Tom Morello has recorded every drop D riff in his career with one guitar – a stock 1982 Telecaster he got when Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan showed him the tuning in 1991. Where some rockers disconnect their neck pickups, Morello uses his exclusively, describing the resulting riffs as springier and funkier. “I think the heaviness of the riff hasn’t got anything to do with the amount of distortion on the guitar,” he told MusicRadar.