Sergio Vallín and Fernando “Psycho” Vallin rock Staples Center

On April 25th, Seymour Duncan Custom Shop manager Maricela Juarez (MJ) and art director Andreina Diaz attended a historical concert by the legendary Maná at Los Angeles’ Staples Center.

Maná is the most influential band out Latin America since the late 80s  – the equivalent of U2 or The Stones for Spanish speaking countries. They set a new record at the Staples Center with eleven consecutive sold-out shows, smashing the previous record of nine sold-out shows set by Britney Spears.

After the concert MJ and Andreina met with Maná lead guitarist Sergio Vallín and rhythm Fernando “Psycho” Vallin to talk tone. Here are some snaps of this historic concert, and of MJ catching up with the band afterwards.

Sergio Vallín and MJ

Psycho, MJ and Sergio

Mana at Staples Center

Mana at Staples Center

Mana at Staples Center on April 25

Firewind and Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Gus G has checked in with us from preparations for the Ozzy & Friends Summer European tour, where he’ll be performing as the main axeman in Ozzy’s band, with special guest appearances by Zakk Wylde, Slash and Geezer Butler.
Here’s his message to fans of Ozzy, Gus and Seymour Duncan:
“Hey everyone, I’m in L.A. at the moment rehearsing and getting ready for the “Ozzy & Friends” Summer European tour. I can’t wait to fire it up with my new Fire Blackouts pickups. They sound killer!
See you all out there!”
Gus has also sent us this sneak peek of his signature ESP guitars lined up and ready for action at rehearsals. If you look closely you’ll spot the distinctive graphics of the Gus G FIRE Blackouts.

Ozzy & Friends Summer European Tour Dates:
May 23, 2012 Helsinki, Finland – Hartwall Areena
May 25, 2012 Stockholm,Sweden – Stockholm Stadium
May 27, 2012 Jelling, Denmark – Jelling Festival
May 29, 2012 Bergen, Norway – Bergen Calling Festival
May 31, 2012 Oslo, Norway – Oslo Spektrum
June 2, 2012 Malmö, Sweden – Malmö Stadion
June 4, 2012 Dortmund, Germany – Westfalenhallen
June 6, 2012 Prague, Czech Republic – O2 Arena
June 15, 2012 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain – Azkena Rock Festival
June 17, 2012 Clisson, France – Hellfest
June 20, 2012 Mannheim, Germany – SAP Arena
June 22, 2012 Dessel, Belgium – Graspop Metal Meeting
June 24, 2012 Milan, Italy – Gods of Metal
June 26, 2012 Vienna, Austria – Wiener Stadthalle
June 28, 2012 Belgrade, Serbia – Ušće Park
July 1, 2012 Athens, Greece – Rockwave Festival

The Seymour Duncan Invader has a well-earned reputation as the most aggressive passive pickup ever. It’s the weapon of choice for metal, punk and rock players who seek maximum power and sustain without switching over to a battery-powered active system.

Now this high-gain classic gets a visual makeover inspired by longtime Invader user Synyster Gates of the chart-topping metalcore band Avenged Sevenfold. Synyster Gates Invaders sport eye-catching chrome-plated pole pieces in place of the original black ones. They are also offered with gold and white pole pieces.

Synyster Gates Invaders are available in a Trembucker-spaced bridge version and a standard-spaced neck version. They’re the same ones used in Schecter Guitar Research’s Special Edition Synyster Custom model. Neck and bridge pickups are sold individually and as a set.

Naturally, Synyster Gates Invaders have all the amp-pummeling power of the original Invader, thanks to their triple ceramic magnets, overwound coils, and the extra-wide magnetic field generated by twelve oversized cap screws. Non-active pickups simply don’t get more powerful than this — they’re passive and massive.

Where to buy:

