Renowned jazz saxophonists like John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, and Sonny Rollins used subtle techniques to create swinging lines. Here’s a look at how to emulate those sounds using slides, bends, and tapping.
Chops: Advanced
Theory: Advanced
Lesson Overview:
• Emulate the subtle phrasing of Coltrane, Parker, Brecker, and more.
• Understand how to use hammer-ons and pull-offs to create longer legato lines.
• Develop a better harmonic understanding of the blues.
Click here to download a printable PDF of this lesson's notation.
Jazz improvisers routinely learn from musicians who play many different instruments. The content of the musical language is universal among jazz players and as such, you’ll find every experienced player knows a few solos and licks by the saxophone masters. In this lesson, we’ll extend this practice a step further to not only learn a given player’s musical line—the notes and rhythms—but also focus on transferring the details of their phrasing to the guitar. In particular, we’ll discover how to adapt some unique saxophone ideas to the guitar, technique be damned!
Coleman Hawkins was an early tenor sax legend with great technique and an unrivaled ability to sail through chord changes. In Ex. 1, which is over a I–VI7–IIm–V7 in Eb, we hear arpeggio-based lines with lightly bent notes that lean toward the actual chord tones. The trick here is to bend and instantly release the bend (inaudibly) before hammering on to the next note.
Click here for Ex. 1
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The legendary Coleman Hawkins’ signature ballad, “Body and Soul,” is a masterclass in melodically weaving through the changes without sounding like some well-worn exercise.
The legendary Coleman Hawkins’ signature ballad, “Body and Soul,” is a masterclass in melodically weaving through the changes without sounding like some well-worn exercise.
Lester Young was the yin to Coleman Hawkins’ yang, a cool player who had a laid-back style—literally. He would often play way behind the beat. His work was strongly melodic and soulful as heard in this Bb blues lick (Ex. 2), which uses familiar enough note choices, but is fingered in such a way to duplicate the kind of slurs Young would use in his playing.
Click here for Ex. 2
Johnny Hodges is a shoo-in for guitarists to copy. His alto sax wails are just begging to be transferred to the guitar via bends paired with a measured vibrato. Ex. 3 shows the kind of half-step approach to chord tones that he would do with his embouchure. (A sax player would usually finger the desired note and use his mouth, the embouchure, to bend into the pitch.) We can do something similar on guitar by fingering one fret below the desired pitch and bending up.
Click here for Ex. 3
Charlie Parker was the figurehead of the bebop movement. He had virtuosic skills, harmonic sophistication, and he could still jam the blues as well as anyone. Ex. 4 covers measures 6-9 of a blues in C. While many guitarists can play Parker’s melodic work, a stereotypical jazz player who uses heavy strings often slides, rather than bends, into the target notes. The bending methods here are like Johnny Hodges’ technique of entering a pitch from a half-step below. Some of the fingerings are just a bit different than what might be expected, but allow for the best way to get the slurring to sound right.
Click here for Ex. 4
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Charlie Parker was arguably one of the most influential jazz musicians ever. One of his most enduring compositions is “Au Privave,” a slick tune that allows Parker to extend the harmonic limits of the 12-bar form while keeping the blues’ gutbucket feel intact.
A titan of the tenor sax, Sonny Rollins is revered for his mastery of the bebop language and unique personal expression. Ex. 5 is inspired by Rollins’ melodically and harmonically rich lines. To transfer work like this to the guitar could be straightforward if all we cared about were notes and rhythm, but for those who want to include the idiomatic articulations and the very best in jazz phrasing, much more adventurous fingerings are in order.
Click here for Ex. 5
John Coltrane, like Charlie Parker, is someone all instrumentalists look up to and study. Ex. 6 is a brief D minor pentatonic (D–F–G–A–C) lick, but it’s probably unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. Wide intervals abound and the lick itself traverses over two octaves in as many measures. Even if you aren’t a sweep picker, consider economy or sweep picking this lick. Hybrid picking can help here too: Check out the notated pick directions for guidance in how to use a pick with middle-finger plucked notes.
Click here for Ex. 6
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On the title track from Sonny Rollins’ landmark Tenor Madness, Rollins trades off with another jazz icon, John Coltrane. Hearing Rollins and Coltrane back to back not only provides insight into their unique approaches, but offers chorus after chorus of inspiration.
