When Fender bought out Jackson Guitars Alexi was told it would take 1 year for them to build him a new signature guitar. When ESP told him it would only take them 3 months it was a no-brainer for him to switch. The Alexi Laiho signature is basically a Jackson RR Custom clone with some added visual flair.

The design of the guitar plays on the black pinstripe on white look that the Jackson RR1 Rhoads has, but with a more stylized look. The shark fin points on the body are straighter and slightly curved as opposed to the true edges on the RR. (more…)

Dimebag had always been a Dean player in his youth. His first Dean was a cherry sunburst ML bought for him by his father and his second a Dean that he won in a playing competition. The guitar he won later became his most popular guitar, the custom lighting bolt painted Cowboy from Hell.

When Dean went out of business in the mid 80’s Dimebag became a Washburn promoter. In 2004, not long before Dime’s death the Dean company was reopened by Dean Zelinsky and Dimebag was brought back on as an endorser. The Razorback Tribute has been released along with a range of reissued ML guitars in Dimebag’s name. (more…)

Randy Rhoads designed this guitar and approved its prototype before he passed. It’s a shame he didn’t live to see this wonderful guitar come to production. Randy will forever be known as one of metal’s most talented and influential guitarists. So many of today’s guitar players were influenced by the man who made Ozzy and the Jackson RR1 Rhoads Signature screams just like Randy would have wanted.

The RR1 is Jackson’s most popular signature guitar, and not only for its name. The alder body and maple neck are built together in a neck-thru design. Neck-thru gives the guitar much more sustain than the cheaper bolt-on neck option. (more…)

The Zakk Wylde Signature Les Paul is one of the most popular signature guitars from Gibson. The original features a stunning black on antique white bulleye trademark paint job and a raw oiled maple neck. The Zakk Wylde CAMO is an alteration of that 80’s Les Paul using a black on camouflage for the bullseye.

The body is a 1 piece mahogany back under a carved maple top decorated with gold hardware. For sound it sports the signature EMG ZW (81 neck/85 bridge) active pickups for playing those heavy screaming Black Label Society riffs. I have the ZW set in my Les Paul and I couldn’t imagine another pickup for playing metal. Active is the way to go if you ask me. The sound of the overdrive is unmatched and the sustain is infinite. (more…)

As we all know ESP is pretty much the guitar when it comes to metal. The company has 17 different signature models and most of them are for metal guitarists. The first thing that catches my eye about the Ninja is it has this classic flying-v look with an edge. The guitar was introduced like many others at 2006’s NAMM show. It comes in black and has chrome hardware and chrome pick guard.

Some of the features of the guitar include a set neck, 2 volume controls, a 3-way pickup switch, and Seymour Duncan pickups with a JB at the bridge and a 59 at the neck. For the shredder in us all the headstock sports Sperzel locking tuners and 22 XJ frets. To add that extra signature look the rosewood fingerboard has X shaped ninja star inlays. (more…)

ESP number 3 on the list of signature metal guitars is Kirk Hammett’s KH-2. The KH-2 comes in three different models, the Vintage, the Neck-Thru, and the Standard, all at different price points. There was a time when I thought there were none greater than Kirk Hammett. I have since discovered otherwise, however there is no denying his guitar talent.

The three versions of the KH-2 are very similar. They are 24 XJ fret guitars with a 25.5″ scale. Each guitar has an alder body with a rosewood fingerboard. There is an EMG 81 pickup in both the bridge and neck position and they are controlled with 2 volume knobs, 1 tone knob, and a three way switch. Everything is finished in black hardware and the fingerboard is inlayed with skull and crossbones markers. On the pick end the bridge is an original Floyd Rose tremolo. (more…)

I found a great post titled Guitar Reading List v3 and Instructional DVDs over at Striking the Right Chord, If You Can Find It.

I haven’t had the chance to read all of the books on his list, but nevertheless, it is a great list. One book I must agree on is his number one pick, The Guitar Handbook by Ralph Denyer.

Bob Sutor, the blog’s author says:

The Guitar Handbook by Ralph Denyer
This is the master bible: a lot of information about guitars and music theory and even information on how to fix things when they break.

I like the book because it has a lot of everything. It has guitar history, construction, and maintenance information as well as chords, scales, and technique lessons ranging from beginner to advanced.

Bob has made a great comprehensive list and I will be checking out a few of his suggestions myself.

Yngwie Malmsteen is sort of in a genre of his own. To call his music metal is sort of a stretch by today’s standards. Regardless, the guy can shred better than 90 percent of the players today, and without him, shredding wouldn’t be the same.

