On May 17th, 2007 Pantera and Damageplan guitarist Dimebag Darrell was inducted into Hollywood’s RockWalk. A bronze bust of the legendary metal guitarist was unveiled and installed in the RockWalk. Many performers came out to the event including members of Alice in Chains, Anthrax, Kiss, Rob Zombie, and Slayer.
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Yngwie Malmsteen is auctioning off his 1983 Ferrari GTS 308 QV on eBay. Malmsteen purchased the car while recording the album Eclipse and has owned it for 18 years. Currently the highest bid is $19,100 with 2 days remaining.

Ozzy (and presumably Zakk) will be the musical guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on May 22nd - the release date of his new studio album Black Rain. EDIT: Looks like he will be playing twice, both the 21st and the 22nd!

Blabbermouth has two links to articles about Chuck Schuldiner. The first is a tribute by Greek Hard Rock magazine originally published in December 2006, and the second is a tribute published by Guitar World in the April 2007 issue.

Will this Dean ML painted by modern artist Mark Ryden sell for one million dollars? He’s a wicked artist, but I doubt it will. It’s a sweet looking guitar though.

After Eric Clapton was reported to have made just under five million on the sale of the rights to Clapton: The Autobiography, Keith Richards is now also shopping around to sell his book. Apparently he wants to beat Clapton’s 5-mil deal. I say good luck with THAT.

Gibson’s marketing department always seems to be a few steps behind, but they have finally updated the Gibson Custom website with details about the Zakk Wylde custom Flying V guitar.

There aren’t really any more details beyond what was known before, but they have release a [huge ass] 6MB 2 page PDF that displays it all in one inconveniently large package. Here is the little marketing writeup from the PDF:

THE CUSTOM SHOP DIFFERENCE
It burns in the heart of every player who purchases
a Gibson Custom Shop guitar… and it burns in the
heart of every employee who helps build our
world-class instruments.

We vow to continue infusing every instrument that
passes through our doors with that same passion.
It’s what makes our guitars the best.

From initial wood selection to final assembly, we
sweat the details so that when you pick up your
guitar, your dream, it exceeds every expectation
you could possibly have.

For 2007, we will continue to strive for excellence,
remain faithful to our history, and never lose sight
of our goal to build the fi nest guitars in the world.
Pick one up for yourself. Feel the passion that we
put into our guitars and release yours.

From what I can see they are still only making 100 of these bad boys. This is guaranteed to be a Gibson Vintage in about 50 years.

[Via Electric Guitar Review]

Gibson’s custom shop has released a Zakk Wylde signature model Flying V featuring a bullseye paint job and EMG pickups. I have not been able to find anything about it on Gibson’s website, or Gibsoncustom.com. I think it should show up under “Inspired by” on Gibson Custom, but I don’t think they update their site very often. Nevertheless, I did find a post on the Zakk Wylde forums about it.

It looks like they are available now. Gibson has done a limited run of 100 of this guitar and they are quoting a MSRP of $7056.00. Someone by the handle BUHZERKER has reported that Midtown Music in GA is letting them go for $4500.00USD.

Like everything else he puts his name behind, Zakk Wylde worked closely on the development of this guitar. Zakk feels that if he can’t pick one up off the shelf and play it at a show, then he won’t back it. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of signature guitars when they have a matched “unique” paint job. However, getting a guitar that has the same physical specs as your idol is fine. When trying to mimic the sound of someone, there is no better way than to use the exact same guitar that they use.

Some people on the forums were complaining about the placement of the pickup switch. Personally I don’t really see what the issue is with that. Having it up by the neck would put it in a bad place for being hit by the pick. The only other option to me would be to have it down in the lower half of the V by the control knobs. Either way, I personally think it is a non-issue.
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Just a quick post about the BLS show on April 12th. It ruled. I went and saw them in Vancouver in May of ‘05 and this show blew that one out of the water. It was amazing. The sound was awesome, the playing was awesome. The band seemed to really enjoy themselves the whole time they were up there. I couldn’t have asked for a better show. And it was just that much better because I got to meet Zakk a few hours before.

Anyway, here’s some pictures, videos, and forum posts about the show.

Images on Flickr:

Black Label Society - April 12th, 2007 MacEwan Hall Calgary

BLS Playing Suicide Messiah

Zakk Introducing JD

That’s right. On April 12th at Guitar Works on 16th Ave in Calgary I met Zakk Wylde. Marshall held an autograph signing to which you had to enter a draw or buy a Marshall MG amp to attend. I, naturally not wanting to leave it up to luck and bought the amp.

First off, I should just say, the whole thing was a gong show from 11:30 when I showed up until 3:30 when I actually got through to meet him. The thing was poorly planned and totally unorganized. I don’t really want to get too much in it, but if you ever get the chance to meet the guy, bring something to get signed EVEN if they insist there will be no bringing in outside stuff to sign. I say that because they said there would be material to purchase to have him sign, and there wasn’t.

