Gear Timeline
“Steve, he had a Marshall Plexi PA, his was from the Small Faces era. Mine was just a regular Super Lead Plexi.” Peter Frampton said this about his Humble Pie bandmate in a Q&A session documented on udiscover — and the distinction is significant: Steve Marriott did not acquire his Marshall Plexi Super PA for Humble Pie’s hard rock period. He brought it from the Small Faces. The same amplifier that produced the specific gritty, cutting, remarkably powerful guitar tone of “Tin Soldier” and “I Can’t Make It” — the Small Faces recordings that demonstrated Marriott’s guitar ability was as extraordinary as his voice — was the amplifier he used when he formed one of the heaviest bands of the early 1970s. His guitar throughout the Small Faces period was primarily the Epiphone Dwight — the Epiphone-branded version of the Coronet, effectively a budget Les Paul Junior — an instrument that should not have been capable of the tones it produced in his hands. His voice was the most celebrated element of his artistry: Roger Daltrey, Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney, and Robert Plant have all cited Marriott as the greatest British rock vocalist they ever encountered. But the guitar was always there too, and the guitar was extraordinary. He died on April 20, 1991, in a fire at his Essex farmhouse. He was forty-four years old. He had been working on new material. The Marshall Plexi PA was in the other room.
The Journey
Stephen Peter Marriott was born on January 30, 1947, in Plashet, East Ham, Essex, England. He was a child actor, studying at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London and appearing in the West End. He began playing guitar as a teenager, influenced by Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran. He formed the Small Faces in 1965 with Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones, and Jimmy Winston (later Ian McLagan) — a band that became one of the defining voices of British Mod culture, releasing “Whatcha Gonna Do About It,” “Sha-La-La-La-Lee,” “All or Nothing,” “Itchycoo Park,” “Tin Soldier,” and “Lazy Sunday” before Marriott’s sudden departure in January 1969. He co-founded Humble Pie in 1969 with Peter Frampton, Greg Ridley, and Jerry Shirley, recording six studio albums including the landmark live recording Performance: Rockin’ the Fillmore (1971) and the studio album Smokin’ (1972, featuring “30 Days in the Hole”). He died in a house fire at Aylmer’s Farm, Arkesden, Essex, on April 20, 1991, at age forty-four. He remains, by widespread consensus among those who knew him and heard him, the greatest British rock vocalist-guitarist who never received his due from mainstream history.
Background: Plashet Essex, Italia Conti Child Actor, Small Faces 1965 Mod Era, Humble Pie 1969, Performance Rockin’ the Fillmore, House Fire 1991
Marriott’s specific musical formation — from child actor at the Italia Conti Academy (the same institution that produced several British entertainment figures) through his early guitar influences (Buddy Holly’s specific combination of country, rock, and the distinctive Stratocaster technique, Eddie Cochran’s raw rockabilly energy) to his emergence as both one of the finest vocalists and most expressive guitarists in British rock — is one of the more dramatically multi-talented careers in British music. He was simultaneously a singer of extraordinary natural ability and an instinctive guitarist whose raw, aggressive playing complemented his voice in ways that few guitarist-vocalists in rock history have achieved.
The Small Faces’ specific contribution to British rock is frequently undervalued in comparison to the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Kinks — all of whom receive more consistent historical attention — despite the band’s extraordinary run of singles and their specific quality as musicians. Marriott’s guitar playing on the Small Faces recordings is more aggressive and more technically capable than the band’s pop-oriented singles would suggest: the live recordings and the Immediate Records material (particularly “Tin Soldier,” which Marriott has described as the song he was most proud of) document a guitarist of real authority whose R&B-rooted, blues-influenced approach gave the Small Faces’ music a physical energy that pure pop bands could not have provided.
Humble Pie’s specific achievement — building an American audience that the Small Faces had never reached, filling stadiums across the US in the early 1970s, creating some of the most physically powerful live rock recordings of the decade with Performance: Rockin’ the Fillmore — was Marriott’s determination to be taken seriously as a rock musician rather than as a pop star. The deliberate turn toward American-influenced blues-rock, the partnership with Peter Frampton, and the specific energy of the Fillmore performance document a musician who had found the genre in which his specific combination of abilities (the voice, the guitar, the raw physical energy) could operate at maximum capability.
