MUSIKMESSE 2012: Jackson Mille Phobia, Adrian Smith models
Check out these monstrous new models from Jackson at MusikMesse. Kreator’s Mille Petrozza gets a long, long overdue signature V, the Mille Phobia King V. Part of the wallet-friendly X-Series, it’s a basswood-bodied, maple ‘speed neck’ beastie with recessed Floyd Rose Special, 24 jumbo frets, compound radius 12″-16″ radius fretboard, EMG 81 active humbucker, and custom inlays including a Kreator logo at the 12th fret.
And Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith gets a new toy, the Adrian Smith Signature SDX. Continue reading
NAMM Jackson Custom Shop Pablo Santana 7-string for sale
Remember the killer Jackson Custom Shop B-7 7-string built by Pablo Santana which I wrote about here? Well it’s now for sale at The Music Zoo.
The guitar features a transparent purple quilted maple top, mahogany body, neck-through mahogany neck, ebony fretboard, 25.5″ scale length, inlays by Ron Thorn, EMG 707 humbuckers, Floyd Rose tremolo and black/gold hardware.
You can buy this killer one-of-a-kind axe at the Music Zoo’s eBay store here.
NAMM 2012: Jackson Custom Shop 7 and 8 strings
Thought the Charvel 7-strings were cool? Well you were right. But check out these gorgeous Jackson Custom Shop 7-strings by Pablo Santana:
Huh? Close-ups? Sure.
Ah, but we all know that just as seven strings are better than six, eight are better than seven. So I give you this prototype, with EMG pickups and a killer natural finish.
INTERVIEW: Megadeth’s Chris Broderick
Th1rt3en is Chris Broderick’s second album in one of the most coveted guitar jobs in the world: Dave Mustaine’s sparring partner in Megadeth. Broderick has some pretty big shoes to fill (Marty Friedman, Chris Poland, Glen Drover), but that’s old news: he brings his own style, feel and technique to the band in a way that they hadn’t really had since the early days of Friedman’s reign in the 90s. Th1rt3en finds Broderick once again shredding with the best of them and weaving in and out of classically Megadeth riffage with confidence and ease. I caught up with Broderick to talk Th1rt3en and, of course, guitar.
——-
Hi, is this Peter?
Yes it is. Nice to meet you again! I met you a couple of years ago NAMM.
Oh did you really? Where at? What booth?
The Ibanez booth.
Oh nice! Very cool.
And now you’re with Jackson. How’s your new signature guitar working out for you?
It’s awesome! Dare I say, it’s perfect, for me personally. Because you have to understand, when I approached Jackson they were the only ones that never said no. They said “Yeah, we can do that, and we can do that.” So I built that guitar from the ground up thinking about everything I could from the ergonomics to the weight distribution to the placement of the tone knob. Even the placement of the pickups, in addition to the fretboard radius, the stainless steel frets, extremely tall narrow frets. I built that guitar up to be exactly what I’d want, so for me it definitely is the perfect instrument.
Are you using the seven-string version with Megadeth, or is that more of a ‘just because you can’ thing?
No. Well, I’ve always been more of a seven-string player than a six-string player, ever since they were available in the late 80s, early 90s. So for me I’ll always be playing more seven-string stuff. But since Megadeth is more of a traditional thrash band we stick to six strings just to keep those traditional thrash roots more in focus. So whenever I’m onstage with Megadeth it’s always six string, and when I do my own stuff it’s definitely seven-string.
The one that got away – Oh Jackson Archtop Soloist, where are you now?
When I was a kid there was a music store in my town called Don Jefferson’s Music – don’t look for it, it ain’t there no more – and a couple of times a year I was lucky enough to get to go to “Jeffo’s” to pick out a birthday present (usually a pedal) or to buy some new strings. They seemed to have an awful lot of (or a lot of awful) Strat and Les Paul copies, but every once in a while, something cool would come in. A green Fender Eric Clapton Stratocaster. A snakeskin BC Rich Gunslinger. They’d never let me play ‘em, but I sure used to like looking.
And then, I saw it.
