During NAMM, we had the oppurtunity to meet some great metal players. One guitarist who stopped by to shred was Joe Gettler. Check out the video below to see our interview with him and hear his skills in action.
Click here to learn more about the Load Bros Guitar and the ToneZilla pickups.

Borislav Mitic is a Canadian based virtuoso rock guitarist and a recording solo artist. A shredding guitar player with three solo albums and a fourth one on the way. He has been published on Lion Music and US label Shrapnel Records that discovered virtuosos like Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, and Marty Friedman. Borislav’s new album Real will be out in 2012 on Shrapnel Records. In Spring 2012, Boris will be on the road with singer Mark Boals (most noted for his work with Yngwie Malmsteen).
Why did you change out your stock pickups? “The pickups are the #1 key element in guitar tone, it all starts from that point of the magnets capturing the vibration of the strings over them. I always wanted to get the best possible tone out of the guitar so naturally I had to look for the best pickup upgrade that would help in getting the best tonal quality.”
Which pickups do you use and for which guitars? “I mainly use humbucker pickups in my ESP V guitars so in most cases it would be a JB for the bridge position and Jazz or ‘59 model for the neck. I also like the Duncan Distortion in the bridge position with 250K pots. In some situations I also need some single coil type of tones but I can’t deal with the usual hum associated with them so for me stacked STK are really a fabulous solution for my ESP Vintage Plus (strat-like) guitar. STK’s also have a bit more output then some other brands that have similar designs yet they retain more of the typical single coil clarity and tone then others pickups do.”
How would you describe the sound of those pickups? “They are all rich sounding, warm & inspiring. The JB humbucker has this great lead midrange rich tone which helps smooth out fast legato playing and lets the guitar cut through in a mix. SD ’59 is an amazing neck pickup for leads although the Jazz model is more useful in that position if you want to play some clean tone passages.  The STK’s have an amazing bell like clean tone but without any hum and they work really great used with clean amps in combination with distortion and fuzz pedals.”

Wanna hear the tone? You can check out his song “Mystic” performed live. Boris is playing an ESP Vintage Plus guitar loaded with three STK pickups.

How has it changed your playing? “Some wider dynamic range and great harmonic content found in SD pickups has inspired me to sometimes phrase differently and think about the “color” and general tone quality of passages that I play instead of just the note choice of the phrases I am playing. So SD pickups do not directly change the way I play but they do inspire me in regards of “how to play” to make it all sound as good as I can sound.”
How would you describe your playing? “I play a melodic virtuoso shred style which is very technicaly oriented with some neoclassical elements in it but at the same time infused with a lot of ’70s blues rock influences and feel. My instrumental song “Promises” from my previous album The Absolute (2009) is a good example of my style containing some very heavy riffs but also some structured melodic virtuoso playing. There are two very different solos in it, first one is more blues pentatonic based played through a Silver Machine wah and the other in the end is a totally crazy over the top shred solo, like Van Halen on steroids or something.”

What bands or artists influenced you and your career? “My biggest influences are Michael Schenker and Joe Satriani but also people like Zakk Wylde, Al DiMeola, Mark Knopfler, Yngwie Malmsteen and Steve Vai – to name a few. My playing is very fast and technical but I try not to forget that first of all it has to sound like music. Melodic and well structured songs are always a priority – something I learned from my heroes.”
Are there any performance tricks that you would like to share with us? “I try to think of the audience in live situations as an “old friend”. This mindset allows a more calm approach on stage. A lot of people get nervous when they have to go on stage – so this attitude can be of use.”
Any words of advice for new players? “Make sure you love music and guitar more then anything else before you choose it as a profession and that you really want to be in it for music alone and nothing else. For better or worse that honest approach can justify things in the long run.”

In our continuing series to release the Kraken of brutal tone, we turn to Dark Funeral and one of the brutalest guitar players around, Lord Ahriman.

How did you get started playing metal?
I’ve been into metal since my early childhood, played various instrument when growing up, but I didn’t start playing guitar or write music myself until the age of 17. I come from a somewhat musical family, so I guess once I really had figured out what I wanted to do in my life, music came quite natural to me. The big change, however, came to me in 1988, when my family moved from one area in Lulea (a town in the north part of Sweden where I grew up) to another. There I met this guy named Hasse, who was a killer guitar player already at that time. We became good friends and it didn’t take long until we start jamming together, and eventually formed our fist band called “Satan’s Disciples” (1989/91).”
How did you come to play in Dark Funeral?
“Actually, I’m the co-founder. And since 1996 I’m also the only original member left. In 1991 I decided to move from Lulea, to Stockholm to be able to focus entirely on music. And after approximately two years of planning and auditioning different musicians, the first line-up of Dark Funeral was born in early 1993. During 1992, for a short while, and with another drummer, we called ourselves “Ahriman”, but once the real line-up was completed we changed the name to Dark Funeral.”
“Anyhow, ever since the original line-up split up (1996), I’ve been mainly responsible for all the music and pretty much everything else concerning the band. We’ve been through numerous line-up changes over the years, but “Dark Funeral” is where my soul belongs. And as long as my passion remains, I’ll keep doing the band. At the moment and with the current line-up I must say that the atmosphere and the chemistry within the band feels absolutely fantastic. Furthermore, every single member of Dark Funeral is once again sharing a tremendously strong commitment, an absolute dedication as well as utter professionalism.”

