Whether he was using a stock Strat or a stock Les Paul — he was equally at home on both — Moore had tone you’d kill for. The classic Gary Moore rock/metal tone on Corridors of Power and Victims of the Future is that of a stock Strat or Les Paul through an early 70s Marshall 100 watt, containing EL-34s. Gary said that he liked the guitar sound « just on the verge of being out of control. » That’s a very good description of it. His guitar sound form the rock/metal era literally SCREAMS. Another distinctive characteristic of that classic Gary tone is that you can hear the pick attack on the strings. His Strat tone was unbelievably thick and brown — far more so than Beck’s or Blackmore’s. Heavy strings helped. His Les Paul tone sustains for days. At one point in the early 90s, he was getting a the best Les Paul tone I’ve ever heard using a Soldano SLO 100 kicked with an Ibanez Tube Screamer.

Though he used Roland Delays and RE-555 Chorus Echo units over the years on his live stereo rig, Gary’s tone (live or studio) never sounded over-produced. It was primarily a pure guitar wood + Marshall tone — not overly gainy or buzzy but smooth, and thick. The one exception was a failed experimental direct-into-the-board tone he used on G-Force. Gary typically used an overdrive pedal for solos : Boss DS-1 in the early 80s, Ibanez TS-9s in the late 80s, TS-10s and Marshall Bluesbreakers and Guv’nors in the 90s — never seemed to matter which. Oddly perhaps, Gary was never much of a wah guy.

Guitar Style

Gary wasn’t a schooled player — certainly not a theory guy. However, his time with Colosseum II actually forced him to learn more than he typically shows in his rock playing. His rhythm style is very standard rock fare — primarily root 6 and 5 chords and power chords. He’d use a few Blackmoreish forth diads for balls on things like Cold Hearted and Devil in her Heart.

Gary has an extreme, aggressive lead style. Because he learned to play on excessively heavy strings (we’re talking wound Gs here) Gary has very strong hands and fingers, and a heavy touch. When he finally discovered what were for him, « light » strings — we’re talking 10 or 11-52 — he found he could bend notes further than most players. So like his influence Jeff Beck, Gary’s lead style often features huge, four fret bends and prebends, and exquisite finger vibrato at the top of these bends. Gary’s intonation is dead-on. He embraced most of the 80s metal flash and whammy techniques, but he always avoided tapping. Most important to Gary’s style, I feel, was the pure BALLS and kick-ass attitude that came through in his phrasing. He would go rude with heavy handed bends and pinched harmonics, or he could go subtle with delicate playing volume swells and soaring melodies.

In the rock era, he was primarily a Minor Pentatonic player, but you’ll also hear plenty of Aeolian, and Dorian. You get a bit of Mixolydian — probably the Beck influence, and occasionally some Major Pentatonic. In general, Gary prefers minor sounding scales.

As stated before, Gary is an absolute master of the compositional solo. His solos aren’t just stories within the song, they’re more like Penthouse letters. They are sexual. They build slowly, become more frantic as the progress, and end in a climax. Everything about Gary’s playing was always aimed squarely at your crotch.

There’s a good deal of legato present in Gary’s picking style. You hear it especially in the stock blues licks, but also in the abundant hammer-ons and pull-offs, and trills. On the less bluesy playing, and when it’s time to pour on the speed, Gary’s a pure alternate picker. There some tremolo picking, and on rare occasions, you’ll hear a quick muted sweep picking, but just as a phrasing subtlety.

Gary Moore stylistic trademarks include :

palm-muted flurries on the low strings

blistering muted climbs up to a crescendo note

call-and-response patterns

four fret bends and prebends

rapid-fire open-string pull-offs

fast, repetitive, major-7th arpeggios moved chromatically that can sound like tapping — but are not

assorted whammy bar flash effects

Vibrato : Gary has fairly quick and medium width finger vibrato. He was more extreme with the whammy bar. He was a big whammy user and abuser in the 80s. He primarily used the bar for flash pyrotechnics ala Jimi Hendrix, and Ritchie Blackmore, but there was also the characteristically Gary technique of bouncing the bar rhythmically. A good example of this can be heard on the song You’re Gonna Break My Heart Again, where the technique is actually part of the composition. More commonly, Gary employed the technique as a guitar fill. Gary never made the trem a truly integrated part of his phrasing the way players like Jeff Beck, Joe Satriani, and Brad Gillis did, but he did on occasion use the more advanced reverse dips and slurs.