Rock stars ditching walls of cranked stacks for acoustic guitars and a country twang is nothing new. If anything, it’s become somewhat of a default second-act career trajectory, claiming everyone from Foo Fighters’ Chris Shiflett to pop-punk royalty Jaret Reddick and even Staind frontman Aaron Lewis.

The latest rocker to make the leap is none other than Zacky Vengeance – aka Zachary Baker – guitarist of metal titans Avenged Sevenfold. Zacky is using his own name for this new project, announcing his debut solo album, Dark Horse – and by his own admission, it wasn't exactly part of the plan.

“I’d never ever anticipated doing a solo album – it wasn’t something that was on my radar,” he tells Guitar World.

With Avenged Sevenfold taking a near five-year hiatus, Baker found himself with something he’d rarely had before: free time.

“I’d just go up to my studio and play acoustic guitar and sing, play piano, play electric guitar, and just record anything that I liked. I kept coming back to these basic songs, singer-songwriter, three-chords-and-melodies type stuff. Which is not typically what we do in Avenged,” says Baker.

“I really am a huge fan of it. I love the element of simplicity in music. I can appreciate complex songs and progressive songs, I love it all, but there's something that really speaks to me about simple songs; it's the reason that I got into music.”

Fans who’ve followed Zacky’s career from the early days won’t be surprised to hear where those roots lie.

“In the beginning, I was just listening to punk-rock bands, to be honest, like The Misfits and Social Distortion. Bands that can use the same chords for a verse as they use for a chorus.”

But his musical horizons stretch considerably further than three-chord punk these days.

“I love listening to the old stuff like Johnny Cash and Marty Robbins. I love Willie Nelson. I love the type of music that they were making back when you had to stand in a room and play into one microphone and sing.

​“I'm a huge fan of interesting voices,” he continues. “People like Bob Dylan and Tom Petty. For modern country, I like Zach Bryan. I just feel like there’s an element of humanity to it, and you know, great songs.”

Dark Horse is, at its core, a deeply personal record. One where Baker wears his heart firmly on his sleeve. Nowhere is that more apparent than on The Storm, a song that chronicles his life from the early days of the band right through to the tragic passing of drummer Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan and beyond.

​“With every single song on the album, they kind of shook me to my core,” declares Baker. “I had to go as deep as I could go with what I have going on in my life. And all the feelings that I've gone through.

“It brought up real emotions about how I felt about Jimmy and everything leading up to it, and I never really got to write the song that I wanted to myself. It wasn’t going to be an entire ode to Jimmy. It was going to be a song, and as it was being written, I was talking about the early days in the band and the stuff that we went through, and that’s why it’s so sincere,” he says calmly.

“It was a chance for me to get to say exactly how I felt in that moment. Like with the album Nightmare with Avenged, Matt [Shadows] wrote the most heartfelt lyrics that are so perfect and passionate that I feel that we got our point across as best friends and a band, but for me, I wanted to have that one impactful moment. I didn’t want to write an entire album about it by myself. I just needed that one impactful moment.”

But recording a song about a lost friend was never going to be easy, and it certainly brought up feelings of grief for Zacky.

“While I was writing that, I think while I was playing the organ, I just lost it. I was in tears. It was hard to recover, hard to sing that part,” recalls Baker.

“I never went back and re-recorded the vocals. They’re kind of rushed. I didn’t want to do multiple takes. I didn’t go back and try to make it perfect. It’s like, yeah, they sound like that because I was fucking sad, I was crying. I think that’s real.”

Now, when you picture the making of a country record, the mind drifts to dusty old tube amps and worn-in vintage flat-tops, but Baker's process on Dark Horse was anything but traditional. Admitting his limitations in the studio, he explains that leaning into a DIY punk attitude was precisely what gave him the confidence to track it himself.

“I just decided I’m going to record the same way I did when I was 15, in my punk bands,” he says. “Do it by any means necessary. Whatever gets the music and the sounds I want recorded.”

Surprisingly, Baker reveals that he used digital amp modelers for the majority of the amp sounds.

“So honestly, I used a lot of the Fractals, because that’s what we’ve been using with Avenged Sevenfold.

​“I’d like to say that I was using a lot of Twin Reverb amps and just bringing out all the classic stuff,” he says, laughing. “But with that said, I wasn’t trying to make a retro album. I’m not trying to do an entire vintage record on two-inch tape.

“It just wasn’t the tools that I had available to me, so I used what I had. I went through a Fractal. Went through all the sound banks and just tweaked the tones until they sounded right to me. I literally recorded it in the moment, tweaked it till it sounded good, laid it down, and then called it a day.”

For his guitar choices, he says that, as well as using his faithful Schecter signature models, he wasn’t scared to experiment with different options.

“I was picking guitars that I've never ever even thought about using with Avenged. I have a really nice collection of Nashville Teles and Strats. I love those guitars. They’re so fun to play,” he says. “I was bringing out my Schecters, and bringing out guitars Schecter has made me that I've never brought on stage, like a couple of hollowbody guitars.

“It was just a chance for me to basically pull out anything from the arsenal and capture the sound in that moment.”

When it comes to acoustics, Baker is quick to champion both the premium and the budget models. While he’s partial to his Martins, it’s an affordable Epiphone that’s become one of his most-reached-for guitars.

“My favorite acoustic guitars right now are Martin and Epiphone. So I have a few Martins that I bring out with Avenged, and I've used them in the studio. I don’t even know what models they are,” he says with a smile.

“I love the look of the classic Gibsons, but I don't want to give up-and-coming guitarists the wrong impression – that they have to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to do what they love – so, I came across the Epiphone Hummingbird, and they sound amazing, they play amazing, and they look amazing.”

Yes, but is it on the album? “It absolutely is on the record... I’d always just pick up whatever was next to me, was in tune, and sounded right. I absolutely used it,” says Zacky.

​“So if it’s good enough for me, someone who is considered a professional guitar player, then it’s good enough for anyone. That’s what I want to always instill in people, because I was never turned off music because of my lack of ability to afford crazy guitars – it was all about picking up whatever you could.

“My first guitar was a Squier Strat that probably cost about 150 bucks, and I cherished it, and I’ve never lost that mentality. I still feel the exact same way. It’s not about what you’re playing. It’s about who you are and what you're doing with it.”

• Dark Horse is out now.

Have you ever found yourself in the audience at a concert, mindlessly strumming along, pretending that you're the band's lead guitarist? Heck, ever do that while listening to music at home?

Well, if you fancy yourself as something of an air guitar pro, you'd be pleased to know that there's an actual, bona fide Air Guitar World Championships .

As the current air guitar world champion, Aapo Rautio, recounts in The Guardian, his crown has been a long time coming, as he's been practicing his craft since he was a kid.

“I was always ‘playing’ air guitar, miming along to the biggest rock tunes with my imaginary instrument,” he relates. “My parents were music fans – my dad loved Bruce Springsteen and U2. AC/DC was the first band I discovered on my own. Angus Young, the lead guitarist, was my hero.”

As Rautio relays, stepping on stage for the first time gave him a taste of what it feels like to be a rock star – and he was officially hooked.

He continues, “When I stepped on stage, I did my routine to AC/DC’s Whole Lotta Rosie. The crowd started chanting ‘Angus,’ just like on the live recording, and it hit me: this is what it feels like to be a rock star. I made it to the finals, playing to hundreds of people in Oulu’s market square, and I was hooked. I got the nickname ‘Little Angus’ that day.”

And if you're wondering what the competition actually involves, Rautio describes it as “intense but joyful” experience.

“Contestants have 60 seconds to give everything – explosive energy, perfect mime, rock star charisma – on an invisible guitar,” he explains. “Judges score you on a scale from 4.0 to 6.0. In the case of a tie, there’s an ‘air-off’ between the final two contestants: a song plays and you improvise.”

Preparation is everything. For this year's championship, Rautio chose an Avenged Sevenfold song. He listened to it on loop for weeks and, akin to a world-class athlete or performer, made sure his body was well up to the task: “By the time competition day came, I could feel the song in my bones,” he recalls.

Fast forward to the actual show day, and when the scores came in, Rautio had tied with Japanese champion Yuta “Sudo-chan” Sudo. And, like every other battle of the bands (or, in this case, air guitar battle), it was time for a tie breaker – appropriately labelled, in air guitar circles, as an “air-off”.

“We went head-to-head to Sweet Child o’ Mine by Guns N’ Roses. When I heard the song, I felt relieved because it was one that I knew, and more than anything I was so excited to perform one more time. When they announced I’d won, the square erupted.

“The moment is hazy. I think I blacked out from shock,” he recollects. “Then everyone started singing Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World and lifted me on to their shoulders. Justin Howard – AKA Nordic Thunder – a former champion and one of my closest friends, was hugging me. I cried.

“I was Finland’s first air guitar world champion in 25 years. The previous Finnish champion, Markus ‘Black Raven’ Vainionpää, was there, too. He gave me the biggest hug and said it was ‘about damn time.’”

Despite being a guitarist and a drummer in an actual band, Rautio asserts that the air guitar community is truly one-of-a-kind, a family with the ethos of “make air, not war” summing up the spirit that permeates the championships.

“Before you go on stage, every competitor comes and hugs you. Then, for 60 seconds, you’re allowed to be free, silly, the biggest rock star in the world,” the air guitar champion concludes.

And, like every other niche, air guitar enjoys a contested history – with Woodstock ’69 largely cited as one of the documented events where air guitar originated.

Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Synyster Gates is expanding his signature gear empire with the SG-22 – an all-new tube amp head and cab released under his namesake Synner brand.

It's a guitar amp, sure, but there's a slight twist. The clean amp is carefully tailored for pedalboards and rack-mount effects, and, in an unexpected move, it also becomes “the first-ever amplifier authenticated on the blockchain.”

Gates worked with Schecter to develop his signature amp, Hellwin, in 2013, but switched to the Axe FX a few years later. Now, the SG-22 Universal Pedal Platform amp head and matching cab put Gates' attention firmly back on tube amps.

The 175-watt head was conceived by Gates and developed alongside engineer Don Morris. It's designed to “maximize the potential of your pedalboard or rack effects system in a clean, user-friendly format.”

As such, a “clean, transparent, high-headroom preamp” stars, accounting for the pedals it'll be paired with. Its post-preamp effects loop has Line Level and Instrument Level modes for rack effect systems and pedalboards, respectively.

Controls include Volume, a three-band EQ, Presence, and Master. Notably, there is no gain, with the single-channel clean amp designed to better deliver uncompromising stompbox tones.

Interestingly, it features two built-in power supplies – 9-volt DC up to 0.9 amps, and 18-volt DC up to 0.9 amps – to free up valuable real estate. The head can also latch onto the cab for added security.

Under the black grille of its open-back cab lies a singular Celestion V-Type 12” speaker. Three 12AX7A / ECC83 tubes and two 6V6GT tubes feature beneath the hood of the head.

“It is intended to be used with your favorite distortion and overdrive pedals to achieve the distorted gain stages that most players desire,” Gates explains. “I decided to create a PPA rather than a traditional high-gain amplifier because of its versatility.

“The clean tones are designed for maximum transparency, allowing the character of your distortion pedals to shine. That said, the cleans ended up sounding incredible on their own.”

Gates is also working on a signature distortion pedal, the Original Syn, which he says also features across the band’s leftfield 2023 album, Life is But a Dream…

The Synner SG-22 Universal Pedal Platform Amplifier $1,199.00 and comes with a bonus of 20,000 Deathbat Reward points, which can be exchanged for merch and tickets.

Head to Synner for more.

Earlier this year, Gates worked with Schecter to develop the firm’s first headless guitar with his new signature axe earlier this year, arriving just months after his best-selling Avenger model got a radical makeover.

Schecter has announced the arrival of Synyster Gates’ latest signature guitar and it’s fair to say that, as a seven-string headless build, the newly-minted Custom-7 TR Headless, offers something quite different from his previous models.

The Avenged Sevenfold guitarist and Schecter have a long-relationship and the firm first showcased the seven-string – based on a model Gates has been using onstage – back in summer, before teasing the final arrival of the headless Gates signature model earlier this month.

Now it’s lifted the lid on the full spec for the build and, as we’ve come to expect from Schecter, it looks like quite the performer.

Beginning with the body, there’s a chambered mahogany build with a maple center (constructed using the firm’s Deep Insert Joint and Ultra Access) spec, allowing easy fretting of the higher registers – essential for a player of Gates’ lead-obsessed nature.

The Ultra Thin C neck is maple, albeit reinforced with two carbon fiber rods, while there’s an ebony fretboard complete with 24 X-Jumbo gold frets and (increasingly, standard issue for heavier players) Luminlay side dots.

Electronics include a Master Volume and Master Tone, with push-pull coil-splits and a three-way toggle switch – then it’s loaded with a pair of Schecter USA Synyster Gates Signature Humbuckers.

In terms of hardware, there’s a Graph Tech XL Black Tusq nut (with a 48mm width), metal dome controls and, most crucially, a Hipshot 7-String Headless whammy bar with bridge tuners.

Further signature flare (as if lopping off a headstock and making it a seven-string wasn’t enough) comes from the gold hardware, gold pickups and ‘Syn S’ 12th fret inlay, alongside a gold Schecter and Syn S control cavity cover on the rear.

We’re also big fans of that Oak Green Metallic finish, which offers a beautiful contrast to the sparkling hardware (and is, frankly, quite festive).

Currently the Synyster Gates Custom-7 TR Headless is available for $2,299 for the right-handed version and $2,349 for the lefty, though these appear to be launch prices.

Head to Schecter Guitar Research for more information.

Schecter has teased the launch of its much-anticipated headless signature guitar for Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Synyster Gates – and has seemingly confirmed its release date.

The sweep-picking arpeggio ace was treated to a new-look signature guitar back in March, but it did nothing to calm the calls for a production run of the elusive gold headless model Gates has been sporting on the band's most recent tours in support of 2023’s Life is But a Dream…

However, the American brand has now revealed that the wait will be over on November 25, thanks to a cheeky Instagram video that sees a Schecter electric guitar condemned to the guillotine

The instrument will represent the firm’s first-ever headless guitar, coming in the same year that Ibanez reprised its own headless Quest range and launched a snazzy headless signature for Unprocessed’s Manuel Gardner Fernandes.

