This article series is about the tools of popular guitarists. What are their favorite guitars and how is it related to them? This time with Simon McBride (Deep Purple).
When you start guitar playing and do you remember your first guitar?
I started playing guitar when I was 9 years old, a long time ago now, my first guitar was technically my dads guitar as I used to sneak into his room and bash around on it when he was at work, then he caught me playing it and so it became mine, the guitar was a black Tokai strat, it was a great guitar, I wish I had of kept it.
What are your influences and which guitar players are your favs?
I have so many- influences, as I grew up in the 80s so I grew up around all the icons like Satriani, Van Halen, Steve Vai and Gary Moore etc. I would say my two biggest influences would be Gary Moore and Steve Lukather from Toto.
How many guitars do you own and what are your favorite models?
To be honest I don’t own that many guitars, I’m not a guitar collector, my guitars are all beaten up, I believe guitars are made to be played, I mostly play PRS guitars, I’ve played them for 27 years now, they just feel like home now. I have a few others like teles, etc I would say in total I have about 15 guitars, but my favourite is my signature model by PRS, it goes everywhere with me.
What do you think makes the perfect guitar and amp?
It all depends what sort of sound you like, as I grew up in the 80s I’m tuned into that hot rodded Marshall sound with a single cut guitar, so that what suits me and what I always try to achieve.
How do you feel about the question of modeler or tube amp?
I think for studio the modellers are amazing, they sound great and i use them in the studio all the time, I also use them on fly dates as it makes my life easier having a little bit of consistency when flying somewhere to do a festival. But if i had to choose my preference for live, I’d say a real valve amp wins every-time, it’s the feel thing and also the depth you get from a guitar head and cab, the modellers just haven’t got that thing.
Which guitars and amps were used on the new album or for recordings?
I used mostly my PRS single cut 408 for a lot of stuff, I also used a Smitty Tele, PRS Starla and a PRS Silver Sky for some of the cleaner sounds. In regard to amps I used the Kemper a lot on it, I also used my Victory Amps, the Superkraken and the V40 Super Jack for some stuff too.
When you only can choose one guitar, which one will you take?
That’s an easy question, it’s the one I bring all the time anyway, it’s my PRS 408 Single Cut Signature, I don’t play lots of guitars live, my guitar is very versatile so I play that 90% of the time.
Photo Credit: Chris Strieder
