Gary Moore — £2,500 · Premium Tone

• The Marshall DSL100H delivers power-tube saturation at master volume 6–7 — this compression and sag is what separates amp-driven tone from pedal tone. Set the master first, then dial back the channel gain to taste rather than the other way around.
• Wide, slow-starting vibrato that gradually increases in width — mimics a singer's natural swell
• Extreme string bends — Moore bent strings further than almost any other player
• Study "Still Got The Blues" and "Parisienne Walkways" for the definitive slow-blues approach
• Moore's extreme string bends require fretting-finger strength built progressively — he frequently bent the third string (G string) up a full tone and a half in the upper register, which requires strong fretting pressure and proper thumb placement behind the neck for leverage; practice bending to pitch verified by a tuner
• The combination of blues phrasing over hard-rock backing is the central tension in Moore's solo work — practise playing minor pentatonic phrases over a major key backing track and listen for how the "blues notes" (b3, b5, b7) create a emotional conflict that purely in-key playing doesn't produce
• Moore used vibrato as an expressive shape, not just decoration — the vibrato on "Still Got The Blues" starts slowly and wide, then gradually increases speed as the note sustains, which mimics how a vocalist or violinist controls note colour; practise this "accelerating vibrato" technique independently as a dedicated exercise

• ✗Not exploring the JCM800 alone before adding pedals — a Les Paul or humbucker guitar into a British amp is already a near-complete overdrive system. Adding drive pedals on top is often unnecessary and muddies the amp's natural character
• ✗Leaving the wah pedal engaged but stationary between rocking it — a cocked wah (fixed position, not moving) acts as a midrange filter that changes the core tone. Either rock it expressively or bypass it completely; a cocked wah changes the sound in ways that are often unintended
• ✗Setting gain too high on the overdrive pedal — most overdrive pedals are most useful at gain settings of 2-5, where they add character without dominating the tone. High gain settings on an OD pedal become a distortion, not an overdrive.
• ✗Too many repeats at high mix — more than 3 repeats makes the delay effect accumulate and overwhelm the dry guitar signal. Keep it to 2-3 repeats at a subtle mix level.
• ✗Ignoring the guitar volume knob — rolling back to 6-7 is your rhythm setting; 10 is for leads. Most players leave it at 10 and miss the entire dynamic vocabulary.

If you like Gary Moore's tone, these players use a similar approach — same gear philosophy, comparable sound characteristics.