Player No. 106progressive-rock
Steve Howe
Yes's guitarist from 1970, and the player who made the hollowbody archtop a progressive rock instrument at a moment when everyone else was moving to solidbodies and gain. His 1964 Gibson ES-175D was the first serious electric he owned, bought new at seventeen, and it is the guitar most identified with him; the Fragile sessions also saw a Gibson ES-5 Switchmaster and, for the Roundabout intro, a Martin 00-18. The amplification is as characteristic as the guitars: Fender Dual Showman heads into 2x15 cabinets, run so clean that a fully hollow guitar never feeds back, plus a second Fender combo for the recording trick that defines the Close to the Edge guitar sound -- Howe split the ES-175's two pickups between two amplifiers and captured them in stereo, which is why his both-pickups tone is wide and full rather than scooped. Volume pedals and a Cry Baby were on the board; distortion was mostly not.
progressive rockrockart rock
HoweFILE 106
The Howe catalogue
Field notes on Howe
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