NEWS: New Ibanez FR colour
Check out this new colour for Ibanez’s FR2620 model. At the moment this one is only available in Japan. I first saw the FR series in person at a Paul Gilbert clinic earlier this year, when he used a black FR1620 to play ‘I Still See That Other Girl.’
The FR2620 model was already available in Dark Natural Sunburst. The new natural finish really shows off the ash body, and makes the FR look more like the Telecasters that obviously inspired it.
Specs:
Neck type: 5pc Maple/Walnut Prestige neck
Body: Ash body
Fingerboard: Rosewood fingerboard
Fret: Jumbo frets
Bridge: Tight-End bridge
Pickups: CCR1 neck, CCR2 bridge
Hardware color: Chrome
CLICK HERE to buy the Ibanez FR1620 in black
NEWS: Sammy Hagar’s new video
Sammy Hagar has just released the video for ‘Cosmic Universal Fashion,’ the title track off his forthcoming alblum (released November 18). The album features Sammy’s parner in ex-Van Halenism, bass player Michael Anthony, as well as Billy Duffy from the Cult, Matt Sorum from Guns N’ Roses, Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top and Neal Schon from Journey.
‘Cosmic Universal Fashion, was written in an online collaboration between Hagar and a young Iraqi band in Baghdad, and the music video is a sequel to Van Halen’s ‘Right Now.’ video. The album also includes a cover of the Beastie Boys’ ‘(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party).’ If anyone has a right to cover that song, it’s a dude who started his own tequila company, hehe.
I’ll have a review of the album soon. In the meantime, here’s the video.
CLICK HERE to buy Sammy Hagar – Cosmic Universal Fashion
HALLOWEEN BRUTALITY – ESP George Lynch Skulls & Snakes
Here’s another one that goes back to my very first guitar magazine, the March 1991 issue of Guitar World with ZZ Top on the cover. George Lynch appeared in a Seymour Duncan ad for his Screamin’ Demon pickup, posing with this guitar. Naturally it was the coolest f***ing thing in the world to my 13-year-old self, and I’ve never stopped lusting after this guitar.
Features include a blot-on maple neck on an alder body, rosewood fretboard, 45mm neck width, George’s custom neck conour, 22 extra jumbo frets, Gotoh tuners, Floyd Rose bridge, George’s Screamin’ Demon bridge pickup, and an ESP SH-100 Rail pickup in the neck position.
CLICK HERE to buy George Lynch’s 1993 solo album ‘Sacred Groove’
HALLOWEEN BRUTALITY – ESP Shinigami
Got $20,000? Then perhaps this ESP Custom Shop Shinigami is for you. Specs are pretty hard to come by but does that even matter, with a guitar as demonic as this? Click on the image to see its evilness in greater detail. That’s no printed graphic either – this sucker is carved and painted.
HALLOWEEN BRUTALITY – Dean Dave Mustaine VMNT
Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine has had more than his fair share of signature guitars – various Jackson models, the ESP DV8 and Axxion, and now the Dean Dave Mustaine VMNT. One thing Dave’s guitars have in common is their aggressive styling – this is not a dude that you’ll see strapping on a Les Paul. The DV8 is not drastically different from the King V-based Jackson Dave Mustaine model of the 90s, and it has a few design refinements including through-body stringing and a tune-o-matic bridge (his Jackson had a fixed Kahler bridge).
Most VMNT variants also have Seymour Duncan Dave Mustaine Livewire active pickups. Voiced to sound like a Seymour Duncan JB and Jazz set but with twice as much output, these 9-volt active pickups run on low noise, discrete class A circuitry, and can be operated at up to 25 volts for extremely high headroom.
My favourite version of the VMNT is the ‘Angel of Deth’ model, but check out the double neck version of the VMNT too. I guess this one is more of a Flying W than a Flying V.
CLICK HERE to buy the Dean Dave Mustaine VMNT Angel of Deth Electric Guitar
HALLOWEEN BRUTALITY: Ibanez Xiphos
The Ibanez Xiphos was first released as a 6-string version with an Ibanez Edge III Floyd Rose-style bridge. The Xiphos gets its evil from looking like some kind of medieval weapon, but it also has a touch of glam with its eye-catching colour-change paint. Pictured is the extra-deadly 7-string version, which features Dimarzio D Activator 7 pickups, (designed to sound like actives, D Activators are also on the 6-string Xiphos), and a very heavy, sturdy Ibanez Gibraltar Custom 7 bridge.
Some players are a little anti-Xiphos because the shape is similar to the Jackson Warrior. Being an Ibanez fanboy, it doesn’t bother me one bit, and I hope some day they release a Japanese version with an Edge Zero bridge and prestige finishing.
CLICK HERE to buy the Ibanez XPT700 Xiphos Blue Chameleon
HALLOWEEN BRUTALITY – The Most Evil Albums Ever
Click on any title to buy the album.
Black Sabbath – Dehumanizer
There are many evil Sabbath albums, but the demonic alliance of Tony Iommi and Ronnie James Dio was never spookier than on this 1992 release. The production is swimming in natural reverb, making it sound like you’ve stumbled across the band playing in a crypt or something, and you can practically hear Dio throwing the devil horn hand gesture as he sings. Try to get through the opening riff of ‘After All (The Dead’ without getting the creeps.