What gear do you use to get your brutal tone?
“At the moment I’m playing a BC Rich Warlock NT Guitar spiced up with Seymour Duncan’s Blackouts Metal. With that setup plugged into either a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifire or a Randall V2, I personally think I get the ultimate guitar tone. Crunchy, yet clear and with tons of bottom edge.”

Tell us about your upcoming tour.
“Well, since November 2011, we’ve more or less been touring non-stop, with only short breaks in between. And as it seems, we’ll continue to tour throughout the spring 2012, with several festival appearances during the summer as well. And in between the shows and tours we’ll also work on a new album.”
What advice could you give to those getting into playing metal?
“Do out of passion and not for any other reasons. It’s a very tough business, so be careful.”
Check out Lord Ahriman on Facebook.
Check out Lord Ahriman on Myspace.
BAND-SITES:
http://www.darkfuneral.se 
http://www.facebook.com/darkfuneral
http://www.myspace.com/darkfuneral
http://www.twitter.com/darkfuneral
http://www.diaboliswear.com
http://www.facebook.com/diaboliswear
http://www.myspace.com/diaboliswear
Click here for Tour Dates.
Tickets:
http://www.dragon-productions.com
http://www.facebook.com/DragonProductionsOfficial

Begins at 11am PST. Tune in and learn about tone from Seymour Duncan and Maricela Juarez.

Join us tomorrow (2/22/12) at 11am PST for a live feed with Seymour Duncan and Maricela Juarez in the Custom Shop. Tweet us your questions and get the answers live on the air.

Watch here

In our continuing search for brutal heavy tone and the tools used to create it, we came upon Brandon Ellis, who has toured with Arsis and Sylosis and has the unique ability to learn songs incredibly fast. We took one look at this video and said “yes, we need this guy.” Check it out!

You recently filled in for Sylosis on the As I lay Dying tour and it is said that you had only one day to prepare, learn all the songs by ear, and then tour.

Photo By Debbie Kar

“To say it was difficult would be a huge understatement, I thought I was in way over my head. I started around 10PM and stayed up all night learning the Sylosis setlist until they picked me up at noon the next day. We drove to Philadelphia and I had to play the first show without having slept in 48 hours and never even having heard the songs before the last night! The first show was a little crazy but after that it was all smooth on tour with Sylosis, iwrestledabearonce, The Ghost Inside, Of Mice And Men, and As I Lay Dying!”
How did you get started playing guitar?
“I started playing guitar when I was 10 years old, I got sucked into guitar players such as Eddie Van Halen and Yngwie Malmsteen. I remember playing Eruption and Blitzkrieg at my middle school battle of the bands. I was always inspired more by the attitude and touch of a guitar player rather than the licks he can play. If I were to list some big influences it would include Eddie Van Halen, Mattias IA Eklundh, Blues Saraceno, Greg Howe, etc.”
How did you find yourself in Arsis?
“Well I had previously playing in a band with Noah Martin, the bassist from Arsis. I have since left that project but we stayed in touch and talked about working together on something else. So one day I was in economics class at my university when I left the class to answer a phone call from Noah and it became clear that in about a week from that time I would be filling in on guitar for Jim Malone in Arsis. I left in the middle of class to go straight to the enrollment office and drop my classes for the semester that night, went home and started learning the 9 song 45 minute set that I had about 1 week to learn. We had 1 rehearsal before hitting the road and it was all gravy after that.”

Photo By Debbie Kar

“I play mostly Charvel guitars with Seymour Duncan pickups. I like the JB and Duncan Distortion for the bridge position, the ’59 in the neck, or the STK-S4 if I need single coils. My guitar collection consists mostly of 80’s and early 90’s axes but I really like the Charvel pro-mod series that they produce now. My main workhorse guitar is a San Dimas Style 1 from that series, I think that series are the best bang for the buck you can get in a guitar today. Incredible tone, very loud and snappy not to mention incredible feeling necks. In my amp collection right now is a Soldano Avenger, a Hughes and Kettner Duotone, and a Krank Rev Jr, with the Mesa Rectifier 4×12 being my favorite cab. For playing live, the Avenger gets my choice for heavy metal rhythms, while the Duotone is my amp of choice for leads or an eighties style rock tone. The 20 watt Rev Jr is, however, absolutely perfect for recording in my home studio. It sounds absolutely crushing paired with a good cab. All of my amps have in front of them a Maxon OD808, and an ISP Decimator G-String, which is a dual stage noise gate. The Decimator gets used both right after my guitar AND after the Maxon or in the effects loop of the amp to keep the gate super tight.”
Where do you find the energy to go on stage night after night and produce such brutal metal?
“The energy to play this stuff night after night comes of course from the crowd and the music itself! It is really important to put on an energetic stage show and get the crowd pumped up. The best shows are the ones where the crowd is stage diving, crowd surfing and enjoying themselves as much as they can, and in order to have that you need to have energy yourself! An important thing to remember, that a lot of bands don’t, is that even the people in a small crowd have paid their ticket price and come out to see you play, and they deserve for you to put on the same show for them that you would for a crowd of thousands. A lot of times the small crowds are actually the most energetic and fun to play to!”
For more information on Brandon, please visit: https://www.facebook.com/brandonellisguitarist

Here is a sampling of some of the new guitars announced at NAMM that feature Seymour Duncan pickups.