The headless trend has also stretched well beyond Ibanez in recent months. Balaguer recently decapitated its Growler model, while Deftones' Stephen Carpenter received a signature headless Kiesel late last year.

In the world of bass, Cort has gone “revolutionary” with its Artisan Space 5 builds and Abasi Concepts launched its low-end range with a gorgeous Larada Bass, which arrived sans headstock.

So, with headless guitars in vogue, Synyster Gates’ latest model makes for a timely arrival. Further information is scarce, but a closer look at the stage-ready prototype and beyond reveals some interesting details.

Gates OG headless model sees a gold finish adorn his usual S-style body shape, which has been given an additional cutaway to accommodate the bridge system.

A seven-string prototype surfaced online in the summer, which also includes a whammy bar, two control knobs, a pickup switch, and the same 'SYN' and Deathbat pearloid inlays that featured on his other signature creations.

Gates has been playing the headless model for the song Nobody, which opens with a low-tuned grumbling open seventh string. It will be interesting to see if any extended-range models are included in the launch.

His co-guitarist Zacky Vengeance was also gifted a new signature earlier this year, offering a fresh take on his SG-style design.

Head over to Schecter for more updates.

Earlier this month, Schecter unveiled a brand-new body shape, with the Stargazer serving subtle Rickenbacker energy.

When Schecter announced a new signature guitar for Avenged Sevenfold’s Zacky Vengeance earlier this month, speculation that his sweep-loving bandmate Synyster Gates would get the same treatment went into overdrive.

Now it’s been confirmed that Gates has been given a fresh signature build, but it isn’t the headless model many thought it would be. Instead, Schecter and Gates are sticking to the tried-and-tested formula of the guitarist’s take on the Avenger model. 

With the Gates signature serving as one of Schecter’s most popular guitars in recent years, it's understandable why it isn't straying too far from that path. 

The latest version of that model – the Synyster Custom-S – comes in a Distressed Satin Black finish, with its mahogany body peering through peeling black paint in what appears to be a nod to the cover of A7X's latest album, Life Is But A Dream…

That mahogany body is paired with an ebony fretboard, which is adorned with 24 X-Jumbo stainless steel frets. The ultra-thin three-piece C-profile neck is dotted with Luminlay markers, while there's also a gilded twist on Gates' signature 'SYN' and Deathbat pearloid inlays.

As is to be expected for a guitarist who has oodles of divebombs in his playing arsenal, Gate's gnarly new-look also features a Floyd Rose 1500 locking bridge, which is paired with Grover tuners.

Like the signature Schecter unveiled for Sullivan King earlier this year, the Synyster Custom-S employs a Sustainiac bridge in the neck to allow those dive bombs to scream on indefinitely. 

The bridge is armed with a Schecter USA Synyster Gates Signature humbucker, complete with his logo engraved into its black cover.  

The inclusion of the Sustainiac means two mini-switches for operating its endless sustain sit alongside the usual control setup of one volume and tone knob apiece and a three-way pickup switch. 

Schecter will be hoping that Gates will be more careful with his new toy than King has been with his, after the guitarist was involved in a guitar throw gaff just weeks after his signature Banshee hit the market.

As previously reported on these pages, Synyster Gates has recently been sporting a gold headless guitar on tour – an elusive instrument that has had fans clamoring for an official production release.

If the guitar is indeed a forthcoming Schecter signature, it will represent the American luthier’s first headless build. But with the release of the Custom-S, we’ll have to wait a little while longer to learn more about this mystery guitar, and to find out when A7X fans can expect to get their hands on one.

Fans seem pretty content with this model in the meantime, though, with one Instagram observer calling it “a work of art”.

The distressed signature guitar RRPs at $2,859, but is currently available on the Schecter website for $1,999.

Head on over to Schecter for more information.

Schecter guitars are a quintessential part of Avenged Sevenfold’s sound, having been used as far back as their second album, Waking The Fallen. 

Both the band’s guitarists, Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance, have wielded their own respective signature guitars for years – and Vengeance has now been bestowed with an updated signature model. 

Named the ZV-H6LLYW66D, Vengeance’s new guitar shakes things up with a decidedly SG-style aesthetic that's not too dissimilar to Kim Thayil's own signature Guild build.

Like its predecessor – the 6661 – it’s a mahogany-centric construction, with the rich but heavy wood used for both its body and three-piece neck. The guitar has suitably spiky horns for upper fret access, with eye-popping gold hardware, including a TonePros Tune-O-Matic fixed bridge, which Schecter notes, “Steals the spotlight.”

Its gold-plated Schecter USA Pasadena Plus bridge and Pasadena Classic neck pickups continue that trend, with Grover tuners, Grip Tip Speed volume and tone knobs, and a three-way pickup switch also making the cut.

The Pasadena humbuckers are the same passive, Alnico V pickups found in many of Schecters' Solo-II models, which also channel the essence of Gibson with their Les Paul feel and playability. 

Notably, too, the pickup choices see Vengeance step away from the Seymour Duncan JB SH-4B and JB SH-4N found in the 6661. 

Although oozing the classiness of an SG, flipping the guitar around shows it further differs from the Gibson staple by employing a through-neck construction to accommodate its 22 X-jumbo fret ebony 'board. 

Elsewhere, the thin C-profile neck is built for speed and hosts a 14" fretboard radius – with a 20mm thickness at the 1st fret rising to 22mm at the 12th – as part of a 24.75" scale length. 

Upon that fretboard are white dot pearloid inlays for a more muted affair than the block inlays and Deathbat 12th fret inlay found on his earlier model. 

Luminlays with black circles run up its side for improved visibility on darker stages, iced with just a touch of goth. 

And, since Vengeance is a left-handed player – which allows the duo to cut excellent back-to-back silhouettes when unleashing their signature harmonies – the guitar is available for both dexterities.  

As mentioned above, Vengeance isn't the only Avenged Sevenfold member who is loyal to Schecter, and the ZV-H6LLYW66D might not be the only A7X signature we'll see the firm put out this year.

Synyster Gates’ all-curves-and-angles Avenger signature has been one of the American firm's most popular guitars since its launch back in 2008. 

However, Gates has been unleashing his arpeggio acrobatics on a headless model during their recent live shows, which poses the question: could the release of Vengeance’s new model be the start of a quick one-two by the brand?

Synyster Gates’ use of what appears to be a headless Schecter – complete with the same signature 'SYN' inlays found on his Avenger models – is something of a left turn, as is its gold finish. 

It would also represent the brand’s first foray into headless builds, but it makes sense. Headless designs have become increasingly popular over the past few years, helped on by the rise of Strandberg, which recently released its most affordable model yet. 

Meanwhile, Gates himself is accustomed to sparking gear-based speculation. Last year there was a mystery amp on show in the announcement video for his signature Ernie Ball strings.  

The ZV-H6LLYW66D typically costs $2,149 but is currently available on the Schecter website for a cut-price $1,499.

For more information, head to Schecter. 

This year is not like any other. The response to the 2023 greatest guitar solo poll nigh-on overwhelmed the administration at Guitar World. It was a record turnout, and once we collated the votes, and our editors meticulously weighed up each solo’s melodicism, influence and technical prowess, we had a truly formidable top 10 on our hands.

The number one spot will come as no surprise. This was the year that gave us this decade’s Heartbreaker, its Eruption. We might all debate the guitar solo’s place in composition, the form it should take and whether it is even necessary in the first place, but it’s not going anywhere.

The solo will outlive us all, and this top 10 presents documentary evidence that the solo is ever-evolving – that at its best it can tell a story, give us a sense of spectacle, and even offer a window into a player’s soul. And if it sets your head on fire, then all the better.

10. Towa Bird – Boomerang

TikTok’s Towa Bird is just going to have to savor the irony in charting in the top 10 guitar solos of 2023 having already declared on this very website that they are “arrogant”. But then art is all about contradictions and subverting expectations, and if you’re the sort of player who discovered the guitar then mainlined Jimi Hendrix’s recorded output, then how could you deny yourself the pleasure of a few bars on the treble clef to cut loose?

Speaking to Guitar World in June, Bird said Boomerang’s solo had to “feel like a conversation”, and you can hear that in the phrasing – it’s inviting a response. Tone-wise, Boomerang is awesome, and should be a surprise to no one that a TikTok star should make use of plugins to dial in an electric guitar sound.

“Being able to do that in the box is really helpful,” said Bird. “Throwing things into different rooms, playing it on two different guitars and then having two different distortions or fuzzes was just so fun.”

9. Big Wreck – Hangers On

Ian Thornley was never going to wake up one morning and find Mike Varney’s face pressed up against his window with a big fat contract to draft him onto the Shrapnel roster. That’s not his game. But that is not to say that he is not a formidable lead guitar player, whose solos are often essential to his songwriting, an opportunity to say what he wanted to say in verse but perhaps couldn’t find the words. 

That’s when you can let the guitar say what you couldn’t, and this solo – teased out, sparse but not minimalist – has an elliptical quality, an air of Peter Green about it. Not that it is blues, but rather that it is phrased with all due care and attention as it should be.

8. Angel Vivaldi – Six

If you’ve heard the name but have yet to experience what he sounds like on record, then Angel Vivaldi’s Six is the perfect introduction to his talents. It’s not as though it is the quintessence of his output. Vivaldi’s protean appetites have taken him all over the map, dabbling in all kinds of genres. But it’s as good as DNA and dental records for identifying the marvel with the Charvel: his style, how he addresses the electric guitar, note choice, intonation, pressure on the strings and melodic disposition. 

“Six is the truest song from a compositional, arrangement and melodic sense,” he told GW. “It’s the one that best shows my ‘signature sound,’ as they say.”

It’s fusion, rock through the blender, a melodic arc that’s a pure flight of fancy. This is the sort of thing that might come of a fever dream after spending all night night woodshedding on Joe Pinnavaia’s Truefire course with nothing but strong cheese and crackers for sustenance.

7. Matteo Mancuso – Silkroad

It’s not, ‘How can Matteo Mancuso play all of this fingerstyle?’ It’s a case of fingerstyle making all of this possible, allowing Mancuso to apply classical guitar techniques to rock and take the instrument into uncharted territory.

It’s early days but let’s be bold and call it now: Mancuso is a generational talent. The amiable Sicilian has made an audacious debut with The Journey, and Silkroad, its opening track, is a product of his adventurous musical appetites, dedication to practice and application.

The lion’s share of The Journey was performed on a Yamaha Revstar, but on Silkroad you’re hearing a Pacifica, and like the physical Silk Road, this connects cultures, a fusion of east and west, a taste of something fresh on the palate that we have never experienced before. Suggested wine pairing: Frank Cornelissian Susucaru rosato, served chilled.

6. Nita Strauss – Surfacing (feat. Marty Friedman)

The undisputed shred heavyweight collab of the year lived up to the hype. Even for Hurricane Nita, who plays with Alice Cooper, has played with Demi Lovato, and can play most of us under the table, this was a moment where it came full-circle.

Strauss is not the first to have pored over Friedman’s Exotic Metal Guitar DVD for insight but few of us get the opportunity to send a track by way of the G.O.A.T. and engage in some back and forth for – arguably – the instrumental rock guitar track of the year.

Strauss says the experience taught her a lot about telling a story with the instrument, note choice and how to make melodies pop out. It made her a better player.

“This collaboration was such an education for me, as a sort-of young guitar player at the foot of the master!” she said. “The first metal song I ever heard had Marty playing guitar on it. We fleshed out the whole concept together. I sent him some riffs and then he sent back this crazy song with his own ideas.”

5. Avenged Sevenfold – Nobody

If the riff to Nobody was so simple it almost sounded like the push-button drone of a synth, then Synyster Gates' efflorescence of sweep-picked arpeggios offers a complex counterpoint, the audio equivalent of pairing a child’s crayon drawing of a donkey with a machine-learning algorithm. And it totally works, closing out the track with a masterclass in lead guitar as narrative device.

This virtuosity is a signature move of Synyster Gates, and is such that we have come to expect it. But sometimes you’ve got to sit back and admire it, to appreciate anew. Just imagine if this was your very first song you wanted to learn on guitar – to the exclusion of all other songs – the length of time it would take between learning the riff and the solo. Well, it could take years, maybe never.

4. Queens of the Stone Age – Paper Machete

That players spend so long trying to sound like Queens of the Stone Age, picking up fuzz pedals, overdrives, taking solid-state practice amps out of cold storage is all well and good. It’s good, healthy tone-seeking fun. But just so long as we all don’t underestimate how difficult it is to actually play like them. Y’know, that’s the important bit. 

As with Josh Homme and Troy Van Leeuwen’s tone, so it is with their arrangements, with riffs you’ve got to count, informing a groove you have to somehow innately feel, and then you’ve got solos like TVL’s here that are as good as copy-protected. 

Van Leeuwen’s phrasing makes it sound as though it has been made up on the spot, a work of high-flying studio improv, but the note choices are all on point, in dialog with the tricksy melody, and tonally… Well, give it some neck pickup and a Univox Super-Fuzz and see how you go.

3. Red Devil Vortex – More Luck Than Brains

Red Devil Vortex sound like they are named after some energy drink that had to be removed off the market for our cardiovascular integrity’s sake, and listening to More Luck Than Brains and then trying to get those pull-offs just right on the seven-string guitar, tricksy tapping and all, might similarly give you palpitations. 

Luís Kalil’s solo starts with the difficulty set to hard before taking it to advanced/expert, stepping on the Whammy for squeal-good kicks and sending us out to the hotdog stand with that ridiculously adroit legato style of his.

Watching the playthrough vid that the Brazilian virtuoso shot, we were taken by that signature reverse tapping move – a little theater goes a long way – but also a cleanliness next to godliness when it comes to those pull-offs to open strings. Check it out and see if you can play it. Just remember to breathe.

2. Mammoth WVH – Take a Bow

In any other year, this would have to take number one spot. Take a Bow is a solo that has everything and then some, and it is the ‘then some’ that is remarkable – the legend, the history that brought us here.

Because this is a solo brought to you courtesy of rock guitar’s Excalibur, the Frankenstein MacGuyver’d into being by Eddie Van Halen, and his son, Wolfgang. It is a solo that gives you the impression that two-handed tapping was taught at the dinner table between main course and dessert, or that it runs in the family.