Slayer – Reign in Blood
30 minutes and 20-something seconds of thrash carnage. Topics include death, dying, mortality, killing, and being killed. Aside from a whole bunch of songs with running times less than two and a half minutes, there’s also ‘Raining Blood’ and ‘Angel of Death,’ each at almost 5 minutes, for those who like their evil to be bigger than snack size.
Paul Gilbert – Burning Organ
This album as a whole isn’t evil, but it includes the track ‘I Am Satan’ which begins with the count-off “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 6!!!” and goes on to tell the tale of Satan falling in love with a chick, but freaking out about what she’ll do when she finds out who he is. Will she stay or will she go? ‘Burning Organ’ also includes the track ‘Suicide Lover,’ which features the classic line “She’s a suicide lover. You could say her love’s the bomb.”
Megadeth – United Abominations (Japanese version with ‘Out On The Tiles’ Led Zeppelin cover) Roadrunner
Any album loaded with as many puns as this one has got to be evil. Puns are the most evil form of humour there is. This one also gets bonus spooky points for lines like “The angel of death is pissed off with me again, just because I got to put you out of my misery.”
Devin Townsend – Ziltoid The Omniscient Hevy Devy
What could be more evil than a demented alien who attacks earth because he needs a caffeine hit? Nothing, that’s what. Devin recorded and performed all of this monster album single-handedly, and it features some of his best melodic songwriting since Ocean Machine, as well as lots of brutal Strapping Young Lad-style metal.
Jonas Brothers – A Little Bit Longer
This is obviously the most evil album of all time.
INTERVIEW: George Lynch on distortion
What better way to celebrate Halloween than with a few words from Mr Scary himself, George Lynch as part of I Heart Guitar’s ongoing series on the glory of distortion? The following is a little teaser of my interview with George for the upcoming edition of Mixdown magazine, out next week. A few weeks after that, I’ll post the extended version of the interview here.
PETER: What is your philosophy on distortion?
GEORGE LYNCH: Less is more.
PETER: How do you generate your distortion?
LYNCH: I’m always switching out overdrive pedals. Right now I’m switching between Analog Man King of Tone, Naked OD, Keeley hand-wired point-to-point time machine boost (Lynch Model) and a Cusak Tube Screamer.
PETER: Tell us about the Lynch Box amp with Randall. How does it adapt to your different musical personalities?
LYNCH: Dave Freeman, Bruce Egnator and I worked from the bottom up, designing modules that matched some of my favorite amps: early Boogie Recto’s, Marshall Plexis, Vox AC30s, etc.
I started out with Randall in the very early 80′s. I worked with Gary Sunds on the RG 100. So I’ve come full circle with them by getting on board again 25 years later. We plan on re-releasing the RG 100 amp in the next couple years. It was a very unique amp with a signature sound, and it was all transistor!
CLICK HERE to buy the Randall MTS Series Lynch Box 100W amp head with modules
CLICK HERE to buy the ESP George Lynch M-1 Tiger electric guitar
CLICK HERE to buy George Lynch: The Lost Anthology on CD
Photo by Gabrielle Geiselman
NEWS: New Schecter V
Schecter has just unveiled the new-for-2009 Damien V-1 (fixed bridge) and Damien V-1FR (Floyd Rose). I couldn’t find any specs on these yet, but they appear to have EMG-HZ passive pickups and a matte finish, which leads me to believe they won’t be mega-ultra-expensive models. I like the offset carve at the treble side of the neck/body join. I think lot of players are into more traditional V shapes but want modern playability, and this is the perfect way to get it. I’d like to see this model with a pickup upgrade, but ya gotta dig those bat inlays.
NEWS: New Megadeth live DVD
Megadeth will soon release “Blood In The Water: Live In San Diego,” recorded on the 2008 Gigantour tour. This is the first official recording featuring new guitarist Chris Broderick (Nevermore, Jag Panzer) and the guy is a freaking monster. Check out his sweet Ibanez LA Custom Shop 7-string in this video.
If you can’t wait for a release date for the DVD, there’s this:
PREMIERE! HDNet TV Concert Series: Sunday, November 2nd 8:00 PM ET – Megadeth “Blood in the Water: Live in San Diego” – “Pioneers of the American thrash metal genre, Megadeth has become one of the most commercially successful heavy metal bands of all time. Watch as they perform to a raucous hometown crowd at the Cox Arena in San Diego, California on the 2008 Gigantour tour. Dave Mustane and Megadeth push the limit, playing faster and heavier than ever in the ultimate Megadeth experience.” Repeats Mon., Nov. 3rd 2:30 AM ET
Megadeth will hit the road in Europe and the UK during February and March with Judas Priest and Testament. Dates are here.
Hi! I'm Peter Hodgson. I write for Gibson.com, Australian Guitar, Australian Musician, Mixdown Magazine (including my instructional column, 'Unleash Your Inner Rock God,' which has been running since 2007), Blunt, Beat (including their weekly hard rock/metal column Crunch) and The Brag. And I'm Assistant Social Coordinator with Seymour Duncan.
I've been playing guitar since I was 8 years old, and I've been writing for magazines since I was 18. I've also worked as a guitar teacher (up to 50 students a week), a setup tech, a newspaper editor, and I've also dabbled in radio a little bit. I live in Melbourne, Australia, and my hobbies include drinking way too much coffee, and eating way too much Mexican food.
You can check out my guitar playing at Bandcamp or on YouTube, and feel free to email me at iheartguitarblog@gmail.com