“I took the neck off my Strat, put it on a Tele, and ended up with my ‘FrankenTele’”: Steve Morse modded the heck out of his first serious guitar, and it became the blueprint for his signature Ernie Ball Music Man model

Steve Morse's relationship with Ernie Ball Music Man goes back a long way, prior to his decades-long tenure in Deep Purple, before Lynyrd Skynyrd revitalized his career with an onstage guest spot, and, oh, before he took time off his music career to become a pilot.

Despite this now 40-year relationship, though, the seeds for Morse's Ernie Ball Music Man signature guitar go back further still, to the purchase of his first serious six-string.

Unsatisfied with the limitations of that first serious purchase, a Strat, Morse took matters into his own hands, a lá Eddie Van Halen.

“The first serious guitar I bought with my own money was a new sunburst Strat in 1967,” he told Guitarist in a recent interview. “I later took the neck off that one, put it on a Tele, and ended up with humbuckers and single-coil pickups – my ‘FrankenTele.’ The pickup layout became the starting point of my [Steve Morse signature] Music Man guitars.”

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As you'd expect, the Morse signature, the guitarist – who recently (and apologetically) became the latest in a long line of guitar heroes to salute Jeff Beck with an onstage rendition of his signature tune, Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers – elaborated, is the anchor of his rig.

“It all starts with the guitar: my Music Man signature with four pickups – plus, usually, a Roland synth pickup GK-2,” he told Guitarist. “This guitar gives me control over volume and tone and allows me to bring down the gain and boost the high-end back up as I do so by selecting one of my single-coil pickups mounted further from the strings.

“The neck pickup is designed to be in the exact spot it’s mounted, which keeps the guitar down to a 22-fret fingerboard – but there is that all-important fatness in the neck pickup as a result.”

Since his amicable departure from Deep Purple, Morse has kept plenty busy, getting his solo band back together, and releasing a feature-packed signature 20W tube head with Engl.

To read the full interview with Steve Morse – which covers his guitar-buying highs, lows, and tips – pick up the new issue of Guitarist at Magazines Direct.