But, of course, there were no tapping lessons at the Van Halen dinner table; there was conversation like any other family. Of course these skills don’t run in the family; they are developed over the years. They are a creative choice. 

And while it might be a no-brainer that WVH should use EVH’s gear in the studio, it’s Wolfgang’s daring creative choice to deploy these tapping skills on a track that’s as epic and ambitious as anything he has written.

Given the context, the weight of history, that makes it all the more gutsy and poignant. Oh, and it’s just nice to hear that guitar in action again. Take a Bow is a real gift to Mammoth WVH’s audience, and to his father’s.

1. Extreme – Rise

The moment Rise hit YouTube, announcing Extreme’s then forthcoming studio album, Six, after 15 long years, Nuno Bettencourt’s phone lit up with messages from his peers. Legends like Steve Lukather and Brian May got in touch with him.

The messages were thank yous – a bit odd, but the penny soon dropped. They were thanking Bettencourt for bringing back an art that was lost, not just the act of a guitar solo – they’ve always been here, always will be – but the art of performing them.

That was what made the difference, said Bettencourt. It was the presentation. There is a case to be made that Rise isn’t necessarily the best solo on the album. There is an abundance of audacity on Six, the sound of Bettencourt on a tear and in the form of his life. But seeing him perform it, evidence before our very eyes that it wasn’t punched in or trickery we were hearing, made it all the more visceral.

As guitar solos go, this is a nuclear strike, a supernova. This is the guitar solo as pop-cultural event, as though the excitement of a sold-out stadium rock show could be harvested, reconfigured and reappropriated for 55 seconds of God-level shredding.

Shredding is an inadequate word but it’s what we’ve got. Best solo of 2023? Best solo of the 21st century so far, from rock guitar’s most imaginative, most effervescent lead stylist.

KHDK has partnered with Avenged Sevenfold’s Zacky Vengeance for a gnarly new limited-edition signature guitar pedal named the Night of the Living Shred.

Given its name, there’s no prizes for guessing the aesthetic theme that Vengeance opted for with the fuzz/distortion stompbox, which visually envisages an alternate universe wherein “zombies had already won the war”.

Why is this important? Well, the grisly cosmetics are said to be matched by the pedal’s unruly tones, which have somewhat amusingly been compared to the sound of “munching on brains”.

For those wanting more accessible adjectives, the Night of the Living Shred is dubbed a high-gain, tight distortion preamp pedal based on Vengeance’s go-to sounds, with wholly independent gain and fuzz tones.

In practice, those gains and fuzzes can be tailored into the signal chain as desired, with the stompbox offering dedicated Fuzz and Drive control knobs to help. Volume, Treble and Bass control knobs, as well as a sole footswitch, complete the topography.

The Night of the Living Shred was born out of Vengeance’s love for the Misfits’ Static Age pedal – which KHDK built under the Misfits brand – and vows to deliver heavy distortion and a gritty fuzz.

According to KHDK – which also released a signature pedal for Slipknot’s V-Man earlier this year – the pedal in question has been in development for over a year, and pays homage to Vengeance’s “love of metal and punk rock”.

The artwork, it should be noted, was designed by Mario Lopez, whom KHDK also tapped for its Scott Ian JSL signature pedal.

“Fun,” Vengeance said when explaining what the pedal is about. “This is about recreating the sounds that made me want to play guitar in the first place.”

The Night of the Living Shred is available now for $250.

Visit KHDK for more info.

Vengeance isn’t the only Avenged Sevenfold member to get a new piece of signature gear. Last week, Synyster Gates and Ernie Ball teamed up for two sets of signature electric guitar strings – all while teasing what could be a signature guitar amp.

Ernie Ball has teamed up with Synsyter Gates for two sets of signature electric guitar strings – one for standard six-string electric guitars, and another for seven-strings.

What has really caught our attention, though, (thanks to MusicRadar) is the video that Ernie Ball has dropped to promote the strings, which finds the Avenged Sevenfold guitarist sitting next to a very mysterious guitar amp.

But first, the strings: both of Gates’ sets feature stainless steel-wound low strings for a brighter, more aggressive sound, while a reinforced plain string construction aims for better tuning stability.

It’s also worth noting the ultra-high strength tin plating attached to the steel plain strings, as well as the fact the sets boast a “never-before-offered combination of alloys”.

Gauge-wise, the six-string set ($13) comprises 10, 13, 17, 30, 42 and 52, while the seven-string set ($15) is made up of 10, 13, 17, 28, 38, 48 and 60.

The strings can be heard in action in the film below, which, coincidentally, is where that mysterious amp crops up, and it’s safe to say the unique design has left us scratching our heads a little.

After all, Gates is a strong champion of modeling gear, having waxed lyrical about the powers of digital technology – in particular, the Axe-Fx III – on multiple occasions. In fact, when speaking to Guitar Interactive back in 2018, Gates said the number one reason he switched to the Axe-Fx was because “it sounded better than my amp”.

“I can do more with it,” said Gates when explaining why he switched from his Schecter Hellwin signature amp (via Ultimate Guitar). “And I just think at a certain point, for $2,500 or whatever it is, you have access to an infinite amount of amps. 

“Its tweakability is much better. I can get much better playability out of the Axe-Fx and still have it sound exactly like Hellwin if I wanted to.”

Despite that, is this another yet-to-be-announced signature amp? A closer look at the amp can be found in the promotional images of Gates’ signature string sets, with the white-finished unit also flashing the guitarist’s own logo. 

Such an appointment would indeed support the above theory, but the lack of a distinct brand name makes it a difficult thread to follow.

There are some telling questions that arise, though. How would it assimilate with Gates’ penchant for the Axe-Fx? Is it designed with modelers in mind? Is Gates U-turning back to the ranks of amps?

On the flipside, it would be unreasonable to think that Gates isn’t in possession of at least one amp to play through while jamming, so it’s also entirely possible this might just be a one-off custom build.

While we wait to find out the truth, head over to Synyster Gates' official online store to find out more about his new signature guitar strings.

Welcome to Guitar World’s weekly roundup of the musical highlights from the, erm, world of guitar. Every seven days (or thereabouts), we endeavor to bring you a selection of songs from across the guitar universe, all with one thing in common: our favorite instrument plays a starring role.

Joe Satriani & Brian Tarquin – Speed of Sound

What is it? Back in January, guitarist Brian Tarquin announced an all-star guitar album in support of military veterans, and Joe Satriani’s guest feature landed this week. Playing over a grinding hard-rock riff, Satch’s leads are a reminder of his ability to transport any song – and indeed listener – with a mere twist of his pitch axis, traversing pentatonic and far-flung modal lands while the juggernaut riffs roll along underneath.

Standout guitar moment: For all the lead pyrotechnics on show, it’s the bluesy entrance of Satriani’s solo that makes the biggest impact, with some neat jazz inflections before the pentatonic flurries begin.

For fans of: Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert, Eric Johnson

– Michael Astley-Brown

Yes – Cut From The Stars

What is it? The first single from Yes’s new album Mirror To The Sky. ‘Wait!’ We hear you say. ‘Didn’t they just put a record out last year?’ Well, technically, it was at the close of 2021, but yes, it is a pretty quick follow-up. However, they say they had such a productive time making the The Quest that they just keep going.

Standout guitar moment: There’s a lot of classic prog keyboard and guitar interplay across Cut From The Stars, but there’s lovely stuff from about 4.30 where Steve Howe and Geoff Downes exchange melodic pot shots.

For fans of: Capes. Expansive concepts. Keyboard pitch bends.

– Matt Parker

Tinariwen – Tenere Den

What is it? The beautiful lead single from Amatssou, the Mali-based collective’s ninth album. Thanks to up-and-coming stars like Mdou Moctar, assouf – a loose umbrella term for the specific variety of West/North African, guitar-based music also known as “desert blues” – has grown in popularity in the West in recent years, but it was Tinariwen who really paved the road for that increased, overdue recognition. Tenere Den reflects that elder statesman status – stately, elegant, but quietly brilliant all the same.

Standout guitar moment: Bandleader Ibrahim Ag Alhabib is as fiery and skilled a guitar player as any of his younger, more flashy contemporaries, but on Tenere Den, he keeps the magic in the hypnotic, fingerpicked embellishments he weaves around the song’s central progression.

For fans of: Mdou Moctar, Ali Farka Touré, Songhoy Blues

– Jackson Maxwell

Avenged Sevenfold – Nobody

What is it? The first Avenged Sevenfold single since the release of 2016’s The Stage, and a timely reminder that Synyster Gates remains one of the greatest metal players on the planet. Titled Nobody, the single will certainly take some by surprise with a sonic direction that doesn’t exactly scream “metal”, but despite the unexpected nature of the track, Gates’ guitar playing remains as familiarly virtuosic as ever, delivering warp-speed sweeps and arpeggio licks that break the sound barrier.

Standout guitar moment: Though the track is littered with examples of technically elite playing, the guitar solo, perhaps unsurprisingly, takes the cake, with Gates doubling down on some breathtaking fretboard acrobatics.

For fans of: Extreme, In Flames, Trivium

– Matt Owen

Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Meshuggah

What is it? The New Zealand psych-rock collective release their new double album, V, this week, and with it its final single, a surprisingly punishing eight-string onsla… j/k, this has nothing to do with the djent pioneers; instead, this is a masterclass in woozy guitar textures, and how to get maximum vibe from minimal notes.

Standout guitar moment: Ruban Nielson’s vibrato is something special on that wistful chord progression. It’s that extra sense of movement that keeps it fresh with each cycle.

For fans of: Tame Impala, Pond, Ty Segall

– Michael Astley-Brown

Overkill – Wicked Place

What is it? The second single from the veteran thrashers’ forthcoming album, Scorched. You don’t get to 20 albums, as Overkill have with Scorched, without knowing how to deliver the goods, and the foreboding, theatrical Wicked Place does so and then some – with an incredibly charismatic performance from vocalist Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth leading the way. 

Standout guitar moment: There are some, shall we say, ‘wicked’ lead breaks to chew on here, but if that moment guitarists Dave Linsk and Derek Tailer kick up the song’s tempo with a unison, generals-leading-a-charge, bone-breaking riff doesn’t get your blood pumping, we frankly don’t know what will.

For fans of: Iron Maiden, Exodus, Testament

– Jackson Maxwell

Dominic Miller – All Change

What is it? Miller has played sideman to Sting, Paul Simon and Plácido Domingo and now returns with an album of his own instrumental compositions. First single All Change is an extremely classy affair that showcases Miller’s talented band without showing off. It’s a knock-you-down-with-a-feather tune, full of subtle yet economical flair.

Standout guitar moment: Miller’s expert exploitation use of the space. He has the confidence to let notes ring, yet can still weave between the piano and bass lines with thrilling dexterity.

For fans of: Sting, Ralph Towner

– Matt Parker

Hot Mulligan – Shhhh! Golf is On

What is it? By their own high-energy standards, 2022 was a fairly tame year for US emo outfit Hot Mulligan, who released one standalone single and a four-track acoustic EP. 2023, though, looks like it’s business as usual for the quartet, who have returned to their guitar-heavy ways with Shhhh! Golf is On! – the powerchord-driven, angsty lead single for their upcoming album, Why Would I Watch.

Standout guitar moment: Hot Mulligan’s return to the fretboard of their electric guitars comes as a welcome one, and though their acoustic efforts were solid in their own right, those thrashing powerchord-with-counterpoint-melody throwdowns are so sweet on the ears.

For fans of: Neck Deep, KennyHoopla, Moose Blood

– Matt Owen

Thulcandra – Hail the Abyss

What is it? Germany’s premier blackened death cohort Thulcandra know how to make a metal video: contrasting ESP E-II and Jackson Vs? Check. Flames? Loads. Filmed in front of a spooky castle? Oh, hell yes. More importantly, the band’s riffs are as tight as their cinematography, with a formidable display of palm-blistering muting throughout.

Standout guitar moment: That verse riff is a guaranteed neck-fracturer – a savage display of hyperspeed thrash that’s meticulous in its execution and all the heavier for it.

For fans of: Dark Fortress, Death, Naglfar

– Michael Astley-Brown

Savannah Conley – Don't Make Me Reach

What is it? A weary song that centers around having, as Conley puts it, “nothing else to give,” Don't Make Me Reach –  the second single from the singer/songwriter’s forthcoming debut album, Playing The Part Of Me Is You – envelops you into its world, telling its story with cinematic flair and depth.

Standout guitar moment: When the song shifts gears suddenly from a spare, atmospheric acoustic slow-burner to a driving rocker, led by a hurricane of distorted guitar that would sound right at home on Siamese Dream. The quiet/loud switch-up ain’t dead yet, folks.

For fans of: Big Thief, Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus

– Jackson Maxwell

Sweet & Lynch – You’ll Never Be Alone

What is it? Ex-Dokken guitar slayer George Lynch and Stryper frontman Michael Sweet return with their third album, Heart And Sacrifice in May. You'll Never Be Alone is the first taster and ably contrasts Sweet’s soaring vocals with Lynch’s earthy hard rock riffs.

Standout guitar moment: Lynch’s solo on the track is, frankly, annoyingly-constrained and tasteful, so we’ll say it’s that gravelly toned central riff. Particularly, the way he holds the chord before the slide/palm mutes.

For fans of: Dokken, Stryper

– Matt Parker

Nothing But Thieves – Welcome to the DCC

What is it? The new single from Nothing But Thieves, who – after two albums of successful experimentation and exploration – seem to have returned to their guitar-reliant, riff-tinged roots for their latest effort. While retaining the expansive electro instrumentation that defined their previous two efforts, Welcome to the DCC puts the onus on a central guitar idea, from which the rest of the track builds and blossoms.

Standout guitar moment: That envelope filter-tinged riff is bound to please guitarists, pop listeners and dance fans alike, turning a humble one-string riff into another hook that wouldn’t go amiss in any player’s locker.

