Les Paul devotee Zakk Wylde dishes the stories behind some his favorite (and most infamous) axes.
A player connects to a guitar for many reasons: feel, tone, or even sentimental value can play a part in musical mojo. From his days as a young gun with Ozzy Osbourne to his longtime role as the head of the Black Label Society, Zakk Wylde and his Les Pauls seem to be a match made in metal heaven. In his own words, Zakk introduces us to his five favorite Les Pauls and explains why they mean so much to him.
1957 Les Paul Jr.
Ozzy got this guitar for me as a birthday present during No Rest for the Wicked, so it was probably my 20th birthday. He was like, "When Sabbath opened up for Mountain on our first trip to America, Leslie West was playing one of these things and it was the most insane guitar tone I'd ever heard." I still use it for all the clean stuff I've ever done. Usually, it's that guitar either through a Roland Jazz Chorus or through a Marshall—like a Bluesbreaker—at a low volume. Between that P-90 and the dried-out wood, those old guitars just sound good. It's not a wall hanger, I actually use the thing, but it doesn't leave the house.
1981 Gibson Les Paul Custom “The Grail"
I wrote "Miracle Man" on that, my first Ozzy song. Now we are celebrating the 25th anniversary of that record [No Rest for the Wicked] and all the memories connected to that thing and all the albums I recorded on that make it pretty special. Actually, I just used it yesterday to track some solos for the new album. It's just an amazing guitar. I got her when I first got the gig with Ozzy. Scott Quinn, a buddy of mine who ran Garden State Music at the time, was a huge John McLaughlin fan and he said, "Zakk, I'll trade you this guitar if you could talk to Gibson and get me a black double-neck." I got him the black double-neck and I got The Grail. It was all yellowed and loaded with EMGs when I got it.
I don't think it even had the paint job yet when we were recording. When we were getting ready to do some photo shoots, I was like, "Dude, I can't have a clean Les Paul. It's Randy's [Rhoads] signature thing." I asked for the Hitchcock vertigo design but it came back with the bull's-eye on it. I had to do the photo shoot the next day so I was like, "F*** it."
2012 Gibson Les Paul Custom "Maple Vertigo"
This is basically the 21st century version of the bull's-eye. I used it a lot on the new record. It's pretty rare to see a maple fretboard, and I had originally done a camo paint job, but then we changed it to the vertigo. It's basically a maple top with a rosewood body, maple neck, and maple fretboard. It gives the tone these glassy highs and it's just a great-sounding guitar. It's loaded with an EMG 81 and an EMG 85. That's what I started out on with the first Ozzy record and I've used them ever since.
1989 Gibson Les Paul Custom "The Rebel
This guitar started as a black Les Paul Custom and I got it during No More Tears. Obviously, I painted the rebel flag on it because of the Allmans, Skynyrd, and everything like that. Everyone asked if I was from the South, and I said "Yeah, South Jersey." The bottle caps came from me drinking one night. I saw Bret Michaels in a Poison video and he had a rebel flag on one of his guitars. I'm buddies with him now, but then I was thinking, "I can't be walking around with a rebel guitar. Bret Michaels has a f***ing rebel guitar!" Everyone was going to be yelling, "Hey Zakk, I love your Bret Michaels guitar." [Laughs.] That's when the bottle caps came into it and I started to sand it down and just mess with it. We were just laughing about how you can see the change in the beer caps between Miller Genuine Draft and Bud then onto the microbrews and the local breweries.
One day we were doing a photo shoot and Ozzy was busting my balls about Southern rock. I was like, "Where's my guitar?" and I'm looking around because they want to get a shot of Ozzy and me with that guitar. I go outside and one of the guys had wrapped it up in newspaper and f***ing lit it on fire! There was an eight-foot flame like at a Rammstein concert. I put the guitar out and look at Ozzy and say, "You really don't like Southern rock, do you?" He was rolling on the ground laughing. [Laughs.]
When my daughter was about 2, she was walking around and playing with all the guitars. I have all the guitars up on hanging stands and I didn't have them wrapped with rubber bands so they wouldn't move. She was just a bambino strumming them and checking things out and next thing you know she bumped one and it was like a bunch of dominos. I stopped all the guitars from falling and I leaned the Rebel on an amp. And as I'm holding all the other guitars trying to figure out how I'm going to put them all down I look at the Rebel and in slow motion I see it slide off the Bluesbreaker. I'm like Cleveland in the Family Guy, "No … no … no … no." Next thing you know the guitar falls, and we have wood floors in the house, and it hits and bounces. I didn't think anything of it and a few days later I went to change strings on it and I grabbed it and while I'm tuning it the low E was making a weird noise and kept going all floppy. I flipped the guitar over and checked out the tuning machine and there was a massive crack and the headstock was just barely holding on. Eventually, Gibson replaced the whole neck but kept the original fretboard.
