The #63 Guitarist of the Rock Era: Dave Murray

One of three guitarists in the British band Iron Maiden, the #63 Guitarist is technically sound, melodic and fast:

#63:  Dave Murray, Iron Maiden

38 years as an active guitarist

(Some of his best solos)

David Michael Murray was born December 23, 1956. He became interested in rock music at the age of 15 when he heard "Voodoo Chile" by Jimi Hendrix on the radio.  Hendrix made such an impression on Dave that he would adapt Hendrix's legato style of playing.  The key to this is playing all of the notes even and in a constant stream, with no notes jumping out in volume.  Dave began hanging around record stores and buying several Hendrix and blues albums and decided to get a guitar. Murray was a fixture at lead guitarist for Iron Maiden. 

At the age of 16, Murray formed the band Stone Free, which also included lead singer Adrian Smith. Murray was briefly with the groups Electric Gas and the Secret before auditioning for Iron Maiden in 1976. He won the job, but was fired following an argument with then-vocalist Dennis Wilcock. Thus, Murray teamed again with Adrian Smith in Smith's group Urchin until he was asked to rejoin Iron Maiden after Wilcock left.

Dave has great speed and likes to focus on the higher notes of the guitar in his solos.  As mentioned earlier, he plays legatos ("legato" means "smoothly"), tremeloes, hammer-ons and pull-offs.  He is smooth, melodic and technically brilliant and frequently uses the neck pickup.  This gives him control and the freedom to express himself through his music 

Murray has used Fender Stratocaster guitars almost exclusively and has always used and endorsed Marshall amplifiers.  He used a black Stratocaster from 1976-1990 that was previously owned by Paul Kossoff, the late guitarist of Free.  The neck is from a 1957 Stratocaster while the body is from a '63.  Fender used the guitar to manufacture an Artist Signature model in 2009 and Murray now keeps the original at home.  Dave's guitar of choice these days is a Fender Californian Series Stratocaster with three Seymour Duncan Hot Rails pickups and a Floyd Rose tremolo system.  Occasionally, Murray will use Dean, Gibon, Ibanez, ESP and Jackson guitars.  He prefers Gibson Hummingbird acoustics.

His amplifier system consists of two Marshall 1960B Straight Cabinets, four 300-Watt Cabinets loaded with 12 12" Celestion G12T 75 Watt Speakers, three Marshall JCM 2000 DSL  tube heads and a Marshall 9200 Rack Power Amp.

Murray uses a Peterson VSam Virtual Strobe Tuner, a Shure U4D UHF Wireless Unit, a Dunlop CryBaby Wah, a Mike Hill Custom Uni-Vibe/Tube Screamer a Rocktron All-Access Foot Controller, a TC Electronics GForce Effect Unit, a Fulltone Dega'Vibe and a Fulltone Clyde Standard Wah Pedal.


Dave has had a great opportunity to showcase his talent in Iron Maiden.  He ranks #63 for the Rock Era*...