Cannonball Adderley is another compelling choice for guitarists, as he loves bends. And he has a penchant for longer legato lines, which can also serve us well. The line in Ex. 7 is over a IIm–V7b9–Im6 progression in G minor, and it uses single-string slides and pull-offs to great effect. Add in the tapped note at the end, which mimics Adderley’s use of the sax’s octave key, and you have an example that’s so guitaristic one might hardly believe it was conceived by a saxophonist.
Click here for Ex. 7
Joe Henderson’s music transfers well to the guitar. He’s fond of sweeping arpeggio figures and legato lines. This lick begins with a pull-off figure that has his trademark idea of alternate fingerings. Just like a saxophonist can have another choice in how to play a given note, on guitar we have them in spades. In Ex. 8, we play an F on two strings to facilitate a practical application of a Henderson-style legato figure. The G minor arpeggios, played with sweep picking over four strings, are a must-have technique for guitarist looking to capture sax-y vibes.
Click here for Ex. 8
Michael Brecker is another musician everyone looks to for some of the most advanced ideas in modern improvisation. This Bb blues example (Ex. 9) shows how an intense stream of eighth-notes is brought to life with the careful addition of slurs. Again, no corners are cut for ease of playing: The fingering is challenging, but the hallmarks of jazz phrasing are honored. Notice how the upbeat notes tend to be slurred into the downbeat notes. This puts emphasis on the “and” of the beat and thus creates a strong jazz feel.
Click here for Ex. 9
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Filmed at a lecture at the University of North Texas in 1984, this short clip shows how Michael Brecker takes Sonny Rollins’ “Sonnymoon for Two” into the stratosphere with chorus after chorus of fresh ideas.
A pair of new, mighty Sunn 100S amps—the company’s original flagship amplifier—built by the new team led by James Lebihan, Mike Eldred, and Steve Skillings.
Since forming to help early garage rockers the Kingsmen bring their hit “Louie Louie” on the road, Sunn amps have roared behind everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Leslie West to Kurt Cobain to the doom-metal act that bears their name. After laying dormant for decades, the brand is back and the new team promises to live up to its legendary reputation.
“Have you ever considered covering ‘Louie Louie,’” I ask Stephen O’Malley over Zoom. The doom-metal guitarist and half of the band Sunn O))) is a native of Seattle but has lived the past 20 years in Paris, France. “I see where you’re going with this,” O'Malley chuckles, and says, “but we’re not a rock ’n’ roll band. Still, the Kingsmen and Conrad Sundholm building a bass amp for his brother—that’s a legendary Northwest story.”
In 1963, the Portland, Oregon-based Kingsmen found themselves near the very top of the charts behind what would become a garage-rock standard, the immortal “Louie Louie.” The Kingsmen’s bass player, Norman “Norm” Sundholm, and his brother, Conrad Sundholm, simultaneously became seminal figures in developing an amplifier line that would eventually become the sonic foundation of the doom-metal music artists like Stephen O’Malley play. In between, the amps became a crucial sound in classic rock.
The Kingsmen’s version of “Louie Louie” [written by Richard Berry] sat in the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 18 weeks, peaking at number two. Suddenly, everyone wanted to see the band live, and they hit the road, playing on stages all over the country. PA systems geared toward high fidelity for rock ’n’ roll concerts were still several years away, and Norm Sundholm needed a bass amp that could stand up to the rigors of the road and be loud and clear enough for the concert halls and gymnasiums hosting the Kingsmen.
Norm’s brother, Conrad, was a high school physics teacher and an electronics wizard. The siblings rolled up their sleeves together to build a bass amp for the Kingsmen’s first big tour. According to an interview Norm gave to NAMM in 2019, they first modified a 26-watt Fender Bandmaster, replacing the speakers with JBLs and adding a preamp stage using an off-the-shelf amplifier manufactured by Dynaco. Using their surname as inspiration, they called the 60-watt amp a Sunn.
Hot on the heels of their hit single “Louie Louie,” the Kingsmen needed more amp power. Bassist Norm Sundholm turned to his brother Conrad, who started the Sunn brand with this early model.
Photo from the collection of Bill Eberline
Norm Sundholm declined to be interviewed for this piece, and Conrad Sundholm died in 2021, but his son, Steve Sundholm,fills in what came next: “Uncle Norm gave out my dad’s number to fans at Kingsmen shows who heard this amp and wanted to buy one. So my dad started getting random calls from people around the country asking how they could purchase a Sunn amp.” By about 1965, Conrad borrowed $1,300 from his credit union to begin building speaker cabinets and cobbling together new Sunn amps. Partly using Dynaco components and employing JBL speakers, early models included the 100S for guitar and the 200S for bass. Throughout 1963 and 1964, Conrad Sundholm built Sunn amps in his garage.
