio. The pedals shown seem to be consistent with the pedals he has relied on throughout his career. The DigiTech WH-1 Whammy pedal (the original whammy) is part of Morello's setup.

In a MusicRadar article, Tom Morello talks about how he ended up getting a Marshall JCM800 2205 50-watt head, which he uses in conjunction with a Peavey cabinet.

After his gear got stolen out of his van, he headed to Nadine's Music store, and ended up buying the Marshall head and Peavey cab simply because he needed them in a pinch to record a demo, and they didn't have much other selection at the time.

Morello also mentions that he found a knob combination on his amp that simply works, which he has used for quite some time. The original article can be found here.

At 3:08 in the YouTube video, Raga Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello explains, that he used this Marshall Lead 20 Model 5002 20 watts Combo Amplifier to write and record the song "Tire Me", which would go on to win the first-ever Grammy Award in the category of Best Metal Performance for the band at the 39th Annual Awards in 1997.

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."

Tom Morello posts a photo of his MXR M-104 Distortion + pedal in a Tweet:

Saturday night recording session with my kid’s 10 watt amp.

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

In this video, titled "Tom Morello Guitars & Home Studio," Tom Morello is in his home studio and shows off some of his gear (mostly guitars). He doesn't talk about it specifically, but you can see a quick shot of his pedalboard at 3:32. The first pedal on the left is the MXR Phase 90.

This detailed gear diagram of Tom Morello's 2004 Audioslave stage setup includes a Boss TR-2 Tremelo pedal.

This video shows Tom Morello is in his home studio, talking about some of the guitars and amps he has owned over the years. At 3:32, the camera shows his pedals, one of which is the DOD FX40B Equalizer pedal.

"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.

As can be seen between 1:36 and 1:37 in this video of Rage Against The Machine rehearsing, the pedal to the left of Tom Morello's pedalboard (the one that looks to be just off the pedalboard) is the DigiTech Whammy DT Drop Tuning Pedal. While Morello has gone on record to say he uses a DigiTech Whammy, to my knowledge he hasn't specified which, but both this one and the DigiTech WH-1 Whammy make an appearance here.

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 video he mentions that he uses a peavey 4x12

From the description in this video on YouTube, they said: "And as they say, the rest is history. For this one, he uses Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinkys (.009–.046, for all vibrato-equipped guitars) and always grabs Dunlop Tortex Jazz III picks."

Around 3:33 into this video, the camera pans across Tom Morello's pedals in his home studio. He doesn't talk about them specifically, but the Boss DD-3 Digital Delay pedal can clearly be seen. His pedalboard has been pretty standard throughout the numerous bands he has played with, and the DD-3 has been a mainstay of his effects setup.

Tom Morello explains in this video interview from Guitar World how he uses a pencil combined with delay to produce his "helicopter" sound.

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

at 14:16, tom says this pickup is in the arm the homeless guitar

In this post of his IG, this pedal is in front of the talkbox & the XP300

In this Instagram post, Tom Morello shares a photo that includes the Meris Enzo synth pedal with the caption:

Spring tryouts. #NewHotJamsPercolating

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.

In this detailed gear diagram, of Tom Morello's 1998 Rage Against The Machine stage setup, a Boss DD-2 is listed.

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.

According to http://www.seymourduncan.com/ Tom Morello uses as Seymour Duncan JB in his guitars.