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For thousands of years luthiers have repaired and created instruments to support musicians in doing what they do. With each generation the skill and art is passed down from one to another. Getting more kids interested in building, repairing and modding their guitars is fundamental to keeping the guitar vibrant and full of unique tone. In the interview below we spoke with Elias Turner, whose dad is a luthier and who decided to mod a Strat as part of a school project.
So what got you started on this process?
“Although I’ve been surrounded by music my whole life, I didn’t start playing until two years ago. I started on ocarina, a kind of clay flute, and after about a year I moved to ukulele, then guitar, than a bit of mandolin, and now to banjo. I have always liked building things, and my dad is a guitar maker, so once I started playing, making instruments seemed like a logical step.
I am very lucky in that my school, San Dieguito Academy, is one of the few schools that still has a metal shop, wood shop, and auto shop. The wood shop teacher, Jeff Germono, decided to try his hand at electric guitar making a few years back, and now teaches it as an elective course. I entered the course wanting to build an eclectic ukulele version of my dad’s Renaissance line of guitars; however, the course was focused on building a Strat style instrument. I decided to follow a semi standard rout and make a Strat to get my skills up to snuff before attempting a wholly original design.”
“I am personally not a fan of the Strat body shape, so I decided to make an instrument with the most different and original design I could, while still keeping the core design of a Strat. The design was inspired by an earlier design I made for an electric violin body, also made of copper pipe, as well as my dad’s “Pretzel” guitar. The original concept was to make the whole body pipe except a central section, essentially an extension of the neck. I hit a dead end on this path due to the positioning of the electronics compartment on a Strat. I mocked it up in Solid Works, and removed as much wood as I could while not moving any routs. The result looked like a kidney and was quickly scraped. This is where the inspiration went from violin to pretzel.”
“I spent about a month messing with the design on my computer. I experimented with possible cutaway shapes, different curvatures for the pipes, and even headstock shapes. When my dad came down from Santa Cruz to visit he helped me refine and simplify my design to something that could actually be made.”
What has been your greatest challenge?
“Before starting this project, most of my design experience was in more industrial applications, and robotics. Moving from metal to wood has been a great challenge in that with robotics and other such applications, the final product is made of many separate pieces, instead of only a few components as in electric guitar making. I have had to learn about hand tooling, and ordering of steps.”
“I have also had to learn a different mentality. When building a robot everything must be perfect and in its place. With woodworking, it is necessary to leave room for the imperfections of the wood. As long as the scale length is correct, and the action and intonation are adjusted properly, it’s ok if the electronics cavity is off by 1/16 inch. When I started this project I was thinking like a robotics engineer. Everything had to be just like the Solid Works or it was wrong. I’ve started to break away from this way of thinking, and find wood working to be relaxing in comparison.”
Want to learn more about modding your guitar? Check out our forum where over 30,000 users share tips and answer each others questions.

This video shows the process of making a pickup in the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop. Whatever tone you are dreaming of, we can help you get it.

Shown in the video is the Phat Staple which gives a nice jazz tone in the neck and a nice lead tone in the bridge. If you have a unique tone you are looking for let us know.

Amorphis has a long history of intense music that draws inspiration from Finnish folklore. In the season finale of Voices of Metal we talk with the guitarist, songwriter and founding member of Amorphis, Esa Holopainen.

Photographer: Denis Goria

Tell us about The Beginning of Times and the inspiration behind this album.
“The writing process for TBOT started already at spring 2010. Lyrical theme is based on Kalevala which tells old beliefs and traditions of Finnish people before any other religions took over. This album tells a story of one god like character (Vainamoinen) who was believed to be the creator of the world. He’s the most important character of Finnish poetry and mythology. Our lyrics has always been influenced by Kalevala and we have took lot of influences to our music from folk scene. At the beginning it was really a quite a soup try to mix metal and folk influences together but later on it has become really natural process.”
Your music is more melodic and takes a more Finnish folk tradition then many other metal bands – more emphasis on the singing, chord progressions and song structure then just raw speed and power – how do you and the band usually approach songwriting.
“We are more and more open minded for the music in general. It’s really good and healthy that metal scene today is not that limited anymore. When we started the band we received lot of critic that the fans don’t know in what category they should label us. I always thought that it’s a great thing. At least you know that you are doing something own.”

How has the bands approach to writing music changed in the last twenty years?
“I think it’s good to go back when we started this band. Everyone was really into the Death Metal scene at the end of 80’s and early 90’s. We were tape traders and I remember getting demos from another at that time underground bands like Dismember, Paradise Lost, Nihilst (Entomed) etc. All this was totally inspiring. The music and the own little scene what was operating underground. It was about kids that loved that music, some of us played, some had little magazines and some just were fans for the music. Later on some of the bands crew up and lot of labels started to come out (Relapse, Nuclear Blast, Century Media etc…). ”
“When we got signed for Relapse records at the beginning of 90’s. At that time we already started to like a lot of music from 70’s. I think it started digging bands like Sabbath, Doors, Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. We realized that at 70’s there were also a scene which was very much compared to the metal scene today and got hooked more and more into music of that era. Jethro Tull, Camel and some old Finnish prog stuff really inspired Amorphis. We were still totally into metal but it was pretty obvious that we wanted to bring some influences to our music from those bands.”
“Listening to music in general with open mind has been really inspiring. I don’t think basically anything when I start to write music. If you approach writing process with the attitude that you have to come up with something and you have to come up with a killer metal riffs, you can be sure that you come out nothing else than hundred times recycled stuff.”
What kind of gear are you currently using?
“I have Bogner Shiva 20th anniversary heads which I mainly use. I drive them through Bogner Ubershall cabs. I have several effects; HBE Psilocybe phaser, Eventide delays, Vox wah, Univibe by Voodoo Lab. Everything I control with Voodoo Labs Ground Control. I use ESP Eclipse model Custom guitars equipped with Seymour Duncan SH-5 and SH-1n pickups. This my absolutely fave pickup configuration. Custom pickup is totally aggressive when needed but also very versatile. I use lot of clean sounds so it’s necessary to have a perfect clean sound. ’59 on the neck does that. It has great bottom end range and articulates well every note. I love that the guitar challenges it’s player, that’s why I stick with passive world and I’m not using too high gained amplifiers.”
“We are currently touring with acoustic set-up as well. There I have two Tanglewood acoustic guitars equipped with Duncan’s magnetic soundhole pickups, driven through DTAR’s Mama Bear. I use DR’s 12-52 gauge strings with D-tuning.”

