Rig Rundown: Deep Purple’s Steve Morse

PG's Tessa Jeffers chatted with the man of many bands, Deep Purple guitarist Steve Morse, just before the band performed at Nashville’s legendary Ryman Auditorium. Morse sticks with the signature gear he designed: Ernie Ball Music Man axes and Engl amps.

Morse has a boat full of signature axes, but it all started with the Ernie Ball Music Man that he’s been playing since he designed it in 1986—this guitar remains his No. 1 favorite guitar of all time. Morse modeled it after a Frankenstein Telecaster that he made from both Fender and Gibson parts early in his career. The Ernie Ball Music Man Steve Morse has a unique HSSH configuration with signature DiMarzio pickups and a complex switching system.

Morse designed his second wave signature model 20 years after the first, hence the name Ernie Ball Music Man SM-Y2D. It has a flame-maple top, and he favors this Y2D with a red and purple tinted finish and Floyd Rose while playing with Deep Purple on tunes like “Smoke on the Water.”

The Y2D has one less single-coil than the first generation Steve Morse signature model, making for an HSH configuration with a multi-pull switch for an option to use the humbuckers together.

Morse strings his standard-tuned axes up with Ernie Ball Super Slinkys (.009–.042) and uses .011s on guitars tuned to dropped-D.

The Steve Morse Signature Special is a 100-watt Engl head that Morse controls via MIDI footswitch for 3-channel selection, gain tweaking, and nuanced midrange tonal shifts on the specialty third channel. It features two master volumes and two different effects signals. Morse uses one of the effects signals to activate his TC Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb. Morse describes Channel 1 as “the most expensive clean amp you’ve ever heard. It sounds like cost is no object.” Channel 2 is that “bread and butter distortion sound that everyone loves.” And Channel 3 is a specialty channel with four midrange controls that shift centers and combine with a separate mixer at the end of the signal. “It’s great for soloing,” Morse says.

Morse uses six Engl cabinets with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers that are used individually depending on venue. The dry signal speakers are arranged on the outside of the stack, and the wet signal is the inner speakers. Morse uses a wet signal that includes two TC Electronic Flashback Delay Steve Morse TonePrints: one for a short delay effect and one for a long delay effect.

Morse keeps things streamlined with his custom pedalboard setup. A TC Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb is controlled through his MIDI switcher, while his other two TC boxes house his signature TC Electronic Flashback Delay TonePrints. Morse also employs a Keeley Compressor for quirky Ritchie Blackmore tone.

He uses three Ernie Ball VP Jr. volume pedals, one for a harmonizer effect (via a TC Electronic G-Major 2) while the other two control his signature TC Electronic Flashback Delay TonePrints.