Dave Murray (musician)
| Dave Murray | |
|---|---|
 Dave Murray live in San José 26 February 2008 |
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| Background information | |
| Born | 23 December 1956 Edmonton, London, England |
| Genres | Heavy metal |
| Occupations | Musician, songwriter |
| Instruments | Guitar |
| Years active | 1975 – present |
| Labels | EMI |
| Associated acts | Iron Maiden, Urchin, Stone Free, Electric Gas, Legend, The Stuff, Evil Ways |
| Notable instruments | |
| Fender Stratocaster | |
David Michael "Dave" Murray (born 23 December 1956)[1] is an English guitarist and songwriter best known as one of the original members of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden. He joined the band just two months after their inception in 1975.
Contents |
Career
As a boy, Murray was a fanatical football player and fan, as well as a keen cricketer. But his family was poor – his father was disabled and his mother worked part-time as a cleaner – and the family never settled anywhere long enough for Murray to establish himself on any of the schools' teams he could have played for. By his reckoning, he had been to a dozen different schools by the time he left for good at the age of 16.
Murray developed an interest in rock music when he was 15 after hearing Voodoo Child by Jimi Hendrix on the radio. From then on, everything changed. He got his first guitar and would practice along with records up to seven hours a day. He formed his first band, a trio called Stone Free which also included Adrian Smith (Guitar/Vocals) who later became a member of Iron Maiden.
From there, Murray played with a number of different bands before meeting Steve Harris and joined Iron Maiden for the first time in 1976. He briefly left the band following an argument with then vocalist Dennis Wilcock. Murray again teamed with Adrian Smith in a band called Urchin. During this short tenure with the band, Murray recorded one single titled "She's A Roller". Following the single, Murray left Urchin and returned to Iron Maiden, replacing Terry Wapram. Wilcock left the band shortly after Murray's return.
Murray managed to briefly hold down a 9 to 5 job working for the then GLC (Greater London Council). He worked as a store keeper in the Housing Departament. Based around in the Woodberry Down Estate, Frampton Park Estate and Geldeston road, Clapton area of North East London. His boss Ronny Petit expressed his concerns about Dave giving up a good steady job to tour Japan with Iron Maiden.
Murray's solo guitar style throughout his career has been mainly based on the legato technique. Examples of this can be heard in Iron Maiden songs such as "Phantom of the Opera", "Lightning Strikes Twice", through to their 2006 studio release A Matter of Life and Death.
Murray is noted for having naturally strong fingers and he frequently uses hammer-ons and pull-offs.
He has also written songs for the band, though he is less prolific than other band members. Murray usually forgoes lyric writing to another bandmate and concentrates on the musical elements of songwriting. He mainly co-writes songs with another member of Iron Maiden, "Charlotte the Harlot" being to date the only composition credited solely to him.
Murray is seen by many as the most modest, humble, down-to-earth member of the band. "It's my upbringing. When you start out with nothing, you don't expect much from life. For all this to happen to me - well, it's like a dream, really".
Murray and Steve Harris are the only members of Iron Maiden to have appeared on every one of the band's albums.
Equipment
Throughout his career, Murray has used and endorsed Marshall amplifiers almost exclusively, other than on the 'Somewhere in Time' and 'Seventh Son...' albums and their respective tours, when he instead used Gallien Krueger amps. He has used Fender Stratocaster guitars almost exclusively as well. His black 1957/63 (the body is from a '63 and the neck is from a '57) Stratocaster, previously owned by the late Free guitarist Paul Kossoff, was used from circa 1976-1990. It was used as a model by Fender to manufacture an Artist Signature model since 2009 - http://www.fender.com/products//search.php?partno=0118802806. The original now resides in a glass case at his home.
Murray has occasionally performed with various Dean, Gibson, Ibanez, ESP and Jackson electrics as well. As for acoustic guitar performances, Murray has used Gibson Hummingbird acoustic guitars live for the song 'Journeyman', and on the 'Somewhere Back In Time' tour for the intro to 'Moonchild'. He also used a Gibson Chet Atkins solid body acoustic on the 'Fear of the Dark' tour for the song 'Wasting Love'.
Murray used his 1957/63 Strat (equipped with DiMarzio Super Distortion and PAF humbucking pickups) extensively, retiring it at the end of the 'Seventh Son...' tour in 1988, when he switched to Jackson guitars.
