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

I'd say that it's a well known opinion of many touring musicians that Strat's low weight, centered mass and availability of locking tremolos make it a great live choice. LP is, in essence, a classical guitar made out of full wood, equipped with humbuckers. It is heavy, mass is centered around the "bottom", and it will detune at temperature change. A lot of those live Strat performers use Gibsons in the studio, where those 'cons' do not apply.
 
I know Adrian has mentioned before that his Jacksons are great at staying in tune. The strats must be the same.

I’ve been playing bass for 20 years and my main bass is a Musicman Stingray 5. It is not the best choice for every genre (I play in a function band) but it stays in tune better than all my other basses. I would rather adjust the EQ and my technique to get a different tone for a certain song than faff about with another bass that may not stay in tune.
 
Meliegree said:
For some time now I have been wondering why the band is so eager to use fender guitars. Janick complained in one of the interviews that they cause difficulties on stage due to noise and require a series of modifications, while other types of guitars are basically ready out of the box. It has been apparent for a while that they use Les Paul guitars a lot more, but still the Strat seems to be the main type of guitar they use. Even Adrian, although he has been playing Jackson for years, has a model based on the stratocaster.
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In that interview Janick stated that the main problem were single coil pickups (not the guitar itself), but then the mini humbuckers came out and no more problems. For the same reason Dave used modified Strats or Strat-like guitars in the 80s and 90s.
For the rest, @Zare nailed it. Also, consider that Dave’s idol was Jimi Hendrix and Janick’s was and probably still is Ritchie Blackmore.
When it comes to Adrian, he started using his customized Jackson San Dimas in 1986 and Jackson was and still is part of the Fender brand.
 
Slightly different gear question.

I was just reading the World Slavery Tour insert thing that came with Somewhere in Time back in the eighties and on Steve's gear list he has a Danelectro Longhorn bass. Not the sort of instrument you would associate with metal in general and definitely something I've never seen Steve play.

Just wondering if anyone has any info/pictures of Steve's Danelectro?

Perhaps he was looking to introduce a surf element into Maiden in 84? Dave on a Fender Jag and Adrian on Mosrite?
 
Dave with a red Ibanez Destroyer..? Probably Adrian gave it to him for a spin. Dave used a sunburst Ibanez Destroyer in 1982 (like can be seen in the bottom right corner of the picture below).

ibanez destroyer.jpg
 
Kalata said:
Dave with a red Ibanez Destroyer..? Probably Adrian gave it to him for a spin. Dave used a sunburst Ibanez Destroyer in 1982 (like can be seen in the bottom right corner of the picture below).

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Those are probably Ibanez promo shots.

Ibanez used to loan guitars to famous artists to try and get to play them (before their boom with Steve Vai and the JEM).

So, they probably loaned red Destroyers to both of them during Killers tour and H liked it so much that he kept it.
 
matic22 said:
It seems there was another black and white Jackson in the early 90's. 1 humbucker and no neck and middle pickups. I assume this guitar later had the pickguard changed and became the guitar from Man Of Sorrows and Road to hell videos.

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MoS is toaster quality and RTH is too fast for details; seems to me guitar in both is HSS. Also the Man of Sorrows one seems to have black hardware but I'm not certain.
 
Zare said:
MoS is toaster quality and RTH is too fast for details; seems to me guitar in both is HSS. Also the Man of Sorrows one seems to have black hardware but I'm not certain.
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Tbh changing Floyds once a guitar is routed for a Floyd, changing them is very easy.
 
Has Janick ever used the natural finish 70's Strat live with Maiden (during an official gig)? - this guitar can be seen in the Holy Smoke video.

janick 1990.png
 
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Murder of Rue Morgue said:
He played it in a warmup gig before No Prayer on the road (I think under the name of “The Holy Smokers”). There are also some photos from that show.
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I know - that's why I said during an official gig (not a warm up or a secret gig). Maiden also played a secret gig during the VXI tour.
 
Kalata said:
I know - that's why I said during an official gig (not a warm up or a secret gig). Maiden also played a secret gig during the VXI tour.
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Probably a backup at this point.

This guitar used to be black when he was in Gillan and was his main guitar. It was stripped after. It has Seymour Duncan Quarterpounders and that might be a reason for its retirement since they are noisy especially with lots of lights on stage.
 
A picture with a better look of Dave's blue Lado Stratocaster guitar, used during the World Slavery Tour... (he had used another blue guitar during the Fear Of The Dark Tour - blue Sunburst Stratocaster).

dave.jpg
 
Kalata said:
A picture with a better look of Dave's blue Lado Stratocaster guitar, used during the World Slavery Tour... (he had used another blue guitar during the Fear Of The Dark Tour - blue Sunburst Stratocaster).

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That blue Fender Strat from FOTD was refinished to Cream mid tour.

That one and the sunburst one became the two cream guitars.
 
My favorite guitars of Maiden:

Adrian - blue Lado Laser, red Ibanez Destroyer, green Jackson.
Dave - cream Strat, sunburst Dean Flying V, signature sunburst Start.
Janick - black & white Strat, white/cream Strat, black Epiphone Les Paul.

Steve - blue Fender bass, signature bass with West Ham's emblem, chess bass.

... and for Bruce and Nicko:

Bruce - BNW tour, Raising Hell concert, SIT tour (stage costumes).

Nicko - TBOS tour, VXI tour, LOTB tour (drum kits).
 
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