Anyway, the singing was supposed to go from 1pm to 3pm and you were supposed to arrive at 12pm to get an entrance bracelet. When I got there at 11:30 they wouldn’t give me one because I didn’t bring a CD to get signed. I wanted to purchase one there, but they hadn’t arrived yet. So I waited, and waited, and waited with about 20 other people for the CDs to come. Zakk showed up at about 2:30, and we still had no CD. In the end they gave us Dunlop posters for Zakk’s new guitar strings to get signed. The poster is pretty sweet, but still, not a CD.

I waited in line for about an hour after this and finally made it through the doors at almost 3:30. I was in awe just being in his presence. I cant really explain what it was like talking to the guy. He gave me a one armed hug, asked me if I was coming out to the show that night, I responded and we shot the shit for a few minutes, then he gave me another one armed hug and sent me on my way. It was awesome. I still think back on it and it seems like it was a dream. It was a great experience.

Here is a photo of the poster that I got signed.

I wanted to get a picture taken with him, but that was strictly prohibited. So I didn’t push it.

Zakk Wylde, love him or hate him, has developed quite the product empire. Despite never really breaking into the mainstream with Black Label Society, even as much as other similar bands like Lamb of God and Children of Bodom, Zakk has an amazing cult following. Because of this he has been able to build up quite the product line.

There was a time when Wylde was the be all and the end all for me. I thought he was the king shit of life and if I ever had a dream it was to be able to play like him. I have since broadened by metal tastes, but I would still love to have one of these on hand when I just want to plug in and play some BLS.
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I am going to go on a bit of a rant right now and just toss this out there. Can someone please tell me what the appeal of a replica guitar is? Ok, so signature guitars are one thing. You want to sound as close to your guitar idol as humanly possible, so you buy all of their gear including their brand new INSERT GUITAR MANUFACTURER HERE Signature guitar. But I just don’t get where guitar makers are finding a market for all of these replica guitars complete with every scuff, stain, and scratch of the original.

The first one I saw was ESP’s James Hetfield Truckster. It comes complete with the same wear marks that are found on James’ original. Ok… sort of a cool idea, I’ll dig it. Then I came across Dean’s Dimebag Darrell Dean from Hell ML replica. Again… ok, even though I have issues with Dean taking advantage of Dime’s now legend status to sell guitars after his untimely death (RIP Dime).

Then the big announcement at NAMM was Eddie Van Halen worked out a deal with Fender to produce a limited number of exact replicas of his Frankenstrat guitar. Now… I don’t think I need to point out the obvious, but I will anyway. The original wasn’t even a Fender. In fact it said Charvel right on the headstock. So is fender going to go as far as to find the same original parts that went into making the original Frankenstrat? I really don’t think so. Never the less, they will sell for thousands of dollars.

Even as I write this I came across this Gibson Custom Limited Run Zakk Wylde Bullseye Aged Les Paul. Again, who wants to pay $7,999USD for scuffed up replica?

Zakk Wylde has been one of my favourite guitarists since the first time I heard him back in about ‘97. His style of pure speed shredding mesmerized me. For those of you who are new to Zakk, he started as Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist in 1988, he had a side band Pride and Glory in the early 90’s, and then formed Black Label Society after that. His style is unique and is nobody’s but his own. Obviously he is famous for a few things like his use of pinch harmonics and “chickin-pickin”. But he still preaches the basics: Start off slow and build up speed.

Zakk Wylde - Pentatonic Hardcore

The following video is probably Zakk Wylde’s most famous. I believe it was originally distributed by the magazine Young Guitar. The instructional video is an hour long and has Zakk going through many different basic and advanced skills including Pentatonic scales, chickin-pickin licks, vibrato, pinch harmonics, alternate picking and much more. If you follow this video and practise it every day for about 3 years, maybe you will be able to shred like him.

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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…)

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.

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…)

The lineup for this year’s Ozzfest has been announced and Ozzy will only be playing 10 of the 20 shows. Ozzy and System of a Down will be headlining the main stage. Black Label Society, Atreyu, and Unearth, three bands I would love to see, will be playing the second stage.

Read all of Ozzfest of 06 at antimusic

I have been a huge Zakk Wylde fan for at least 5 years now and I have always been fascinated with his playing style. He plays with blistering speed and has some of the most unique sounds I have ever heard. By far though, his signature is the heavy chunky riffs filled with screaming pinch harmonics. It’s pretty frustrating when you are trying to learn a song or style and just can’t get it to sound the same as the original. This happened to me when I started learning Black Label Society riffs. So why couldn’t I make it sound the same as Zakk did? Well most of it had to do with my gear; I needed some EMG ZW Set active pickups.

The major difference is active pickups use a battery to re-amplify the sound before it even gets to your amp. That’s what gives you that extra chunk, scream, and sustain that Zakk is famous for. The EMG ZW pickups are a set of 2 EMG pickups, 1 EMG-81 for the neck and 1 EMG-85 for the bridge. As soon as I put them into my guitar and powered it up I could tell the difference, and if you really want to hear it, try tuning your guitar down to D tuning. Nothings better. (more…)