Tom Morello’s GHS GBCL Boomers 9-46

Tom Morello uses the GHS Boomers guitar strings on all of his guitars that have some sort of a tremolo, so on the Arm the Homeless guitar and the Soul Power Strat, mainly. The set has the following gauges, starting from high E: .009 .011 .016 .026 .036 .046.

Tom also does not cut the ends of his strings but keeps them hanging around loosely. When asked by Howard Stern why he did this, Tom told a little story about how he was sort of mocked for doing so in the early years, so he stopped doing it until he started playing in RATM.

When I was in Electric Sheep, I didn’t cut the string form my guitar because I thought it looked cool. And I was shamed by a musician friend, and he said “cut your damn strings, what do you think you are, you think you’re in the baddest band in town?” And I was like, I’m definetely not in the baddest band in town, so I cut my strings.

Years later, in Rage Against the Machine, I WAS in the baddest band in town, so I left my strings go.

Tom Morello – Howard Stern Show, 2021