During downtime from Kingsmen tours, Norm went on the road in search of retailers to carry the Sunn line. While on tour, he met Bill Eberline, an 18-year-old disc jockey from Michigan, and hired him to be the company’s first sales rep. Eberline worked in 18 states east of the Mississippi, setting up retailers. Now 79 years old, Eberline tells me, “For me, Sunn was a passion, and the reason it was a passion was because the amps and the cabinets were so good. I loved the look on a musician's face when they plugged in for the first time and turned it up.” The secret, he says, was not only the amplifiers’ power and tone, but also the unique design of the speaker cabinets.
“The speaker cabinets for our bass amp, the 200S, were called rear-loaded, folded-horn, bass-reflex enclosures,” he explains. “So the speaker comes in from the back, there’s baffling inside, and the speaker is tuned to the cabinet. So you get the most out of it; you’re getting as much sound off the back as you’re getting off the front. I used to demonstrate it to people using a match. I’d put a lit match in front of the speaker, and it would blow the match out. Other speakers had open backs, so you were losing all that sound. And it gave it an incredible punch. It was the best bass speaker cabinet, at the time, that had ever been built.”
After sitting dormant for more than two decades, the Sunn brand has been resurrected by a new team that promises to stick to the company’s core construction techniques while addressing the needs of modern players. This cab is classic Sunn.
“We started going from music store to music store, unloaded them out of the van, and wheeled them into shops,” Norm Sundholm told NAMM. “It was a little tough with the franchise Fender dealers, but any competing store was wide open to take the line.”
It was Bill Eberline who brought one of Sunn’s biggest retailers to the party: Manny’s Music in New York City. Manny’s was the epicenter of Manhattan’s music retailers row on West 48th Street. About 10 different shops lined the block between 6th and 7th Avenues, making it simple to stumble from one to another. From Jimi Hendrix to Jimmy Page, all the premier guitarists of the day shopped there.
“I used to demonstrate it to people using a match. I’d put a lit match in front of the speaker, and it would blow the match out.” —Bill Eberline
“At first, Manny’s wasn’t interested,” Eberline recalls. “And Manny himself eventually kicked me out of the store; I was hanging out there all day with this big amplifier. But as I was leaving, one of his competitors across the street saw me and the amp, and he called me over. He said to me, ‘Listen, kid. [Eberline was 20 years old at the time.] Have your factory ship me a bunch of empty boxes with the Sunn logo.’ And I did! He put these out on the street in front of his shop like they were trash, as if he had ordered a bunch of our amps.” Soon after seeing the boxes, Manny’s placed an $80,000 order. That huge sale, in 1965, gave Sunn enough capital to move into a bigger manufacturing space, which Steve Sundholm tells me was his grandfather’s garage. “It was big, like the size of a boathouse,” he says.
Inside the garage, Sunn built tube guitar and bass amps such as the 60-watt 100S and 200S, and the 120-watt 1000S and 2000S, as well as the solid-state 100-watt Beta series and the 300-watt (at 2 ohms) Coliseum. The amps quickly became known for their volume, punch, and ability to deliver an articulate bottom end, and they became increasingly more visible on high-profile stages. Noel Redding, playing bass in the Jimi Hendrix Experience, used six Sunn speaker cabinets and three amp heads in June 1967 at the Monterey Pop Festival. Sunn amps were also seen and heard in the backlines of Led Zeppelin, the Who, and Cream. Hendrix most likely purchased his Sunn gear at Manny’s Music. Eberline remembers, “Jimi played through two of our most powerful amps daisy-chained together—the 1000S, double the power of the regular [100S] amp, and it used four KT88 tubes. He put that through four Sunn cabinets with two 15-inch speakers in each cab.”
The Model T, one of the most coveted amps to bear the Sunn name, was created during Tom Hartzell’s ownership of the company. This is one of the many employed by Sunn O))) guitarists Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson.
Photo by Chris Kies
In August 1969, Eberline trucked Sunn amps to Woodstock, where they appeared behind Felix Pappalardi and Leslie West of Mountain on their Saturday evening set. That got Eberline into trouble. The roadies at Woodstock kept all the loaned amps, Sunn lost the inventory, and Eberline was fired.
