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Metal Warrior guitars at Kosmic - Guitars of metal!
What is the Metal merchants weapon of choice? The original gods of thunder, Led Zeppelin, were powered by Jimmy Page's sunburst Les Paul Standard, and that is still a powerful choice for the axeman with deep metal roots. Yngwie Malmsteen followed Ritchie Blackmore, who in turn was inspired by Jimi Hendrix, who reigned supreme on the Fender Stratocaster, the bite of the Strat scraping the edge of the atmosphere with celestial brilliance. In 300 years time, there will still be a metal god shredding on a super beat up 2157 Strat! Another guitar to gain prominence was the Gibson Flying V, at the masterly hands of Michael Schenker with UFO, and Rudolph Schenker with the Scorpions. The V produced a warm rich tone, that also sustained sweetly. Thus was inspired the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, and Judas Priest, Iron Maiden et al. Over in the USA, Eddie Van Halen was creating a metal storm with his rad new style. Eddie is a true original, as anyone who heard his first album when it came out will attest. Eddie slung together a guitar from various bits and pieces, creating a template for Kramer, Jackson, Charvel, Washburn, Music Man Ibanez and Peavey to follow. Even Fender and Gibson designed 'metal' axes!
Into the 80's and 90's We look at Metallica with Gibbo V's and Explorers, and a plethora of Ibanez fanatics and Jackson shred men. Steve Vai started out with Jackson Soloists, but was nabbed by Ibanez. This was the birth of the 24 fret super axe! Shred fell away due to much excess soloing and not enough song content, but we had the legendary Metallica. Kirk and James defined modern metal guitar, particularly the hard edged rhythm style that we hear everywhere, even diluted on many pop songs! Of course, the 7 string went nuts for a while with Korn leading the pack, but that has abated, and now we see a diverse range of players using a huge variety of guitars. There is a style for everybody to enjoy nowadays, from blues edged rock through to whatever you call it metal! Look to Europe for the classical prog metal of Rhapsody, the hard edged rock of Hammerfall, Strativarius and countless others, the huge Black Metal scene and so much more. There are many cross genre bands worthy of attention, too many to go into here. The next article will deal with the styles of guitar, who uses them, why, and what is best for you. Please use the voting boxes so we can get an idea of who and what you like. we will publish results as we get them back. Next: The guitars of metal! |
Rock
Axe Heroes 1960's to present. Eric Clapton What is the best rock and metal axe? Fender
Stratocaster Name
your fave Led Zeppelin
USA Gibson's start at under
$2000!!!!!! |
That era was enhanced by the
brilliance of Randy Rhoads, who used a Gibson Les Paul Custom
for huge fat grinding riffs and molten solos. Later Randy also
used Jackson guitars, designing the now famous Randy Rhoads
offset V shape.