For fans of: Royal Blood, The Amazons, Inhaler

– Matt Owen

Avenged Sevenfold have marked their explosive return to studio music by dropping Nobody – a six-minute electric guitar masterclass that previews the band’s upcoming eighth album, Life Is But A Dream…

However, previewing A7X’s first album proper since 2016’s The Stage is only part of Nobody’s objective. Specifically, Nobody also marks the return of Synyster Gates, who uses the song to remind everybody – via a fiery fretboard workout – that he remains one of the best metal guitar players on earth.

Strictly speaking, Nobody doesn’t faithfully subscribe to what one would consider to be the conventional metal mantra, filled as it is with trap-y drum beats, stabbing synth brass lines and some jarring electronic instrumentation.

Having said that, Gates’ guitar chops rear their brutal, none-more-metal head with some hair-raising, chainsaw-like octave bends in the opening exchanges and a littering of lightning-quick arpeggios.

Gates’ own contribution to Nobody, though, peaks around the 4:30 mark, when he’s given free reign for a full minute to go to town on his fretboard, which he does in awe-inspiring fashion. 

Through a range of warp-speed sweeps, brain-boggling scale lines and full-throttle licks that tie together each element of the solo into one ferociously neat effort, Gates lays down the gauntlet and stakes a claim for the most technically inspiring solo of the year thus far.

Nobody’s slightly surprising sound is said to be indicative of Life Is But A Dream’s wider sonic direction, which was pieced together over a four-year writing period that was heavily inspired by the writing and philosophy of Albert Camus.

The album is set to arrive later this year, June 2, via Warner Records.

Though metal is what he’s most well-known for, Gates is equally adept at jazz thanks to his time studying at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles. Proof of his virtuosic versatility can be found in his Django Reinhardt-channeling gypsy jazz jam from 2014. 

You’d be forgiven for thinking Avenged Sevenfold’s Synyster Gates is a metal guitar player through and through. His leads across the Huntington Beach outfit’s discography are some of the most memorable and face-melting of the last 20 years. But Gates’ influences and abilities, in fact, stretch far beyond the realms of heavy music.

Prior to joining A7X in 2001, the guitarist studied at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, learning the ropes in a host of styles including jazz and classical guitar.

Perhaps it’s no surprise then, that after years on the cutting edge of metal, Gates returned to his jazzier roots, finding, or “refinding”, as he puts it, gypsy jazz, the style of small-band jazz originated by Romani-French guitarist Django Reinhardt and French violinist Stéphane Grappelli.

As he explained during a masterclass at Guitar Center back in 2014, his passion for the subgenre came after experimenting with new musical styles, inspired by guitarists including his father, Brian Elwin Haner Sr., and recently announced Mötley Crüe touring guitarist John 5.

“Basically what was happening for me was guys like John 5 – [an] unbelievable musician – he was listening to a lot of country and developing that technique. [And] my dad plays a lot of country. So I thought, these guys are doing that, I’m gonna do that, too. [But] I didn’t fall in love with the actual techniques and playing and it kind of discouraged me a little bit.

“And then I found gypsy jazz – I refound it – because I used to love listening to it but it just seemed like a very unattainable art form.”

But after clearly putting in some considerable hours, gypsy jazz is now a firm calling card of Synyster Gates’ repertoire. “I found the technique, the scales, just the whole nuance, the detail about it, to be very useful,” he added.

In the video below, watch Gates put his astonishingly well-honed chops on display with a jaw-dropping improvised performance over a backing track in the style of one of Djano Reinhardt’s most famous compositions, Minor Swing.

Naturally, Gates employs many of the same techniques he applies to his leads in Avenged, including economy picking – a blend of alternate picking and sweep picking designed to maximize picking efficiency. It’s astonishing, though, how well these work and translate in a gypsy jazz setting.

You might have to wait until 2023 for Avenged Sevenfold’s highly-anticipated eighth album, but you can feast your eyes and ears on Gates' next-level gypsy jazz chops in the meantime.

What guitarist hasn't stood in front of their bedroom mirror, imagining the unlikely scenario of playing onstage with their guitar heroes?

For most players, it's nothing more than a pipe dream, but some are lucky enough, be it by happenstance or careful planning – holding up a sign that reads, “can I play guitar with you?”, or giving a quick elevator pitch of their six-string abilities at a meet and greet – to get the chance to grace the stage with their idols.

And when they do make it to the stage, there's the small matter of making sure they seize the moment and nail the guitar part they've been invited to play. Fortunately, the fans in the following list were well-rehearsed by the time they answered the call.

Here are 10 times fans were invited to play guitar onstage and absolutely killed it.

1. Tom Morello lookalike plays Bulls on Parade with Prophets of Rage

Let’s be honest, if you’re someone who looks like Tom Morello at a Prophets of Rage gig, just stand reasonably close to the stage and you’re bound to be noticed by the band. That’s exactly what happened to Mike Svensson at the supergroup’s show in Stockholm, Sweden on June 26, 2018.

Towards the end of the set – which included a selection of Prophets of Rage originals and Rage Against the Machine and Public Enemy covers – Morello sought to take a short break from performing to rest his hand, which was recovering from a fracture at the time.

Spotting his doppelganger, the guitarist plucked Svensson from the crowd, equipped him with his signature Arm The Homeless electric guitar, and invited him to play RATM classic Bulls on Parade with the band, where he nailed the Evil Empire cut note for note while busting some serious moves. We’re not quite sure how many hours Svensson spent in front of the mirror rehearsing that moment.

2. Fan brings the house down at a Steve Vai show

Back in July, Steve Vai played the final show of the European leg of his Inviolate World Tour at the Teatro Tivoli in Barcelona. Vai had planned to make his own way to the venue, but an “excited cab driver” spotted him and insisted on taking him there. When Vai was in his car, the cabbie took the opportunity to show him a clip on his phone of his son playing For the Love of God – from Vai’s 1990 album, Passion and Warfare.

Later that night, while Vai played the encore track of his set, Fire Garden Suite IV – Taurus Bulba, he noticed the taxi driver and his young son sitting in the audience. Assured by the prowess displayed in the video clip he had been shown just hours earlier, Vai walked into the crowd and handed the boy his guitar.

The kid subsequently brought the house down with his formidable shredding, and even ran to the stage to revel in the once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“I decided to make his day,” Vai said in a social media post, “and he certainly kicked some ass! It was a splendid way to cap off an outstanding tour.”

3. Kid joins Green Day for a stellar performance of Jesus of Suburbia

Green Day have brought fans onstage numerous times in the past, but few moments have been as killer as when Billie Joe Armstrong invited a young boy to play American Idiot epic Jesus of Suburbia with the band in Chicago in 2009.

Oftentimes, the authenticity of such interactions is thrown into question, with some accusing artists of planning them in advance. But this moment is certainly legit, as Armstrong can be seen in footage asking the boy to confirm the song’s key, to which he replies correctly: “C#”

After pulling the kid onto the stage, Armstrong seats him on a stage monitor, hands him his Gibson Les Paul Junior, and plucks out and discards his earplugs. “We want it loud,” he exclaims.

Armstrong then offers the boy some brief guidance, before realizing he needs no such help. The child plays the near-10-minute song all the way through with ease, at times taking a moment to look at the crowd and take in the once-in-a-lifetime moment.

4. 11-year-old plays Van Halen’s rendition of You Really Got Me with Steel Panther

11-year-old Aidan Fisher attended a Steel Panther show in 2013 at the Midland Theater in Kansas City, Missouri, and during the band’s set, held up a sign that said: “I challenge Satchel to a guitar solo.”

After spotting the young buck and his somewhat confrontational placard, Satchel granted him his wish and welcomed him to the stage, handing over his signature Kramer Pacer and inviting the boy to play a cover of Van Halen’s version of You Really Got Me.

But before launching into the track, the boy let loose with a face-melting solo loaded with precise alternate picking runs, insane two-handed tapping passages and whammy bar dives, prompting Satchel to retreat off stage in utter defeat.

5. Young boy plays Belief onstage with John Mayer

An adolescent John Mayer fan’s dreams came true when he was given the opportunity to play onstage with the guitar icon in 2010. Austin Christy’s night went exactly to plan, after standing in the crowd at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia near the stage holding a sign that read: “Can I please play Belief with you?”

After spotting the boy, Mayer chose to make his night – and quite possibly his entire life – by calling him up to the stage, saddling him up with his red Fender Stratocaster Plus and inviting him to play the 2006 Continuum cut.

Fan-shot footage from the event shows Mayer’s acoustic guitar strumming as a backdrop, while Christy nails the track’s smooth and subtle clean leads.

The interaction clearly lit a fire in the young Christy, who continues to make guitar-based music to this day.

6. Fan plays Catfish Blues with Gary Clark Jr.

Gary Clark Jr. has made a habit of inviting fans onstage to jam with him at his shows, but no such moment has been as memorable as when he played Catfish Blues with a young fan named Jeff at Philadelphia’s The Met in 2019.

After blazing through the likes of Bright Lights, Low Down Rolling Stone, When My Train Pulls In and This Land, the bluesman called the fan to the stage during the show for the most wholesome interaction.

In footage from the event, Jeff is seen shaking hands with every member of Clark Jr.’s backing band before strapping on a Gibson SG for a healthy dose of attitude-heavy blues. Expectedly, the crowd goes nuts.

7. Kid joins Foo Fighters onstage to jam Metallica classics

An exuberant youngster named Collier was welcomed to the stage during Foo Fighters October 12 set at Kansas City’s Sprint Center. After confidently announcing to the thousands of fans in attendance, “I know a lot of Metallica songs,” Dave Grohl handed him his Pelham Blue DG-335 signature model, whereafter the boy truly made the stage his own, launching into the main riff of Enter Sandman and bringing Taylor Hawkins, Chris Shiflett and Nate Mendel along for the ride.

After showcasing more of his ‘Tallica riff knowledge – playing Welcome Home (Sanitarium) and Wherever I May Roam – Grohl capped off the boy’s experience by sending him back to his mother in the crowd, still with the DG-335 in his hands.

“If I see that shit on eBay next week I’m gonna find you,” Grohl told the boy, to the amusement of the crowd.

8. Metallica invite young band to play Seek & Destroy in Philadelphia

There must be something in the air at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia – now the Wells Fargo Center – as Metallica, like John Mayer, also made the dreams of young fans a reality at the venue.

In 2004, while the thrash titans were touring in support of their polarizing 2003 outing St. Anger, James Hetfield invited a young band called Break the Chair – its members aged between nine and 14 – to the stage to jam the intro section of Kill ‘Em All classic, Seek & Destroy.

Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Robert Trujillo and Lars Ulrich all vacated their posts, allowing the fresh-faced troupe to showcase their musical chemistry and chops to the thousands in attendance.

Metallica took over shortly before the first chorus, but we’ll bet the kids left the stage with enough adrenaline to last a lifetime.

9. Fan kills the lead lines of Avenged Sevenfold's So Far Away

Avenged Sevenfold are another act who often relinquish musical duties to eager members of the crowd. There is no shortage of such clips on YouTube, including one where a fan plays drums to Second Heartbeat in Puerto Rico, and another in which an audience member replaces Synyster Gates to play the lead guitar of Unholy Confessions. 

But few moments match up to the time a fan jumped onstage in 2011 to play lead guitar for Nightmare ballad So Far Away.

In the footage above, the fan, armed with Gates’ pinstripe-finished Schecter signature model, plays the track’s emotive leads and textural clean chords with astonishing accuracy, and even takes the opportunity to stroll about the stage to get up close to his idols.

10. Fan nails the solo of Misery Business live with Paramore

One of the biggest songs in Paramore's catalog, Misery Business has been a staple of the band's setlist since its release on 2007's Riot! That is, with the exception of a period of several years starting in 2018 when the song was temporarily retired due to a few controversial lyrics.

And of the hundreds of times the track has been played, many have seen the band welcome audience members to the stage.

In 2010, after meeting Paramore at a meet and greet prior to a show – and telling Hayley Williams he could play “all of their songs on guitar” – one fan was summoned to the stage during Misery Business, where he was equipped with Josh Farro's guitar, before absolutely nailing the track's guitar solo.

For a guitar-playing Avenged Sevenfold fan, there's surely no greater experience than having Synyster Gates and Johnny Christ personally deliver a signed guitar to your house. And that's exactly what happened to one lucky A7X fan recently, when the pair of Orange County rockers delivered his new black-and-gold Schecter Synyster Custom-S directly to his front door.

In a new video on Johnny Christ's Drinks With Johnny YouTube channel, the pair can be seen approaching the fan's house – which according to Gates is “just around the corner” from where they live – set to a feelgood instrumental of Guns N' Roses' Paradise City.

The young fan proves his, erm, fandom when he answers the door wearing an Avenged Sevenfold T-shirt, and is visibly taken aback by the presence of the world-renowned rockstars on his doorstep. Check out the footage below.

It's been over five years since Avenged Sevenfold's latest album The Stage, but it looks like fans might get a taste of some new music in 2022.

In an interview with Metal Hammer earlier this month, frontman M. Shadows explained that the band have mostly finished recording their eighth full-length, but due to the nature of continuing Covid restrictions, haven't been able to put on the finishing touches.

“In January, we're going in to finish the strings on the record,” he said. “The record's been recorded for a year, but we haven't been able to put the real strings on it, because we couldn't fly out to Prague [where Covid restrictions are less strict].

“When an orchestra have to social distance and they aren't sitting next to each other, they can get out of tune, and we have just finally got to a place where we can use this 70-piece orchestra as we intended. We finish the record in February, mix it in March.”

And in other Avenged Sevenfold news, the band recently announced the Deathbats Club, a community which gives fans who hold one of 10,000 NFTs access to a host of perks, including free concert tickets for life, guitar lessons with Synyster Gates and even a round of golf with M. Shadows.

Although often regarded as a “shredder’s” technique, the notion of sweeping (or raking) the pick across the strings to produce a quick succession of notes has been around since the invention of the pick itself.

Jazz players from the '50s, such as Les Paul, Barney Kessel and Tal Farlow, would use the approach in their improvisations, and country guitar genius Chet Atkins was known to eschew his signature fingerstyle hybrid-picking technique from time to time and rip out sweep-picked arpeggios, proving that the technique is not genre specific.

