Andy James THE BEST OF ALL

Andy James started playing guitar when he was only 12 years old. Born in May 15 1981, and a native of Norfolk, UK. He grew up with the influence of Extreme, Guns N’ Roses, Van Halen, Queen and Joe Satriani. Since then, Andy never stopped shredding his guitar. He studied Music Business, Performance and Music Technology in College of West Anglia. While studying, Andy formed a band named Fallen Ikarus. Now he is the lead guitarist for the band Sacred Mother Tongue. He joined many competitions like Birmingham Hero, where he became the overall winner. In 2005, Andy joined a competition for radio 1 and became the winner as well. He has two solo albums called “In the Wake of Chaos” and “Machine”. He’s currently working on his third album which will be available within this year, 2010.

Videos

Martin Friedman

Martin Adam "Marty" Friedman, (born December 8, 1962) is a guitarist, well known for his tenure as the lead/rhythm guitarist for heavy metal band Megadeth, which lasted almost a decade. He has resided in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan since 2003, and has hosted his own television programs, Rock Fujiyama and Jukebox English on Japanese television. Friedman is a largely self-taught guitarist known for his improvisation and for fusing Eastern musical with Western music other styles, such as neo-classical, thrash metal and later progressive rock. When playing, Friedman often uses arpeggiated chords and various customized scales. He also occasionally uses sweep picking.He has a very unorthodox right hand picking technique, namely the angle in which his hand is clenched goes against the conventional palm mute. He also frequently uses the upstroke as opposed to the down stroke, especially on the high strings (strings B and E). These qualities make Friedman's solos unique and hard to duplicate using an alternate picking approach.During his early years as a musician, he formed and played lead guitar in several bands, including Deuce, Hawaii (which had previously been called Vixen), and notably Cacophony. Cacophony featured neoclassical metal elements and synchronized twin guitar harmonies andcounterpoints shared with guitarist Jason Becker. He played guitar on the 1987 album "It Won't Be Long" by Christian rock band Shout. In 1988, he recorded demos for Jet Red that eventually were released as bonus tracks on the 2009 Jet Red release "Flight Plan".

Videos

Equipment

Guitars

- Paul Reed Smith guitars (listed as an artist on PRS)
- In his Cacophony days, Carvin guitars, mainly a V220M model. Also used Carvin on his first solo recording, Dragon Kiss.
- Jackson Guitars (stopped using them in 2000 when Fender bought Jackson)
- Jackson Kelly (he made this model famous and had his own signature KE1 guitar model)

- more recently using Ibanez Guitars (has a singature model available in Japan)
- Ibanez Marty Friedman Model ( Ibanez MFM-1 signature guitar, which is basically an SZ model with stars on the frets and body)
- Gretsch Chet
- Fender Stratocaster

- Dean guitar

- Ibanez Iceman
- Ovation (various models) acoustic guitars
- Seymour Duncan/Ibanez pickups
- Fender Precision bass

Amps and Cabinets

- Bogner amps during Megadeth days (this is debated which model exactly. Likely Triple Giant preamp)
- CAE 3+ Preamps and VHT 2150 power amps (older days)
- Crate Blue Voodoo tube amplifiers (BV120HB)


- Crate 4x12 cabinets (BV412RV)
- ENGL amplifiers Special Edition heads (recent)


- ENGL Vintage cabinets from ENGL

- Ampeg SVT Bass amp

- Various Marshall amps










Effects and more



- Samson Concert Series Wireless
- Planet Waves Cords





- Future Sonics ear monitors
- Boss GS-10 (has been discontinued)
- Boss GT-6
- Boss GT-8





- MAXON AF-9 Auto Filter





- Boss DD-5





- Sansamp GT2





- Sansamp Acoustic DI
- E/H Zipper envelope filter
- Roland VG 88 (VG99 pictured below)