Guitars
Since returning to Fender in 1995, following several years from 1986 - 1993 when he endorsed ESP and Jackson, Murray has had several variations of the Stratocaster made for him by Fender. The first was the prototype for what was to become the Hot Rod Re-Issue series, which were Japanese made and featured either a 50's style maple fingerboard version, or '60's style slab rosewood fingerboard. These models featured Floyd Rose Original tremolos and a custom wound DiMarzio humbucker in the bridge position, and two hot single coils in the middle and neck positions. Murray tended to use a candy apple red HRR60's Strat on the 'Fear of the Dark' tour for the songs 'The Evil That Men Do' and 'Can i Play With Madness' which can be seen on The 1992 Donington live video.
1990 - 1992
Murray's main guitar during this period was a candy apple red Jackson Strat-style guitar with black scratchplate and Seymour Duncan JB Trembuckers in the bridge and neck positions, and a Classic Stack humbucker in middle position. This guitar had chrome hardware, a Kahler Steeler tremolo system, and was used as a backup from 1992 to 1999. This guitar can be seen in the 'Holy Smoke' video, on almost every song in the Donington '92 live video, on the song 'The Clairvoyant' on the 'Raising Hell' video, and first show of the 'Ed Hunter' tour (2 Minutes To Midnight, Stranger In A Strange Land). During this time he also used a similarly spec'd Jackson which was white with a white scratchplate. This guitar had white Dimarzio pickups at first, but the neck humbucker was changed during the 'Fear of the Dark' tour to a black Seymour Duncan for unknown reasons.
1993 - 1999
On the 'X Factor', 'Virtual XI' and 'Ed Hunter' tours, Murray's main instruments were:
-1 White Strat with white scratchplate, ebony fingerboard, 3 Seymour Duncan Hot Rails pickups, and a Floyd Rose original tremolo. All hardware is black on this guitar.
- 1 White Strat with a black scratchplate, ebony fingerboard (vintage-style thin fingerboard with the truss rod inserted through the rear of the neck, which has a walnut skunk stripe running along the back of the neck), HSH configuration with dual black Seymour Duncan JB Trembucker humbucking pickups and a white Fender Texas Special single-coil pickup in the middle position (Seymour Duncan used to make a neck calibrated JB, they stopped as the Jazz Neck humbucker is essentially exactly the same pickup), Floyd Rose Original, all hardware is black on this guitar.
- 1 White Strat, black scratchplate, ebony fingerboard (again with vintage-style thin fingerboard and a walnut skunk stripe running along the back of the neck) HSH configuration with dual Seymour Duncan Custom humbucking pickups with zebra bobbins and a white Fender Fat 50s single-coil pickup in the middle, again all hardware is black. That strat. was his main guitar on Raising Hell video. This guitar can be also seen on early shows of Ed Hunter tour before being replaced with 2 fender strats with Hot rails.
Since 2000
Brave New World tour
2 Fender Custom Shop Custom Classic Stratocasters, both spec'd exactly the same with Floyd Rose locking tremolo systems, 1-piece maple neck/fingerboard with 22 jumbo frets, vintage Kluson tuners and three Seymour Duncan Hot Rails humbucking pickups (HHH configuration) with 5-way switching mounted on a pearloid scratchplate - 1 Vintage White and one Black. The black one has had the white bridge position Hot Rails changed to a black one during the 'Give Me Ed Till I'm Dead' tour (the original pickup died and was replaced with the 1st Hot Rails available, which just happened to be a black pickup). There was also another black Custom Classic Stratocaster with the same specs as the first black guitar, fitted with a mirror pickguard and black plastic parts, which was used as a template for the limited edition Iron Maiden Stratocaster made by Fender Japan in 2001 (this guitar was only made in small production runs and for the 1 year only).
Give Me 'Ed...Till I'm Dead tour
In addition to the two two main Strat's from the previous tour, Murray used a Wayne 3-Tone Sunburst Stratocaster with maple neck, Floyd Rose locking tremolo system, three Seymour Duncan Hot Rails humbucking pickups with 5-way switching and white pickguard. Used on the songs '22 Acacia Avenue', 'The Clairvoyant', and 'Wildest Dreams'. Wayne also produced for Murray a black version of the same guitar which was used in the recording of the 'Dance of Death' album. Wayne were keen to produce a Dave Murray signature model, and went as far as advertising it on their website as 'coming soon'. However it never came to fruition.
Dance of Death tour
Since the 'Dance of Death' tour, Murray's main guitar has been a 2-Tone Sunburst Strat with a 21-fret rosewood fingerboard. This guitar looks like it could well be an early '80's guitar with the Floyd Rose retro fitted later, or the neck has come from an early '80's guitar been retro fitted onto a new body. The headstock is distinctive in that it has the thick set early '80's gold Fender logo, but small Stratocaster logo placing it somewhere after 1982 when Fender re-introduced the smaller headstock but still used the bigger gold Fender and Stratocaster logos, they changed soon after to the thick gold logo with small Stratocaster logo, and before 1986/87 when they changed to a thick silver Fender logo and started producing US Strats with 22 frets as standard. It also has a string tree for the E and B strings, which is made redundant by the string retaining bar behind the locking nut. This guitar also has a trio of Seymour Duncan Hot Rails humbuckers and a white pearloid pickguard.