His death in the 1991 house fire at Aylmer’s Farm is the most tragic fact in this biography. He had returned to England from the United States, having been working with Frampton on new material, and died when the farmhouse caught fire. The specific circumstances of the fire — candles, an old farmhouse, a musician who had battled substance issues across his career and who by 1991 had achieved some degree of personal stability — were the specific combination that produced one of British music’s most mourned losses.
The Rig: Steve Marriott’s Guitars, Amps, and Effects
Guitars
Steve Marriott’s primary and most historically significant guitar during the Small Faces period was the Epiphone Dwight — the Epiphone-branded version of the Coronet, effectively a simplified Les Paul Junior with a single P-90 pickup and a mahogany body. The Gear Page forum discussion confirms: “The Epiphone Dwight was his #1 for a long time, particularly with Humble Pie.” The Epiphone Dwight/Coronet’s specific character: the single P-90 pickup’s specific midrange-forward, aggressive, slightly compressed character through a high-powered Marshall creates the specific biting, cutting tone that defines the Small Faces’ harder recordings. The guitar is not prestigious — Epiphone was Gibson’s budget brand, and the Coronet/Dwight was among the more accessible instruments in Epiphone’s range — but in Marriott’s hands, through the Plexi PA, it produced sounds that more expensive instruments could not necessarily have improved upon. His hands, his attack, his instinctive feel for how to push the single P-90 into the specific zone of controlled aggression: these were the guitar’s capabilities, not the instrument’s specifications.
The Small Faces Equipboard page confirms the Fender Telecaster alongside the Marshall Plexi Super PA as part of his documented setup: “Steve Marriott’s use of the Fender Telecaster and Gibson Les Paul Custom through a Marshall Plexi Super PA Amp Head produced a distinctive gritty tone that was both cutting and warm.” The Fender Telecaster’s specific character — the twangy, aggressive single-coil brightness of the Tele’s bridge pickup — suits the R&B-influenced playing that Marriott developed in the Small Faces context. The Telecaster bridge pickup’s specific “bark” when played hard suits his aggressive playing approach: he attacked the strings with the physical energy of his soul and R&B influences, and the Telecaster’s bridge pickup captures that attack precisely.
The Equipboard Small Faces documentation captures a specific guitar documented in video: “In a clip of the Small Faces performing at the Marquee Club, Steve Marriott plays a Gretsch G6120 Tennessean guitar with fake f-holes. The guitar is clearly seen at 1:35.” The Gretsch G6120 Tennessean — the hollow body Gretsch associated with Chet Atkins and the rockabilly tradition, but also adopted by British rock and R&B players in the 1960s — documents Marriott’s guitar variety in the Small Faces period. The Tennessean’s Filter’Tron pickups produce a specific thin, bright, compressed character that contributes differently to his tone than the Epiphone Dwight’s P-90 or the Telecaster’s single-coil.
The Gear Page forum documentation captures one of the more specific guitar acquisition stories: “I was talking to him at the bar and asked him about the blonde ES335 he was playing. He told me he had got it in the USA when he was with Humble Pie. He said that he had wanted a 335 to take on tour but the blonde one was made for BB King and he was supposed to give it back when the tour [ended].” The blonde ES-335 — made for BB King — ending up in Steve Marriott’s hands for a Humble Pie American tour is the specific kind of rock-guitar-world acquisition story that documents both the informal economy of vintage instrument sharing and the specific instruments that circulated through the professional American rock touring circuit in the early 1970s. The ES-335’s semi-hollow construction provides a specific warm, resonant character appropriate for the more blues-influenced passages of Humble Pie’s American material.
The Equipboard documentation confirms: “On the front cover of the Humble Pie album ‘Live ’81’ Steve has a 1971 Custom black Gibson Les Paul with a cream white pick-guard and gold trim/hardware. The humbucker plates are removed.” The 1971 Les Paul Custom in black — with the distinctive cream pickguard and gold hardware of the Custom designation, and the open-coil humbuckers produced by removing the original humbucker covers — is the guitar that defined his later Humble Pie period visual identity. The open-coil humbuckers (covers removed) provide slightly brighter response and are associated with the specific “vintage mod” aesthetic of British guitarists who removed pickup covers for both tonal and visual reasons.
