Eddie Van Halen’s “Eruption” came out in 1978. Two-handed tapping — the technique where the picking hand taps frets on the neck while the fretting hand does its normal work — was presented to the world as something new, something revolutionary, something that had never been done before.
Steve Hackett had been doing it since 1971.
“I was doing that in 1971 on the first Genesis album and doing it live before that,” he told Guitar World. The tapping on early Genesis recordings — “The Musical Box,” “Supper’s Ready,” “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight” — predates Van Halen’s mainstream popularisation by the better part of a decade. It was not developed in isolation from Van Halen’s eventual approach, and the historical record is clear on the priority. Van Halen himself cited Hackett as an influence.
The tapping started as a problem-solving exercise. Hackett was trying to play a line from Bach’s Toccata and Fugue and realised the only way to achieve it on guitar was to play on one string using both hands simultaneously. The baroque counterpoint of J.S. Bach, applied to an electric guitar, required a technique that didn’t exist in rock — so he invented it.
This combination — classical music training directing rock guitar toward solutions that standard rock technique couldn’t provide — defines Steve Hackett’s entire approach to the instrument. The “golden tone” of Spectral Mornings (1979). The volume pedal swells of the Genesis progressive epics. The guitar harmonics, the sweep arpeggios, the classical nylon-string passages appearing within rock arrangements. All of it comes from a guitarist who brought a wider musical education to bear on the specific problems of rock guitar and found solutions that nobody else was looking for.
He is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He influenced Eddie Van Halen. His current touring guitar was once owned by Gary Moore. This is the complete gear story.
Background: London, Classical Influences, and the Progressive Rock Experiment
Stephen Richard Hackett was born February 12, 1950, in Pimlico, London. He grew up in a musical household — his brother John Hackett is a professional flautist — and absorbed both classical music and the rock and pop of the 1960s from early childhood. The combination of formal classical exposure and rock enthusiasm gave him the dual vocabulary that would define his playing: he could think in Bach’s harmonic language and play in the Clapton tradition simultaneously.
He became a professional guitarist in his teens, working various session and band contexts before responding to a Melody Maker advertisement in 1970. The band advertising was Genesis — Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, and Phil Collins. He auditioned and was offered the guitarist position. He joined in January 1971 and was involved with Genesis for six and a half years.
The Genesis period (1971–1977) covered six studio albums: Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot, Selling England by the Pound, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, A Trick of the Tail, and Wind & Wuthering. These albums established progressive rock’s specific ambition — extended compositions, complex time signatures, orchestral arrangements for rock band, classical and folk influences absorbed into a rock context — and Hackett’s guitar was central to their achievement. The classical nylon-string piece “Horizons” from Foxtrot, the epic sweep of “Supper’s Ready,” the orchestral grandeur of the Selling England by the Pound guitar passages — all of these are his.
He left Genesis in July 1977, having felt increasingly constrained by the band’s direction and frustrated with the limitation of his playing time within their arrangements. The departure was amicable in practical terms if not entirely so in feeling; the relationship with his former bandmates has been complex across the subsequent decades.
His solo career began with Voyage of the Acolyte (1975, while still in Genesis), continued through Please Don’t Touch (1978), Spectral Mornings (1979), Defector (1980), and dozens of subsequent albums across four decades. He formed the supergroup GTR with Yes guitarist Steve Howe in 1986; the GTR album reached number 11 on the US charts. He continues to tour extensively, performing Genesis material alongside his own, with a touring band that recreates the progressive ambition of the 1970s recordings.
He married Kim Poor in 1981 and songwriter Jo Lehmann in 1992. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010 as a member of Genesis.
Tone note: He invented two-handed tapping to play a Bach line that normal guitar technique couldn’t reach. The solution to a specific musical problem produced the most widely imitated guitar technique of the 1980s. That’s what happens when musical ambition exceeds conventional technique’s capacity — you invent something new.
The Rig: Steve Hackett’s Guitars, Amps & Gear — Complete Era-by-Era Breakdown
Hackett’s gear story divides naturally into the Genesis era (1971–1977), the early solo period including the Spectral Mornings golden tone (1975–1985), the GTR era and subsequent decades, and the current touring rig built around the Fernandes Les Paul-style guitar that was once owned by Gary Moore.
Guitars: The 1957 Les Paul Goldtop, Gary Moore’s Fernandes, and the Classical Nylon
Fender Stratocaster — The Earliest Professional Guitar
Before the Les Paul that would define his electric sound, Hackett used a Fender Stratocaster in his pre-Genesis work and in early Genesis contexts. The Stratocaster appears in early Genesis photographs; it was subsequently replaced by the Gibson instruments that became his primary tools.
1957 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop — The Genesis Primary Guitar
Hackett’s most celebrated and historically significant guitar is his 1957 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop — a pre-humbucker Les Paul with P-90 single-coil pickups and the warm, resonant character of Gibson’s original single-cutaway mahogany/maple construction. He has described this guitar with genuine reverence: “For me, the Les Paul’s tortured cry, but it’s strength as well, spoke to my heart and gave me the strength to carry on.”
The 1957 Les Paul Goldtop uses P-90 pickups — the large single-coil design that predates the PAF humbucker (introduced in 1957, transitioning the Les Paul away from the P-90 for the next several years). P-90s have a character distinct from both standard single-coils (brighter, thinner) and humbuckers (warmer, fuller): a wide, slightly raw, complex sound with more midrange grunt than a Strat single coil and more character and breakup than a PAF humbucker at the same gain level.
This guitar was used throughout the Genesis period — from Nursery Cryme through Wind & Wuthering — and continues to be used in recording contexts. His description of it as “my favourite guitar” confirms its primacy despite the accumulation of other instruments over his career.
He has confirmed a specific modification technique for the P-90 pickups: “I’ve never had those pickups changed. I found the best place for the pickup itself is very close to the strings — closer than most people would have it. That gives you a much brighter sound.” This is a specific and relatively unusual approach — most players set P-90s at the factory-suggested height or lower to reduce string pull, but Hackett’s preference for higher pickup placement increases string interaction with the pickup’s magnetic field, producing more output and a brighter character at the cost of potential pitch instability on sustained bends.
Tone note: P-90 pickups set very close to the strings for maximum brightness. The 1957 Les Paul’s P-90s at close proximity produce a specific aggressive, complex midrange character that is entirely different from the PAF-humbucker sound that most guitarists associate with Les Paul tone. Hackett’s Les Paul sounds like a Les Paul that doesn’t sound like a Les Paul.
Gibson Les Paul Standard — Secondary Electric
Alongside the Goldtop, Hackett confirmed using a Gibson Les Paul Standard for much of the Genesis lead work: “I was using a Gibson Les Paul for most of the lead work.” The Standard’s PAF-type humbuckers provide a different character from the Goldtop’s P-90s — warmer, fuller, less raw — giving him tonal flexibility between the two instruments.
Fender Stratocaster (Various) — Specific Song Applications
Hackett confirmed Fender Stratocaster use for specific Genesis-era applications: “I used a Fender Strat” during the Genesis period, alongside the Les Pauls. The Strat’s single-coil clarity and different attack character suited specific passages and songs where the Les Paul’s warmth was inappropriate.
Yairi Classical Nylon String — “Horizons” and the Classical Voice
One of the most important instruments in Hackett’s arsenal is his Yairi classical nylon-string guitar — used for the delicate fingerpicked passages that appear in Genesis compositions and his solo work. “Horizons” from Foxtrot (1972) — the sixty-second classical guitar piece that opens side two — was played on the Yairi, establishing the acoustic classical guitar as a legitimate progressive rock instrument and demonstrating Hackett’s formal classical technique alongside his electric playing.
The Yairi nylon-string also appears in the acoustic sections of “Supper’s Ready,” “Entangled,” and numerous Genesis pieces where a steel-string acoustic would provide too much attack and not enough warmth for the compositional context. His classical guitar technique — fingerstyle, with the right hand using thumb and fingers independently — produces a specifically warm, round tone that his electric technique can sometimes approximate with volume pedal swells but cannot fully replicate.
Hokada 12-String and Danelectro Sitar Guitar — Specific Textures
Hackett confirmed in Guitar World: “I used a Yairi nylon. Also, during that time with Genesis, I used a Hokada 12-string and a Danelectro Sitar guitar.” The Hokada 12-string provides the ringing, doubled-string jangle that appears in specific Genesis arrangements — a tonal colour unavailable from any six-string instrument. The Danelectro Sitar guitar is an even more unusual choice: a guitar fitted with a sitar-like bridge and pickup system that approximates the buzzing, resonant character of a real sitar, reflecting Genesis’s broader interest in world music influences in the early 1970s.
The Fernandes Les Paul-Style (Gary Moore’s Guitar) — Current Primary
Hackett’s current primary touring guitar is a Fernandes Les Paul-style goldtop — specifically the guitar that was once owned by Gary Moore. The provenance is significant: Gary Moore and Steve Hackett moved in overlapping circles in British rock (Moore was Thin Lizzy’s guitarist, Hackett was Genesis’s — different bands but the same musical generation), and Moore’s playing style shared certain qualities with Hackett’s own approach to the Les Paul as an emotionally expressive instrument.
The Fernandes goldtop is his live primary in the Premier Guitar Rig Rundown for the Foxtrot 50th Anniversary tour: “a Fernandes goldtop once owned by Gary Moore.” Its specific configuration is not fully detailed in available documentation, but Fernandes guitars are known for their quality construction and their long-standing reputation for Les Paul-style instruments built to high specifications.