2009 Gibson ZW BFG
When I was going through the factory a while ago, I was looking at the tops coming out and they had a whole bunch of Standard tops. When the tops came out I thought they looked badass. I told them, "You guys ought to make a guitar like this, without any veneer, no paint, no stain." The guitar completely breathes when it's just bare wood. We talked about that and then eventually they made the BFG, or Barely Finished Guitar. I always called it the "Raw Top." When they made the BFGs, they chambered them because a lot of cats are just like, "Les Pauls are great, I dig them, but standing up and playing them for a couple of hours and I'm ready to see the chiropractor." That's usually the complaint with a Les Paul, especially a Les Paul Custom. When I got it, I wondered what it would be like with a chambered body; maybe it would be too thin sounding. I was beyond shocked at how badass it sounds. The top end cuts, but it doesn't rip your head off. There's a big difference between a good loud and, "Honestly, just stop." [Laughs.] The spectrum of tone and fidelity of it is just phenomenal.
[Updated 11/13/21[
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Day 4 of Stompboxtober brings a chance to win a pedal from TWA: The Chemical-Z! Don’t miss out—enter now and return tomorrow for more!
TWA CHEMICAL-Z
Roy Z signature overdrive pedal designed by TubeScreamer creator Susumu Tamura. Inspired by Maxon OD808, OD808X, and APEX808 circuits, Chemical-Z features the "Magic" IC used in APEX808 for less compression & more even frequency response than a standard 808. Increased output level. Two footswitch-selectable clipping modes - normal & hot.
Fuchs Audio introduces the ODH Hybrid amp, featuring a True High Voltage all-tube preamp and Ice Power module for high-powered tones in a compact size. With D-Style overdrive, Spin reverb, and versatile controls, the ODH offers exceptional tone shaping and flexibility at an affordable price point.
Fuchs Audio has introduced their latest amp the ODH © Hybrid. Assembled in USA.
Featuring an ODS-style all-tube preamp, operating at True High Voltage into a fan-cooled Ice power module, the ODH brings high-powered clean and overdrive tones to an extremely compact size and a truly affordable price point.
Like the Fuchs ODS amps, the ODH clean preamp features 3-position brite switch, amid-boost switch, an EQ switch, high, mid and low controls. The clean preamp drives theoverdrive section in D-Style fashion. The OD channel has an input gain and outputmaster with an overdrive tone control. This ensures perfect tuning of both the clean andoverdrive channels. A unique tube limiter circuit controls the Ice Power module input.Any signal clipping is (intentionally) non-linear so it responds just like a real tube amp.
The ODH includes a two-way footswitch for channels and gain boost. A 30-second mute timer ensures the tubes are warmed up before the power amp goes live. The ODH features our lush and warm Spin reverb. A subsonic filter eliminates out-of-band low frequencies which would normally waste amplifier power, which assures tons of clean headroom. The amp also features Accent and Depth controls, allowing contouring of the high and low response of the power amp section, to match speakers, cabinets andenvironments. The ODH features a front panel fully buffered series effects loop and aline out jack, allowing for home recording or feeding a slave amp. A three-position muteswitch mutes the amp, the line out or mute neither.
Built on the same solid steel chassis platform as the Fuchs FB series bass amps, the amps feature a steel chassis and aluminum front and rear panels, Alpha potentiometers, ceramic tube sockets, high-grade circuit boards and Neutrik jacks. The ICE power amp is 150 watts into 8 ohms and 300 watts into 4 ohms, and nearly 500 watts into 2.65 ohms (4 and8 ohms in parallel) and operates on universal AC voltage, so it’s fully globallycompatible. The chassis is fan-cooled to ensure hours of cool operation under any circumstances. The all-tube preamp uses dual-selected 12AX7 tubes and a 6AL5 limiter tube.
MAP: $ 1,299
For more information, please visit fuchsaudiotechnology.com.
Jackson Guitars announces its first female signature artist model, the Pro Series Signature Diamond Rowe guitar.
“I‘m so excited about this new venture with the Jackson family. This is a historic collaboration - as I am the first female in the history of Jackson with a signature guitar and the first female African American signature Jackson artist. I feel so honored to have now joined such an elite group of players that are a part of this club. Many who have inspired me along this journey to get here. It’s truly humbling.” says Diamond.
