Guitars
Herbert and Martin run virtually identical rigs that differ primarily at the beginning of the signal chain—though not in major ways. Herbert’s main guitar is a 27-fret Jackson Custom Shop Warrior with Ernie Ball .012–.054 sets tuned down to a rumbly C#. When asked about the extra frets, Herbert admits he only goes past the 24th for a single note on the latest All That Remains album. The Warrior features neck-through construction, a Floyd Rose Original with FU-Tone titanium upgrades, and EMG 81 and 85 active humbuckers. “I only have one volume knob. I don’t need a tone knob,” says Herbert, “because I’m playing metal.”
Martin’s main guitar—a Charvel Desolation DX-1 ST—also has EMG 81 and 85 pickups, but he prefers the Charvel’s through-body stringing and locking tuners. “I don’t like to get too complicated with the Floyd Rose and the floating tremolos and stuff.” One of Martin's beloved Charvels—an identical black Desolation—was a victim of rock ’n’ roll wreckage, having taken a pounding early in the tour. A flame-topped version is now his No. 1 road guitar.
Amps
ATR’s guitar duo sends their effected signals into EVH 5150III heads driving
Mesa/Boogie 4x12 cabs.
Effects
The signals from Herbert’s and Martin’s axes travel through Shure ULXP4 wirelesses and into Boss TU-2 tuners. Both players use Furman PL-Plus C power-conditioning units and Maxon OD808 overdrives with gain set pretty low, but Martin cuts out extraneous noise with an iSP Decimator, while Herbert uses an MXR Noise Clamp.
Greetings Premier Guitar fans and welcome to the Shred Guitar Roundtable! I’m Jeff Beasley and I’ll be your host for this evening’s festivities. You may know me from my “Lethal Guitar” column here in Premier Guitar, but I’m also a seasoned shredder from way back. I’ve brought some friends along to give you an awesome glimpse into the minds and licks of some of the top shredders in modern guitar. Rusty Cooley, Mike Orlando, and Oli Herbert will be joining me in this roundtable.
Each one has provided video examples with corresponding tab and text explanations for every lick.
Jump to:
Rusty Cooley
Mike Orlando
Oli Herbert
I'll kick it off with some examples of my own:
Lick 1
An intervallic approach to a fully diminished or diminished 7th arpeggio, resolving into the pentatonic minor scale with the b5 included. I break the arpeggio into minor 3rd intervals descending and resolve to the root of the pentatonic scale. I also use strict alternate picking throughout the line, making it challenging for the picking hand as the intervallic approach challenges the fretting hand.
Lick 2
This Shawn Lane melody is quite the attention getter at higher tempos and makes use of the odd beat grouping of quintuplets (groups of five). Notice I use fingers 1, 2 and 3 of the fretting hand exclusively, as I ascend in the line. This is the fingering Shawn used and I’ve found it to be quite player friendly at the quicker tempos. It requires a bit more stretching, but the ends justify the means.