James Lebihan is the CEO of the newly relaunched Sunn brand. He takes the history further, telling me over Zoom, “Everybody used Sunn gear—the Beach Boys, the Allman Brothers, and the Jeff Beck Group. Even later, bands like Queen used Sunn amps.” The Rolling Stones considered endorsing Sunn amps. However, according to the book Rolling Stones Gear by Andy Babiuk and Greg Prevost, the Stones’ shipment of amps was damaged in transit, and the endorsement never materialized.
The common denominator for the bands embracing Sunn was the desire for an overdriven tone with a lot of bottom end. In other words, the sound was heavy. Their tone was perfect for early metal and hard-rock artists like Black Sabbath and Mountain. West used a Sunn speaker cabinet to record their iconic “Mississippi Queen” at the Record Plant in New York City.
In 1972, a few years after leaving their dad’s boathouse-size garage and opening a factory in Tualatin, Oregon, the Sundholm brothers sold their company to a manufacturer named Tom Hartzell. Although a few of Sunn’s best models emerged during that period—including the iconic, tube-driven, 150-watt Model T—the Hartzell years are considered by many to be somewhat lost. Eberline says, “I left before they sold the company, but those new guys did not know what they were doing, in my opinion.” Hartzell was not a music-business guy and didn’t quite grasp the industry’s economics. Then, in 1977, he perished in a plane crash.
The magic of the Sunn Beta Lead and Bass amps was in their preamps. Here’s a current rackmount-ready version of that famed preamp unit, from the new Sunn factory.
Not much happened after Hartzell’s passing, and the brand lay dormant until Fender purchased Sunn in 1985, just as punk rock and metal split into genres, including hardcore, doom metal, and grunge. Sunn amps were embraced by guitarists like the Melvins’ Buzz Osborne and Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain. That’s when Stephen O’Malley first became aware of them. “I was into hardcore and death metal,” he remembers. “I was15 years old, and I saw the Melvins. They burst my brain open. Joe Preston is on bass, and Buzz Osborne is playing two full Sunn stacks with two Sunn Beta Leads. That was the first time I heard loud guitar where it was ripping the air apart, and you feel it in your body.” O’Malley also recalls seeing Northwest heavy rockers Karp using a Model T, and he praises that amp’s ability to be adapted to a genre like doom metal.
“We modify them,” he explains. “We put in special tubes, and we’re able to change the bias of the amps. We take out what we don’t need, like the line out, and we take out the circuit breaker and replace it with a fuse. The Model T allows me to have less breakup in the preamp section and more headroom. It becomes more about speaker distortion and power-tube overdrive than high-input gain.”
The essential, blue-ribbon quality of the Model T—even unmoded—is how it works with overdrive and fuzz effects. The extraordinary transparency and headroom of these amps allows the sonic character of these pedals to take on enormous, growling dimensions—so they become almost supernatural versions of themselves.
Was it only the tone driving these later Northwest-based bands toward Sunn Amps? Perhaps not. Sunn had long been an Oregon company, so there were a lot of cheap, used Sunn amps sitting around in guitar shops from Portland to Seattle. Lebihan explains it this way, “When these guys were getting started, and they were teenagers, and they were in school, and they didn’t have any money, they could find these Beta Leads and Model Ts in pawn shops.” Stephen O’Malley tells me that his partner in Sunn O))), Greg Anderson, found his first Model T at a swap meet in Seattle—a vinyl dealer left it sitting under a table of records.
No band has taken the term “amp worship” more literally than Sunn O))), seen here leading service in front of a wall that consists mostly of Sunn amps.
Photo by Mike White
The steep headroom, high-gain, tube-driven 100S, 200S, Model T, and solid-state Beta line of bass and guitar heads are now considered the pinnacle of the original line. O’Malley claims some amount of credit for this: “They’re a mythical amplifier now, but I don’t know if they would be if it weren’t for our band and the scene around our band—like Wino Weinrich from the Obsessed, he played them, too.”
“I was 15 years old, and I saw the Melvins. They burst my brain open…. Buzz Osbourne is playing two full Sunn stacks with two Sunn Beta leads. That was the first time I heard loud guitar where it was ripping the air apart, and you feel it in your body.” —Stephen O’Malley
Until recently, Fender’s ownership would not be considered a new golden age for Sunn; not much happened. Fender did drop a Model T reissue, but that amp shared virtually none of the same circuitry as its Hartzell-era predecessor. Strangely, Fender actually built some electric guitars—using the Mustang and Strat names—overseas under the Sunn brand. But overall, the brand languished, making the vintage gear rare and sought-after in the used market.