The Equipboard documentation notes: “In this photograph from Thank Your Lucky Stars, circa 1967, Steve Marriott is seen with an acoustic-electric Gibson J-160E.” The Gibson J-160E — the acoustic-electric associated specifically with John Lennon (his primary studio and live acoustic guitar throughout the early Beatles period) — appears in Marriott’s documented collection for the Small Faces’ pop and psychedelic phase. Its acoustic character suits the lighter, more psychedelic material of the 1967 Small Faces period (particularly “Itchycoo Park” and “Lazy Sunday”) alongside the raw electric playing of the band’s harder recordings.
“In this YouTube video at 1:15, Steve Marriott can be using Epiphone FT-110 Frontier. Judging by the pointed pickguard with rope & cactus design, it is the 1963-1964 version of the Epiphone FT-110 Frontier.” The Epiphone FT-110 Frontier is a Western-style acoustic guitar with the specific rope-and-cactus decorative elements of the cowboy/Western guitar tradition — an unusual acoustic choice for a Mod-era British rock musician, and one that reflects Marriott’s eclectic engagement with American musical traditions (country, blues, soul) that extended far beyond his public profile.
Amps
Steve Marriott’s primary and most historically documented amplifier is the Marshall Plexi Super PA — confirmed by Peter Frampton in his Humble Pie Q&A: “Steve, he had a Marshall Plexi PA, his was from the Small Faces era. Mine was just a regular Super Lead Plexi.” The Marshall Plexi Super PA is a specific variant of the 1960s Plexi-panel Marshall — a PA-configured head that Marriott used for guitar amplification. The Plexi era Marshalls (so named for the Plexiglas front panel used before the transition to black tolex) are the most celebrated Marshall amplifiers in rock history: the specific combination of EL34 output tubes, GZ34 rectifier, and the Plexi-era circuit topology produces the specific harmonic complexity, sag, and compression of vintage Marshall character that subsequent players have spent fifty years attempting to replicate. That Marriott brought this specific amplifier from the Small Faces into Humble Pie — the same amp, the same character, the continuity of his specific Marshall tone across two distinct bands and two distinct musical eras — is the specific gear fact that connects his 1960s Mod period to his 1970s hard rock period.
The Equipboard documentation of the Midnight Special performance captures a specific amp identification: “During the performance of ’30 Days in the Hole’ by Humble Pie on the Midnight Special, Steve Marriott is clearly observed utilizing an Ampeg VT-22 2×12 100w combo amplifier, as his Les Paul Custom guitar is connected to this specific amp.” The Ampeg VT-22 — a 100-watt solid-state/tube hybrid combo with two 12-inch speakers — was a less expected choice than the Marshall Plexi for a British rock guitarist of Marriott’s generation. Its specific character: a powerful, somewhat aggressive tone with the specific Ampeg voicing that differs from Marshall’s British character. The “30 Days in the Hole” television performance on the Midnight Special being documented with the VT-22 rather than the Plexi suggests that different amplifiers served different performance contexts within his career.
The Humble Pie Equipboard band page confirms “gritty, distorted tones achieved through Marshall amplifiers and Gibson guitars” as the characteristic live sound — the Marshall Plexi PA being Marriott’s primary, supplemented by various other Marshall configurations as the band’s live production scaled up through their American touring circuit. By the Performance: Rockin’ the Fillmore era, Humble Pie’s live sound was one of the most powerful in British rock.
Effects
Like his Humble Pie bandmate Peter Frampton (who played “straight into the amp with no effects” in the Humble Pie period), Marriott’s primary approach was direct connection: guitar into amp, no effects chain. The specific raw, gritty character of the Small Faces’ harder recordings and the Humble Pie live material comes not from effects processing but from the specific interaction of high-output single-coil pickups (the Epiphone Dwight’s P-90, the Telecaster’s bridge single-coil) with the Plexi Super PA’s input stage driven hard. The natural tube saturation of a Plexi Marshall driven by a P-90 at maximum pickup output produces the specific compressed, harmonically rich, barely controlled distortion that defines his tone.
The Equipboard Steve Marriott page notes wah pedal use in certain performances — the standard professional wah of the era (Vox Cry Baby or Dunlop Cry Baby) providing the rhythmic, expressive frequency sweeping that appeared in certain Small Faces and Humble Pie live passages. Its use is less consistently documented than his direct-to-amp approach and represents a secondary effect rather than a foundational tonal element.