Within rock, Ritchie Blackmore used sweep picking to play arpeggios in Deep Purple’s April and Rainbow’s Kill the King. Fusion maestro Frank Gambale is widely considered to be the most versatile and innovative sweep picker and the first artist to fully integrate the technique into his style, applying sweeping to arpeggios, pentatonics, heptatonic (seven-note) scales and modes, and beyond.

Gambale explains his approach wonderfully in his instructional video, Monster Licks and Speed Picking. Originally released in 1988, it remains a must-watch video for anyone interested in developing a smooth sweep-picking technique.

It was Stockholm, Sweden, however that would produce the name most synonymous with sweeping in a rock context, one that gave rise to a guitar movement known as neoclassical heavy metal. Swedish guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen was influenced by Jimi Hendrix, Ritchie Blackmore and Uli Jon Roth but was also equally enthralled by 19th-century virtuoso violinist Niccolò Paganini.

Attempting to emulate on his Fender Stratocaster the fluid, breathtaking passages Paganini would compose and play on violin, Malmsteen concluded that sweep picking was the perfect way to travel quickly from string to string with a smooth, fluid sound much like what a violinist can create with his bow.

Malmsteen’s style has since influenced two generations of guitarists, including Tony MacAlpine, Jason Becker, Steve Vai, Mattias “IA” Eklundh, Ritchie Kotzen, Marty Friedman, John Petrucci, Vinnie Moore, Jeff Loomis, Synyster Gates, Alexi Laiho and Tosin Abasi, to name but a few.

The first five exercises in this lesson are designed to give you a systematic approach to practicing the component movements of sweep picking: from two-string sweeps to six-string sweeps, and everything in between. Practicing each exercise with a metronome for just two minutes every day will improve your coordination and your confidence to use the technique in your own playing.

Work from two strings up to six, keeping your metronome at the same tempo. This means starting with eighth notes, and while this will feel very slow, the technique will become trickier with each successive note grouping: eighth-note triplets, 16th notes, quintuplets and, most difficult of all, 16th-note triplets and their equivalent sextuplets.

Focus on synchronizing your hands so that your pick and fretting fingers make contact with the string at exactly the same moment. Only one string should be fretted at any time (this is key!), and any idle strings should be diligently muted with your remaining fingers. If you fail to do this and allow notes on adjacent strings to ring together, it will negate the desired effect and sound like you are simply strumming a chord.

When it comes to sweep picking, muting is the key to cleanliness. It is also the aspect that will take the most practice to master. The second set of five exercises handles some common sweep-picking approaches. These are shown in one position and based on one chord type each, thus focusing your attention on the exercise until you have become accustomed to the technique.

The final piece helps you tackle the various aspects of sweeping while bolstering your stamina, as the bulk of it consists of nonstop 16th notes, with only a few pauses for “breathing.” Break it down into four-bar sections and practice each with a metronome, gradually building up to the 100-beats-per-minute (100bpm) target tempo.

Get the tone

In rock, this technique is best suited to Strat-style guitars, using the neck pickup setting for a warm, round tone. Use a modern tube amp with the gain set to a moderate amount – just enough to give all the notes a uniform volume and sustain, but not so much that string muting becomes an impossible battle.

The thickness and sharpness of your pick will hugely impact the tone of your sweep picking. Something with a thickness between one and two millimeters and a rounded tip will provide the right amount of attack and still glide over the strings with ease.

Sweep-picking lesson exercises

[FIGURE 1] This Cmaj7 arpeggio on the two middle strings works just as well on the top two or bottom two. Lightly drag your pick across (push down, pull up) the two strings so that there’s very little resistance. This teaches your picking hand to make smooth motions rather than two separate downward or upward strokes.

FIGURE 2 is a C7 arpeggio played across three strings. Strive to maintain the same smooth down/up motion with your pick used in the previous example. Focus on the pick strokes that land on downbeats, and allow the in-between, or “offbeat,” notes to naturally fall into place. Every three notes your pick will change direction.

Now let’s move on to four strings with this exotic C7 altered-dominant lick, reminiscent of one of Gambale’s fusion forays. Remember, sweep picking is most effective when each note is cleanly separated from the last, so aim to have only one finger in contact with the fretboard at a time in order to keep the notes from ringing together.

Now we move on to some five-string shapes, the likes of which you can hear in the playing of Steve Vai and Mattias Eklundh. The phrasing here is 16th-note quintuplets (five notes per beat). Once again, if you focus on nailing the highest and lowest notes along with the beat, the in-between notes should automatically fall into place.

Move your pick at a constant speed to ensure the notes are evenly spaced. Say “Hip-po-pot-a-mus” to get the sound of properly performed quintuplets in your mind’s ear.

This six-string arpeggio is an A major triad (A C# E), with the third in the bass and a fifth interval added to the high E string’s 12th fret, so we have the right number of notes for 16th-note triplets (six notes per click).

When ascending, use a single motion to pick all six strings, making sure only one note is fretted at a time. The descending section includes a pull-off on the high E string, which, although momentarily disruptive to your picking, is preferable to adding another downstroke.

This major triad shape is an essential part of the Yngwie Malmsteen school of sweeping. Pay special attention to the picking directions in both the ascending and descending fragments. The alternating eighth-note triplet and quarter-note phrasing allows you to focus on the picking pattern in small bursts and then rest for a beat.

This example includes ascending and descending fragments again, this time played together. Concentrate on the general down-up motion of your picking hand rather than each pick stroke. Once you are comfortable with this shape you can apply the same approach to minor, suspended and diminished-seven arpeggios.

This example is reminiscent of players such as Jason Becker and Jeff Loomis. We start with the three-string shapes from the previous example, followed by the six-string shape from FIGURE 5. This is quite challenging for the picking hand, so start very slowly and remember to keep the hand moving smoothly.

Here we utilize two-string sweeps with pentatonic shapes. Use your first finger on the fifth fret and third finger on the seventh fret. Keep your fingers flat against the two-string groups, and transfer pressure between strings using a rolling action to mute inactive strings and prevent notes from ringing together.

Economy picking requires that your pick take the shortest journey possible when crossing from string to string. This essentially means that when you play a scale, there will be a two-string mini-sweep whenever you move to an adjacent string. This exercise combines the eight-note B whole-half diminished scale (B C# D E F G G# As) and a Bdim7 arpeggio (B D F G#).

This piece is in the key of A minor. The first part is based around a “V-i” (five-one) progression, with the arpeggios clearly outlining the implied chord changes. We begin with some ascending two-string sweeps using alternating E (E G# B) and Bb (Bb D F) triads.

Next come some A minor triads (A C E), played with a progressively increasing number of strings; this is a great way to build your confidence in sweep picking larger shapes. The Bm7b5 (B D F A) arpeggio in bar 4 has a series of three-string sweeps combined with some challenging string skips. Bar 7 is an A minor pentatonic scale (A C D E G) played in fourths using two-string sweeps/economy picking.

The second part of the piece has a more neoclassical approach and begins with some Yngwie-style three-string triads incorporating pull-offs. Be sure to follow the indicated picking directions.

Bar 12 is the trickiest part of the piece to play and utilizes some Jason Becker–inspired six-string shapes. If you have problems with string muting or note separation, apply some light palm muting to the notes as they are picked. This is an effective way to improve note clarity.

The final bar is based on the A harmonic minor scale (A B C E D F G#) and incorporates economy picking when traveling from the fifth string to the fourth.

Think you know your Avenged Sevenfold? Well, try your hand at this playthrough mash-up of 50 A7X in five (okay, a little more than five) minutes, performed by Guitar World’s very own Sam Roche.

Roche played, recorded and mixed the entire electric guitar performance himself and, needless to say, it wasn’t easy.

“One of the most challenging things was figuring out how each part would fit seamlessly into the next,” Roche told us.

“I went through the band’s discography and noted down 50 tracks of varying popularity to make it interesting. Then I randomized the list in a spreadsheet, tried playing them in the order it generated, and it was instantly clear that I needed to take a more methodical approach. 

“Thankfully, a lot of the riffs start with an open drop-D power chord, so that made life easier!"

Check out the clip above and see how many songs you can identify. We’ll give you a head start - number one is Unholy Confessions.

And for more from Roche, head to his official YouTube channel at Sightline Guitar.

Avenged Sevenfold axeman Synyster Gates has introduced two new autographed Schecter Synyster Custom electric guitar models, one in a black-with-red-pinstripes finish with black hardware, and another in a white-with-gold-pinstripes color scheme with gold hardware.

Both guitars sport a mahogany body, a three-piece mahogany neck with carbon fiber reinforcement rods and an ebony fretboard with pearloid "Syn" inlay and Death Bat marker at the 12th fret, as well as glow-in-the-dark side dots.

Other features include a Floyd Rose 1500 Series bridge, Grover Rotomatic tuners and a two-way adjustable truss rod.

Pickups are a pair of Schecter USA Synyster Gates Signature humbuckers, controlled via single volume and tone knobs and a three-way switch.

The guitars feature Gates’ personally inscribed signature on the backplate, and are available for $1,899 each.

For more information, head to SynGatesStore.com.

Reverb.com has announced that Avenged Sevenfold will be selling more than 20 pieces of gear and memorabilia through the Official Notes for Notes Avenged Sevenfold Reverb Shop.

The new shop will include guitars, cymbals and other gear the band has used on stage and in the studio, along with autographed instruments, mics and tour posters.

Among the items for sale will be:

- A Schecter Synyster Gates guitar played by Gates while A7X toured with Metallica. "It was one of the biggest, most fun tours we were ever on," he says.

- A sunburst Schecter Johnny Christ Signature Bass played on stage and often used as a warmup bass by Christ.

- Zildjian Custom A cymbals played on stage by Brooks Wackerman.

- An Audio Technica ATM510 mic autographed by the band.

- 10 separate signed posters from a recent concert in Dusseldorf, Germany.

The Official Notes for Notes Avenged Sevenfold Reverb Shop launches June 4. A portion of the proceeds from every sale on Reverb goes to support the Reverb Gives initiative. To learn more about Reverb Gives, Notes for Notes and other music education programs that benefit, click here.

For more information on the Avenged Sevenfold sale, head to Reverb.com. 

Avenged Sevenfold singer M. Shadows and guitarist Synyster Gates recently filmed a new “Breakdown Episode,” in which they discussed the writing and recording of their song "Mad Hatter." You can watch the full video above.

“We really wanted to do something that wasn’t what we’d already done,” explains Shadows at the beginning of the clip. ”We wanted to kind of indulge a little bit on a darker, more cerebral alternative vibe.”

Regarding Gates’ lead guitar part, Shadows says, “The solo is probably the most unique solo I’ve ever heard you do. Part of it sounds like a saxophone.”

“I’ve got the whammy bar in my pinkie and I’m just pulling it and doing weird shit,” Gates explains as they listen to the solo.

Shadows also sums up the song by saying: “This is a great example of, you don’t overthink this stuff. You don’t write it out before.

“You want to write a great song but then when you get in the studio, see what happens. Cause you’re gonna get cool moments. That’s one of the things we do so much better than we used to.”

“Mad Hatter” comes off Avenged Sevenfold’s 2018 EP, Black Reign.

Avenged Sevenfold have shared their acoustic performance of “Exist” at the Grammy Museum in L.A. The recording is taken from their Live at the GRAMMY Museum release, which captures the band at the venue on October 19, 2017.

Produced by Joe Barresi and Avenged Sevenfold, Live at the GRAMMY Museum features the band’s first-ever unplugged performance, for which they were backed by a string section. A portion of the album's proceeds benefit the education initiatives of the Grammy Museum, which seeks to inspire youth to the enduring qualities and cultural significance of music.

Live at the GRAMMY Museum track list:
1) Opening
2) Introduction to “As Tears Go By”
3) “As Tears Go By”
4) Introduction to “Hail to the King”
5) “Hail to the King”
6) Introduction to “Roman Sky”
7) “Roman Sky”
8) Introduction to “Exist”
9) “Exist”
10) Introduction to “So Far Away”
11) “So Far Away” 

Synyster Gates has released a new Signature Cab Pack for Fractal’s Axe-Fx III, AX8 and Axe-Fx II. The new cab pack makes it possible for guitarists to access the same sounds Gates uses with Avenged Sevenfold.

Gates has also announced that he has switched to using the Axe-Fx III for 
amp modeling, effects and more, both onstage and in the studio.

As for what Gates says he likes about using the Fractal, “Being able to shape any sort of sound that you want, manipulate any sort of sound, create any tonal expression that you so desire, that’s the main thing,” he explains in the video. “Painting whatever you want on your proverbial canvas. I couldn’t do that with my amp. There were parameters you have to work within.”

He continues, “With the Fractal you can just carve out and create these insane sounds. It’s only a ceiling of your imagination that prohibits you from creating.”

For more information on the Axe-Fx, head over to FractalAudio.com. Gates’ new Cab Pack can be purchased here.

Avenged Sevenfold have shared a new song, "Mad Hatter." The track, which was written for the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 video game, will be included on their upcoming EP, Black Reign, which gathers all the music Avenged Sevenfold has recorded for the Call of Duty franchise.

Avenged bassist Johnny Christ told HardDrive Radio: “It's a fun song—it's a little bit of a departure from I think what our fans would expect, but I guess that also makes sense because they expect crazy from us now.”

Frontman M. Shadows told Kerrang! about “Mad Hatter”: "The song is dark and brooding. We wanted to capture a difference feeling than a straight-ahead 'zombie killer' track. These songs are good places for us to experiment with our sound. I would put this in the category of 'dark alternative.' "

Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4 will be released to PlayStation4, Xbox One and PC on October 12.

The 60th annual Grammy Awards—which will be held this weekend at Madison Square Garden in New York City—hold a lot of intrigue for music aficionados, regardless of what genre they're into.

Who will be crowned as the night's biggest winners? Which deserving winner will get snubbed? And most importantly, what insane live collaborations will there be at this year's ceremony?

Though the industry's biggest night has taken some heat over the years for not being sufficiently representative of modern rock, this year's list of nominees actually covers a decent amount of ground in the Rock, Metal and Blues categories.

The Best Rock Performance category offers everything from the haunting, reserved smoothness of Leonard Cohen's "You Want It Darker" to Chris Cornell's politically charged anthem, "The Promise," to the typical Foo Fighters exuberance of "Run." Throw in Icelandic indie rockers Kaleo, and Nothing More's "Go To War" and you've got one of the more fascinating assemblages of nominees in the whole ceremony.