He also uses a Fernandes Monterey Elite — his “favourite electric used throughout Out of the Tunnel’s Mouth” according to his own website documentation.
Tone note: His current touring guitar was Gary Moore’s. That specific chain of provenance — Moore to Hackett — connects two of the most emotionally committed Les Paul players in British rock history within the same physical instrument. Some guitars accumulate history in their wood.
Complete Guitar List
- Fender Stratocaster (early period) — Pre-Genesis and early Genesis; replaced by Les Paul as primary
- 1957 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop (P-90 pickups) — Primary Genesis and solo recording guitar; “the guitar’s tortured cry spoke to my heart”; P-90s set very close to strings for brightness
- Gibson Les Paul Standard — Secondary electric for specific Genesis lead work; PAF-type humbuckers
- Fender Stratocaster (various) — Specific Genesis-era applications; single-coil clarity for appropriate passages
- Yairi classical nylon-string — “Horizons,” “Supper’s Ready,” and all Genesis classical passages; formal classical fingerstyle technique
- Hokada 12-string acoustic — Genesis-era doubled-string texture
- Danelectro Sitar guitar — Genesis-era; sitar-adjacent buzzing resonance for world music textures
- Fernandes Les Paul-style Goldtop (ex-Gary Moore) — Current primary touring guitar; Foxtrot 50th Anniversary tour and ongoing
- Fernandes Monterey Elite — “Favourite electric used throughout Out of the Tunnel’s Mouth” per official website
- Fernandes signature models (various) — Multiple Fernandes Les Paul-style instruments used across recent decades
- Alvarez acoustic (various) — Confirmed in Premier Guitar Rig Rundown documentation; modern acoustic for touring
- Ibanez acoustic — Documented in equipment lists
- Nylon-string acoustic (various) — Multiple classical guitars across career for the classical passages that appear in all era of his work
Amps & Cabinets: From Marshall to ENGL and the Spectral Mornings “Golden Tone”
Marshall JCM800 — The Genesis and Early Solo Era
Hackett’s primary amplifier throughout the Genesis era was a Marshall — the JCM800 or equivalent period Marshall that defined British hard rock tone in the 1970s. His specific use of the Marshall involved a technique related to his “golden tone”: the positioning of the amp to manage feedback and sustain in controlled ways, particularly using volume pedal swells to create the soft, responsive attack that characterises his most atmospheric passages.
He described the Marshall as his go-to: “I was playing through a Marshall amp, and it felt like the guitar and amp were communicating in the way that only a valve amp can.” The tube/valve response — the natural compression and harmonic saturation that occurs when a tube amp’s output stage is driven — is central to his ability to create the soft, responsive attack of his volume pedal swell technique. A solid-state amp cannot produce the same organic response to the guitar’s pick attack variations.
The “Golden Tone” of Spectral Mornings — The 1979 Discovery
Hackett’s most celebrated tonal achievement is the “golden tone” he developed for the track “Everyday” on Spectral Mornings (1979). He described it to Sound on Sound: “My favourite sound is the guitar sound I achieved on the track ‘Every Day’, which I call my ‘golden tone’ as it’s become part of my signature sound.”
The specific signal chain that produced this tone has been described across multiple interviews. The fundamental elements: the 1957 Les Paul Goldtop through a Marshall, with the volume pedal used for swells, and a specific combination of reverb and delay that gave the notes their particular singing quality. The precise settings he achieved in 1979 became his reference for everything that followed — the standard against which he measured subsequent tonal experiments.
The golden tone technique involves the volume pedal swell: picking the guitar note with the volume pedal at zero, then bringing the volume up after the initial pick attack has passed. The result is a note that fades in rather than having a pick transient — it sounds bowed, like a cello or violin, with a smooth onset rather than the sharp click of a conventional pick attack. Combined with generous reverb, the notes seem to appear from space rather than from the strings of a physical instrument.
Tone note: Pick the note silently (volume pedal at zero). Bring the volume up after the attack has passed. The note fades in like a string instrument bowing a note. Add reverb to give it space. That’s the golden tone. The technique predates Hackett — violinists have been doing it forever — but its application to electric guitar in the progressive rock context was his specific contribution.
ENGL Amplification — The Current Live Amp
For the Foxtrot 50th Anniversary tour, documented in the Premier Guitar Rig Rundown, Hackett uses an ENGL amplifier as his primary live amp. ENGL — the German boutique amp manufacturer — produces amps known for their precision, high gain capability, and MIDI controllability. For a guitarist who performs across multiple Genesis and solo albums’ worth of material in a single show, MIDI-programmable amp channel switching is a practical necessity for managing the tonal range required.
