Simon McBride knows he will never make everyone happy in the Deep Purple world, and he is fine with that. The guitarist has been drawing attention after explaining why he moved away from a traditional tube-amp setup and toward digital amp modeling, a shift that has sparked predictable complaints from some Ritchie Blackmore loyalists. McBride laughed off the backlash, saying, “I can hear a lot of Ritchie Blackmore fans crying out, ‘No! He’s using digital stuff!’” but he added that the decision works for the band and the way they sound now.
At the center of the debate is Deep Purple’s new album, SPLAT!, which arrived on July 3, 2026 and is the first Deep Purple record to feature McBride’s digital modeling approach throughout the guitar setup. Guitar World reported that McBride used a Neural DSP Quad Cortex on the album, while keeping the feel of his ENGL tones and reshaping them to better fit the band’s current live and studio mix.
McBride’s reasoning is practical rather than ideological. He said he had to change his sound because of the frequency space in Deep Purple’s lineup, especially with Don Airey on keyboards. “You’re dealing with Don Airey… He’s in a very similar frequency range to the guitar, so I had to figure something out to make the guitar sound more powerful,” he explained. He said that meant adjusting the lower mids and bass, then capturing that tone digitally so the sound would stay consistent while touring.
That shift does not mean McBride is trying to rewrite Deep Purple’s identity. In earlier interviews, he said he never wanted to be “a Steve Morse clone or a Ritchie Blackmore clone,” stressing that the goal is to play respectfully while still sounding like himself. He has also said some parts of the Purple catalog are effectively untouchable, especially instantly recognizable songs like “Highway Star,” while other sections allow more freedom.
The timing is important because McBride is still relatively new to the role. He joined Deep Purple in 2022, first stepping in while Steve Morse took time away and then becoming the band’s full-time guitarist. Deep Purple’s own recent history notes that McBride was welcomed not as a replacement for a legend, but as a guitarist with his own voice and a style that fits the band’s bluesy, heavy core.
His comments also line up with the way Deep Purple have been working recently. The band’s modern-era releases have continued under producer Bob Ezrin, and SPLAT! follows 2024’s * =1* as part of what looks like a highly active late-career chapter. The new album’s rollout has included singles such as “Arrogant Boy,” “Diablo,” and “Guilt Trippin’,” and the band has already spoken about the record in terms that suggest it is meant to sound bigger, heavier, and more flexible than a nostalgia exercise.
McBride’s own view of the technology is refreshingly unromantic. He has made clear that modelers are simply tools, not a betrayal of rock tradition. In the Guitar World piece, the point was not that digital is “better” than analog, but that it helps him control the sound more precisely in a band with a dense, signature keyboard-guitar blend. For McBride, the mission is not to imitate the past; it is to make Deep Purple’s current lineup sound as powerful as it can.
That makes the online pushback from some Blackmore fans almost inevitable. Blackmore’s era remains sacred to many listeners, and any visible departure from vintage gear tends to trigger arguments about authenticity. But McBride’s approach reflects the reality of a band that is still actively recording and touring in 2026, not preserving a museum piece. Deep Purple are not trying to sound like 1972 or 1984; they are trying to sound like Deep Purple now.
The bigger picture is simple: McBride is not trying to compete with Ritchie Blackmore’s mythology. He is trying to serve the band’s present tense. And if some purists dislike the digital setup, McBride’s answer is basically that the song, the mix, and the live experience matter more than the gear argument. Deep Purple’s next chapter is already here, and he is determined to make it loud.
