FEATURE > FLYING COLORSTEvE MorSE’S GEAr TEvE MorSE’S GEAr
Photo by Mike Murray Studios
Guitars Music Man Steve Morse Signature model,
Music Man SM-Y2D Signature model, Buscarino nylon-
string, Larrivée steel-string, Babicz steel-string
Photos by Candaian
Amps ENGL Steve Morse Signature E656 heads
driving ENGL 4x12 cabinets
Effects TC Electronic Flashback Delay and Looper,
Ernie ball volume pedal
Strings, Picks, and Accessories
Ernie Ball electric strings (.010, .013, .016, .026,
.032, and .043), dropped-D guitars have a .046 or
.048 for the lowest string, Ernie Ball medium-heavy
picks, TC Electronic Poly Tune, DiMarzio ClipLock,
and Ernie Ball straps
too, and that may be part of it. As my
body gets more miles on it, I’m preparing to deal with tendonitis, arthritis,
and stuff that inevitably happens when
you’ve been playing for 46 years. I have
three different right-hand techniques
involving the pick. One of them is that
I rest the heel of my right hand on the
bridge and make an opening between
my fingers and that heel, and I pick in
that opening. I play that way for control,
especially at high volumes, like when I’m
trying to get sustain and feedback from
the amp. That’s the super-controlled
way—everything is muted except the
string I’m playing.
For faster stuff, I hold my pick
between two fingers and my thumb,
and use the twisted motion in the wrist
that I normally do—but it’s not as tied
down. That’s the position I tend to end
up with when I’m playing fast. I have
to be very careful to keep [extraneous]
notes from running away by muting
with my left-hand thumb a lot. The
third technique I’m working on is a
traditional grip like John Petrucci, John
McLaughlin, or Al Di Meola might use,
with the thumb inside of the finger.
That’s very relaxing, but I don’t have
the control to jump strings with that
technique. I basically do that when I’m
playing something that’s linear. I can
jump to that technique in the middle
of a phrase if I just have an eighth-note,
or I can change to that technique to
rest my wrist if it’s kind of cramping up
from doing the other one too much.
How about you, Dave—pick or fingers?
LaRue: I’ll use a heavy pick, but only
rarely. I’m much better with my fingers.
I can play almost any kind of grooving,
straight-ahead kind of thing with a pick,
but anything that’s really, really intricate,
forget it. I prefer to play with my fingers,
although sometimes it’s just idiomatically
better to play with a pick. For most of
