D
Deleted member 7164
Guest
Thanks mate. Regarding Dave, only from what i've seen on pictures;
- Dean Flying V, Dean Baby ML
- Ibanez Destroyer
- Two custom Jackson Stratocasters
- Les Paul and SG
- At least three ESPs - custom strats and Mirage
- Acoustic guitar from Death On The Road
- Custom Lado Stratocaster (strong rumuor, awaiting confirmation)
- Probably a zillion Fender Stratocasters
Powergirl, thanks for your PM about the Murray gear. Several of us here should open a topic for "Murray's Axes", and consolidate our joint efforts in exploration of this uncharted territory
I'll just note one thing that's largely unknown - Dave was an ESP endorser in the late '80s. I have a scan of an ESP catalogue with a nice picture of Dave. Adrian is a Jackson endorser - logical, he has been more or less constant about Jackson guitars from 1986 to present, but AFAIK Davey only used ESPs for Seventh Son. (by the way, as you figured it out, it's not the Gibson Flying V you mentioned in the PM, it's Dean Flying V, or officially "Dean V")
It would be nice if we managed to completely cover all known gear about the three amigos (Janick should be a fairly easy one, we'll have a hard time with Dave's strats...)
No, it's from Chemical Wedding / Ed Hunter era, but that guitar only made those two appearances. First shot looks like SSOASS tour sound check.
That's why i don't believe in God
No, seriously. Have a peek on Rock In Rio '85 and Spectrum '86. Visually different - same guitar. Black '57 Stratocaster with white pickguard. Powerslave years feature Floyd Rose locking, while SIT era features v-trem. And a changed pickup configuration. We know this because his '57 strat is famous...how can we know about other, more "rare" strats?
But, if you're up to the challenge of Dave's Axes, we sure could try...
His SG's are my most uncharted area of his equipment, but i'll cover that in time. It's two SGs, one featured in promo videos, the other one has peace symbol, used live.
He always uses the sunburst one as main, with the cream one as backup (as seen in Rock In Rio III).
Donington '07, Children Of The Damned - double neck red Jackson Custom Soloist.
And now another extra info - the white Jackson with black pickguard used on current tour is not the same guitar from SIT, SSOASS and ASAP era. One guy at Jackson Guitar Forums noticed that the headstock and the neck are a tiny bit different, and the new guitar is H-S-S configuration (humbucker, single, single), while the earlier famed Jackson has HSH configuration.
The Dean Baby ML from early '80s was used in Sao Paolo '98, on the Chemical Wedding song. Dig it on Youtube.
There is another Jackson custom strat, same as this newest white one, it just has white pickups. Check out Man Of Sorrows promo video;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SMiympR6gA
I think this axe was used on the Road Of Hell promo video too. It's just that stuff keeps moving really fast on that one, so it's hard to tell...
The Tower promo video features the white Jackson strat Forostar had questions about. However, i have a Ross Halfin picture of SSOASS era which shows a virually same guitar, just no logo on the headstock. Geez...he has like 15 of those Jacksons alone...
And now i have something more releated to his work; i was trying to compile a video of my top 20 H solos. Here's the list :
I have some doubts about the sources here...as you can see, there are a lot of promo videos. SIASL - i have several video boots from SIT tour, and, even on Spectrum, camera guys are focused on Bruce as the H plays. If anyone has video footage with near-decent quality of SIASL where the camera is focused on H while he's soloing, shout. Same goes for "Sea Of Madness", this time the camera is focused, but the camera guy is on the opposite side of the venue. Man Of Sorrows - never played live, but there's a promo video. However, there's only a spanish version on Youtube, and on that version, H's clean part of the solo (best part, with those insane arpeggio), is cutted out. If someone saw an original version of the promo video, verify that it's also cutted out there. I'll improvise a bit in Premiere with original background track to work something out.
Hallowed Be Thy Name - a lot of footage, a lot of versions. IMHO, the NEC '88 is the best variant of this solo.
Wildest Dreams - on DOTR, he uses a lot of whammy throughout the solo, and i think that the studio one is a bit better. Top of the pops performance has the studio track in the background, so it's like a promo video. Again, if anyone has a bootleg with a good version of WD solo, shout.
Darkside of Aquarious from Sao Paolo '97. That damn thing rules. The way he played it...on the ending, Bruce comes to him, looks at his fretboard, then looks at the crowd with the "damn, he's good!" expression on his face
You get the point - if you know better sources to dig those solos out, it would be appreciated.
And yeah, Chemical Wedding european leg of the tour. Roy Z wasn't available, so they got one guy as a replacement. I know that H played Tears Of The Dragon solo. Did he play any other Roy Z solo?
You got my attention there mate. I see that you wrote "game developer" on your profile. What are you working on, and with what are you working? Naturally i'm curious, as a graduated computer scientist specialized in programming.
Ardius
Trooper
Zare said:
Donington '07 was not part of A Matter of Life and Death tour - thats my point. It was the "A Matter of the Beast tour", he never used the Custom Soloist on the AMOLAD world tour as far as I know.
Yeah, I'm currently on a degree course in Computer Games Technology and hence I do a lot of programming and such. The Rookie Game Developer part is just what I've been doing outside of uni, we're (my fellow gamers) are thinking of either starting our own game or mod so we actually have something to put in some kind of portfolio, because the uni course alone is never going to get us a job in the games industry.
Because were only first year, we've only worked with Java so far, but next year we are doing C. However, along with the outside game project, we all intend to learn some C++.
The last few projects Ive worked on are some simple programs for Java, and creating Pong in BlitzBasix and making interactive fiction games in Inform. I'm currently making a Space Invaders game in BlitzBasic and I've just finished my first Java applet.
D
Deleted member 7164
Guest
Well, it's the second leg of AMOLAD tour, right?
Advice : learn C before C++, don't start with C++. Then just quick-learn the theory of object programing and object modelling, and you just need to familiarize yourself with the STL (standard template library), and you will know C++. A lot of people that start early with C++ just don't get they're constructing a class, calling class's methods, etc, just by compiling the "hello world" program.
C is the most powerful language out there (well, assembler is, but there isn't much of a difference...), but it's hard also. My graduation paper was kernel module for FreeBSD (C programming, and system internals programming, one of the hardest types out there...), so if you run into problems, don't hesitate to drop me a PM.
Hmm, i think that's a bit pointless. Both KV1, Les Paul GoldTop, and the sunburst Strat were used in Drop D and standard E tuning, depends on the era and Iron Maiden or Bruce Dickinson or ASAP stuff. He doesn't have a rule like "this guitar is for Drop D".
Even his "most metal" guitar, the KV1 with Seymour Duncans (appears to be Metal LiveWire pups), was tuned back to standard E for the Ed Hunter Tour.
Ardius
Trooper
^I'll take that advice easily, cheers. Would it be a good idea to make a start on learning a bit of C#? Anyway, getting rediculously off topic.
I agree that we don't need tunings in here. If someone wants to know what tuning for what song, they should ask in the musicians discussion. Guitarists only ever keep their guitars in one tuning for tours or specific gigs. Besides, has Adrian ever used any other tunings than Standard E and Drop D very often? I wouldn't have thought so, so it can be safely assumed that he's had most of his guitars in both tunings at some time other.
Also, it would make the list longer than it needs to be, because many of his guitars have been in multiple tunings more than once, as is the case with almost any guitarist.
I agree that we don't need tunings in here. If someone wants to know what tuning for what song, they should ask in the musicians discussion. Guitarists only ever keep their guitars in one tuning for tours or specific gigs. Besides, has Adrian ever used any other tunings than Standard E and Drop D very often? I wouldn't have thought so, so it can be safely assumed that he's had most of his guitars in both tunings at some time other.
Also, it would make the list longer than it needs to be, because many of his guitars have been in multiple tunings more than once, as is the case with almost any guitarist.
GuineaPig
Ancient Mariner
Zare said:
Well, the Les Paul was, but not the Sunburst Strat or the King V. Sunburst was always E; King V always D.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlP5ck7xfJA
Watch "Killers". He's clearly Drop D.
D
Deleted member 7164
Guest
Check out the Futureal and Aces High promos from the EHT. It's standard E tuning. Then check out "Road To Hell" from Sao Paolo '97...suburst Strat in drop D tuning.
He also used Dean Baby ML in Drop D for Chemical Wedding on Sao Paolo '98, and in early '80s he used standard tuning for that guitar.
D
Deleted member 7164
Guest
By the way, Murray is definitely no longer under ESP endorsment, he isn't listed on their site. And i didn't know he used DiMarzio Super Distortion pickups, he is listed on DiMarzio's site. Together with Adrian, of course, he's a long time fan of those humbuckers. Heh, if you click on "Adrian Smith" on DiMarzio artists site, you'll get a picture of him playing the Jackson KV1, and that guitar is packed with Seymour Duncans
GuineaPig
Ancient Mariner
Zare said:
Futureal is not in standard. If you watch, it's clear that it is not a video of the actual song, but cobbled together from a series of songs (their guitars switch several times, watch at 0:47 where Adrian is playing the sunburst). If you watch videos of the actual song from bootlegs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diG3kIuT8O8) he's playing the sunburst. I've never seen the Aces High promo video.
On "Road to Hell" the sunburst is not in Drop D.
As for the Dean, I said in the original post that it was only CW era that it was drop D. Really inconsequential for that matter, as he only (as far as I know) used it on "Chemical Wedding".
D
Deleted member 7164
Guest
Of course, that's footage from all over Ed Hunter Tour, but it clearly shows on some moments (Futureal footage or not Futureal footage, it doesn't matter), that KV1 is in E tuning.
It's "real" live footage from EHT, i don't know which show. You have the promo video on the Youtube, he's playing the KV1, and both the verse and the prechorus riffs show that he's playing standard E.
Watch when Roy Z is playing the song melody on high notes, Adrian follows him with riffs, in one moment you can clearly see that he's drop D.
GuineaPig
Ancient Mariner
You can't tell on the Aces High video- most of the power chords are played on the 5th string, not the bottom one, and there are not many shots of Adrian. But I played Aces High today Drop D, and it is not that difficult.
But look in the very next song of the concert, with Adrian playing the same King V: http://youtube.com/watch?v=9vqfk5sZ3zA&feature=user
Definitely drop D. And with tremolo lock, there would be no way or reason for him to change in between.
And I watched through "Road to Hell" again. Still looks E to me, plus there's the tremolo lock issue again, as H played all the other songs with his strat standard. Can you tell me the moment in the video where it looks like he's playing drop D?
But look in the very next song of the concert, with Adrian playing the same King V: http://youtube.com/watch?v=9vqfk5sZ3zA&feature=user
Definitely drop D. And with tremolo lock, there would be no way or reason for him to change in between.
And I watched through "Road to Hell" again. Still looks E to me, plus there's the tremolo lock issue again, as H played all the other songs with his strat standard. Can you tell me the moment in the video where it looks like he's playing drop D?
InfiniteDreamer
Trooper
Hey folks, I've never seen or heard Smith or Murray playing Aces High on drop D tuning. I play Aces High for more than 15 years now and on rehearsals I play it with different Maiden cd's backing me...it's E for sure. I nail that song. It's not even Eb...definitely not drop D.
And long as I remember Murray never had a deal (endorsement one) with ESP. If Murray was to sign an endorsement deal I bet it would be with Fender (Maiden had a signature model in 1999 with Hot Rails pickups in it), due to his loyalty to the 1957 reedition in the early days and recently with traditional Am. Series Strats. Yep. His favorite 80s axe, the black 57 strat had a pair of Di Marzio Super Distortions in it (the same pups used by Ace Frehley too) and since on the World Slavery Tour he added a Kahler tremolo to it (much meaner than the famous Floyd Rose and that nowadays is being used by Slayer's Jeff Hannemann on his ESP custom shop signature model).
cheers
And long as I remember Murray never had a deal (endorsement one) with ESP. If Murray was to sign an endorsement deal I bet it would be with Fender (Maiden had a signature model in 1999 with Hot Rails pickups in it), due to his loyalty to the 1957 reedition in the early days and recently with traditional Am. Series Strats. Yep. His favorite 80s axe, the black 57 strat had a pair of Di Marzio Super Distortions in it (the same pups used by Ace Frehley too) and since on the World Slavery Tour he added a Kahler tremolo to it (much meaner than the famous Floyd Rose and that nowadays is being used by Slayer's Jeff Hannemann on his ESP custom shop signature model).
cheers
D
Deleted member 7164
Guest
The beginning, before the first verse.
http://www.zzounds.com/item--EVHDTUNA
Floyd Rose offered some time ago special models with this system built in.
BTW, some new pictures;
Found this on JCF online. Looks like a snap of Adrian's guitars. You can recognize the black single-humbucker Charvel/Jackson (Wasted Years video), and the Lado Lazer (which he played on Maiden England too, CIPWM, but i never figured it out because i usually fast forward when that song comes). In the middle we have a Lado custom strat. It sure looks like H's favourite configuration...fat body, HSS pickups, Floyd Rose, 22 frets. Could this be his fourth Lado?
Then, we have this one from Powerslave days. This could be a rumored custom Lado strat of Dave Murray's. A picture looks like a Lado promo or something, Adrian holding his black Earth and Dave has a Lado stripe. Damn the photographer, he could've snapped the headstock on Dave's guitar! And yeah, i've seen a lot of gold Floyd Roses on Lados, and this one has it too.
...and a nice scan from Jackson's catalogue with H inside.
This could be the reason why that fansite lists RR1 in Adrian's gear. On this pages, H is holding his KV1, but the pages are about RR1...which doesn't matter at all, if you check Jackson's catalogues, usually the background images don't releate to guitar in content. And, there's a picture of Dave holding his red-black custom Jackson strat in one catalog, and the pages are describing the Spectra model.
Btw, this is year 1999.
Ardius
Trooper
Zare said:Found this on JCF online. Looks like a snap of Adrian's guitars. You can recognize the black single-humbucker Charvel/Jackson (Wasted Years video), and the Lado Lazer (which he played on Maiden England too, CIPWM, but i never figured it out because i usually fast forward when that song comes). In the middle we have a Lado custom strat. It sure looks like H's favourite configuration...fat body, HSS pickups, Floyd Rose, 22 frets. Could this be his fourth Lado?
Then, we have this one from Powerslave days. This could be a rumored custom Lado strat of Dave Murray's. A picture looks like a Lado promo or something, Adrian holding his black Earth and Dave has a Lado stripe. Damn the photographer, he could've snapped the headstock on Dave's guitar! And yeah, i've seen a lot of gold Floyd Roses on Lados, and this one has it too.
Zare said:
Ah, I missed that bit in your post from a while ago. So I was right that Adrian and Dave used Lado Strats then?