When Simon McBride joined Deep Purple in 2022, he was filling some colossal shoes in the band: Steve Morse and, before him, Tommy Bolin and Ritchie Blackmore. As a result, when he first joined up, he started off with a guitar sound close to two of those three guitarists. But it appears as though he has made some modifications along the way to his modified Artist Edition ENGL Heads.
During a chat with PMTVUK, McBride explained how he found his own sound via ENGL and what he didn’t particularly care for in Morse’s and Blackmore’s models.
“The ENGL is an artist edition head,” McBride explained (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar). “I got the stems originally from the Ritchie Blackmore head. But that one is tweaked for me. They brought it to me, and I was like, ‘This thing sounds amazing, but I like a lot more mid in the guitar frequency.’ Because that is where I feel a guitar frequency lives. So they tweaked it, and they’ve been brilliant.”
McBride also discussed appreciating Morse’s ENGL. But, admitted it was not exactly what he was looking for.
“When I first started [with Purple], I was using Steve’s amps. But Steve’s amps are great. They’re just not for me. They’re just… it’s a different thing. Every guitar player is different. Everybody plays differently. So they suit him, they just didn’t suit me. It’s like, if I play into Eddie Van Halen’s rig that will still sound like me, but it may not suit me.”
Lastly, McBride had nothing but praise for ENGL as a company. And also, how he is impressed with not only the way the amps sound, but also, their durability.
“ENGL as a company is such a big part of the Deep Purple fam. So for them to go, ‘Yeah, we’ll work with you to make it work’ is just fantastic. They’re great amps. And you know what? They never break. You know, many are abused: they go in trucks, across boats, and everything. It’s been on a boat for six weeks, and it gets to wherever we go. Malaysia, you plug in, and it works. No problems.”
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