The Small Faces’ studio recordings — particularly the psychedelic period material on the Immediate Records label (Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake, the singles of 1967-1969) — incorporated studio-applied tape echo, phasing, and the specific production treatments that producer/label head Andrew Loog Oldham and engineer Glyn Johns applied to the recordings. These effects were studio tools rather than elements of Marriott’s live signal chain, consistent with the era’s studio practice of applying processing post-recording.
Playing Style & Tone Philosophy
Steve Marriott’s playing style is the most soulfully powerful in British rock — the approach of a musician whose primary expressive vehicle was his voice (universally acknowledged as extraordinary) but whose guitar playing had the same raw, physical, emotionally unfiltered quality as his singing. He did not separate the two: when he sang, he played with the same energy; when he played, the guitar sounded like his voice. The Gear Page’s community description of his technique: “aggressive guitar work” that was “both cutting and warm” — the specific combination of aggression and warmth that comes from playing with emotional commitment through a vintage British tube amp pushed into its natural saturation zone.
His tone philosophy was the direct philosophy: the right guitar into the right amp, played with maximum commitment. The Epiphone Dwight’s P-90 was not a prestigious instrument but it had the specific midrange-forward, aggressive character that suited his playing. The Marshall Plexi Super PA was the most powerful available amplification for a small British musician in the mid-1960s. The combination, played with his specific physical attack, produced the specific tone that was unmistakably his. He did not need effects. He needed the right guitar, the right amp, and his hands.
His voice is always the primary reference point in any discussion of his artistry, and the guitar’s role — as the physical counterpart to the vocal expression — is best understood in terms of what they share rather than what they don’t: both are raw, direct, emotionally committed, and physically powerful. The guitar, in Marriott’s hands, had the same quality as his voice: it sounded like it was coming from somewhere real.
How to Sound Like Steve Marriott
Guitar: Epiphone Coronet/Dwight (single P-90, mahogany body) for the Small Faces primary tone — the P-90’s aggressive midrange pushed into a Plexi’s input stage. Fender Telecaster for the brighter, twangier alternative. Gibson Les Paul Custom (open-coil humbuckers) for the Humble Pie hard rock period. The common element: high-output single-coils or open-coil humbuckers played with maximum right-hand attack.
Amp: Marshall Plexi Super PA or standard Marshall Super Lead Plexi — the handwired, EL34-powered, Plexiglas-panel Marshall of the 1960s-early 1970s. Push it hard. The natural tube saturation of a driven Plexi with a P-90 at maximum output is the foundational Marriott tone.
Amp Settings (Marshall Plexi Super Lead — Small Faces/Humble Pie Tone):
| Control | Setting (0–10) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Volume | 8–10 | LOUD — the Plexi needs volume to reach natural saturation |
| Bass | 5–6 | Present — the P-90’s midrange needs bass support |
| Mid | 6–7 | Forward — the specific “cutting and warm” character lives in the mids |
| Treble | 6 | Bright — enough for the P-90’s natural top-end sparkle |
| Presence | 5–6 | Moderate — attack without excessive brightness |
Technique: Play hard. Attack the strings with the physical commitment of someone who also sings with everything they have. The natural compression of the Plexi driven by a P-90 will handle the rest — the amp responds to the attack, the strings respond to the pick force, and the result is the specific controlled-but-raw Marriott character. No effects needed. Guitar into amp. Play.
Influence & Legacy
Steve Marriott’s influence on British rock is simultaneously enormous and underacknowledged — enormous because of the direct testimony of his influence from musicians including Roger Daltrey (“the greatest rock singer I ever heard”), Rod Stewart (who has cited him as a primary vocal influence), Paul McCartney, and Robert Plant; underacknowledged because of the specific tragedy of his early death, the commercial volatility of his career, and the historical tendency to focus on the Beatles and Rolling Stones as British rock’s primary stories. His guitar playing influenced the generation of British hard rock guitarists who came up listening to Humble Pie — the specific combination of R&B-rooted technique, raw P-90-through-Plexi tone, and physical aggression that gives “I Don’t Need No Doctor” and “30 Days in the Hole” their specific character.
