On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Explorer II
Gibson American
Thomas Baptiste "Tom" Morello
Not on view
This guitar was Morello’s main instrument during his teenage and college years. He modified the instrument with a Kahler locking tremolo in order to produce extreme “dive bomb” effects, where the vibrato bar is used to rapidly lower the pitch of a note, creating a sound similar to a bomb dropping. The effect, originated by players such as Eddie Van Halen, was vital to the sound of hard rock and heavy metal in the 1980s.
Technical Description:
Maple and walnut body and neck, ebony fingerboard; 24¾ in. scale; flat gold finish; set neck with dot inlays; “scimitar” headstock with truss rod cover inscribed “E/2” and inlaid mother-of-pearl Gibson logo; two humbucking pickups with coils exposed, three-way selector switch, two volume controls and one tone control; gold Kahler locking vibrato bridge and nut, gold tuners, clear and black plastic barrel knobs, three-ply black and white plastic pickguard; stock bridge replaced
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