Lebihan tells me that many have tried to get Fender to relaunch Sunn since the brand was discontinued in 2002. Still, it was only when he came to the table in 2023 and brought Mike Eldred and Steve Skillings with him that Fender executives finally sat up in their chairs and made a deal to relaunch Sunn. This triumvirate brings decades of musical marketing skills to the party: Lebihan had a background in tech before becoming a serial entrepreneur in the music world; Eldred was on the team that put the Fender Custom Shop on the map in the mid ’90s; and Skillings came from a background at Bose, where, among other things, he was on the Bose L1 team—the group that created the ubiquitous skinny-speaker PA systems popular with buskers, garage jammers, and wedding bands.
Together, this team has big plans for Sunn, and early on they ran a Wefunder campaign in which 288 enthusiasts were able to support the new Sunn company in exchange for discounts on amps and branded swag like t-shirts and pint glasses. The cash, says Skillings, is fueling costs for tooling and other early manufacturing requirements. “There’s a lot of costs associated with ramping up this kind of product,” he notes. “Just to do a mold for a knob, for example, costs $5,000.”
“There are cheaper ways to manufacture these things that would make it ‘not Sunn.’ And I see them going out of their way to recreate it as faithfully as possible without making it the cost of a mortgage payment to the customer.” —Steve Sundholm
And they’re preparing to drop new generations of amps in the near future. Not only will Sunn’s popular tube amps be back, but they’re also creating solid-state bass heads and new cabinets. And they plan to push well beyond what Sunn has been known for for 60 years. Mike Eldred is visibly excited when he says, “We’ve got a Beta combo amp coming up for preorder very soon. And we’re going to continue pushing into the combo market and beyond. You have a lot of folks now who don’t want to lug around a heavy 150-watt amp and products are coming out now that reflect that, where your amp is on your pedalboard. We’re going to go after that market aggressively.”
The essence of the modern Sunn 100S.
One thing everyone is curious about is the future of the Model T, the amp most heavily embraced by O’Malley, Anderson, and other doom-metal axe grinders. That’s something the new Sunn team is rethinking very carefully. The Model T offers a singular tone, but in today’s live music environment, where portability and low-wattage amps rule, it’s a bit of a dinosaur. Eldred says, “There’s no reason why you can’t take the tone stack of a Model T and pare it down into something like a 20-watt version of the amp.”
Steve Sundholm became a board member of the new Sunn brand after his dad passed away. He tells me that at the end of his dad’s life, Conrad knew Sunn was coming back. “He told me, ‘Man, I hope they do it right.’ Not ‘They better do it right,’ just ‘I hope they do.’” Steve is convinced that his dad would be proud of this relaunch. “I’ve seen their plans,” he says, “and I really feel like they are going above and beyond to do it right. For example, they’re building the same closed-back cabinet style as the vintage speakers. There are cheaper ways to manufacture these things that would make it ‘not Sunn.’ And I see them going out of their way to recreate it as faithfully as possible without making it the cost of a mortgage payment to the customer.”
O’Malley, who considers the amps in his backline “members” of his group, also looks forward to checking out the upcoming line and what the new Sunn team is doing. He says, “I understand that they are building the new amps to original specs; I’m really curious about them.” Even still, a “Louie Louie” cover from Sunn O))) to connect the dots probably won’t materialize.
There’s no doom-metal band out there I can find who’s covered the Kingsmen’s signature tune, although both Motörhead and Black Flag have taken great, heavy shots at it. Perhaps they may have even used Sunn amps in the process. As Sunn rises again, illuminating the musical landscape once more, the chance for new riffs and powerful sounds to come from this brand is brighter than ever.
Introducing the limited-edition HALO Core by Keeley Electronics, with only 300 units available.
Andy Timmons’ mysterious-sounding “Halo” effect is a modulated dual echo sound that has long been kept a secret by the tone wizard himself. Andy spent decades combining and crafting the sounds you can now get from the HALO Core.
Notes from the HALO Core dance rhythmically, almost creating a reverb diffusion. Those notes are held together with tape-style effects like modulation, saturation, and compression. The results are stunning.
Discover the latest from Keeley Electronics: the HALO Core, a streamlined version of our top-sellingHALO Andy Timmons Dual Echo. The HALO Core delivers Andy's iconic ‘HALO’ sound and includes a 1/4 Note Mode, offering all the essential features without any unnecessary extras.
