Adrian, Janick and Dave's guitars and Steve's basses

Yeah, I just wanted to clarify that it was a commercial product they sold at some point, not a custom job where they gutted a G-707 controller for Adriand's Jackson necessarily. There's a fair amount of misinformation about this sort of thing on the net so I wanted to make sure nobody gets the wrong idea.
 
But we're specifically talking about Adrian's guitar. Either Adrian's was a custom job in 1986 or it wasn't.

4092328_orig.jpg


I don't know anything specifically about Adrian's modified Jackson but Roland didn't launch their (separate) GK-1 pick-up until early 1987; "Roland-ready" guitars also came around this time or later. (In fact "the last synth system with a dedicated guitar was the G-707/GR-700".) Therefore other than the G-707 controller (which plenty of guys toured with, although they were quite unreliable) there weren't loads of branded guitars with Roland electronics in them off the shelf; certainly not a Jackson. That Jackson he toured with in 1986 was definitely a custom job; looking at Roland's guitar synth chronology I'm pretty certain of that. I'm sure matic22 will correct me here if I'm misinformed.

Btw, this is Steve pictured in 1986 with his bass synth set-up (GR-77B system) for reference (don't know if it was posted further back in this thread):

METAL_MAN_STEVE_HARRIS_AND_ROLAND_BASS_SYNTH.jpg
 
Last edited:
Fair enough, it's largely a semantics issue anyway and I was dead tired when I originally commented on it so I wasn't paying much attention anyway!

I'm curious about Steve's bass synth. I guess he only really used it for a few intros (like HCW) since almost all of what's on the album is standard guitar synth stuff, but the fact that he even had one set up at all feels so unlike him.
 
The Premier Guitar article which shows you Adrian's 2010 rack (see image below) clearly shows he was using a Roland GR-20 guitar synth; that would have been used for that Moonchild intro on SBiT, for example, & Brighter Than a Thousand Suns to give another. The pickup you see (I didn't look at the video you posted but I assume it's the same pickup) is the one he switches on to use the GR-20.

upload_2018-2-11_13-38-50.jpeg

The pickup would be a GK-3, GK-2A, or a GK-2 (Roland) I'd guess. It's a hexaphonic pickup not a Piezo. The caveat here is: I haven't specifically read what Adrian was using, I'm just surmising...
 
CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
The Premier Guitar article which shows you Adrian's 2010 rack (see image below) clearly shows he was using a Roland GR-20 guitar synth; that would have been used for that Moonchild intro on SBiT, for example, & Brighter Than a Thousand Suns to give another. The pickup you see (I didn't look at the video you posted but I assume it's the same pickup) is the one he switches on to use the GR-20.

View attachment 6640

The pickup would be a GK-3, GK-2A, or a GK-2 (Roland) I'd guess. It's a hexaphonic pickup not a Piezo. The caveat here is: I haven't specifically read what Adrian was using, I'm just surmising...
Click to expand...

He didn't use the guitar synth on that (since he didn't play a guitar with synth pickup on that). Moonchild was simply chorus+390ms delay with 4 repeats.
 
matic22 said:
He didn't use the guitar synth on that (since he didn't play a guitar with synth pickup on that). Moonchild was simply chorus+390ms delay with 4 repeats.
Click to expand...
I stand corrected.
(Yeh, just looked at Moonchild from Flight 666 & it's quite obviously just delay.)

Never really thought about it, but what track(s) would he have been using it for in circa 2010?
 
Brighter Than A Thousand Suns, but that was dropped after the first night, so it was completely unused for most of the tour.
 
CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
I stand corrected.
(Yeh, just looked at Moonchild from Flight 666 & it's quite obviously just delay.)

Never really thought about it, but what track(s) would he have been using it for in circa 2010?
Click to expand...
After AMOTB tour in 2007 it was used for exactly nothing, because H's guitars didn't have synth pickups. The synth for BTATS was played by Michael Kenney in 2010.

The synth module probably stayed in the rack, since H rarely updates his racks (as stated in Beast On The Road). It would probably be good if he does that soon and goes with a newer effect processors like Axe-FX or G Forces, because the switching time of his effects is currently appaling. Listen to Wacken stream, where his guitar dissappears for 0.5 of a second each time before the solo.

He switches amps quite frequently though. He went through quite a few different Marshalls live in the last few years, but seems to have settled on JVM410's since 2012.
 
Oh yeah I was going to check if he even had the synth equipped guitar for BTATS but decided that logically he did, I mean why else would he still be carrying around the synth unit? But of course the answer is the tech didn't bother removing it after 2007 even though he's made other changes since then.
 
I read a lot of interviews with H about his Jackson. In some he stated, that the 2nd neck (the one without painted headstock which was put on before Somewhere On Tour) had a profile replicated from a 1957 Stratocaster of H's (with one fret added), which had a neck that he really liked. I have never seen a photo of H's 1957 Strat until today. He apparently played it on a few songs with The Untouchables.

27540781_1335341766572492_1772371352338708292_n.jpg
 
28168243_1388083167970246_2807552226354819013_n.jpg


Posted a few days ago by Colin Price.

This is a Mexican-made prototype guitar for Dave Murray. It was made in 2014. The Man Of Sorrows was written on this guitar. It is quite possible that this guitar is based on Dave's 1964 Stratocaster used in the 80's but with updated pickups (it apparently sports a JB set, SH-4 and Jazz), or maybe just a black version of his signature model, but it's impossible to tell, since there is no photo of the headstock.

Anyway, Colin states that the Custom Shop version of this guitar arrived a year later and it was used on the Alice Cooper gig, a few jams and TBOS tour. The difference between the two is that the CS guitar has 22 frets, *possibly* CBS headstock, a tremolo recess route and apparently sports a pair of SH-4 (JB bridges) now, which is interesting. Also the bobins on that guitar are white/black opposed to cream/black on this guitar.

I assume that the CS guitar started out with a JB/Jazz set, before being switched to JB/Alternative 8 set in white before TBOS tour, which was switched to zebra JB/JB somewhere around the Prague show.
 
Cream/black zebras? Something just feels wrong...

@matic22, did you plan on listing the most important guitars for Dave and Janick too, like you did with H? No stress, I know it's a lot of work, but I'd love to see that :)
 
IMG_8958.JPG
@matic22 - just found this photo with H playing a Flying V. Any idea when this happened and if the guitar is the one on which Dave played WY at some shows during Maiden England tour? Thanks in advance.
 
mihai said:
View attachment 6656
@matic22 - just found this photo with H playing a Flying V. Any idea when this happened and if the guitar is the one on which Dave played WY at some shows during Maiden England tour? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Looks like a photoshop. The lighting on this picture is all over the place. But if it's not, it could be Dave's V that he used on Maiden England. AFAIK Adrian owns a white V, whichh was used on DOD.

And yes, I'll do the picture guides for Dave and Jan, as soon as I have more time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top