From Schecter, the Blackjack SLS series:

From Godin Guitars, the CORE featuring a model with Seymour Duncan P90’s.

From Jarrell Guitars, the Monte Pittman Signature line.

CJ Pierce of Drowning Pool shows us his new Eagle Gold Top.

The ESP GUS G. NT and the LTD GUS-600NT now locked and loaded with the Gus G. FIRE Blackouts System:
New from Washburn is the Paul Stanley Starfire with two Seymour-Duncan SM-3 Mini Humbuckers.

From ESP, we have the HRF NT, featuring Seymour Duncan Blackouts.
From Parker with have the Maxx Fly 7 string with a Seymour-Duncan Distortion® SH6N pickup in the neck position and a Seymour-Duncan® Distortion TB6 in the bridge position.

The ESP Eclipse II Sparkle features the Seymour Duncan JB.

New from Fender is the Kurt Cobain Mustang featuring the JB.

Voices of Metal will return for a new installment this Wednesday with a whole new slate of brutal axe grinders. Check out the video below for more information.

Know a guitarist you think should be on Voices of Metal? Let us know in the comments below.

Preston Reed has long been recgnoized as a pioneering acoustic guitar player, with his two handed integrated percussive approach turning a guitar into a symphony and amazing people who are surprised that so many sounds could be created at once, by one man. As with many things, seeing and hearing is believing.

At a young age, Preston took to playing his fathers guitar. When Preston was 15, he went to see Hot Tuna and was deeply inspired by the fretwork of Jorma Kaukonen. Energized, Preston went on to push himself and his creativity to develop his own unique style, and as a result developed a style that has been defining and revolutionary to this day. Preston has released 15 studio albums, toured the world numerous times and videos of his performances are commonly shared by acoustic guitar players. Preston, can currently be found touring the United Kingdom and Europe, playing his signature Bailey Guitar with the D-TAR, an acoustic guitar pickup that combines the piezoelectric pickup with a condenser microphone to give you a full and natural tone. Preston also uses the Solstice, a two-channel preamp mixer that can combine any two sound sources.
After nearly 25  years, Preston Reed continues to amaze audiences and is currently working on a new album. For tour dates and more information on Preston, please visit: www.PretonReed.com

We had a great time at NAMM this year being able to meet so many people, having some great jams and showing off some of our new products! Here was our booth:
Over to the left of this picture is the tone bar, which can be seen in more detail below. It was stocked and loaded with the whole assortment of Seymour Duncan products.
The view walking up towards the booth.

Photographs of pickups adorned the walls.

It wasn’t long before the first jam started on the stage and a crowd gathered around.



We had many happy winners for our sticker contest!

And then we had a surprise visit by Andy Timmons who joined Seymour on stage for an incredible jam!

The three amigos!

On Friday, some big names in rock joined us including Alex Skolnick, Bruce Kulick, George Lynch and Cesar Rosas. Fans were able to get their picture taken with them and have it posted to Facebook on the same day.

Seymour received a lifetime achievement award from the Music & Sound Retailer.

Seymour with Abigail Ybarra, Maricela Juarez and Cathy Carter Duncan. 
At 4PM the exciting and animated Alex Lora showed up along with Lalo Carrillo, Cesar Vampiro Lopez, Tucanes De Tijuana and the booth became a party of music.

Meanwhile, Frank Falbo was hard at work demonstrating our new products.

Masters of the tone bar, James Garza and Scott Marceau.

Scott Miller (the Chuck Norris of tone) was startled to see he was left out.

This kid knows tone.

Seymour Duncan NAMM generals Lisa Vander Meulen and Cathy Carter Duncan take a brief moment to pose for a photograph.

It was briefly quiet before the doors opened up on Saturday.

A large crowd gathered to see Gus G., Mick Thomson, CJ Pierce and Scott Ian. They did not disappoint, fans were able to get their picture taken with them and have them posted to Facebook – making for one cool Facebook profile picture!

Gus and our VP of Engineering and Product Development, Kevin Beller, sat down for a talk about the Gus G. FIRE Blackouts.

Right after that, blues guitar virtuoso Joe Bonamassa showed up and jammed with Seymour with his new Joe Bonamassa Signature Pickups.


Seymour was then joined by Warren DeMartini and Lita Ford for pictures with fans!

On Sunday, we had some serious girl power with Shaunna Hall, Kat Dyson, Arielle, Muriel Anderson, Karen Cuda and Michelle Marie.

It was another great year and it was a blast to get to see everyone, talk tone and enjoy music together.