Fender Dave Murray Stratocaster vs Gibson Steve Howe ES-175
The Fender Dave Murray Stratocaster and the Gibson Steve Howe ES-175 are both electric guitars sharing high gain, tight. The Fender Dave Murray Stratocaster leans mid-forward and sustaining. The Gibson Steve Howe ES-175 leans bright. Current prices: $1655.40 vs $5110.38.
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Blended from circuit-archetype lineage, dynamic feel, tone-signal overlap and tone-vector distance — the tone vector itself is derived from editorial description text, not a measured acoustic signal, so this reflects how similarly the catalog copy describes the two, not a lab measurement. Shown only within a gear class, and only where there's enough evidence to be meaningful.45% — somewhat different
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Genres both listings are associated with.- Progressive Rock
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Derived from overlapping tonal signals across both listings.- high gain
- tight
Fender Dave Murray Stratocaster
Unknown brand · electric guitar
Gibson Steve Howe ES-175
Gibson · electric guitar
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Citation/mention fame — how often this gear is cited across artist rigs and gear discussion.$1655.40via Reverb
$5110.38via Reverb
The Fender Dave Murray Stratocaster is the Iron Maiden guitarist's signature model, built around three Seymour Duncan humbuckers rather than the traditional single-coil Strat layout: Hot Rails in the neck and bridge positions and a lower-output JB Jr in the middle, chosen because it cleans up better than a second Hot Rails. The solid alder body pushes a firm midrange that cuts through a dense mix, and a compound-radius fingerboard with a Floyd Rose bridge and locking nut supports both rhythm chording and fast, sustained lead work. It is built for the high-gain, galloping rhythm and soaring lead tones associated with Murray's playing in Iron Maiden rather than for vintage Strat clean and quack tones. Fender has released this model both as a US-made Artist Series guitar and, more recently, as a Mexican-made California Series model with the same core three-humbucker layout.
The Gibson Steve Howe ES-175 is the Yes guitarist's signature version of the classic ES-175 archtop, tailored to his prog-rock and jazz playing. It delivers the ES-175's warm, round, woody hollowbody voice with humbuckers, used for everything from jazzy comping to the bright, articulate lead lines of Yes. The laminated body offers classic archtop tone with usable feedback resistance.
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Genres this gear is documented as being used in.- Heavy Metal
- Funk
- Rock
- Blues
- Metal
- Electronic
- Hard Rock
- Jazz
- mid-forward
- sustaining
- transparent
- bright