Tom Morello's Guitar Rig

From the last 30 years, there aren't many guitar players as influential, inventive and original as Tom Morello. His style is instantly recognisable, blending powerful pentatonic-based riffs with percussive killswitch and DJ scratch effects, wild modulation, and squealing whammy-drenched solos.

Getting Tom Morello’s tone is not as hard as you might think. That’s because the Rage Against The Machine and former Audioslave guitarist’s rig has largely remained the same for the last three decades, using accessible, mainstream equipment. We’ve compiled all the essential Tom Morello guitar gear on this page, along with similar products that can get you pretty close to achieving his unique tones!

Tom Morello’s Guitars

Tom Morello has a few staple electric guitars that he’s used for thousands of gigs over the years. His custom “Arm The Homeless” Super-Strat is perhaps the most famous. It boasts a distinctive light blue body adorned with hand-painted cartoon hippos, a graphite neck, an Ibanez locking tremolo and an EMG pickup pairing. Most dual-humbucker, Floyd Rose-equipped guitars – particularly those with a killswitch, or that have two volume controls which allow you to turn one pickup down and employ the toggle switch to create the same Tom Morello killswitch effect – can emulate the iconic “Arm The Homeless” guitar.

Another guitar synonymous with Tom is his ‘82 “Sendero Luminoso” Fender Standard Telecaster, which he’s used extensively on-stage and in the studio since RATM’s debut record. He recorded “Killing In The Name” and other hits with it! An American-made Fender with single-coil pickups will get you extremely close as he's used these when not wielding on the "Sendero Luminoso.

And of course, there’s also the stealthy “Soul Power” Stratocaster which Tom started using during his tenure in Audioslave. The Fender Tom Morello Stratocaster is a signature model based on this Strat with similar specs to the original (aside from the “soul power” augmentation), including a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails bridge pickup, a mirror scratch plate, and a Floyd Rose tremolo.

Tom Morello’s Amps

The Marshall JCM800 is the Tom Morello amp. It’s all he’s used professionally for the last 30 years or so, paired with a powerful Peavey 4x12” speaker cab! That punchy Tom Morello tone is pretty much all generated by this simple yet potent amplifier and cab pairing. Want that signature amp setup in a box? Try the MXR Tom Morello Power 50 overdrive pedal.

Tom Morello’s Pedals

What pedals does Tom Morello use? Well, he relies on a small and trusty selection of stompboxes to create some of the weird and wonderful effects that make his style so unmistakable. Running everything through his JCM800’s effects loop, the Tom Morello pedalboard features a Jim Dunlop Cry Baby Wah, Digitech Whammy pitch-shifter, Boss DD-2 digital delay and TR-2 tremolo, MXR M104 Distortion and a Phase 90, and a Boss tuner. All on this list remain in production today. Recently, he’s also experimented with Meris effects and the Strymon Volante. He powers his stompboxes with a Voodoo Lab PSU.