Key Features
- True Stereo Input and Output: Enjoy immersive sound quality with true stereo capabilities.
- Switchable Trails or True Bypass: Easily switch between trails or true bypass operation on the fly to suit your playing style.
- All-Wet or All-Dry Modes: The HALO Core is engineered to work perfectly with straight-into-amp and effects loop setups.
- Tap Tempo Footswitch: Achieve perfect timing with the new dedicated Tap Tempo footswitch.
- Redesigned ‘Infinite Hold’ Feature: Experience enhanced sound with our improved Infinite Hold feature
- Intuitive Alt Controls: Fine-tune your sound with adjustable High Pass Filter, Delay Tone, and tape-like Saturation controls.
The HALO Core is the ideal grab-and-go, studio-grade delay pedal, offering professional quality in an easy-to-use format. Elevate your music with Keeley Electronics' HALO Core.
Use the Saturate control to add tape compression texture to your tone. The Tone and High Pass Filter controls your overall delay shape and mix. Set the Time and Feedback controls low, and you can open up a world of ambient chorus and flanger effects. Run the HALO in stereo for incredible true-stereo imaging.
MSRP $199.00
For more information, please visit robertkeeley.com.
Keeley Electronics HALO Core with Robert Keeley and Andy Timmons
ESP Guitars introduces the new LTD DX Series, offering high-quality guitars at a more affordable price.
The LTD EC-200DX FM, M-200DX, and TE-200DX are each being made in two new finishes, and are available now at ESP dealers worldwide.
“The DX Series provides a solution for customers who want a high-quality, low-cost entry point to ESP features and playability,” says Blue Wilding, ESP Brand Manager. “We want our guitars to be accessible to every level of player and at every budget, and the DX Series delivers way more than anyone would expect for their modest price."
Available in Blue Burst and Charcoal Burst finishes, the LTD EC-200DX offers a flat-top single-cutaway Eclipse body with a bevelled edge. It’s built with bolt-on construction at 24.75” scale, featuring a very comfortable poplar body with a flamed maple top, and a roasted maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard. This guitar includes a TOM-style bridge and tailpiece, 24 extra-jumbo frets, dot inlays, and black chrome hardware. The EC-200DX includes a set of ESP’s acclaimed LH-150 humbucking pickups with matching black chrome covers, providing punchy, great tone for all genres of music, along with the flexibility of single-coil tones controlled by a push-pull switch on the tone knob.
The LTD M-200DX is available in Blue Burst and Purple Burst finishes, offering the streamlined M shape with a great-looking burled poplar top. Built with bolt-on construction at 25.5” scale, the M-200DX includes classy features like a roasted maple neck, rosewood fingerboard with 24 frets, black chrome hardware, a TOM-style bridge with string-thru-body design, body binding, offset dot inlays, and a reverse headstock. The M-200DX also features ESP LH-150 humbucking pickups with matching black chrome covers. Also available in Blue Burst and Purple Burst finishes, the LTD TE-200DX offers the classic LTD TE shape with features for contemporary guitarists. These include a lightweight and comfortable poplar body with a burled poplar top, and a roasted maple neck with rosewood fingerboard and 24 frets. The TE-200DX also features a hardtail bridge, black chrome hardware, black body binding, a tiltback headstock, and a set of acclaimed ESP LH-150 humbucking pickups with matching black chrome covers.
For more information, please visit espguitars.com.
The Swedish melodic death metal pioneers continue solidifying their reign as technical titans. That’s due in part to signature guitars—Epiphone Les Paul Customs plus Jackson Diabolics and Soloists that rip and roar—as well as Zon Sonus basses. Altogether, these steely vets with thundering tenacity are feeling the surge of fresh sonic blood.
If In Flames didn’t invent melodic death metal, they cemented the genre’s arrival with Lunar Strain and Subterranean, and if those were early blueprints to the burgeoning style, the Swedes’ The Jester Race and Whoracle were the impeccable benchmarks that made the aggressive artform matter. They’ve continued to push the genre forward with ten subsequent releases—including 2023’s raw, visceral Foregone—further strengthening their core sound that, at its heart, is a modernized blend of intensified Iron Maiden and accelerated Black Sabbath.
Before the band’s headlining show at Nashville’s Marathon Music Works, In Flames’ Björn Gelotte, Chris Broderick, and Liam Wilson welcomed PG’s Perry Bean for a conversation about their powerful setups. Gelotte detailed his workingman’s signature Epiphone Les Paul Custom before his tech Greg Winn showcased a pair of unknown Marshall prototype amps never featured on a Rundown. Shredmeister general Chris Broderick discussed his hands-on approach to designing his signature sound that includes a beveled Jackson Diabolic CB2, modified DiMarzio humbuckers, and a thumbpick he invented. Lastly, Wilson compared the requirements and difficulties between playing bass with Dillinger Escape Plan and In Flames before dissecting his morphing setup that’s trying to feel like home while honoring Peter Iwers’ and Bryce Paul’s thunderous footsteps.
Brought to you by D’AddarioB.I.G.
Björn Ingvar Gelotte used his favorite Gibson Les Paul Custom so much he beat it into submission. It was a special instrument that he wore down to retirement because of fear of ruining it beyond repair. Luckily, around that same time, Gibson called the Swedish shredder wanting to collaborate on a signature model, but being a man of the people, he opted for an Epiphone namesake to keep the price down for fans and aspiring guitarists. It has a mahogany body and neck, an ebony fretboard, a LockTone “Nashville-style” Tune-o-matic bridge, Grover tuners, and a set of high-voltage EMG 81/85 MetalWorks active pickups finished in gold. Both of his guitars take a custom configuration of Dunlop strings (.012-.016-.022-.038-.052-.068) and they either ride in C or A# tunings.
Have a Drink on Me
This is Björn’s second signature Epiphone Les Paul Custom finished in bone white. It has the same DNA as the midnight ebony slugger, but it has gold “top hat” knobs and a stainless-steel bottle opener on its backside.
Mystery Machine
Gelotte has trusted his live tone to tenured tech Greg Winn for many years. Winn has encountered many growlers, but to his ears, nothing purrs like these rare Marshall MD61 heads (top and middle). He notes during the Rundown that they use four EL34 power tubes and four ECC83 preamp tubes. These are not production amps and Winn believes that less than 20 prototypes were built. They use JVM-series parts but have unique sonic architecture in their wiring. The top and middle MD61s are Björn’s clean and dirty amps, and because they’re a scarce commodity, they travel with a third Marshall (JVM205H) for backup purposes.
Can't You Hear Me Rocking?
In Flames has a clean, quiet stage. The MD61s hit an iso cab offstage that houses a single Celestion Vintage 30, which is miked by a couple of sE Electronics Voodoo VR1 passive ribbon mics.
Björn Gelotte's Pedalboard
A Les Paul Custom and Marshall don’t need much help to sound great when playing metal, but to add some spice and space, Gelotte will engage an Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer or MXR M193 GT-OD Overdrive for extra gain, and a MXR Carbon Copy delay for leads. Any additional effects come from the rackmount TC Electronic G-Major 2. To keep everything tight and crisp, Gelotte hits an ISP Technologies Decimator Pro Rack G. He plugs his guitars into a Shure AD4D wireless system and a couple Lehle boxes—1at3 SGoS and 3at1 SGoS instrument switchers—to organize signal flow and work with a Voodoo Lab Ground Control Pro MIDI foot controller.
Beveled Beauty
Chris Broderick has toured with In Flames since 2019. He officially became a part of their crew in 2022 and made his studio debut with the band on 2023’s Foregone. Onstage he’s been getting the job done on a 4-pack of devilish 7-string instruments. Here’s his Jackson USA Custom Shop Chris Broderick Diabolic CB2 that is made with a mahogany body topped with a flame-maple cap, a quartersawn maple neck-through-body that has graphite reinforcement, an ebony fretboard, a recessed Floyd Rose Pro 7 bridge, D’Addario Auto-Trim tuners, and direct-mounted, custom-voiced DiMarzio humbuckers that are tweaked versions of their D Activator (bridge) and PAF Pro (neck). It’s worth noting the push-pull tone knob, when in the pull position, engages the tone circuit, whereas when pushed down, it bypasses it.
White Walker
This slick ride was the first-ever prototype for Broderick’s Diabolic signature line. He dug it so much that only minor changes were requested: moving the neck deeper into the body pocket for a tighter silhouette and slightly moving the controls out of his way, otherwise the Jackson Custom Shop knocked it out of the park
Flamethrower
After the success of partnering with Jackson on the Diabolic CB2, Broderick wanted to create something more subdued and built off the company’s Soloist platform. The Jackson USA Signature Chris Broderick Soloist 7 includes many of the same ingredients—mahogany body, maple neck, ebony fretboard, Floyd Rose Pro 7 bridge, and custom-voiced DiMarzio humbuckers—from the CB2 but some differences include a coil-split option with a push-pull master volume, a quilted maple top, a set-neck construction, and a kill switch.
