Editing Steve Howe (section)

== Instruments and musicianship ==
[[File:Steve Howe Trio (2914131870).jpg|thumb|right|Howe playing his ES-175 at a 2008 concert]]
Howe became associated with the ES-175 and Gibson from the early days of his career. The In Crowd was originally to be seen performing in [[Michelangelo Antonioni]]'s influential 1966 film ''[[Blow-Up]]'', and a prop version of Howe's guitar was built for him to smash during that scene. After the band was replaced, following a single day's shooting, by the better known [[The Yardbirds|Yardbirds]], the guitar was kept for [[Jeff Beck]] to smash on camera.{{sfn|Howe|2021|p=38}}

When on tour, Howe has insisted on carrying the ES-175 with him however he travels. He has traveled on private jets and by land between shows to avoid having to check it, although he denies a rumour he bought the instrument its own seat on [[Concorde]], noting that the cabin crew were accommodating enough to let him put it in the wardrobe in the passenger compartment. In 2010 a [[Virgin Atlantic]] gate clerk insisted Howe check the guitar over his protests; that was the last time it had to go in the hold.{{sfn|Howe|2021|p=125–26}}

On ''[[The Yes Album]]'', his first album with the band, Howe used the ES-175 for all his electric parts save the end of "Perpetual Change", on which he plays an [[Antoria]] LG50, to get more of a [[Fender (company)|Fender]] sound.{{sfn|Howe|2021|p=74}} On the next Yes album, ''[[Fragile (Yes album)|Fragile]]'', Howe became interested in experimenting with other Gibson guitars, and ended up playing an [[Gibson ES-5|ES-5]], one of only three commercially released Gibson guitars with three pickups, on every track except "[[Heart of the Sunrise]]", where he used the ES-175.{{sfn|Howe|2021|p=82–83}} By the time the band was on tour supporting the album, Gibson offered him an endorsement deal to use their strings in exchange for a free lifetime supply{{efn|Yes's manager [[Brian Lane (manager)|Brian Lane]] later negotiated a similar deal with [[C. F. Martin & Company|Martin]], Howe's preferred acoustic guitar maker.{{sfn|Howe|2021|p=69, 76}}}} (which Howe appreciated as he restrung his guitars before every show) and a new guitar of his choice, which was the new [[Gibson ES-345]] stereo guitar. He used it for most of the tracks on ''[[Close to the Edge]]'',{{sfn|Howe|2021|p=88}} with a Gibson BR-9 [[steel guitar]] and a [[Danelectro]] Coral Sitar guitar on some sections.{{sfn|Howe|2021|p=91}}

For ''[[Relayer]]'' Howe used exclusively Fender guitars, primarily a 1955 [[Fender Telecaster|Telecaster]] with a Gibson [[humbucker|humbucking]] pickup.{{sfn|Howe|2021|p=110}} On his first solo album, ''[[Beginnings (Steve Howe album)|Beginnings]]'', he used a [[banjo guitar]] for the first time, on "Ram".{{sfn|Howe|2021|p=114}} Howe played a diverse array of guitars on the next Yes album, ''[[Going for the One]]'', including, on "Awaken" the album's longest track, a [[Rickenbacker]] electric 12-string, [[pedal steel]] and the Telecaster. He switched to a [[Fender Stratocaster|Stratocaster]] for "Parallels" and a [[Gibson L-5]] on the fadeout of "[[Wonderous Stories]]", as an homage to [[Wes Montgomery]].{{sfn|Howe|2021|p=121}} By ''[[Drama (Yes album)|Drama]]'', the last album of Yes's first iteration, Howe was using whatever type of guitar he thought worked best; he plays all the parts on that album save for the acoustic guitar on "Machine Messiah", played by [[Trevor Horn]].{{sfn|Howe|2021|p=141}}

[[File:Yes concert 2010-07-04 (4768790017).jpg|thumb|right|Howe playing a Line 6 Variax at a 2010 concert]]
Howe would bring multiple guitars on tour with him to re-create the same sound in concert that was on the original recording. In the 2000s, he began using a Line 6 digital guitar in concert which could be programmed to sound like his other guitars.<ref>Brakes, Rod. [https://www.musicradar.com/news/steve-howe-yes-guitar-interview-line-6-2022 "Steve Howe on using Line 6 modelling to recreate his classic Yes guitar tones: 'I put the record on the hi-fi and had the amp and processor on in my control room at the same time,'"] ''MusicRadar'', 13 July 2022, accessed 1 November 2022.</ref>

"I often say that it is only when I actually walk on stage that I fully realise I ''am'' a guitarist", Howe wrote in 2021, recalling how he had, like players he saw during his youth in the late 1960s, come to understand that he could feel free to use different guitars for different songs both on stage and in the studio. When writing songs, he has always recorded something, since in his early days he did not write music conventionally, and still has many of the original tapes.{{sfn|Howe|2021|p=61–63}}

Howe has long been interested in the details of the recording process. "The way a guitar sounds is determined by so many different factors: how you play, what you play, what you play on, what microphone is used and in what position, where and how loud the guitar is in the mix and what frequencies are added or cut during the mastering or pressing."{{sfn|Howe|2021|p=113}} For that reason he has insisted on producing all his own solo work. "I know what I like and what I don't like. My ears can't be deceived."{{sfn|Howe|2021|p=225}} Today he, like Yes and other recording artists, has come to rely on the [[Pro Tools]] software package during both production and post-production.{{sfn|Howe|2021|p=64}} He was the band's sole producer of ''[[The Quest (Yes album)|The Quest]]'' (2021) and ''[[Mirror to the Sky]]'' (2023).