Somewhere Back in Time 2008/2009 Tour
Main Sunburst Strat, Black and Vintage White Strats as backups (all 3 with SD Hot Rails) for the 2008 leg. For the 2009 leg: Main Sunburst Strat, Vintage White as backup for it (the Vintage White Strat was not used on any of gigs but seen on guitar stand on photos in FC Magazine) and Fender (American) Dave Murray (Artist signature) Stratocaster, which is actually different to the regular Artist Series version available as it shares many of the features found on the Japanese-made HST-57DM "tribute series" models - such as the Floyd Rose locking system - as opposed to the more 'accurate vintage replica' of the Kossoff-owned Strat which it is based.
Final Frontier 2010/2011 Tour
Black Strat (from 1999, the one with black Hot rail in bridge position) - main guitar between Auburn and New York shows, Sunburst Strat - main guitar on other shows, Vintage White Strat, Floyd Rose Signature Strat and Gibson Traditional 2010 Desert Burst Les Paul as backups.
Various Strats have been ruined onstage over the years. Many were Squier models, however the last one destroyed on the group's 2007 Download Festival appearance was a Mexican Fender Floyd Rose Strat which was one of two (both white) which were literally wrecked every night and re-built before the next show. There was also a Mexican Fender Floyd Rose Strat used on the early days tour (also white) which was not quite destroyed and was auctioned off for the Clive Burr MS Trust Fund after the final date of the tour at Hammersmith.
Guitar Specs
- Ernie Ball Strings - custom gauge .009, .011, .014, .024, .032, .042,
- Seymour Duncan Hot Rails single coil sized humbucking pickups with dual blade coils
- "Original" Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo Systems
- His Artist Signature model features a soft "V"-shaped maple neck with satin back and sports a humbucker/single-coil/humbucker (HSH) configuration - DiMarzio Super Distortion DP100 (bridge), American Vintage '57/'62 (middle), DiMarzio PAF DP-103 (neck) - with 3-way switching and American Vintage hardware. The Japanese-made "Tribute" version of the guitar (HST-57DM) features an "Original" Floyd Rose double-locking tremolo system, dual DiMarzio Super Distortion DP100 humbucking pickups (bridge/neck), a Fender Texas Special single-coil pickup in the middle position, a 5-way pickup selector and an oval neck profile
- The original black '57 Stratocaster has similar features to his Artist Series Model
Amplifiers
- 2 x Marshall 1960B Straight Cabinet / 4x12 300-Watt Loaded with Celestion 12" G12T 75 Watt Speakers[2]
- 3 x Marshall JCM 2000 DSL tube heads (rack gear plugs into power amp section via FX loop)
- Marshall 9200 Rack Power Amp (as backup for main heads)
Units and tuners
- Korg DRT1 Digital Tuner
- Peterson VSam Virtual Strobe Tuner
- Shure U4D UHF Wireless Unit
- Dunlop DCR-1SR Rack CryBaby Wah
- Custom-Built Pete Cornish Routing and Power Supply Units
- Marshall JMP-1 Valve Midi Preamp
- Marshall JFX-1 Effect Unit
- Rocktron All-Access Foot Controller
- Fulltone Deja-Vibe Pedal
- Fulltone Clyde Standard Wah Pedal
- TC Electronics GForce Effect Unit
Reference: Colin Price - DM Guitar Technician
Personal life
In his spare time, Murray is an avid golfer as seen in the Rock in Rio DVD. Murray and his wife Tamar have one daughter named Tasha (born 1991)
When not on tour, Murray resides in Hawai'i.
Discography
- Iron Maiden
- 1980: Iron Maiden
- 1981: Killers
- 1981: Maiden Japan
- 1982: The Number of the Beast
- 1983: Piece of Mind
- 1984: Powerslave
- 1986: Somewhere in Time
- 1988: Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
- 1990: No Prayer for the Dying
- 1992: Fear of the Dark
- 1995: The X Factor
- 1998: Virtual XI
- 2000: Brave New World
- 2003: Dance of Death
- 2006: A Matter of Life and Death
- 2010: The Final Frontier
- Guest appearances
- Hear 'n Aid (1985) – "Stars"
- Nicko McBrain (1991) - "Rhythm Of The Beast"
- Psycho Motel (1997) – "With You Again"
References
- ↑ Remastered discography of Iron Maiden, by EMI in 1998
- ↑ per Dave Murray of Iron Maiden guitargeek.com
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