Prophets of Rage’s Tom Morello

The hometown boy returns with plenty of anger, energy, and explosive guitar work as he goes into solo mode for “Take the Power Back” with his 1982 Fender Telecaster called “Sendero Luminoso” that is typically in drop-D tuning. Ironically, he scored this guitar back in the late ’80s or early ’90s when he traded his roommate for his Marshall head. In a 2008 interview with PG, he explained the deal and its results: “At the time I was writing songs in drop-D tuning and my only other guitar had a locking nut so I couldn’t do the tuning. My roommate needed a Marshall head and I had an extra, so I traded him the head for that ’82 Tele. And that’s how I got my main guitars [laughs]—by piecing one together and trading equipment for the other. It wasn’t based on research and development with experiments, but just the guitars that fell into my hands. I just decided to stop worrying so much about seeking some magical guitar and tone, but instead using what I had to write music effectively and incorporate a unique tone that I did have.”