Inspired by to pick up guitar by powerful footage of Jimi Hendrix sacrificing his axe, Yngwie (Ing-vay) started playing with Hendrix and Deep Purple as his influences. Later he would become interested in classical composers like Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, and Vivaldi. Studying classical music, Malmsteen developed his own style of neo-classical metal. (more…)

Unless you haven’t picked up on it yet, I’m a pretty big metal fan. I was thinking about doing a series of review posts on some guitars commonly used by metal guitarists.

To finish off the month of March, over the next 7 days we will look at 7 different signature metal guitars. Each of the signature guitars is from one of my favorite guitarists.

The guitars I plan on reviewing are as follows:

1. Guitar Reviews: March Metal Madness
2. Fender Stratocaster Yngwie Malmsteen Signature Guitar
3. ESP KH-2 Kirk Hammett Signature Guitar
4. ESP Ninja 600 Michael Amott Signature Guitar
5. Gibson Les Paul Zakk Wylde CAMO Signature Guitar
6. Jackson RR1 Randy Rhoads Signature Guitar
7. Dean USA Razorback Tribute Dimebag Darrell Signature Guitar
8. ESP Alexi Laiho Signature Guitar

So, check back tomorrow for first on the list, the Yngwie Malmsteen Fender Strat.

As with many things pertaining to guitar, the type and size of strings are all preference. At most guitar stores there will be a selection ranging from $5 strings up to maybe $35 for premium strings. Strings come in all sorts of different thicknesses and are made from different metals, so how do you choose what type is right for you?

Type of Guitar

The type of strings you are going to get first depends on what type of guitar you have. You will need a different type of strings if you have an electric guitar, an acoustic guitar, a classical nylon string guitar, or a 12 string guitar. There is usually a large selection of strings for each type, depending on what store you go to.

String Gauge or Thickness

Strings come in a range of standard and custom gauges (or thicknesses). Usually they range from extra light, to light, to medium, to heavy, and in some cases extra heavy. The gauge of strings you choose depends on a few things. (more…)

I came across this set of guitar posts titled Because I’m All About the Guitar over at Half a Pica Distance one day when I was browsing Technorati. The blog’s author, Cullen, has written 21 great posts (so far) about guitars, guitar gods, his musical favorites, and much more. He really brings a personal element to the posts and I enjoyed reading through them.

To check out his series of posts starting with Zakk Wylde Then and Now, head over to Half a Pica Distance.

I was reading the Guitar Squad blog and came across a post on a new blues prodigy, Jimmy Bowskill. I can remember not a few years ago Kenny Wayne Shepherd was the blues kid everyone was talking about. It seems as thought Jimmy Bowskill at the ripe age of 16 might be the next KWS, and possibly the next SRV. For a 16 year old he has a very good handle on the guitar and a great sense of rhythm, which is important when playing the blues.

The self taught blues guitarist was nominated for the Juno Blues Album of the Year in 2005 and Favorite Blues Artist in both 2004 and 2005. If you visit his site at www.jimmybowskil.com there a few audio tracks you can listen to as well as 3 video clips. Jimmy Bowskill will be a guy to watch over the next few years.

When learning songs from written sources like instruction books or online files there are three main forms of written music for the guitar. The three types are chords, tablature, and music notation. Each form brings its own advantages and each form is a bit more complex than the last.

Chords

Probably the simplest form of documenting a song is through chords. The chord progression for the chorus, verse, and bridge of a song is written out for the player to read and play. The advantages to chord files are they are simple and usually show you when the chords are played in relation to the lyrics. Singing guitarists may find this the easiest method of learning a song. (more…)

The Guitar Shred Show lessons site takes a unique approach at teaching guitar players how to shred. The site has a flashed base interface and is all in a video form. We follow the path of Mr. Fastfinger who teaches us to shred by example. It’s really easy, you just press a key between A and Z or 1 and 0 and Mr. Fastfinger will demonstrate a different lick for you. Along the bottom of the screen the lick is shown in tab form for you to learn as well. The really fun part is you can make your own shredding solo by pressing different keys from A to Z in succession. Mr. Fastfinger will move from riff to riff creating a wicked guitar solo.

It’s fun for quite a while actually. There is even a story mode where you have to dual with an evil tribe god to win the praise of the village people.

Throughout my guitar playing years my musical tastes have changed greatly. I started out very closed minded when it came to music and I really think I have grown because guitar has allowed me to appreciate many different kinds of music. The following songs changed my musical path and introduced me to a whole new world of music.

Nirvana - Come as you are
Nirvana’s come as you was monumental because it was the first song I taught myself to play on guitar. It was a really easy song to pick up and really got me hooked on playing. (more…)