The ENGL’s high-gain character provides the heavy lead tones when required, while the amp’s cleaner channels serve the atmospheric, volume-swell passages. The combination in a single unit with MIDI switching suits the complexity of Hackett’s live set.
Roland and Other Amplification
Various Roland amplification and effects units appear in Hackett’s documented gear across different periods. The Roland GP-8 Guitar Effects Processor (a rack-mounted multi-effects unit) is documented in his equipment, providing the range of effects required for Genesis’s complex sonic textures in a live context where individual pedals cannot be practically managed.
| Amp | Era / Context | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Marshall JCM800 (and equivalent vintage Marshalls) | Genesis era (1971–1977) and early solo | Primary live amp; tube saturation essential for volume swell technique; “the guitar and amp were communicating in the way only a valve amp can” |
| Marshall (various, 1979 setup) | Spectral Mornings “golden tone” (1979) | The specific amp setup that produced the “everyday” golden tone; exact model not publicly documented in full detail |
| ENGL amplifier | Foxtrot 50th Anniversary tour (current) | Documented in Premier Guitar Rig Rundown; MIDI controllable; German boutique precision; high gain for lead tones, clean channels for atmospheric swells |
| Roland GP-8 Guitar Effects Processor (rack-mounted) | Various periods | Multi-effects rack for complex Genesis live requirements |
Pedals & Signal Chain: Volume Swells, Harmonics, and the Prog-Rock Pedal Playground
Hackett’s pedalboard is one of the most specifically progressive rock setups in this series — engineered for the specific textural needs of music that ranges from delicate nylon-string classical passages to aggressive tapping runs to the sustained, orchestral sweep of the volume pedal swell.
Volume Pedal — The Most Important Piece of Equipment
The volume pedal is the central piece of Hackett’s signal chain, enabling the technique that produces his most distinctive and most imitated sound: the volume swell that creates bowed, fade-in note attacks. He uses an Ernie Ball volume pedal — the standard professional choice for volume manipulation, with a smooth, linear response that allows precise control over the fade-in speed and character of each note.
The technique: with the volume pedal at zero, play the note (pick it normally). Then smoothly bring the volume pedal up, varying the speed to control how fast the note “bows in.” A slow rise produces a very gradual fade-in; a faster rise produces a more immediate attack still without the click of the initial pick stroke. The combination with reverb gives each note a sustained, singing quality that can be incredibly expressive.
The Current Pedalboard (Foxtrot 50th Anniversary Tour)
The Premier Guitar Rig Rundown for the Foxtrot tour documented Hackett’s pedalboard in detail:
- Ernie Ball Volume Pedal — Primary expressive control; enables the volume swell technique
- TC Electronic Flashback X4 Delay — Versatile delay for multiple temporal and character configurations; multiple delay types accessible via TonePrint
- Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork — Polyphonic pitch shifting for octave effects and harmony applications without the latency of some older pitch systems
- Line 6 DM4 Distortion Modeler — Multiple distortion models in a single unit; provides tonal range from clean boost through heavy distortion
- Boss RC-3 Loop Station — Loop recording for specific live application sections
- DigiTech Whammy — Pitch shifting for dramatic whammy bar-like pitch effects; specifically useful for players without Floyd Rose systems
- Analogman effects (various) — Boutique effect modifications and custom builds; Analogman is known for vintage-correct circuit builds
- Tech 21 SansAmp — Direct recording and as an additional amp simulator
- Fishman electronics (acoustic pickup preamp) — For the acoustic and nylon-string passages that appear in his live set
- Roland effects (various) — Multiple Roland units across different versions of the live rig
- Boss effects (various) — Including Boss CE-2 Chorus documented in multiple periods
- Electro-Harmonix Micro Synthesizer — Synth-like envelope filter for specific textural effects
- D’Addario Chromatic Pedal Tuner — Live tuning reference
The Genesis-Era Effects
During the Genesis period, Hackett’s effects were more limited by the available technology of the early 1970s:
- Volume pedal — The constant; the volume swell technique predates any other effects in his arsenal
- Fuzz/distortion pedal — For the driven lead passages; specific early-period fuzz not extensively documented but present in the signal chain
- Wah pedal — Confirmed for specific Genesis passages where the swept-filter character was needed
- Echoplex / tape echo — For the delay-based textures in Genesis’s more atmospheric passages
- Harmonics technique (guitar as its own effect) — Hackett’s use of natural and artificial harmonics as a primary textural tool predates any pedal; his ability to produce harmonic chimes from the guitar itself adds a dimension to his playing that doesn’t require external processing
Tone note: The harmonics. Hackett’s use of natural and artificial harmonics — particularly the tapped harmonics produced by lightly touching the string at specific nodes while picking — creates guitar sounds that sit between the electric guitar’s conventional vocabulary and something more delicate and bell-like. It’s available on any guitar, requires no effects, and can produce some of the most beautiful guitar sounds in the progressive rock canon.
