Steve’s Real Tone

To me, Steve Lukather’s tone has changed over the years, from his wailing, sustaining mid-rangey sound to one with more bass and high ends and significantly lowered mids (scooped sound, if you will), then lately back to one that’s reminiscent of his melodic and haunting guitar solos that have become a Toto trademark.

The couple of videos I have presented thus far represent a small sampling size of Luke’s guitar tone.  I don’t know, but I could almost be certain that Steve Stevens (remember the Top Gun theme, son?) had a huge influence on Steve Lukather at that point of his career and at the time I was really into Luke’s guitar playing (nah, I can’t sing like him).  Well, try to find some of Lukather’s pics at the time: the hair, earrings, and guitar sound — they will remind you of the other Steve.

Here’s a video of Lukather singing and soloing on George Harrison’s "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."  That’s the Lukather tone I should’ve tried to emulate during my gigging days.