Dave Murray (Iron Maiden) Rig

Dave Murray has been Iron Maiden’s lead guitarist since 1976 and is the only guitarist on every Maiden studio album, pairing fluid legato lines with Adrian Smith’s sharper attack. In 1976 he sold everything he owned to buy a black 1957/63 Fender Stratocaster that had belonged to Free’s Paul Kossoff, then loaded a DiMarzio Super Distortion in the bridge and a DiMarzio PAF in the neck. That guitar and a wall of 50-watt Marshall Super Lead (JMP 1987) heads are the sound of the debut through Powerslave. Tour programs from Number of the Beast and Piece of Mind list four of those 50-watt Marshalls plus a Cry Baby, MXR Distortion +, and a Pete Cornish board.

On Somewhere in Time and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son he briefly left Marshall for Gallien-Krueger 250ML heads, then spent the 1990s on custom Jackson Stratocasters before a sunburst Fender California Series Strat with Seymour Duncan Hot Rails and a Floyd Rose became his number one from 2003 through Senjutsu. The long mid-era live rack was Marshall JMP-1 preamps feeding JCM2000 DSL heads as power amps into Marshall 1960B 4x12s. Since the 2023 Future Past tour his main guitar is an Olympic White Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster built by Master Builder Andy Hicks, and the JMP-1 tones now live in Fractal Axe-Fx III units. The Mexican Fender Dave Murray Stratocaster — Hot Rails, JB Jr., Floyd Rose — is the production signature still sold.