Foo Fighters and Nothing More appear once again—with "Run" and "Go To War" respectively—in the Best Rock Song category, which also features appearances from Metallica—who, name be damned, are now formally a "Rock" band instead of a "Metal" one apparently—up-and-comer K. Flay and—in a first for the band—Avenged Sevenfold.

Nothing More made it a trifecta with their nomination in the Best Rock Album category, which also features Mastodon, Queens of the Stone Age with—in what is likely the only time you'll ever see these bands together in any context, bar a festival poster or two—Metallica and indie stalwarts The War on Drugs.

Mastodon managed to become nominees in both the "Rock" and "Metal" categories, with their nomination for Best Metal Performance, which also featured nods to August Burns Red, Body Count, Code Orange and Meshuggah.

Though it's difficult to predict who will take home trophies in their respective categories, it's clear that the proceedings offer enough to guitar-hungry viewers to keep them from changing the channel.

You can see the full list of rock and metal-related nominees below, and the list of nominees in all 84 categories here.

The ceremony will be broadcast on CBS this Sunday, January 28 at 7:30 p.m.

Best Metal Performance

August Burns Red - "Invisible Enemy"

Body Count - "Black Hoodie"

Code Orange - "Forever"

Mastodon - "Sultan's Curse"

Meshuggah - "Clockworks"

Best Rock Performance

Leonard Cohen - "You Want It Darker"

Chris Cornell - "The Promise"

Foo Fighters - "Run"

Kaleo - "No Good"

Nothing More - "Go To War"

Best Rock Song

Metallica - "Atlas, Rise!"

K. Flay - "Blood in the Cut"

Nothing More - "Go To War"

Foo Fighters - "Run"

Avenged Sevenfold - "The Stage"

Best Rock Album

Mastodon – Emperor Of Sand

Metallica - Hardwired... To Self-Destruct

Nothing More – The Stories We Tell Ourselves

Queens of the Stone Age – Villains

The War on Drugs – A Deeper Understanding

Avenged Sevenfold have announced a new acoustic album, Live at the Grammy Museum.

Set for release this Friday, December 8, the digital-only album is partially a benefit for the Grammy Museum, with a portion of the album's proceeds going to its education initiatives.

You can check out its tracklist below.

For his part, the band's guitarist, Synyster Gates, has recently been busy with his own education initiative, the Synyster Gates School. The guitarist launched the free online guitar school with his father, acclaimed session guitarist Brian Haner Sr., last month.

For more on the school, stop by syngates.com. For more on Live at the Grammy Museum, and all things Avenged Sevenfold, stop by avengedsevenfold.com.

Live At The Grammy Museum tracklist:

• 01. Opening
• 02. Introduction To "As Tears Go By"
• 03. As Tears Go By
• 04. Introduction To "Hail To The King"
• 05. Hail To The King
• 06. Introduction To "Roman Sky"
• 07. Roman Sky
• 08. Introduction To "Exist"
• 09. Exist
• 10. Introduction To "So Far Away"
• 11. So Far Away

Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Synyster Gates has announced The Synyster Gates School, a free online guitar school and community.

Gates is launching the school with his father, acclaimed session guitarist Brian Haner Sr. Haner has worked with Frank Zappa, Tower of Power, Rose Royce and countless other musicians during his time as a session musician.

The online school will feature free guitar tutorials from Gates and his father, with interactive playthroughs.

• Aside from the free guitar tutorials, the site will offer contests, merchandise, concert tickets and behind-the-scenes videos and tips from Gates and Haner.

You can watch one of the instructional videos here, and find out more at syngates.com.

Today, GuitarWorld.com presents the exclusive premiere of the latest episode of String Theory, starring Avenged Sevenfold’s Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance.

A web series created by Ernie Ball, String Theory explores the sonic origins of influential and innovative musicians.

In the episode, the duo discuss their early days as players, their relationship with Ernie Ball and much more.

Below, you can find five surprising facts the two revealed in the episode.

Avenged Sevenfold will release the deluxe version of their album The Stage on December 15, and hit the road starting January 12. Visit avengedsevenfold.com to find out more.

1. Synyster Gates was inspired to play guitar by his father, a studio musician who worked with Frank Zappa and more (0:22): “My father was a studio musician, played for a lot of people like Frank Zappa and a lot of R&B bands, and was always gone doing that. Then when he was home, he was practicing. And so I always saw it and I always wanted to do what he did.”

2. Growing up, Zacky Vengeance was attracted to music that pissed off his parents (1:17): “[My friends] would bring this music to me—that was fast, that was aggressive, that was just totally created to piss off my parents—and I absolutely loved it. I could not get enough of it.”

3. Vengeance recalls how he first chose Ernie Ball strings (5:02): “I absolutely remember when I decided upon playing Ernie Ball strings, and it was right then and there at the guitar store up in Seattle when I picked up my first guitar ever. They said, ‘What kind of strings should we put on it?’ And I just looked at the brightest color package and said, ‘That one!’

4. Gates remembers a similar story (5:40): “I didn’t even know what it was. I was in a guitar store looking for guitars and I saw a cool little thing—a logo—that was the coolest thing I’d seen in the whole fuckin’ store.”

5. Gates speaks to the democratic nature of their band (9:57): “Everything from the lyrics to the production, solos to the writing—it’s all democratic. At the end of the day, you know, when you’re all done with the grind—which it is always an incredible grind for us to write records—I think it makes it that much more special to hear the final product.”

Of course, these are just five facts pulled from the clip. Be sure to watch the entire episode below.

For the latest on Ernie Ball, visit ernieball.com.

Avenged Sevenfold have made quite a habit of left-field covers lately, re-interpreting the Mexican folk song “Malagueña Salerosa,” Mr. Bungle’s “Retrovertigo,” an original track (“Dose”), Del Shannon’s 1961 hit, “Runaway," The Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" and—most recently—The Rolling Stones' "As Tears Go By."

Now, the band have released yet another eyebrow-raising cover, taking on the Pink Floyd classic, "Wish You Were Here."

"This is the song that started us down the rabbit hole with our recent cover recordings," said M. Shadows, the band's lead singer. "I’ve always loved this song and though I felt it would be impossible to capture the somberness of the original, we approached it with another purpose."

"There’s a poignancy to the song that seems appropriate with everything going on in the world today. We put a bit of a modern twist on it to reintroduce it at a time when it might help capture what some of us are feeling.”

This series of covers is a part of the band's latest project, The Stage. Though the band released The Stage as a proper album earlier this year, they recently decided to turn it into an evolving body of work by consistently adding on to it.

Today, the band announced that these covers—in addition to four previously unreleased live cuts—would be released as part of a deluxe edition of The Stage, which will come out on December 15.

You can listen to the band's cover below.

For more on Avenged Sevenfold, stop by avengedsevenfold.com.

Avenged Sevenfold have made quite a habit of left-field covers lately, re-interpreting the Mexican folk song “Malagueña Salerosa,” Mr. Bungle’s “Retrovertigo,” an original track (“Dose”) Del Shannon’s 1961 hit, “Runaway" and—most recently—The Beach Boys' "God Only Knows."

Now, the band has released yet another eyebrow-raising cover, taking on the classic early Rolling Stones song, "As Tears Go By."

This series of covers is a part of the band's latest project, The Stage. Though the band released The Stage as a proper album earlier this year, they recently decided to turn it into an evolving body of work by consistently adding on to it.

Guitar World, which spotlighted Gates and Zacky Vengeance with a cover story, lauded the disc for being “the most surprising and ambitious album of their career.”

You can listen to the band's cover below.

For more on Avenged Sevenfold, stop by avengedsevenfold.com.

“My grandpa always said, getting old ain’t for pussies, and that is soooo true,” says a laughing Synyster Gates, co-guitarist in the hard rock force of nature known as Avenged Sevenfold.

“If you want to do things right, you have to dig deep for that inspiration.” At age 35, Gates is far from being an old fart, but after 15 years in one of metal’s most notorious party bands you wouldn’t blame him if he wanted to slow down, eat popcorn and binge-watch The Eric Andre Show. But that was not to be. Instead, he and his band pulled up their britches and recorded their most surprising and ambitious album of their career.

The Stage is a 73-minute extravaganza stuffed with thought-provoking ideas about artificial intelligence and mammoth musical productions like the 16-minute “Exist.” Inspired by the heady writings of astrophysicist Carl Sagan and inventor Ray Kurzweil, the band’s seventh studio album took over a year to write and record, and sounds like it. But as strong and assured as the finished product sounds, its beginnings were as sluggish as a creaky 1984 Macintosh 128K computer.

“For months we were asking each other whether we were ready to write a record, and the answer kept coming up negative,” says Gates. “I sat down a couple times and tried to write some lyrics, but my heart wasn’t into it. I knew I was just recycling old ideas, and the other guys were having the same experience.”

The truth was, the band members—vocalist M. Shadows, guitarist Zacky Vengeance, bassist Johnny Christ and new drummer Brooks Wakerman—were no longer the same kids that wrote City of Evil in 2005. Some of them had children of their own, and they weren’t drinking and partying together every night like in the bad ol’ days. Their lifestyles had radically changed, but instead of regressing, they decided to embrace their newfound maturity and figure out new ways to work together.

“It started with just hanging, having lunch together, drinking a little coffee and being adults,” says Gates. “We discovered that everyone had interesting new experiences and influences to share. Our singer, Matt, was reading Stephen Hawking and other physics-related books, and I was reading entrepreneurial books and we all started discussing the new technologies that were taking over the world, from 3-D printing to space travel.

“These conversations starting leading us to think of how we could portray these things in a musical way. Eventually we landed on the topic of artificial intelligence and its many ramifications. When we began considering things that never influenced us before, it gave us some room to reinvent ourselves and ideas just started pouring out.

“There was only one rule. We said if we were going to write about artificial intelligence, we couldn’t make any reference to the Terminator movies,” he says with a laugh. “And that was hard, because it’s literally in our top five favorite fucking movies since we were kids, but we knew we had to stay away from that. No one would take us seriously if we did.” Terminator or no Terminator, guitar nerds will undoubtedly take this album very seriously.

Over the years, Gates and co-guitarist Zacky Vengeance have gradually evolved into one of the most interesting two-guitar teams in rock. While Gates still plays most of the leads and Vengeance is primarily the rhythm guy, most of the quality time on the album spent weaving in and out of each other, with sophisticated chord voicings and supportive harmony lines that sound more orchestral in nature than your typical power chord/lead guitar fare.

Not since Brian May’s groundbreaking work in Queen have guitars been called on to do so many things. On their adventurous eight-minute title track, “The Stage,” the duo shift effortlessly between aggressive thrash rhythms to shimmering chorus textures that melt into string-like legato melodies that support and lift the chorus before landing on a series of harmony leads straight from the Eagles’ “Hotel California” playbook. And just when you think the song is finished, a gentle coda ends on the wistful sigh of two nylon string guitars.

To their credit, none of these shifts call much attention to themselves. They flow naturally, serving to highlight the vocal melodies as the parts drive the song in logical and satisfying ways. It’s only afterward, when you think about what has happened, that you realize how clever the journey was. How do they do it? Enter Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance.

Did you have any thoughts going in to this album in terms of your overall musical direction?
SYNYSTER GATES Not at first, but once we got into it and started having more adult conversations about the music it got pretty clear where we wanted to go. We eventually settled on a balance of some R&B and a truckload of guitar orchestration that we wanted to sound like Star Wars on metal steroids.

ZACKY VENGEANCE We wanted to basically flip the script from the last album and be ambitious on every level: the length of the songs, the subject matter, the guitar riffs and harmonies. The idea was to come up with creative guitar arrangements rather than just write killer riffs. Don’t get me wrong, I love coming up with riffs. Riffs are fantastic. But after 30, 40 years of heavy metal bands coming up with great riffs, anything you do has the potential of being a rehash. Instead, we wanted to take our instruments and do something different, and make some new kind of noises.

I noticed that there are a lot of dynamics in the recording, which flies in the face of the current trend where everything is mastered to sound loud and in-your-face.
VENGEANCE Yeah, absolutely. Most modern recordings are so loud and over-compressed that they exhaust the ear. I know that they're designed to push the volume levels, but in the process you lose nuance. I love listening to Led Zeppelin and classic rock albums from the Seventies. They’re just so brilliant because they breathe. The tendency in modern recording is to hit you with a solid wall of sound, and I think it keeps the listener out of the music rather than inviting them in.

Even on your most basic songs, there is a great deal of thought put into the arrangement and guitar orchestration. Can you take me through a couple songs and explain how they came together? Something like “The Stage” is good to talk about because, by your standards it has a pretty straight-forward chord progression, but the guitar keeps spinning variations over those chords and it has a lot of hallmarks of your style.
GATES We always spend a lot of time on the demo and writing process, really polishing arrangements and exploring different ideas and textures before we even go into the studio. It’s a good process because there have been times when a band member really believes in something the other four don’t, and it gives them time to paint a more vivid picture until everybody goes, “Oh wow, you really do have something going there, man. That’s pretty cool.”

As much as we wanted this album to be unbelievably different, we wanted “The Stage” to be a bit of a throwback song, we wanted people to see some of our DNA in it.

What impressed me about “The Stage” was the chord movement. In the verse you move a half step from E minor to Eb Major, and in the chorus you move a half step from E minor to F major. In both cases it’s a small chromatic shift but the effect is huge. The verse is dark and the chorus is uplifting.
VENGEANCE That’s something we started playing around with on our last album, Hail to the King. We got that from listening to the chord progressions of [classical composer] Gustav Holst. On his piece The Planets [a seven-movement orchestral suite], he often floats around the same notes, but makes these slight variations that have a lot of impact. On this album we explored those kinds of chromatic chord progressions quite a bit. It sounds awesome, but trying to find the right melody that fits, or figuring out how to solo over something like that can be difficult, but it usually forces you to find something really fresh and different.