A purple Jackson Archtop Soloist, with two humbuckers and a tigerstripe maple top. That pic up there? That’s not exactly the right model and it’s obviously not the right colour, but you get the idea.
I thought this was the sexiest guitar in the world. Any time I went past the shop, I would just stare and stare through the window at it. If I held my breath on a still day I could swear I could hear it gently calling my name. Its legend spread, and other guitar-playing kids at school became aware of it too. It was my “if I ever get a million dollars, I’m going to buy that” guitar.
Then one day, someone told me they were in Jeffo’s when some snotty kid came in with their dad, all sulky and teenage, and were told to pick out a guitar to start lessons on. The story goes that the kid grunted and pointed at my beloved purple archtop Jackson Soloist, and that was the end of that. I’d like to think that the story was bullshit – that the guitar went to a loving home, and that maybe bitterness and jealousy had tainted the story before it made it to my ears. At the very least, I hope the kid looked after the guitar and appreciated it. To this day I’ve never owned a Jackson, and that burns me up inside! I was this close to buying a Rhoads once but it wasn’t to be. Maybe some day I’ll get that soloist. And that RR. And that King V. Some day.
Now, that was my first ‘The one that got away’ story. Some day, let me tell you about the Ibanez Jem7PBK I missed out on by a couple of bucks. Or the 80s Schecter Pete Townsend tele that some asshole was in the process of walking out with right when I’d walked into the store with a fistfull of bucks to purchase it myself.
What was your one that got away?
INTERVIEW: Trivium’s Matt Heafy & Corey Beaulieu
We all know Trivium can play. They’ve been able to shred with the best of them ever since their first album, 2003′s Ember To Inferno, while and 2008′s Shogun veered close to progressive metal more than once, with its complex single note lines and ferocious 7-string riffage. But new album In Waves (Roadrunner) finds these Floridians exploring more restrained territory – to a point. The riffs are more direct, the tones are huge, and the songwriting is tight and purposeful. Guitarists Corey Beaulieu and Matt Heafy refined their approach without losing their edge or power, a rare feat in a world were ‘stripped back songwriting’ is usually taken to mean ‘wimpy.’ There’s still plenty of precision in the latest evolution of the Trivium sound, and there’s more than enough aggression to satisfy fans of the band’s early hardcore days, but In Waves stands out as the best sounding and most repeat-listenable Trivium album to date. I spoke with Heafy and Beaulieu about what went into the project, and what ultimately came out.
You started working on this album quite a while ago. Is that how you always work?
COREY BEAULIEU Mostly on every record, while we’re touring for the previous record, we stockpile ideas. Once we get off tour we have a lot of stuff we can start digging into and putting together. We use the tour to write and put together ideas so that when we start on the next record we’re a bit ahead. We’ve already got stuff we’ve been working on over time and that has been allowed to develop. Some of the songs go back pretty far back in the Shogun touring cycle.
What was your guitar approach on this album?
BEAULIEU It was about focusing on the songs, and writing songs that are straight to the point. It wasn’t all about technical stuff or trying to riff out a lot or show off. It was just making sure everything in the song was what needed to be there and nothing more. Taking a songwriter’s approach and not trying to be a flashy guitar player. It’s all about making the song and the riff the best it can be. It’s a lot simpler technically. We took that approach for the playing stuff, and the solos were whatever was needed for the song, whether it was a crazy solo or something more melodic. The songs dictated the lead stuff.
MATT HEAFY We were thinking about telling [producer] Colin Richardson, “We want a combination of this, this and that…” but I’m pretty sure we held all of our comments until we saw him in person. The guitar process was long. Normally, every record we’ve ever done, you get a BS scratch guitar tone and send it off to be mixed later, but Colin’s whole thing is he doesn’t want to record a second of music until he has a tone that will be the final tone of the record. I think we spent about five days on the guitar tone.
NEWS: Megadeth’s Chris Broderick talks Jackson sig
Remember that sweet Jackson Chris Broderick signature model unveiled at NAMM? Well Chris has gone into much more detail about the guitar on his blog here. I was very interested to read about the custom-wound DiMarzio Fundamental pickups that will be featured in the guitar.