If you could play with any artist, who would it be?
“I would love to jam with Jimmy Page, Dave Gilmour and Tony Iommi. These guys are my mentors but at least I can jam with their records. Hahaha! Seriously I would love to tour with Opeth again. We toured in states years ago and had a blast. I would love to do that again.”
You’ve been around to many parts of the world, is there any particular region or country that you particular look forward to playing and why?
“There’s really no absolute fave part of the world. I hate wet late year europe tours, specially when you are stucked outside from town to some industrial area. I love places that are warm. One highlight was 70,000 tons of metal cruise that we did this year. We spent four days on boat and played two shows. We had a change to go diving with sting rays at Cayman Island. For Nordic guy like me this was absolutely mind blowing experience. I have used to freeze my ass off in piles of snow here in Finland.”
For guitar players who are just starting out like you did in early ‘90, is there any advice you can offer them?
“A cliche but also a fact – believe into yourself and try not copy too much others. To be noticed your own personality have to come out from your playing. You have to give lot of time to rehearsing and you should understand the basics of music, for that it’s good to have advice from teacher or these days you can get a good on-line lessons. Kids are eager to play fast arpeggios but I have noticed that within a couple notes you can achieve stronger emotions than with a couple hundred. The result comes from what happens surround you, guitar player is a team player. That’s good to remember.”
For more on Esa and Amorphis, check out the link below:
http://amorphis.net/

Neil “Spyder” Giraldo has a reputation as a great guitar player for Pat Benatar, coming up with riffs and solos for “Love Is a Battlefield”, “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”, and “We Belong” among many others. In this interview Seymour gets down to Neil’s gear, string gauge, amps and his wild on-stage antics (including biting his guitars).

In a special episode, Seymour jams with his record producer and Scott Marceau gives an update on what is happening in the world of Duncan. Seymour then joins Bob Bain for a talk on his long and accomplished career.

When you type in ‘badass metal player’ on Google, Keith Merrow doesn’t show up – but he should. For years Keith has served as a studio musician and a brutal player who has recorded several albums and whose videos have been seen by over 1,700,000 people on YouTube. In this installment of Voices of Metal, we sit down with Keith and talk metal.

First, we need to ask the question that is on everyone’s mind… When are the Merrow Signature Socks coming out?

“Haha, they actually already are! http://www.socksrule.com/proddetail.asp?prod=KeithMerrow “

That’s great, okay we got to get some. So you have a really great tone – and some amazing playing ability. How did you learn to play the way you do? Were you largely influenced by any particular players?

“Thank you! I’ve been playing guitar for about 18 years now, and I’m self-taught. I grew up playing death metal, and sort of adapted that style into my technique for everything that I play. I’m influenced by a lot of different players, from Billy Gibbons to Jeff Loomis, and everyone in between!”

What was it like working with Jeff and having him record with you?”

It was an honor and a privilege. Jeff is a phenomenal player, and a very humble guy. He’s really fun to hang out with. When it comes to laying down guitar tracks, he’s like a machine. Pretty incredible to watch! Some of the stuff he pulls out of thin air when he’s just sitting there messing around, guitarists like me only wish we could do!”

You’re pretty well known for getting a downright brutal tone, whether it be chug or riffing – what gear do you use and how important are the various components in your overall tone?

“I have a few different pieces of gear that I like to use for guitar. A Kemper Profiling Amp, a Fractal Audio AxeFX, and an original Peavey 5150. I typically use the 5150 when I do final recordings, because it works out pretty well for me. More recently, I’ve been using a Rhodes Colossus H100, and it’s probably the most brutal tone yet! The guitars I use are Bernie Rico Jr. and Strictly 7 custom guitars. At the moment, all my recording guitars are equipped with either Seymour Duncan SH-6 Distortions, or the Invader model. They contribute a lot to the tone. Makes the guitars sound and feel a lot more lively than anything else I’ve used.”