Strings, Picks & Setup
Strings: D’Addario electric strings across most of his career. His current setup is documented in the Foxtrot 50th Anniversary rig rundown: D’Addario XL Nickel Wound strings in specific gauges suited to his playing approach. Standard electric gauges (.010–.046 or similar) for most electric work.
Picks: Not documented in consistent specific detail. His playing style includes both conventional pick technique for lead passages and fingerstyle approaches (particularly for the classical guitar passages and certain volume swell techniques). Some of his most distinctive sounds — particularly the harmonics and certain tapped passages — use the right hand’s fingers directly on the strings rather than a conventional pick.
The Classical Guitar — Different Technique Entirely: For all nylon-string passages (Horizons, Supper’s Ready acoustic sections, solo work), Hackett uses classical fingerstyle technique: the right hand’s thumb handles bass strings while the index, middle, and ring fingers handle the treble strings independently. This produces the clean, separated polyphony of classical guitar — each voice of a piece sounding independently rather than strummed together — that distinguishes his classical passages from mere acoustic guitar strumming.
P-90 pickup height: The most specific setup detail in his documented gear — setting the P-90 pickups of his 1957 Goldtop very close to the strings for maximum brightness. This is an active choice that sacrifices some potential pitch stability on bends for increased output and tonal brightness.
Tuning: Standard E for most Genesis and solo material. Some pieces use open or alternate tunings for specific passages, but the bulk of his catalog is standard-tuned.
Tone note: His most distinctive sounds — the volume swells, the harmonics, the tapping — all require specific right-hand technique rather than specific effects or equipment. These are not tones you buy; they are skills you develop. That’s both more demanding and more permanent than any gear purchase.
Tunings & Tone Philosophy
Standard E for the bulk of his work. His tone philosophy is explicitly rooted in the idea that the guitar should be capable of orchestral expression — that a single guitar, in the right hands with the right technique, can produce the tonal range that an orchestra achieves through multiple instruments.
He told Guitar World about his deliberate choice not to pursue technique for its own sake: the technique always serves the musical idea. The tapping came from Bach. The volume swells came from the desire to make the guitar sound like strings. The harmonics came from the desire for bell-like tones. Each technical development was a solution to a musical problem — not a demonstration of physical capability.
His relationship with the classical guitar tradition is not superficial. His instrumental album Bay of Kings (1983) is entirely classical nylon-string guitar, demonstrating formal mastery of the classical technique alongside his rock guitar work. The ability to move between these two very different approaches — the aggressive two-handed tapping of the progressive rock context and the delicate fingerstyle of a classical recital — is genuinely unusual and directly reflects the breadth of his musical education and passion.
He described his current recording approach to Guitar World as intuitive and collaborative: “I will play intuitively. I’ll put the track on and I’ll play it 20 times.” (This description closely parallels Phil Manzanera’s approach — both players developed within the same artistic milieu of 1970s British progressive rock and both describe an intuitive, take-driven recording process.)
Tone note: The technique serves the musical idea. The tapping came from Bach; the swells came from strings; the harmonics came from bells. Every technical innovation had a musical motivation. That’s the difference between technique as vocabulary and technique as display.
Playing Style & Tone Philosophy: The Complete Guitarist Before the Term Existed
Steve Hackett is the progressive rock guitarist — the player who most completely embodied progressive rock’s ambition to synthesise classical music sophistication, folk music melody, and rock music energy into a coherent guitar vocabulary. His specific contributions to that synthesis are documented and significant.
Two-Handed Tapping — Before Van Halen
The historical priority question about two-handed tapping is settled. Hackett was using it in 1971 on Nursery Cryme and playing it live before that. The technique came from a specific musical problem — replicating Bach’s Toccata and Fugue on one string — and produces intervallic jumps impossible with conventional one-handed fretting.
His tapping predates Van Halen by approximately seven years in terms of recording, and by more in terms of live performance. Van Halen developed a more explicit, more melodically direct, and more visually dramatic version of the technique. But Hackett got there first. The influence was acknowledged by Van Halen himself.
Tone note: He developed tapping to play Bach, not to shred. The musical motivation was counterpoint and specific baroque intervals. Van Halen’s tapping is about velocity and spectacle. Hackett’s original tapping was about counterpoint. Both are valid; both are different; one came first.
Volume Swell Technique — The Orchestral Voice
Hackett’s volume pedal swell technique is possibly his most widely imitated and most personally identified innovation. By controlling the volume envelope with his foot rather than allowing the pick attack to define it, he gives his notes the bowed attack of string instruments — the violinist’s smooth onset rather than the guitarist’s percussive click. Combined with generous reverb, the result is guitar that sounds like an orchestra warming up, like a string section breathing, like something that shouldn’t be possible from six strings and a magnetic pickup.
He has confirmed that the volume swell technique requires specific amp interaction — the tube amp’s natural compression and response being essential to the smooth transition from silence to full voice. A solid-state amp produces a more on/off character that doesn’t swell as naturally.
Harmonic Techniques
Hackett’s use of harmonics — both natural harmonics (produced by lightly touching the string at specific nodes) and artificial harmonics (produced by touching the string a specific interval above a fretted note) — is central to his textural vocabulary. The tapped harmonics he uses are produced by fretting a note normally and then lightly touching the string twelve frets above with the picking hand, producing a note two octaves above the fretted pitch. These delicate, bell-like sounds appear throughout his Genesis and solo work as moments of extreme tonal contrast with the surrounding material.
The Classical Foundation
Hackett’s formal classical guitar training gives him a set of right-hand techniques — alternating thumb and finger patterns, rest stroke and free stroke differentiation, dynamic control through nail angle — that rock guitarists typically don’t develop. These techniques appear directly in the Genesis nylon-string passages (“Horizons”) and in his solo classical albums, but they also inform his electric playing: the precision of his melodic picking, the control over individual note dynamics within a phrase, and the ability to maintain clear polyphony when playing multiple simultaneous voices.
Sweep Picking and Arpeggio Technique
Alongside the tapping technique that influenced Van Halen, Hackett is documented as an early developer of sweep picking — the technique that later became associated with neoclassical shred players. His sweep arpeggios on Genesis recordings predated the mainstream adoption of the technique by the shred generation of the 1980s. Brian May, like Van Halen, has cited Hackett’s influence on his own approach.
How to Sound Like Steve Hackett: Building the Genesis Guitar Tone
Hackett’s core tone is achievable without vintage equipment — the Les Paul P-90 character and Marshall tube saturation are reproducible at various price points. The technique is the harder part: the volume swell, the harmonics, and the tapping all require dedicated practice.
The Guitar
Les Paul with P-90 pickups, set close to the strings. The Goldtop aesthetic is secondary to the P-90 character — any guitar with good P-90 pickups can approximate the tonal starting point.
- Gibson Les Paul Goldtop (P-90) — The authentic choice; Gibson produces both historic reissues and standard goldtops with P-90 pickups
- Gibson Les Paul Junior — Single P-90, simpler controls; similar tonal character at lower cost
- Gibson SG Standard P-90 — P-90 character in a lighter, different-feeling instrument
- Epiphone Les Paul with P-90 pickups — Budget starting point; Gibson-flavoured P-90 character
- Fernandes Les Paul-style — His current touring choice (the ex-Gary Moore guitar)
For the classical passages: a nylon-string classical guitar. There is no electric substitute for the tonal and technical character of a nylon-string instrument played fingerstyle.
The Amp
Tube amplifier with smooth, responsive saturation — not modern high-gain digital precision, but the organic compression of a tube output stage responding to the guitar’s signal.
| Control | Genesis-era / Golden Tone setting | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Volume / Gain | 6–7 (natural breakup) | The P-90’s output pushes the Marshall toward natural saturation; not modern high-gain compression |
| Treble | 6–7 | Bright enough for the P-90’s complex high-frequency character to come through |
| Middle | 6–7 | Midrange presence for the singing, sustained lead character |
| Bass | 5 | Warm but not boomy; the Goldtop’s mahogany body adds warmth naturally |
| Reverb (separate) | Generous — medium to long decay | The volume swell technique requires reverb to give the notes their spatial quality; this is the “golden tone” ingredient |
Tone note: The reverb is the second half of the volume swell tone. Without reverb, the swell technique produces notes that fade in and then decay in silence. With generous reverb, the notes hang in space for what feels like forever. The reverb is not optional for the golden tone.
The Essential Effects
- Ernie Ball Volume Pedal — The non-negotiable. Everything else is secondary to the volume pedal for Hackett’s signature sound.
- Quality reverb — For the golden tone; medium to long decay; spring, plate, or hall character all work; the size should suggest space, not bathroom
- TC Electronic Flashback or equivalent delay — For the echoed leads and atmospheric depth
- DigiTech Whammy (optional) — For the pitch-shift effects and occasional dive-bomb character
Budget vs Pro Rigs
Budget — Genesis-era tone approach:
- Guitar: Epiphone Les Paul with P-90 bridge pickup; set pickup close to strings
- Amp: Marshall DSL20CR or Orange Rocker 15 at natural breakup
- Effects: Ernie Ball Volume Junior + Boss RV-6 reverb (generous setting) + Boss DD-3 delay
- Strings: D’Addario .010–.046
- Acoustic: Any classical nylon-string for Horizons
Pro:
- Guitar: Gibson Les Paul Goldtop (1957 VOS Historic or equivalent) with P-90s set close to strings
- Amp: Marshall JCM800 (for vintage golden tone) or ENGL (for current precision)
- Effects: Ernie Ball Volume Pedal + TC Electronic Flashback X4 + DigiTech Whammy + EHX Pitch Fork + quality reverb unit
Tone note: Buy the volume pedal before the amp upgrade. The volume swell technique is the single most important Hackett technique, and the pedal costs less than most effects units. Get it. Practice with it. The golden tone lives in the technique, not the specific amp.
The Techniques to Develop
Three specific techniques define Hackett’s vocabulary:
Volume swell: Volume pedal to zero, pick the note, smoothly bring the pedal up over approximately half a second. The note “bows in.” Add reverb for space. Practice controlling the speed of the swell — this is the expressive element. Slow swells for atmospheric passages, faster swells for more rhythmically active lines.
Natural harmonics: Lightly touch the string directly over the 12th fret metal (not between frets) and pick. The note produced is one octave above the open string. Practice touching with minimal pressure — the harmonic disappears if you press too firmly. Then explore 7th fret (two octaves plus a perfect fifth above open) and 5th fret (two octaves above open). These are the primary natural harmonic positions.
Two-handed tapping: Fret a note normally with the left hand. Use the right-hand index finger to tap a fret 12 positions higher on the same string (the right-hand tap produces a note one octave above the fretted note). Then hammer-on and pull-off with the left hand while maintaining the right-hand tap position. Start slowly and build speed incrementally. The goal, as Hackett demonstrated, is to use this technique for specifically intervallic musical ideas rather than just for speed.
Influence & Legacy: The Man Who Showed Eddie Van Halen What Was Possible
Steve Hackett’s influence on guitar technique is as historically significant as almost any player in this series — the documentation that his two-handed tapping preceded Van Halen’s by approximately seven years, and that Van Halen himself acknowledged the influence, places him in the foundational tradition of modern electric guitar technique.
The sweep picking influence on Yngwie Malmsteen and the neoclassical shred generation further extends the technical legacy. Hackett’s approach to large-interval arpeggio passages — using sweep motion across strings to play chord tones in rapid succession — became the neoclassical shred template once players like Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, and Jason Becker applied it to the velocities and stylistic contexts of 1980s metal.
Brian May cited Hackett’s influence on his own multi-part guitar harmonies — the Queen approach to layering guitar parts in complex harmony, specifically the technique of recording multiple guitar tracks at different intervals to create orchestral texture, reflects the same classical music vocabulary that Hackett brought to Genesis.
His specific influence on progressive rock guitar is total: he defined what a progressive rock lead guitarist did, what tonal range was expected of them, and what technical vocabulary was available. The generations of prog guitarists who followed him — from Steve Rothery of Marillion to John Petrucci of Dream Theater to newer players in the progressive tradition — all play within a genre framework that Hackett’s Genesis work helped establish.
His ongoing touring activity — performing complete Genesis albums, Genesis Revisited shows, and solo material — demonstrates the enduring audience for his specific musical vision. The Foxtrot 50th Anniversary tour demonstrated that the demand for classic progressive rock performed at its original level of ambition and integrity is real, sustained, and international.
He wrote, developed, and recorded some of the most ambitious guitar work ever attempted within a rock context. He pioneered techniques that other players became famous for. He made a classical guitar piece the highlight of a hard rock band’s most celebrated album. He has been doing this for fifty years.
Tone note: He influenced Van Halen and Malmsteen and Brian May. Any one of those would be a significant legacy. All three simultaneously is either very good fortune or the result of being at a genuinely exceptional level of musical innovation. In Hackett’s case, it’s the second.
In West London, in a recording studio that has all the amps he’s ever had, every fuzzbox imaginable, delays — all of that — Steve Hackett has a 1957 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop that he describes as “my favourite guitar.” The P-90 pickups are set closer to the strings than most players would set them. The volume pedal is in the chain. The Marshall is on.
Also in the case is a Yairi classical nylon-string guitar. The technique required to play it properly — formal classical right-hand fingerstyle — took years to develop. It is applied to music that appears within the same arrangements as two-handed tapping runs and harmonics that influenced the architects of 1980s heavy metal.
This is what progressive rock was, at its best: the ambition to contain everything the guitar could do within one musician’s vocabulary, and to put that vocabulary in service of music that aspired to the grandeur of orchestral composition while remaining, at its core, rock and roll.
Steve Hackett accomplished this. He is still accomplishing it. The tapping technique that influenced Van Halen was in the service of Bach. The “golden tone” was in the service of orchestral warmth. The Fernandes goldtop once owned by Gary Moore is now in the hands of the man who came before.
The volume pedal is at zero. The note is picked. The pedal comes up slowly.
It bows in.