- Fractal Audio Axe-FX Ultra



Strings and Picks
- D'Addario 010-.046 and .10 - .52 gauge strings





- Pickboy Picks

John Petrucci

John Petrucci was born on July 12, 1967 in Kings Park, New York to an Italian American family. He picked up the guitar at the early age of 8 because his older sister was allowed to go to bed later in order to practice the piano. However he decided to quit the guitar when his attempts to stay up late were unsuccessful. He would later pick up the guitar again at the age of 12 when his childhood friend and futureDream Theater keyboardist Kevin Moore invited John to join his cover band.John attended Berklee College of Music in Boston with childhood friend John Myung (bass), where they met future bandmate Mike Portnoy (drums). These three in addition to Kevin Moore, formed the band Majesty, which would later become Dream Theater.While Dream Theater is what Petrucci is most commonly associated with, he is also a part of the project band Liquid Tension Experiment and has appeared as a guest on several records by other artists such as the Age of Impact album by the Explorer's Club.Petrucci has released a guitar instructional video, "Rock Discipline", which covers warm up exercises, exercises to avoid injury while playing, alternate picking, sweep picking, chords and other techniques for developing one's guitar playing. Petrucci also has a book named "Guitar World presents John Petrucci's Wild Stringdom", which was compiled from columns he wrote for Guitar World magazine, bearing that same title.In 2001, John Petrucci was invited by Joe Satriani and Steve Vai to tour with them on the popular G3 guitar tour, which exposed him to a massive number of new fans and inspired him to record a solo album. The album, Suspended Animation, was released on March 1, 2005, and was made available for order from his web site. Petrucci also appeared on the 2005 and 2006 G3 tours, and in 2007, went on G3 tour again, this time with Paul Gilbert and Joe Satriani. In a recent video with Larry DiMarzio, Petrucci revealed that he's been working on a follow up to his 2004 album, "Suspended Animation" along with the new Dream Theater album. Petrucci also wrote and recorded two instrumental soundtrack songs for a Sega Saturn game titled Digital Pinball: Necronomicon. Each track is roughly two minutes long and they are simply titled "Prologue" and "Epilogue".According to the spoof rock band Nightmare Cinema (the Dream Theater members changing instruments playing a gig) he got the "alternate stage name" Johnny James.Dream Theater bandmate Jordan Rudess revealed in an interview that Petrucci is a practicing Catholic. He currently lives in St. James, New York with his wife Rena Sands, a guitarist in the all-female heavy metal band Meanstreak, and they have 3 children, Samantha and Reny (who are twins), and Kiara. He is also an avid fan of bodybuilding and dedicates much of his off time to weight training. He is a voting member of NARAS.

Videos

Equipment

Guitars

- Ernie Ball Musicman JP-11 guitars

- 1 Ernie Ball Musicman JP BFR Rubyburst Baritone
- 1 Musicman JP BFR Walnutburst Baritone
- 1 Musicman JP BFR Walnutburst 7 String
- 1 Musicman JP BFR Blackburst 7 String

- 1 Musicman JP BFR Tobaccoburst
- 1 Musicman JP BFR 2006 Ltd. Edition Black w/Gold Hardware
- 2 Musicman JP BFR Blackburst

 

- 1 Musicman JP BFR Walnutburst

- 1 Musicman JP BFR Rubyburst

- 1 Musicman JP Blue Sparkle Doubleneck

- Taylor 30th anniversary 712CE Acoustic guitar

note: In the past he endorsed Ibanez guitars

- Music Man John Petrucci JPXI-6

Below is one of the slightly lower cost JP models:

 

Pickups

- Dimarzio Petrucci Crunch Lab and Liquifire pickups

Amps and Cabinets
- 2 Mesa Boogie Mark IV Amplifiers

-1 Mesa Boogie Lonestar Amplifier

- Mesa Boogie 4x12 and 2x12 cabinets, all loaded with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers

- Mesa Boogie Mark IIC+ head (solos on Black Clouds album)

- Mesa Boogie Mark V (Count of Tuscany outro solo. He uses it more often now too.)

Notes: Rack Designed, Built and Programmed by Mark Snyder

Effects

- Fractal Audio Systems Axe-Fx II

- 1 Korg DTR-1 Tuner

 

- 1 Dunlop DCR-2SR rack Wah

 

- 1 DBX 166XL Compressor/Noise Gate

 

- 1 Mesa Boogie Amp Switcher
- 1 Boss Keeley mod TR-2 Tremolo Pedal

 

- 1 MXR EVH Flanger

 

- 1 Ibanez Keeley mod Tube Screamer TS9DX Flexi

- 1 MXR EVH Phase 90

 

- 1 Hermida Tech Zendrive
- 1 Dunlop MXR Wylde Overdrive

- 1 MXR Stereo Chorus

 

- 1 Boss DS-1 Distortion pedal

 

- 1 Eventide Timefactor Delay

 

- 1 T.C. Electronics 2290

- TC Electronic 1210 Spatial Expander/ Stereo Chorus/ Flanger

- 1 T.C. Electronics M3000

 

- 1 Eventide DSP7000 Harmonizer

 

- 1 DMC Stereo Line Mixer
- 1 Mesa Boogie Rectifier Power Amp
- 1 Furman AC Line Regulator AR-Pro

 

- 3 Axess Electronics CFX-4 Loop Switcher

- 2 Axess Electronics GRX-4 Loop Switcher

- Axess Electronics FX-1 midi foot controller pedalboard

- Shure SM57 and Sennheiser MD421 microphones placed directly on the grill cloth about 1.5 inches off the center of a speaker. Also more recently use Shure KSM313 ribbon mics along with the 57's.

   

- Framptone Amp Switcher box

- Carl Martin compressor/Limiter

- Boss PH-3 Phase Shifter

- Voodoo Lab Pedal Power

- Boss Tuner pedal

- TC Electronic TonePrints Chorus (used on "A Dramatic Turn of Events" album

Strings Picks and more

- John's tech said in 2011 interview they are using a custom gauge lately: 10,12,16,24,36,46 gauge string set

- Ernie Ball Earthwood Light Acoustic guitar strings

The Ernie Ball site shows that John uses these strings:
- Ernie Ball RPS 9 - gauges 9,11,16,24,32,42

- Ernie Ball RPS 10 - gauges 10,15,17,26,36,46

- Ernie Ball Super Slinky Acoustic strings

- Mogami cables

- Dunlop Jazz III picks