GATES Yeah, on the verse where it pivots between E minor and Eb major, the Eb works in two ways. If you think of the vocal melody as being in B major (the V chord of E minor), when we shift to the Eb major chord, you can use it as a major third to the B major scale or go to a G which is a major third to the Eb major. You get more bang for your buck. You get a weird ethereal sound or can get the traditional minor to fifth major. I can’t say we started off trying to do that, but knowing a little theory allows you to take advantage of something like that—the less apparent route.

What distinguishes you from many other metal bands is your full embrace of the minor chord. A lot of other bands tend to power chord on the minor chords, but you guys really use the minor third in your vocal melodies and guitar orchestration. I think most bands think it sounds sorta wimpy, but you exploit it for the drama.
VENGEANCE I know exactly what you're saying, and a lot of it comes from growing up on bands like Bad Religion, who were not afraid of minor keys. We were always attracted to bands that were melodic, but still maintained their edge. A lot of the minor chords start out as vocal melodies. Matt likes to go there, so the guitars tend to follow. It's a way of being melodic without being too sugary.

Another hallmark of your style is your distinctive use of harmony guitars. Sometimes you use them as lead lines like Iron Maiden or Metallica, but just as often you use them almost like string lines or background keyboard pads. You do both in “The Stage.”
VENGEANCE That’s a great way of looking at it. We absolutely use harmony guitars like strings. I think we sort of do it subconsciously. The entire chorus of “God Damn” sits on top of our harmony guitars that are arranged like strings, but another way of looking at it, we also use them to replace backing vocals.

One of our biggest pet peeves is listening to bands that use harmony guitars for the sake of it. If you can’t figure out how do something different than Maiden, UFO or even Boston, then what’s the point? Our natural tendency is to think in an orchestral way. You want those lines to support the vocals, and we’ve gotten much better at arranging them. In the past, I think our guitars were sometimes too busy and distracting. Although our fans loved it, I’m sure some people thought some of our playing was overkill, like, “Jesus, how much shit can they get in there?” The answer was a lot! We’ve gotten better at editing ourselves.

For the entire interview, check out the January 2017 issue of Guitar World on newsstands and the Guitar World Online Store.

Avenged Sevenfold have dropped “The Stage,” a brand-new single. The song and its accompanying music video can be streamed below.

Last week, after numerous Avenged Sevenfold fans started report spotting the deathbat logo being projected on buildings and billboards across the world, there was much speculation as to what the band might have in store.

While no official news has been announced just yet, the band has launched a “deathbot” through the landing page of their official website where fans can ask questions pertaining to the band. Upon typing in the keywords “new album,” the deathbot revealed, “The answer to that question will be given at a special LIVE EVENT on October 27.”

In contrast to that, the keyword “tour” procures a snarkier response. According to the deathbot, “Nah, your city sucks.”

Avenged Sevenfold have unveiled a new composition, “Jade Helm,” an instrumental that appears in the Call of Duty: Black Ops III video game.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III was released November 6 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Said Avenged Sevenfold in a statement:

“We are proud to announce our involvement in ‘Black Ops 3.’ Treyarch asked us if we would like to create a score to accompany a portion of the multiplayer soundtrack and we gladly accepted. On November 6 you can pick up a copy of the game and check out our instrumental score entitled ‘Jade Helm’ while you play Multiplayer or in your personal bunk inside the Safe House of the Campaign.”

Avenged Sevenfold recently revealed that their new drummer is Brooks Wackerman, formerly of punk icons Bad Religion. Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows revealed the news on Fozzy singer Chris Jericho’s “Talk is Jericho” podcast.

Shadows and Wackerman were this weeks guests on the podcast, where Shadows revealed that Wackerman had been considered for the position since the death of original A7X drummer Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan. Said Shadows: “To be honest, Brooks’ name has always been in the mix. It was one of the names we were throwing around when Jimmy passed away in terms of who was going to step up for ‘Nightmare.’ We felt Mike [Portnoy, ex-Dream Theater drummer] was the right choice and we still feel that way. Mike just destroyed on the record. He was perfect. But at the time, our tour manager brought up Brooks’ name as well. But at the time he was also busy with Bad Religion and it was also… people were going to look at it differently because he was a punk drummer at this point.”

Regarding drummer Arin Iljay, who left Avenged Sevenfold earlier this year, Shadows said, “It just became increasingly difficult to be on the same page, not only touring, but with writing and just where we want to take things. We’re just a bunch of guys who are all over the place and we have a bunch of different influences and we need somebody who can instantly … who can sit there and say, ‘Yeah, I’ve got that influence too or I understand why we’re gonna go here. I understand why we’re going to do that.’

He continued, “It just got to the point where after Mayhem Festival last year, we had just decided to fire on all cylinders the way we want to, we needed to make a change. And we all had our little talk. We said, ‘Listen, we can ride this thing out the way it is right now and we’ll be fine or we can shake the nest a little bit and we want to fire on all cylinders again. We want to be the baddest band on the planet. We want to just dominate onstage. And I came up with the idea that I really want to talk to Brooks and see if there’s any chance and see where he’s at in his life right now.”

Commented Brooks to Jericho: I’ve been a fan of the band for a decade, and when Matt gave me the call last year, I was absolutely thrilled.”

As far as working on a new Avenged Sevenfold album, the follow up to 2013’s ‘Hail to the King,’ Shadows said: The idea of the last record was a very stripped down sound and the idea of the next is a not very stripped down sound.”

Listen to “Jade Helm” below and let us know what you think in the comments.

Avenged Sevenfold’s reissue of their second album, Waking The Fallen: Resurrected, is available now via Hopeless Records.

In honor of the re-release, the band has shared the original first-cut music video for "Unholy Confessions," a song off the album.

Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments or on Facebook!

Enter to a ‘Waking the Fallen: Resurrected’ black vinyl box set with exclusive 7-inch single here.

Avenged Sevenfold have released the official music video for their song “This Means War.” The track is from the band’s latest album, 2013′s Hail to the King.

Give it a gander below and let us know what you think in the comments or on Facebook!

You can catch Avenged Sevenfold live on the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival this summer. The group will also release its new video game, ‘Hail to the King; Deathbat,’ later this year. In August, A7X’s second album, Waking the Fallen, will be reissued in an expanded anniversary edition, featuring demo tracks and a DVD.

In this new feature from the August 2014 issue of Guitar World, the guitarists of Avenged Sevenfold, Morbid Angel, Trivium and other metal acts tell how they'll beat the heat and tame the crowds on the season's biggest tours.

TODAY: Avenged Sevenfold Guitarist Synyster Gates — MAYHEM FEST

Your sweatiest concert ever?

Definitely the 2004 Warped Tour when we played in Arizona. I think it got up to 127 degrees, and I remember feeling like I was going to faint. Just god awful. So we drank a bunch of margaritas to keep us extremely sedated.

Considerations when playing an outdoor show versus an indoor show?

Nothing at all. We just go out there and have a lot of fun. I mean, the only time you’re ever worried about anything is if there are extreme elements, like rain or crazy wind.

Primary gear you’ll be playing this summer?

My gear is pretty easy. I usually play through my Hellwin amp and signature guitar [Schecter Synyster Custom]. I’m not a big effects sort of guy—I like to keep it simple.

One item you will carry with you at all times this summer?

A ProTools rig strapped to my back, literally. It keeps me sane, writing a bunch of different stuff like classical stuff or any guitar stuff. I don’t like being locked in a cage on the creative scale. I need an outlet.

Highlight of your band’s set list?

I’m really excited about the reaction “This Means War” [from 2013’s Hail to the King] is getting these days. That’s a real fun song to play, and I like the grooves and riffs.

Tips for winning over a tough crowd?

You just have to be confident. Don’t give ’em anything to further their disapproval. Just go up there, rock out, and act like it’s a base of your fans. And don’t scream and yell at them.

Advice for a band just starting to play live?

Just go up there and enjoy it, because it’s a really special thing to be able to do. We interact with the crowd, turn it into a party. I wouldn’t worry about the performance or having a stiff and ridged structure for the show. If you keep it loose, you’ll find yourself, eventually.

Photo: David Wolff — Patrick/Redferns/Getty Images

Watch the video for "Hail to the King" here:

As part of Guitar Center's Master Class artist program, 10 winners from around the U.S. were chosen by Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Synyster Gates to attend a private master class at Guitar Center Hollywood.

At the class, Gates discussed his technique, background and more — and, of course, he played plenty of guitar for the attendees. In fact, in the just-posted (June 5) clip below, Gates actually surprises the crowd by performing some mighty convincing gypsy jazz guitar. Check it out below — and be sure to tell us what you think in the comments or on Facebook.

“Avenged Sevenfold has always been a band that champions musicality,” said Gates about the class. “I’m passionate about the art of guitar, and this Master Class is the perfect opportunity to help further the skills and careers of like-minded musicians.”

By the way, if you'd like to check out more high-quality gypsy jazz guitar, be sure to check out Stephane Wrembel (or at least listen to "Bistro Fada," his most popular tune).

In May, Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Synyster Gates headed to Guitar Center Hollywood to present his Master Class with Synyster Gates, a program developed to recognize and reward musicians with the opportunity to learn from a famous guitarist in an engaging setting.

Out of thousands of submissions from across the country, 10 people were handpicked by Gates to fly out to the intimate Los Angeles master class.

“Avenged Sevenfold has always been a band that champions musicality,” Gates said. “I’m passionate about the art of guitar, and this Master Class is the perfect opportunity to help further the skills and careers of like-minded musicians.”

Check out the clip from the Master Class below, and let us know what you think in the comments or on Facebook. Avenged Sevenfold will be on the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Fest this summer.

The Master Class was presented in conjunction with Guitar Center and Schecter Guitar Research.

This past Wednesday night, April 23, at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, Zakk Wylde and Ace Frehley presented the first-ever Dimebag Darrell Best Guitarist Award.

The nominees included Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains, Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, John Petrucci of Dream Theater, Zoltan Bathory & Jason Hook of Five Finger Death Punch, Munky & Head of Korn and Synyster Gates & Zacky Vengeance of Avenged Sevenfold.

Find out who wins in the video below, which also happens to include the presentation of the annual Album of the Year award. This year, the honor went to none other than Black Sabbath. On hand to accept the award was the Iron Man himself, Tony Iommi.

Let us know what you think in the comments or on Facebook!

Avenged Sevenfold have released a brand-new music video for "Shepherd of Fire," the opening track from their latest album, Hail to the King.

Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments!

“We were basically experiencing the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows, all encompassed in the span of two years,” Zacky Vengeance told Guitar World. “Losing Jimmy, recording the album, getting back on the road, dealing with different drummers and then ultimately becoming a bigger band than we’d ever been… It was a lot to take in.”

Apart from a short international tour of Southeast Asia and other far-flung locales in early 2012, and an appearance at Metallica’s inaugural Orion Music + More festival, Avenged spent much of the last year in hibernation. In the fall, they found time to cut one new song, a bracing, Euro-style power-metal throwback called “Carry On,” which appeared in the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

But if any fans took that as a harbinger of the group’s new musical direction, they were sorely misled. Hail to the King is a different animal entirely—not just from “Carry On” but from any of the band’s previous albums. On recent offerings like 2005’s City of Evil, 2007’s self-titled effort and Nightmare, Avenged seemed to take pleasure in packing as much rollercoaster riffage, racing dual-guitar harmonies and double-bass drum-fueled rhythms as possible into every piece of music.

For the rest of this interview, head here.

The all-new October 2013 issue of Guitar World is available now! And you have two covers to choose from!

The new issue features Avenged Sevenfold, who are back after a yearlong hiatus, during which they healed from the death of Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan and put their lineup back in order. The heavy metallers come back stronger than ever with Hail to the King, their new hard rock-influenced album. Preview this story HERE!

We've also got Mötley Crüe axman Mick Mars, who shares his vast collection of rare Gibsons and Fenders, including a ton of vintage Strats. Preview this story HERE!

Plus: Famed neoclassical guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen recounts his rebellious teen years and how he discovered inspiration in an excerpt from his new autobiography, Relentless: The Memoir. Preview this story HERE!

Guitarists of Mastodon, Children of Bodom, Five Finger Death Punch, Amon Amarth and other Mayhem Festival acts share their unadulterated responses to our annual metal survey.

There's also Guitar World's guide to budget axes and much more!

Five songs with tabs for guitar and bass:

• Van Halen - "On Fire"
• The Beatles - "I Feel Fine"
• Avenged Sevenfold - "Nightmare"
• The Allman Brothers Band - "Soulshine"
• Bob Dylan - "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"

Plus all-new lesson columns by:

• Joe Don Rooney
• Jacky Vincent
• Jimmy Brown
• Mike Stern
• Metal Mike
• Keith Wyatt
• Dale Turner
• Andy Aledort

And gear reviews!

• Schecter
• Carvin
• D'Angelico
• Epiphone
• Samson
• Budda

... and more!

For more information, check out the new issue at the Guitar World Online Store!

Avenged Sevenfold will release their new album, Hail to the King, August 27.

In anticipation, the band is streaming the album in its entirety on iTunes right now.

CLICK HERE to check it out — and let us know what you think in the comments.

Avenged Sevenfold appear on the cover of the brand-new October 2013 issue of Guitar World, which is available at the Guitar World Online Store and on newsstands now.

Check out an excerpt of our cover story HERE — and, as a bonus, our review of the new Schecter USA Hellwin 100 guitar amp, a collaboration between amp guru James Brown and Avenged Sevenfold's Synyster Gates.

Avenged Sevenfold have released the music video for the lead single and title track off their new album, Hail to the King, which will hit stores August 27.

Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments.

Avenged Sevenfold appear on the cover of the current issue of Guitar World, which is available now on newsstands and at the Guitar World Online Store.

Check out our Avenged Sevenfold cover story here!

The following content is related to the October 2013 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now, or in our online store.

For several decades, Schecter has built, nurtured and sustained its reputation as a maker of great electric guitars and basses, but recently the company entered an entirely new chapter with the introduction of its first line of guitar amps.

However, Schecter is not entirely new to the amp business, as it has enlisted the formidable talents of a particular Mr. James Brown—not the deceased godfather of soul, but rather the amp tweaker of sound, known for designing several of the most popular amps of the last two decades, including the 5150 and JSX. Currently, Schecter offers three USA models—the Hellraiser 100 head and 2x12 combo and the top-of-the-line Hellwin 100 head—with less-expensive imported Stage Series models of these amps expected to ship later this year.

