Synyster Gates along with his partner in guitar crime, Zacky Vengeance, burst out of Huntington Beach California and on to the metal scene with Avenged Sevenfold in 2001 with the release of “Sounding of the Seventh Trumpet.” Known for their metalcore as well as their more jazz and prog-rock influences, Avenged’s music features intricate arrangement, duelling harmony guitars, and inventive arrangements. They’ve been featured on Ozzfest tours, won Revolver Golden God awards for the guitar playing, and Synyster has spawned his own gear and clothing line. The dude gets around.

Synyster digs in live. (Photo by Christian Misje taken from Wiki)

Recently Seymour Duncan readers were asked whose tone they were most interested in acheiving, and Syn’s name came up. While a lot of ones’ tone comes from the fingers, and no one’s going to sound exactly like him save Syn himself, here’s a rundown of what he has used in the past and is currently using, in order to help at least get you into the ballpark.
First piece of the equation, the thing you’ll need if you want to mimic Syn’s pick attack – is to start with a 2.00mm pick like he uses! It definitely takes some getting used to if your pick of choice is say, a medium. But for rhythm chunk, they’re hard to beat! Plus, once you’ve learned to play leads with a 2.00mm pick it’s like working out with weights – you pick up a lighter pick and suddenly you can fly! Nice bonus.
As for guitars: If you want to get close, you’ll need something with a humbucker in the bridge, and preferably a locking tremolo. For years now, Synyster has had his own signature Schecter guitar line. His touring guitars sport a Sustainiac System in the neck position, to facilitate his violin-like legato runs and harmonic squeals and dive-bombs. It helps to have an Original Floyd Rose for the dive-bomb part like he does, too.
Sure, you can run out and get a Schecter, but if you want to at minimum get your own guitar’s basic bridge position-tone sounding like his, the first thing you’re going to need, and one of if not the most important starting point of the tonal equation – is the Seymour Duncan Invader pickup. Available in standard and Trembucker spacing, the Invader starts out with a high-output coil wind, not one but three ceramic magnets, and cap screws for polepieces. The result is a huge sound that hits your amp’s input HARD. It excels at heavy rock styles. The Synyster Gates version sports your choice of gold, chrome or white cap screws to give your guitar an even more eye-catching vibe.

Synvaders, anyone?

Syn is fond of the aforementioned Sustaniac System built into his signature guitars. The Sustainiac is an interesting device that inhabits the neck pickup slot (it functions as a standard pickup if need be). The unit allows infinite sustain of any note, as well as allowing the player to switch between the fundamental note itself, the harmonic, and an octave higher. This can create some pretty interesting effects. So popular is this option on Syn’s signature Schecter model that when an initial run shipped without them, fans were not pleased, and they let Schecter know about it! Subsequent higher-end production versions now include it as an available option. Non-Sustainiac-equipped models ship with Syn’s Invader (“Synvader”?) in the neck position.

“Did someone say ‘LOUD’?”

The next thing you’ll need is a versatile amp. One capable of a variety of clean tones, tight, powerful distorted rhythm tones, and soaring hi-gain leads. In the past Synyster has used Mesa Boogie, Marshall, Peavey and Bogner Uberschall amps in various combinations to achieve his tones, but recently he partnered with renowned amp designer James Brown (no, not the godfather or soul, the other one), and Schecter to create the Hellwin amp, a 100-watt MIDI switchable beast with insane amounts of tonal versatility. Two clean voicings, dirty rhythm and lead channels, “American” and “UK” voicings on the cleans, and switchable output tubes (it ships with EL34s, but if you prefer 6L6s you can do that too). The amp is designed to be a sonic chameleon. It was all over A7X’s last release “Hail to the King” and pretty much has taken over as his main touring amp. But if its $2399 list price gives you pause, and you like your own amp’s basic clean and dirty tones, perhaps look into a versatile distortion pedal, one with a decent EQ section in addition to copious amounts of gain.

Rock. Photo from Buzznet

Live and in the studio, Synyster also makes ample use of a Fractal Audio AxeFX II. This pricey but powerful unit is becoming a favorite of gigging pros as well as home recording enthusiasts for its amazing processing power, incredible array of effects and amp models, and perfect tracking. Live, Syn uses it for harmonies so Zacky can keep playing the rhythm part. Definitely smart, and helps keep their arrangements sounding beefy when the rhythm doesn’t cut out. It too is MIDI controlled (he uses an MFC-101 live) and works in concert with his amp, switching in and out with the Hellwin’s programmed channel changes.
Short of this, you’ll need a few decent pedals to recreate some of his textures. A nice delay like say the Seymour Duncan Vapor Trail for leads, perhaps a chorus pedal run subtly for cleans. Boss makes a decent Harmonizer pedal that may get you close to the ballpark but it won’t be as fine-tuneable scale-wise nor respond to MIDI commands. As the sole addition to the Fractal, Syn uses a Dunlop Crybaby rack-mount wah in the FX loop of the Hellwin to allow him multiple controllers on stage. You can probably get away with just one.
There’s a 2013 Premeir Guitar Rig Rundown video that was done I’ll share as part of this study, but I (and many others per the comments) wish the tech had been far more detail-oriented and descriptive in his run-through of the rig. At least you get to see what his gear looks like, but you’re not getting a ton of info on top of that:

Hopefully this helped give you some ideas on what you could try with your own gear, or on a budget, to get close to the tone of Synyster Gates, short of going out and buying a Fractal and a Hellwin!

Floyd Rose + Invader = Carnage.