Jared Dines has announced a preliminary lineup for the fifth installment of his “biggest shred collab song in the world” YouTube series, and to call it star-studded would be a gross understatement.
In a new post on Instagram, the YouTube extraordinaire reveals a list of players he has reached out to take part in this year’s video, adding that “90 percent of them have said yes”.
Dines has once again tapped heavily into the YouTube and social media guitar spheres, with the likes of Nik Nocturnal, Ola Englund, Manuel Gardner Fernandes and Stevie T all reprising their roles, and a selection of new social media-savvy guitarists making their debuts, including Bernth Brodträger, Rick Beato, Jacob Collier and Kevin Frasard.
But most striking about the lineup, perhaps, is the number of six-string A listers Dines has, or has nearly, managed to recruit. Among them are Avenged Sevenfold shredder-in-chief Synyster Gates, prog hero John Petrucci of Dream Theater, all-round shred legend Steve Vai, new Mötley Crüe touring man John 5, and Ozzy Osbourne guitarists Zakk Wylde and Gus G.
Other electric guitar players who look set to appear include a who’s who of modern virtuosos, including Angel Vivaldi, Cole Rolland, Herman Li, Ichika Nito, Jason Richardson, Lari Basilio, Sophie Lloyd, Tim Henson, Scott LePage, Tosin Abasi, Mateus Asato, Yvette Young and Nita Strauss.
It looks like we’ll be treated to periods of respite by way of the acoustic guitar, as fingerstyle maestros Mike Dawes and Marcin Patrzalek also look to have signed up.
And as hard as it is to believe, this is just the first round of players Dines has revealed for the video. As he explains in the post’s caption, he plans to reach out to a second list of players entirely “soon”.
If you have a favorite guitarist you’d like to see take part in the fifth “biggest shred collab song in the world”, Dines encourages you to comment their name below the post.
Or if you yourself are up to the challenge, Dines is hosting a competition in which three winners will be chosen to appear in the video. All you have to do is download the Dropbox backing track in the description of the YouTube video below, write and record a solo over it, and send it to jareddines@hotmail.com.
Jared Dines made headlines earlier this week when he pointed out the similarities between his 18-string Ormsby guitar, which he commissioned back in 2018, and the 17-string bass ZZ Top’s Elwood Francis played at a recent gig in Huntsville, Alabama.
After a little buzz on social media, Francis confirmed that his bass guitar was actually a cheap Chinese knockoff of Dines’ Ormsby 18-string. This led to a wholesome interaction between the pair, with Dines confirming that he had no issue with Francis using a derivative of his Ormsby monstrosity.
“I love that it’s real!” Dines wrote. “Guitars are modified and remade all the time, I’m glad you had fun with it.”
“Dude, I cannot believe you play these things!” Francis responded. “We thought it was a joke but then [found] out about you and watched some videos. Bravo motherfucker! The joke’s on me ‘cause I have to play that bootleg piece of shit.”
![[L-R] Jared Dines, John Petrucci, Zakk Wylde, Synyster Gates and Nita Strauss](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/HW4vYvK4VVMnrKgxdEjpKf-1890-80.jpg.webp)