If Hackett’s two-handed tapping technique — developed to play Bach counterpoint, subsequently influencing Eddie Van Halen — has you tracing the lineage of guitar technique forward, check out our complete guide to Eddie Van Halen’s guitars and gear — the player who took what Hackett started, developed it into its most recognisable form, and introduced it to the entire world at once with “Eruption.”
And for the classical-to-rock synthesis that most closely parallels Hackett’s in its integration of formal musical education with amplified performance, don’t miss our breakdown of John McLaughlin’s complete gear guide — another British guitarist who brought classical and world music vocabulary into a rock context and produced something entirely his own in the process.
FAQ: Steve Hackett Guitars & Gear
- What guitar is Steve Hackett most associated with?
- A 1957 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop with P-90 single-coil pickups — his primary guitar throughout the Genesis period and subsequent recordings, which he describes as “my favourite guitar.” He sets the P-90 pickups very close to the strings (closer than factory recommendation) for maximum brightness and output. He has described the guitar as having “a tortured cry” that “spoke to my heart.” His current primary touring guitar is a Fernandes Les Paul-style goldtop that was previously owned by Gary Moore, used on the Foxtrot 50th Anniversary tour.
- Did Steve Hackett really invent two-handed guitar tapping before Eddie Van Halen?
- Yes — the historical documentation is clear. Hackett was using two-handed tapping on Genesis’s first album Nursery Cryme in 1971 and playing it live before that, approximately seven years before Van Halen’s “Eruption” (1978). The technique came from a specific musical problem: he was trying to play a line from Bach’s Toccata and Fugue and realised the only way to achieve it on a single guitar string was to use both hands simultaneously. Eddie Van Halen himself acknowledged Hackett’s influence on him. Yngwie Malmsteen similarly cited Hackett’s sweep picking as an early influence.
- What is Steve Hackett’s “golden tone”?
- The guitar sound Hackett developed for the track “Everyday” on his 1979 solo album Spectral Mornings, which he describes as his signature sound. The core of the technique is the volume pedal swell: picking a note with the volume pedal at zero, then smoothly bringing the volume up after the initial pick attack, creating a bowed, fade-in note attack similar to a string instrument. Combined with generous reverb for spatial depth, the notes seem to appear from space rather than from the guitar. Hackett described it to Sound on Sound as: “My favourite sound is the guitar sound I achieved on the track ‘Every Day,’ which I call my ‘golden tone.'”
- What amplifiers did Steve Hackett use with Genesis?
- Marshall amplifiers throughout the Genesis period (1971–1977), specifically noting that the tube/valve response was essential to the volume swell technique: “I was playing through a Marshall amp, and it felt like the guitar and amp were communicating in the way that only a valve amp can.” His current live setup uses an ENGL amplifier (documented in the Premier Guitar Rig Rundown for the Foxtrot 50th Anniversary tour), providing MIDI-programmable channel switching for the tonal range required across Genesis and solo material in a single show.
- What is the classical guitar piece “Horizons” and what guitar was it played on?
- “Horizons” is a 63-second classical guitar piece that opens side two of Genesis’s 1972 album Foxtrot. It was composed and performed by Hackett on his Yairi classical nylon-string guitar using formal classical fingerstyle technique (right-hand thumb for bass strings, independent fingers for treble strings). The piece is considered one of the finest examples of classical guitar within a rock context and helped establish the nylon-string classical guitar as a legitimate progressive rock instrument.
- What is Steve Hackett’s current pedalboard?
- Documented in the Premier Guitar Rig Rundown for the Foxtrot 50th Anniversary tour: Ernie Ball Volume Pedal (primary expressive control for the volume swell technique), TC Electronic Flashback X4 Delay, Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork (pitch shifting), Line 6 DM4 Distortion Modeler, Boss RC-3 Loop Station, DigiTech Whammy, Analogman effects, Tech 21 SansAmp, Fishman acoustic pickup preamp, Roland effects, Boss effects including Boss CE-2 Chorus, Electro-Harmonix Micro Synthesizer, and D’Addario Chromatic Pedal Tuner.
- How do I get Steve Hackett’s guitar tone?
- Start with a Gibson Les Paul with P-90 pickups (1957 Goldtop historic or equivalent), setting the pickups close to the strings for maximum brightness. Run through a tube amp (Marshall JCM800 or equivalent) at natural breakup gain — not modern high-gain compression. The essential effect is an Ernie Ball Volume Pedal: with the pedal at zero, pick the note normally, then smoothly bring the volume up over half a second for the bowed, fade-in attack. Add generous reverb (medium to long decay) for the spatial quality. This is the “golden tone.” For the tapping: fret a note with the left hand and use the right-hand index finger to tap 12 frets higher, then hammer-on and pull-off with the left hand while maintaining the tap.