“Hey Everyone,
Thanks for the interest in my guitars. They are in the production phase of the 6 strings so those should be out soon, as for the 7 we are working out the details of the Floyd low pro bridge (this will be the only 7 to have it) and it should be going into production runs any time now. For the record it will not have a barrel jack (I never liked them), it will have a Fender style jack plate on the side of the guitar that you can reverse if you like. Here is a list of specs on the guitar, I hope you guys like it.
Available to the public in a 7 and 6 string version exactly like the ones I play. I wanted this because first and foremost I primarily play and feel at home on the 7 string but play my 6 strings on stage with Megadeth.
NEWS: David Ellefson on Jackson, Megadeth, Hartke, Rock House Method
Bravewords.com has a great interview with Megadeth’s David Ellefson by Mitch Lafon (follow Mitch on Twitter here) in which Junior talks about switching to Hartke (and back to Jackson), the legacy of the Big 4, plans for the next Megadeth album, his Rock House Method instructional DVDs and more. Here are a couple of snippets.
Bravewords.com: You’re currently doing bass clinics with ANTHRAX’ Frank Bello.
David Ellefson: “Yeah, it’s cool because Hartke amplifiers has been a really big supporter for me. I started using them as far back as the Peace Sells tour and I’ve turned back to my weapons of choice which is the Jackson bass and the Hartke amplifiers. I did some clinics for Hartke while I was out on the Jagermeister tour and Frank Bello just came on board with Hartke, so I thought it was a really cool idea that during our down time that Frank and I go out and do some clinics together. The Big 4 thing has become the anchor between the four bands now. We’ve really put a name to our community and I think that anytime any of us do things together whether it’s the SLAYER/Megadeth Carnage tour, the Slayer/Anthrax/Megadeth Jägermeister tour, Frank and I doing bass clinics or all four of us getting onstage as the Big 4 again… More than ever we’ve become so tightly knit as a community of thrash metal right now and anything that we can do together as either pieces of the big machine or as the big machine itself is great for the fans and great for empowering the movement.”
NAMM 2011: Jackson Chris Broderick Signature Soloist
Here it is: the new Jackson Chris Broderick (Megadeth) Custom Shop signature Soloist model. Oooh. I’m a sucker for 7-strings and aggressive superstrats and this has got to be one of the coolest I’ve ever seen. You’ve just got to see this guitar in person.
Chris says of the axe:
“I love it. It’s great. You can just feel the balance, the way it sits. It doesn’t want to drop at all on its neck. It’s awesome. When I look at the fretboard radius, I know it’s a 12-inch. I love that. I love the curve of a fretboard radius. The quilted maple lining is awesome. Even the way they’ve beveled it from the top into the neck. It almost looks seamless; as seamless as you could possible make it. It’s beautiful. Killer. Can’t wait to play it.”
NAMM 2011: INTERVIEW: Phil Collen’s new Jackson Supreme
On NAMM Media Preview day I caught up with Def Leppard’s Phil Collen, who gave a demonstration of Agile Partners’ AmpKit (check out the video below to hear the huge tone in action), and he also used the opportunity to unveil his new signature Jackson PC Supreme model.
I know you’ve used the little Rockman in recording in the past. Do you think AmpKit might find its way onto an album?
Yeah! I actually don’t use amps to record guitar any more, and this [AmpKit] is the way to go! It’s very cool!
Now, this is a very sweet guitar. What’s going on here then?
It started with my Jackson PC1. It’s the same woods. [Brandishes guitar] That’s a mahogany body, that’s a maple top – well it would be if you could see it – that [bridge pickup] is a DiMarzio.
Which DiMarzio is that?
That’s a Super 3.
And the guitar’s neck?
The PC1 had a bolt-on neck, and this is obviously a neck-through. There are still some similar attributes, but this has the Sustainer [demonstrates with an extra-long whammy bar dive and some blues licks, then some mega-shred].
Nice! And I notice titanium saddles?
Yeah. I’ve been using them for a while. It really broadens the sound, I think. And I like my necks really chunky. This one is not as big as the other prototype that’s floating around. That one has like a one-inch radius.
LINKS: Jacksonguitars.com, Agile Partners
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