Diamond Rowe is the co-founder and lead guitarist for the metal/hard rock band Tetrarch. Since co-founding the band in high school, Tetrarch has become one of the most talked about up-and-coming bands in the world - with several press outlets such as Metal Hammer, Kerrang, Revolver, Guitar World and many others boldly naming Diamond Rowe the world’s next guitar hero. Tetrarch has connected with many fans while performing on some of the world's biggest stages garnering spots alongside several of the heavy music world’s biggest names such as Guns N’ Roses, Slipknot, Lamb of God, Disturbed, Avenged Sevenfold, Sevendust, Rob Zombie, Trivium, and many many others. The Jackson Pro Series Signature Diamond Rowe DR12MG EVTN6 is based on Jackson’s single-cut Monarkh platform and is a premium guitar designed for progressive metal players seeking precision and accuracy.
Crafted in partnership with Diamond, this model boasts a 25.5 “ scale, Monarkh-styled nyatoh body draped with a gorgeous poplar burl top, three-piece nyatoh set-neck with graphite reinforcement, and 12˝ radius bound ebony fingerboard with 24 jumbo frets. The black chrome-covered active EMG® 81/85 humbucking bridge and neck pickups, three-way toggle switch, single volume control, and tone control provide a range of tonal options. The Evertune® bridge ensures excellent tuning stability, while the Dark Rose finish with a new custom 3+3 color-matched Jackson headstock and black hardware looks simply stunning.
To showcase the Pro Plus Signature Diamond Rowe DR12MG EVTN6, Diamond shares her journey as a guitarist, delving into the inspiration behind her unique design specifications and the influential artists who shaped her sound within a captivating demo video. This video prominently features powerful performances of Tetrarch’s latest release, “Live Not Fantasize,” and “I’m Not Right” showcasing the DR12MG EVTN6’s unparalleled tonal versatility and performance capabilities.
MSRP $1699.99
For more information, please visit jacksonguitars.com.
Tetrarch's Diamond Rowe Unveils Her New Signature Pro Series DR12MG EVTN6 | Jackson Guitars - YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.Jackson Pro Series Signature Diamond Rowe Electric Guitar - Dark Rose
Signature Diamond Rowe, Dark RoseCort Guitars introduces the GB-Fusion Bass Series, featuring innovative design and affordable pricing.
Cort Guitars have long been synonymous with creating instruments that are innovative yet affordably priced. Cort has done it again with the GB-Fusion Bass series. The GB-Fusion builds upon Cort’s illustrious GB-Modern series and infuses it with its own distinctive style and sound.
It starts with the J-style bass design. The GB-Fusion features a solid alder body – the most balanced of all the tonewoods – providing a fantastic balance of low, mid, and high frequencies. The visually stunning Spalted maple top extends the dynamic range of the bass. A see-through pickguard allows for its spalted beauty to show through. The four-string version of the GB-Fusion is lacquered in a supreme Blue Burst stained finish to show off its natural wood grain. The five-string version features a classic Antique Brown Burst stained finish. A bolt-on Hard maple neck allows for a punchier mid-range. An Indian rosewood fretboard with white dot inlays adorns the 4-string Blue Burst version of the GB-Fusion with an overall width of 1 ½” (38mm) at the nut, while the GB-Fusion 5 Antique Brown Burst features a Birdseye Maple fretboard with black dot inlays and an overall width of 1 7/8” (47.6mm) at the nut. Both come with glow in the dark side dot position markers to help musicians see their fretboard in the dark. The headstock features Hipshot® Ultralite Tuners in classic 20:1 ratio. They are cast of zinc with aluminum string posts making them 30% lighter than regular tuners providing better balance and tuning accuracy.
Cort’s brand-new Voiced Tone VTB-ST pickups are the perfect J-style single coil with clear and robust bass sounds and classic warmth. The GB-Fusion comes with a 9-volt battery-powered active preamp to dial in the sound. With push/pull volume, blend knob, and 3-band active electronics, players can access a wide array of tones. The MetalCraft M Bridge is a solid, high-mass bridge. It provides better tone transfer and makes string changes easy. Strings can be loaded through the body or from the top giving players their choice of best string tension. The MetalCraft M4 for 4-string has a string spacing of 19mm (0.748”) while the MetalCraft M5 is 18mm (0.708”). Speaking of strings, D’Addario® EXL 165 strings complete the GB-Fusion 4. D’Addario EXL 170-5SL strings complete the GB-Fusion 5.
Cort Guitars prides itself on creating inventive instruments musicians love to play. The GB-Fusion Bass Series is the latest and greatest for musicians looking for a stellar bass guitar that is not only economical, but has the reliable robust sound needed to hold up the back end in any playing situation.
GB-Fusion 4 Street Price: $699.99
GB-Fusion 5 Street Price: $849.99
For more information, please visit cortguitars.com.