Steve Howe — Rig Network

Howe's most associated guitar and the one he uses most extensively with Yes — the ES-175's single cutaway, laminated spruce top, and dual humbuckers produce a warm, projecting archtop jazz tone. He uses it for the jazz-influenced chord work and melodic passages that give Yes's progressive rock its harmonic sophistication.

An additional archtop for specific tonal contexts — the L-4 provides a somewhat darker, fuller tone than the ES-175 for specific arrangements.

Unique to this artist in the database

Used for heavier rock passages where archtop sustain is insufficient — the Les Paul Custom provides the thicker, more sustained electric tone needed for the heavier sections of epics like 'Starship Trooper' and 'Close to the Edge'.

Used for country-inflected passages — the Tele's bridge pickup and bright attack suit the Chet Atkins-influenced fingerpicking that appears in Howe's solo acoustic performances and within Yes material.

Howe's primary Yes amp — a small-wattage Marshall combo that provides a warm, musical breakup at achievable volumes. The 18W EL84-powered combo has a different character from the 100W Plexi: more restrained, cleaner at moderate volumes, and better-suited to the controlled dynamic range of studio recording.

Unique to this artist in the database

The solid-state Roland JC-120 for pristine clean tones where the Marshall's natural saturation would colour the sound inappropriately — the JC-120's built-in stereo chorus provides a spatial quality to clean arpeggios.

CE-2 for clean chord shimmer on specific passages — adds three-dimensional quality to the ES-175's sustained chords in the dense Yes ensemble context.

Tape delay for atmospheric sustain on lead passages — the Echoplex's warm tape repeat adds a vintage, organic echo character quite different from digital delay.