Broad Strokes
Proving not only the quality of the Jackson Pro series, but also that a talented painter can use any brush to make art, he also tours with his import Jackson Pro Series Chris Broderick Signature HT7 Soloist that has a mahogany body, maple neck, laurel fretboard, Jackson hardware, and Broderick’s custom-voiced DiMarzio humbuckers. Like the Soloist, it includes the master volume push/pull option for coil-splitting, the tone circuit can be removed (when pushed down), and a kill switch.
Excalibur
Broderick has tried finding the pick for years. He finally found the perfect plectrum … he only had to design and make it himself via a CAD program and 3-D printer. As you can see, it’s a wide, rounded thumb pick that has a short tip for fluidity and precision. And all his guitars take Ernie Ball 7-String Super Slinkys (.009-.052).
Eviscerators
Chris matches Björn’s ferocity with a dual-amp setup, too. His weapon of choice, however, is the 4-channel Engl Savage 100. Each head motors up to 120W and rumbles off a pair of 6550 tubes. He runs a clean-and-dirty setup with the two Engls and has a third Savage as a backup. Unlike Gelotte, Broderick runs his amps into a full 4x12 (ENGL Amplifiers E412VGB 240W cab with Celestion Vintage 30s) that’s out of view on the side of the stage.
Chris Broderick Pedalboard
Keeping things tidy onstage, everything changing Broderick’s tone resides offstage in a rack. Signal from the guitar starts with the Shure AD4D wireless system, an ISP Technologies Decimator Pro Rack G keeps down the noise—with an ISP Technologies Decimator II G-String for extra coverage—and a TC Electronic G-Major 2 and Eventide H9 do the heavy coloring. And a Lehle 3at1 SGoS instrument switcher handles guitar changes.
Tone Zon
Bassist Liam Wilson spent the last 20 years holding down the chaos for Dillinger Escape Plan. He joined In Flames last year and helping him seamlessly make the transition is a pair of longtime 4-string companions. They are Zon Sonus Special 4 models that both have a 35" scale length, ash body with a maple top—black is flame and brown is burl—composite neck and fretboard, and specially-wound Bartolini “multi-coil” active pickups that give the basses amazing clarity and punch. With Dillinger, he used picks, but for In Flames material, he exclusively plays fingerstyle. He goes with a custom set of Ernie Ball strings (.070-.090-.110-.135).
Here's what Liam said on a recent social media post about the instruments: “Absolute masterpieces. I appreciate all the time you spent to keep the dialogue going and deliver EXACTLY what me and the In Flames crew needed. Your commitment to the craft is inspiring. Endless thanks for digging so deep to get these to me in time, at the craziest time of the year, I’ve never felt so in my power as I do playing these instruments…Next level stuff!”Jab! Cross! Uppercut!
Prior to In Flames, Liam has always used a variation of an Ampeg SVT. He replaced Bryce Paul, who was an Orange dude, so Wilson has been trying several combinations of amps and pedals to nail the band’s evolving bass tones from their 14-album lineage. At the Nashville stop, Wilson was putting his Sonuses through these clobber boxes—a Tech 21 SansAmp RBI bass preamp, an Orange 4 Stroke 500, and an Ampeg SVT-4 Pro.
Shop In Flames' Rig
EMG 81 MetalWorks Gold
Jackson USA Signature Chris Broderick Soloist 7
Jackson Pro Series Chris Broderick Signature HT7 Soloist
MXR GT OD
MXR Carbon Copy
Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer
EMG 85 MetalWorks Gold
Shure AD4D
sE Electronics Voodoo VR1 Passive Ribbon Mic
ISP Technologies Decimator Pro Rack G
Lehle 1at3 SGoS 3 Amp Switcher Pedal
Lehle 3at1 SGoS Instrument Switcher
Voodoo Lab Ground Control Pro MIDI Foot Controller
Ernie Ball 7-String Super Slinkys (.009-.052)
ENGL Amplifiers E412VGB 240W Cab
Eventide H9
ISP Technologies Decimator II G-String
Tech 21 SansAmp RBI Bass Preamp
Ampeg SVT-4PRO 1200-watt Tube Preamp Bass Head