Let’s talk DeMisery and Hive of Mutation. What inspired you to write this album?

“My partner on that collaboration, Gord Olson (guitar/vox), and I had been talking about writing a traditional Death Metal album for quite some time. One day, we just decided to start writing for the album, and it all just poured out of us in a short amount of time. It was fun to re-visit some of that old school death metal flavor, and it’s something I wish I would have done a long time ago! Our inspiration for this album was essentially all the great Death Metal bands we listened to when we were learning to play. Demisery is our tribute to those bands.”

Do you ever do any touring/shows or do you mainly consider yourself a studio musician?

“It’s rare that I play out these days. I’m pretty much a studio guy. I’m in college full time, have a wife and kid, etc. I’ve been invited to play a few festivals here in the states this year, and possibly a couple overseas. We’ll see!”

Several months ago, Ola dressed up in a full body suit for a video – do you have any plans to match or exceed that?
“Nobody can ever match or exceed Ola. Ever. lol. Ola is great, and such a fun guy. People keep telling us to work together on some music. That would be a lot of fun!”

You guys both use Strictly 7, is that your main guitar?

“The guys at Strictly 7 are designing me a signature model guitar, and I’m currently using a prototype of it for a lot of recordings. It’s fantastic! It’ll be Duncan equipped. I also have some other guitars that are a staple in my home studio, such as the BRJ customs.”

You have a pretty direct relationship with your fans through YouTube, Facebook and your website. How do you believe the internet has helped or not helped the scene as a whole?

“If it wasn’t for the internet, I wouldn’t be here doing this interview with you guys, haha. So for guys like me, the internet is a fantastic thing. It’s a great way to get yourself heard. I tell people all the time: never hesitate to put your own music on the internet for other people to hear, even if you think it sucks! It doesn’t matter, just get it out there! You never know what might happen. I never knew, or even dreamed of getting as far as I have (however far that is).”

To learn more about Keith, check out the links below:

http://www.keithmerrow.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/diobolic5150

Oz Noy begin his proffesional career at the age of 13 and within years was playing with some of the top acts in Israel. By the age of 24 he had become a highly sought after studio musician. In 1996 he set westward to New York City and has since released five studio albums and has received multiple awards from Guitar Player Magazine for his powerful style and groove. We sat down with him to discuss his tone, style and gear.
How did you get started playing guitar?
“I actually wanted to be a drummer, originally, and was ready to take drum lessons. But, a friend of mine took me on his guitar lesson one day and that was it. To this day, I don’t know why I went! I started studying guitar right after that and never stopped. I started by playing Beatles songs and then getting into solos. The rest is history.”
Your style has been described as jazz, blues, funk & fusion mixed into one. How do you incorporate each style into your playing?
“I really don’t think of my music in terms of incorporating styles. I just use the vocabulary I have developed and it tends to hover around bebop and blues, mainly. I think the key is to get as deeply as you can into the roots of the music you want play and study the language. Once you get that together, then you can develop your own voice on the instrument. Also, its very important to be open to all kinds of music. You never know what can inspire you and open new doors.”

What gear do you currently use? Do you switch gear based on the songs or projects or do you tend to use versatile gear?
“I have a pedal board for my Trio, a different pedal board for my Twisted Blues Band, and a different pedal board for jazz gigs. Amps are usually the same. When I do pop or rock gigs or recording sessions, I choose gear based on the situation. Some gear I currently use: Amps- Fender Band Master ’67, Marshall 50W ’73, Victoria Bassman, started to use Two Rock lately, Fender guitars (’68, ’57 Stratocaster) & Tele(’58), and lots of pedals. I also use the Antiquity bridge humbucker, the SSL-1, Seymour Duncan Phat Cat and a Lipstick Tube for Danelectro SLD-1.
What bands have personally inspired you?
“Some of my main influences include: The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix Experience, SRV Double Trouble, Steely Dan, Van Halen, and Aerosmith – plus some Israeli rock/pop bands.
I would play along with the records, and transcribe solos. I tend to pay attention to songs, however, more than the solos. I also pay a lot of attention to the guitar tone. That’s what really does it for me.”
You released a new album last year, what have you been upto this year?
“I recently released Twisted Blues, Vol. 1. It was an amazing project, featuring guests like Eric Johnson, Allen Toussain, Double Trouble, and so on. I am now working on the next one -Twisted Blues, Vol. 2., just writing new music for that and touring to support the first CD. I have some big plans for Vol.2, including some surprise guests! Stay tuned!”
For more information on Oz Noy, please visit:
http://oznoy.com/

Tour Dates: