Tom Morello explains the purpose of not trimming your guitar strings

[Greg McCoy]

https://www.guitarworld.com/news/tom-morello-reveals-why-he-never-cuts-his-guitar-strings

Discuss.

"In response, the Rage guitarist reveals that it is “no accident”, and goes on to say that he initially “didn’t cut the strings because I thought it looked cool.”

However, the aesthetic addition was met with fierce opposition from his musical peers, who told the budding youngster to “cut your damn strings!”, informing him he had to be in the “baddest band in town” if he wanted to get away with it."

[zepp]

The story sounds as lame as the look of guitar string mess. I don't understand how he deals with that nonsense.

[Markus]

He should have trimmed them at the bridge.

[zepp]

[playstopause]

[Jeff]

Whatever floats his boat. It really kills my OCD to look at it, but it ain't my guitar.

[metalheadpunk]

A buddy of mine plays in a RATM tribute band and even bought a Chinese knockoff of Morello's "Arm the Homeless" guitar. Anyways, I'm his go-to guy for setups, and he always has me set that guitar up with the strings hangin' off the headstock just like Tom does

[Webdood]

Ahh a man of culture and taste

[Blazon_Stone]

"The Rage guitarist"?

The only guy who comes to my mind in that sentence is MANNI fucking SCHMIDT!

[Mahler]

He should have trimmed them at the bridge.

And the input jack too.

[thrashinbatman]

"The Rage guitarist"?

The only guy who comes to my mind in that sentence is MANNI fucking SCHMIDT!

[7 Dying Trees]

He should have trimmed them at the bridge.

[Drew]

Eh, Morello is a much better guitarist than he's often given credit for, probably largely because he's so focused on being an anti-guitar-hero, scratching on strings with allen keys and whatnot rather than playing conventional solos. Not super technical, but I've always gotten a kick out of the vaguely jazzy lead break he drops out of nowhere into "Settle for Nothing" around 2:47:

[Chris]

He should have trimmed them at the bridge.

[noodles]

Eh, Morello is a much better guitarist than he's often given credit for, probably largely because he's so focused on being an anti-guitar-hero, scratching on strings with allen keys and whatnot rather than playing conventional solos. Not super technical, but I've always gotten a kick out of the vaguely jazzy lead break he drops out of nowhere into "Settle for Nothing" around 2:47:

I don’t think anyone is denying that he can play. It’s just that he’s annoying and his band sucks.

[Chris]

I don’t think anyone is denying that he can play. It’s just that he’s annoying and his band sucks.

Nobody will ever confuse him with Joe Satriani but I agree. He can play, he just found a gimmick and turned the gimmick knob to 11. His band is that gimmick with someone just bitching and complaining over it for vocals. Not for me.

[Mike]

"The Rage guitarist"?

The only guy who comes to my mind in that sentence is MANNI fucking SCHMIDT!

Victor Smolski would also be an acceptable answer

[RevDrucifer]

There's a few things he's done that I really dug and thought it was a cool approach. The solo in "Guerilla Warfare" was pretty cool, sounds like a whammy pedal set on the harmony setting through a talk box, then put through another whammy for the octave up thing. And that solo in "Like A Stone" is a killer solo, possibly being the only other thing aside from Gilmour's use of it in "Marooned" where haters couldn't say "You can't do anything melodic with it, it's only good for screeching cat noises!"

But cut those fucking strings.

[Drew]

And that solo in "Like A Stone" is a killer solo, possibly being the only other thing aside from Gilmour's use of it in "Marooned" where haters couldn't say "You can't do anything melodic with it, it's only good for screeching cat noises!"

I'd toss Satriani's "Raspberry Jam Delta-V" in there as well, for similar reasons - using it to do fast, somewhat unpredictable octave jumps, as part of a melodic line or riff. but yeah, much as I love that tune, I've held off buying one because I can't see myself using it in any meaningful way aside from as a novelty here and there.

[jacksonplayer]

I've never been able to make it more than about a minute into a RATM song due to those unlistenable vocals. Couldn't even focus on what Morello's doing.

[noodles]

There's a few things he's done that I really dug and thought it was a cool approach. The solo in "Guerilla Warfare" was pretty cool, sounds like a whammy pedal set on the harmony setting through a talk box, then put through another whammy for the octave up thing. And that solo in "Like A Stone" is a killer solo, possibly being the only other thing aside from Gilmour's use of it in "Marooned" where haters couldn't say "You can't do anything melodic with it, it's only good for screeching cat noises!"

But cut those fucking strings.

I hate all three solos you just mentioned.

[Greg McCoy]

In light of the recent news of Tom Morellos terrible Ted Nugent apologism, I'm willing to say his uncut strings and his solos and his turntable noises look brilliant in comparison.

https://metalinjection.net/shocking-revelations/tom-morello-reveals-friendship-with-ted-nugent-in-spite-of-political-differences-accused-of-white-man-privilege

I thought that was an early april fools. WTF Tom Morello? WTF?

[RevDrucifer]

I hate all three solos you just mentioned.

Classic noodles!!!

[Valtteri]

I'm betting Tom Morello doesn't flush the toilet either.

[DingusMaximus]

I remember watching a shitty live video on youtube years ago of Michael Schenker having a solo duel with Warren DeMartini from Ratt I think is his name, and I've heard he went through some tough times so his untrimmed strings are probably an accurate representation of his headspace at the time so if it helped him cope with the divorce then it can help me cope with, I dunno, minimum wage or something.