[[ Avenged Sevenfold's Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance Discuss Their Hard Rock-Influenced New Album, 'Hail to the King' ]]

The Schecter Hellwin USA 100 head is the product of a collaboration between Brown and Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Synyster Gates. Their main goal was to combine the sounds of several of Gates’ favorite amps in a single head with a versatile three-channel design, an impressive assortment of truly professional features and even a few new innovations.

Features

The Schecter Hellwin USA 100 is a 100-watt amp head driven by four EL34 tubes in the output section and four 12AX7 tubes in the preamp section, with the tubes, heavy-duty transformers and other components kept cool by a noise-free fan that runs as soon as the power is switched on. While the front panel boasts an abundance of knobs (20, to be exact), the controls are logically arranged in separate sections for Clean, Lead I, Lead II and Master, with the built-in noise gate and focus controls occupying their own separate space as well.

Controls for the Clean, Lead I and Lead II sections are identical and fully independent, consisting of treble, middle, bass, volume and gain knobs. The Clean channel also features a voicing switch that toggles between U.K. and U.S.A. settings, with an LED that illuminates red for U.K. or green for U.S.A. The Master section provides controls for master, presence and boost, a switch for engaging the boost function, a MIDI learn switch and an effect loop on/off switch. The noise gate is adjusted with a single knob, and the focus switch offers four modes (Tight, Normal, VII, and VIII) that alter the input frequency, attack response and preamp EQ frequencies to match six-, seven- and eight-string guitars plugged into the amp. The Hellwin USA 100 also offers a normal 1/4-inch guitar input and a unique active input designed to deliver optimal tonal response with active pickups.

The amp’s rear panel offers similarly sophisticated features with a straightforward, logical layout. An impedance selector switch provides a choice of four-, eight- or 16-ohm output and is located next to a pair of 1/4-inch speaker output jacks. There’s also an XLR direct output with a ground-lift switch and a DI cabinet select switch that emulates either a straight-front 4x12 cabinet loaded with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers or a slant-front 4x12 cab with the same speakers. The mono effect loop features 1/4-inch send and return jacks along with individual send and return level controls. A five-switch footswitch controller plugs into the amp’s 1/4-inch footswitch jack with a standard stereo cable, allowing guitarists to engage the Clean, Lead I, and Lead II channels as well as the boost function and effect loop.

Performance

Even if you’re familiar with Mr. Brown’s previous creations, prepare to be pleasantly surprised yet again when you plug into the Hellwin USA 100. While the controls and layout are deceptively simple, a wide variety of outstanding tones can be coaxed from the amp with a few tweaks. The Clean channel provides fat midrange punch with the U.S.A. voicing, and if you select U.K. voicing and crank up the gain, it barks out aggressive overdrive crunch. Both of the Lead channels have more than ample gain, but thanks to their sweetly tuned EQ sections, the sound never gets buzzy or fuzzy. Lead I has the bite and grit of a modded JCM800, while Lead II provides an ample extra helping of gain, sustain and midrange, which makes it ideal for big, fat bold solos. The noise gate only operates with the two Lead channels, keeping both channels entirely noise free while preserving natural decay.

List Price $3,699

Manufacturer Schecter Guitar Research, schecterguitars.com

Cheat Sheet

Three individually voice channels provide their own independent treble, middle, bass, volume and gain controls, along with a voice switch for the Clean channel.

The Clean channel’s voice switch offers a selection of U.K. (scooped-mid) or U.S.A. (mid-enhanced) settings.

A built-in noise gate is controlled with a single knob, allowing the Lead I and Lead II channels to deliver noise-free performance with natural decay.

The focus switch allows users to optimize the attack and preamp EQ for six-, seven- or eight-string guitars.

The Bottom Line

Schecter’s amp line makes a hell of a debut with the Hellwin USA 100 and its versatile selection of tones, professional features and useful new innovations, which make it stand out and above in today’s very crowded amp-head market.

This is an excerpt from the October 2013 issue of Guitar World magazine. For the rest of this story, plus a Dimebag Darrell poster and features on Mick Mars, Buddy Guy, the Mayhem Festival, Yngwie Malmsteen, a guide to 15 fantastic electric guitars for less than $500 and more, check out the October 2013 issue at the Guitar World Online Store.

Hail, Hail, Rock and Roll: After a yearlong hiatus, Avenged Sevenfold come back stronger than ever with Hail to the King, their new hard rock–influenced album.

“I gotta admit, today is a little nerve racking,” Zacky Vengeance says, speaking to Guitar World on a hot July afternoon in Los Angeles.

The guitarist is preparing to head to rehearsal with his bandmates in Avenged Sevenfold, something he has done hundreds of times over their 14 years together. It wouldn’t be cause for anxiety except that, this time, things are a little different. According to Vengeance, Avenged haven’t performed live in more than a year, the longest such stretch of their career.

But with a new album in the can—their eagerly anticipated sixth full-length, Hail to the King—and a world tour in the works, today is, he says, “day one of pretty much starting the cycle again. We’re going straight from doing not a whole lot of anything to going at it full force.”

But while Vengeance is eager to get back to work with Avenged, he admits that the extended break was much needed. “It was kind of a planned thing,” he says. “We needed some time to refresh, regroup and look back on everything we’ve been through.” And indeed, Avenged Sevenfold—singer M. Shadows (Matt Sanders), guitarists Vengeance (Zachary Baker) and Synyster Gates (Brian Haner, Jr.), bassist Johnny Christ (Jonathan Seward) and new drummer Arin Ilejay—have been through a lot, to put it mildly. It could be said that the band’s recent collective experience has been something of, to paraphrase Charles Dickens, the best of times, and the worst of times.

[[ Review: Schecter's USA Hellwin 100 Guitar Amp, the Product of a Collaboration Between Schecter and Avenged Sevenfold's Synyster Gates ]]

Their lowest point is now an indelible part of the band’s narrative. At the tail end of 2009, while they were enjoying some time off to celebrate the holidays before settling in to record their fifth studio album, founding drummer Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan was found dead in his home at the age of 28, from what was ruled to be an accidental overdose of prescription drugs and alcohol. It was also discovered that he had a heart condition known as cardiomegaly, which may have played a role in his death. For any band, suddenly losing one of its own would be a devastating blow; for Avenged Sevenfold, whose members grew up together and had been friends and schoolmates, the loss was a tragedy of almost insurmountable proportions.

“Were we close to the end at a certain point?” Gates posits. “Yeah, absolutely.” But, he adds, “We also realized we needed each other more than ever.”

Avenged Sevenfold eventually regrouped, but a rocky road lay ahead. Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy came onboard to assist with the recording of what would become Nightmare, and to accompany the band on the ensuing tour. But the pairing soon proved incongruous: Portnoy seemed to want a permanent position with the group and, in a possibly related move, walked away from Dream Theater, his prog-metal outfit of more than two decades.

But Avenged, still reeling from Sullivan’s death, weren’t ready to commit fully. Instead, they parted ways with Portnoy and began searching yet again for a drummer. They eventually hooked up with Ilejay, a then-unknown 22-year-old who had previously played with Christian metalcore act Confide, but there was no guarantee his position with the group was secure. “It was just a hard moment for anybody new to come into our camp,” Vengeance says. “Because we couldn’t imagine any drummer filling that spot.”

Yet, while Avenged were struggling to stay together, Nightmare—an album borne from profound pain and despair, and one that almost didn’t come to be at all—was proving to be their biggest record to date. It topped the Billboard album charts upon its release in July 2010, becoming their first Number One record. It has since gone on to sell more than 500,000 copies. On the road, Avenged found themselves playing to some of the biggest crowds of their career, appearing at massive Euro fests, like Rock Am Ring in Germany and Download in the U.K., and embarking on multiple headlining runs across the U.S., including as a bill topper for the 2011 Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival.

“We were basically experiencing the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows, all encompassed in the span of two years,” Vengeance says. “Losing Jimmy, recording the album, getting back on the road, dealing with different drummers and then ultimately becoming a bigger band than we’d ever been… It was a lot to take in.”

Apart from a short international tour of Southeast Asia and other far-flung locales in early 2012, and an appearance at Metallica’s inaugural Orion Music + More festival, Avenged spent much of the last year in hibernation. In the fall, they found time to cut one new song, a bracing, Euro-style power-metal throwback called “Carry On,” which appeared in the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

But if any fans took that as a harbinger of the group’s new musical direction, they were sorely misled. Hail to the King is a different animal entirely—not just from “Carry On” but from any of the band’s previous albums. On recent offerings like 2005’s City of Evil, 2007’s self-titled effort and Nightmare, Avenged seemed to take pleasure in packing as much rollercoaster riffage, racing dual-guitar harmonies and double-bass drum-fueled rhythms as possible into every piece of music.

But on Hail to the King, they opted to strip things down. “The goal was to focus more on the groove and the songwriting and the arrangements,” Gates says. “We wanted to create space instead of just filling every song up to the brim with shit—to keep that same depth, but without having to always have four bridges and three choruses and multiple vocal harmonies and guitar duels everywhere.”

Photo: Jason Borucki

For the rest of this story, plus a Dimebag Darrell poster and features on Mick Mars, Buddy Guy, the Mayhem Festival, Yngwie Malmsteen, a guide to 15 fantastic electric guitars for less than $500 and more, check out the October 2013 issue at the Guitar World Online Store.

Avenged Sevenfold have released the lead single and title track off their new album, Hail to the King, which will hit stores August 27.

Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments.

The band will appear on the cover of the next issue of Revolver, which will hit newsstands July 30.

Avenged Sevenfold have posted a 30-second preview of the title track from their highly anticipated new album, Hail to the King, which will hit stores August 27.

Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments.

Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Synyster Gates has teamed up with Guitar Center, Schecter Guitars and Ernie Ball to launch the "Ultimate Master Class Fly Away with Synyster Gates" contest.

Start by downloading seven backing tracks by Avenged Sevenfold — and then make videos of yourself playing along to the tracks.

Gates will listen to the submissions that are ranked highest by the social media audience. Gates will then select the winners and their guests to be flown to Los Angeles to attend an incredible master class by the Avenged Sevenfold shredder himself.

Winners will receive:

• VIP trip to Los Angeles with a guest to attend a master class with Gates in the Guitar Center Hollywood Vintage Room
• Schecter Guitars Synyster Gates special electric guitar
• A behind-the-scenes tour of the Schecter factory and custom shop
• Ernie Ball accessory prize pack.

To download the backing tracks — and to find out how to enter the Master Class contest (and to read the official rules and regulations) — visit Guitarcenter.com/a7x.

Here's a Guitar World video from the 2013 Winter NAMM Show, which took place January 24 to 27 in Anaheim, California.

During the gear- and rain-filled weekend, we paid a visit to the gang at the Schecter Guitar Research booth to check out the company's new Hellwin Amp. It was designed by amp guru James Brown (far right in the video) for and with Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Synyster Gates.

For more about this amp, head to schecterguitars.com.

Thanks for following along with our continuous NAMM 2013 coverage on Twitter during the NAMM Show! Even though the NAMM Show is over, be sure to follow Guitar World on Twitter right here.

For more GuitarWorld.com NAMM 2013 gear news, visit and bookmark our dedicated NAMM 2013 page here.

[[ Guitar World at NAMM 2013: Gear updates, photo galleries, videos and more! ]]

Photo: Damian Fanelli

Here's a Guitar World video from the 2013 Winter NAMM Show, which took place January 24 to 27 in Anaheim, California.

During the gear- and rain-filled weekend, we paid a visit to the guys at the Schecter Guitars booth to check out some new basses. This video profiles the company's new Nikki Sixx and Johnny Christ (Avenged Sevenfold) signature model basses.

"It was an exciting and creative process to work with Schecter on the new Schecter Sixx Signature Series Bass," Sixx said in a statement before the NAMM Show started. "It was important to all of us to design a bass that would feel right as well as sound amazing in the hands of all players, not just me. Every detail about the new Schecter Sixx comes from all of our collective experiences — whether it's my 30 years of playing live and recording or Schecter's unprecedented standards for making quality instruments for players of all genres. Simply said, this bass rocks!"

The new Johnny Christ model features EMG Active MMCS/81 MMCS dual-coil pickups with wide bobbins — combined with a large coil surface area — that give the MMCS an amazing bass tone. MMCS is a great mixture of design, with ceramic magnets for a transparent high end with steel added to increase the inductance for a powerful and warm low-end.

For more about Schecter (including the basses profiled here), head to schecterguitars.com.

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Schecter Amplification has introduced its new Hellwin series of guitar amps, a collaboration between Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Synyster Gates and Schecter.

The Hellwin USA 100 is the initial entry in the Hellwin series, a line of products that Schecter Amplification plans to bring to market with Gates over the coming years.

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"As soon as we started building amps, working with Synyster on his own designs seemed like a natural step after the nearly 10-year relationship we have shared," said Schecter Executive Vice President Marc LaCorte.

"After years of trying to get all of the tone, playability and versatility I wanted in an amp, I turned to my friends at Schecter and legendary amp designer James Brown. Together we have created Hellwin, a line of amps engineered to sound and perform at the highest level whether you're on the big stage or in your garage," Gates added.

The first amp in the Hellwin series is the Hellwin USA 100, a custom-designed, all-tube model. Working in conjunction with amplifier guru James Brown, Gates set out to design an amp that not only captured his unique tone, but also would prove to be an important asset to players of all styles in their studio and live work.

About the Hellwin USA 100 Amplifier:

• Made in U.S.A.
• A collaboration between Synyster Gates and Schecter Amplification
• Co-created with renowned amp designer James Brown, the Hellwin has rich bloodlines and is destined to be a rock classic.
• 100 watt / All Tube Design (MIDI Switchable)
• Three Channels w/ Independent EQ and Gain Boost
• Front Panel Custom Noise Gate
• Innovative Active/Passive inputs
• 4 position 'Focus' Control

Matching 4x12 Speaker Cabinets are also available:

• Four Celestion Vintage-30 Speakers 16ohm
• Baltic Birch Solid Construction
• Mono or Stereo
• Angle and Straight design

For more information, visit schecterguitars.com.