His connection to Peter Frampton as co-founder and creative partner in Humble Pie is the most specific creative relationship of his career — the two men whose complementary approaches (Marriott’s raw, soulful aggression versus Frampton’s melodic, talk-box-inflected refinement) defined what Humble Pie sounded like. His connection to the Small Faces’ peers — the Who, the Kinks, the Rolling Stones — reflects the specific moment in British rock when the Mod generation was establishing the templates that American hard rock and arena rock would subsequently develop from. His connection to the blues tradition — the specific American R&B and soul recordings that he and Ronnie Lane absorbed and translated into British terms — reflects the foundational source material for all of British rock’s most powerful moments.
Frequently Asked Questions: Steve Marriott Guitars & Gear
What guitar did Steve Marriott use with the Small Faces?
Marriott’s primary guitar during the Small Faces was the Epiphone Dwight — an Epiphone-branded Coronet, essentially a budget Les Paul Junior with a single P-90 pickup. The Gear Page forum documentation confirms: “The Epiphone Dwight was his #1 for a long time, particularly with Humble Pie.” He also used a Fender Telecaster, a Gretsch G6120 Tennessean (documented at the Marquee Club), and a Gibson J-160E acoustic-electric for the psychedelic era Small Faces material.
What amplifier did Steve Marriott use?
Marriott’s primary documented amplifier is the Marshall Plexi Super PA — confirmed by Peter Frampton in a Humble Pie Q&A: “Steve, he had a Marshall Plexi PA, his was from the Small Faces era. Mine was just a regular Super Lead Plexi.” He brought this amplifier from the Small Faces into Humble Pie, maintaining the same core amplification across both bands. He also used an Ampeg VT-22 2×12 100W combo — documented on the Midnight Special performance of “30 Days in the Hole.”
What is the Marshall Plexi Super PA?
The Marshall Plexi Super PA is a specific variant of the 1960s Marshall range — a PA-configured amplifier head with the Plexiglas front panel that gives the “Plexi” era its name. The handwired circuit with EL34 output tubes and the specific voicing of the Plexi era produces the foundational British rock amplifier character: warm, harmonically complex, with specific sag and compression from the vintage tube components. Marriott’s use of it from the Small Faces period onward — running it with P-90-equipped guitars at high volume — produced the specific raw, aggressive, “both cutting and warm” tone that defines his Small Faces and early Humble Pie recordings.
What was Steve Marriott’s relationship with Peter Frampton?
Frampton and Marriott co-founded Humble Pie in 1969 after Marriott’s departure from the Small Faces. Frampton has described their bond: “Marriott befriended Frampton during the latter months of 1968 and the pair bonded over their unwanted ‘teen heart-throb’ status in the UK and their shared desire to be taken more seriously as musicians.” The two complementary approaches — Marriott’s raw, soulful R&B-rooted aggression and Frampton’s melodic, technically refined playing — defined what Humble Pie sounded like at its best. Frampton left in 1971; the two remained connected professionally until Marriott’s death in 1991.
What was the Small Faces’ sound?
The Small Faces combined British Mod culture’s specific energy — the R&B, soul, and psychedelic pop influences of the London Mod scene — with Marriott’s extraordinary vocal ability and his raw, P-90-through-Plexi guitar approach. Their recordings span from Mod pop (“Sha-La-La-La-Lee,” “All or Nothing”) through psychedelia (“Itchycoo Park,” “Tin Soldier”) to the harder, proto-rock direction of Marriott’s final period with the band. The lineup of Marriott, Ronnie Lane (bass), Kenney Jones (drums), and Ian McLagan (keyboards) was one of the most organically talented British bands of the 1960s.
How did Steve Marriott die?
Steve Marriott died on April 20, 1991, in a fire at Aylmer’s Farm, Arkesden, Essex. He was forty-four years old. He had recently returned from the United States, where he had been recording with Peter Frampton. The fire destroyed the farmhouse; investigators determined it was caused by a cigarette. His death was mourned throughout the British rock community as the loss of one of the most naturally gifted musicians of his generation.
Why is Steve Marriott considered underappreciated?
Despite universal acclaim from his peers — Roger Daltrey called him the greatest rock singer he had ever heard, Rod Stewart has cited him as a primary vocal influence, Robert Plant has spoken of his debt to Marriott — he has never received the mainstream historical recognition of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, or Kinks contemporaries. Contributing factors include the Small Faces’ limited US commercial success (Humble Pie did much better in America), Marriott’s personal difficulties with management and contracts that limited his financial rewards, and the early death that prevented any late-career reassessment while he was still alive to participate in it.