Deep Purple may be one of the last bastions of the golden age of rock still churning out top-quality albums, but Simon McBride isn’t afraid to drag the band into the future. That’s why he’s ditched tube amps for amp modelers on their latest album.
The Irishman succeeded long-serving fusion ace Steve Morse in the band in 2022, adding to a lineage that includes Ritchie Blackmore (twice), Tommy Bolin, and Joe Satriani, who was their touring guitarist for a short spell.
With his addition, the band have returned to their blues rock roots, with McBride comparing their latest album, SPLAT!, to a “freight train” – and it’s the first Deep Purple album to use modelers.
“Steve [Morse] is a great player, but he’s a different sort of player, so that was a big thing for me – to get that big, powerful sound,” he tells Guitarist of his tonal task as the band’s chief shredder. “I have a lot of amps, but for most of the Purple stuff I use my live rig, which is the [Neural DSP] Quad Cortex.
“I can hear a lot of Ritchie Blackmore fans crying out, going, ‘No! He’s using digital stuff!’ But it’s brilliant.”
On his debut album with the band, 2024’s =1, McBride was cranking Engl amps for the required locomotive heft. But a year later, he slimmed his live rig down to a Quad Cortex, with a DigiTech Ricochet and a Formula B Vintage Vibe among the picks on his minimalist pedalboard. The Engl cabs, however, survived the overhaul.
So, why the change of heart?
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“I had to change my sound a bit because you’re dealing with Don Airey, who plays keys, the Hammond and Leslie, and a Marshall head and cabinet,” McBride explains. “He’s in a very similar frequency range to [my] guitar, so I had to figure something out to make the guitar sound more powerful.
“I was talking to the guys at Engl, who made Steve Morse’s signature amp, and Engl gave me an Artist Edition head,” he adds, having been turned off by Morse’s amps for having too many buttons.
“I asked them to tweak it and put a lot more power in the lower mids and low-end. I knew the Leslie and Hammond didn’t have that, so that could be my little space and would cut through but also make me sound powerful when we play a riff together.”
Although he doesn’t say as much explicitly, we assume that Engl has been captured, and it now lives on in his QC, which is a smart way to honor Deep Purple’s heritage while also bringing something new to help him better weave around Airey’s ivory tickling.
There will likely be Purple fans who sit firmly in the amp purist category, but with even Joe Bonamassa warming to digital tones, it’s clear that modelers have more than earned their place in the pantheon of tone.
McBride also has a particularly hot truss rod take (yes, you read that correctly). But listening to SPLAT!, he might be onto something.…
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