Latest news with #WyldeAudio
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Zakk Wylde is hoping for more Ozzy Osbourne shows – but he's got his hands full with new Pantera music and upcoming Wylde Audio gear
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Given how busy he is with Ozzy Osbourne, Pantera and his Wylde Audio brand, Zakk Wylde must sometimes feel he's carrying the weight of the six-stringed world on his shoulders. He flanked the Prince of Darkness at his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction last year, and he'll be on hand to support his old friend at Black Sabbath's Back to the Beginning show in July. 'We did rehearsals and Oz sang a bunch of songs, and a bunch with Sabbath,' Wylde tells Guitar World. 'It went over great and he had a great time. It's like, 'I guess we're gonna do another tour…'' He knows that's just wishful thinking, but he can't help it. 'Maybe this thing will be a whole new beginning. If Oz is happy, has a great time and sings great, God bless him. Whatever Oz wants to do, I'll do it. But all these other bands are gonna be there, so it's going to be a great day, man.' Meanwhile, Wylde has been headbanging across the globe with Pantera, slinging his Wylde Audio gear as he goes. 'I can't even say that the sky's the limit – there is no limit,' he beams. 'We're working on anything, just whatever. Any ideas that we think would be cool, we just do that.' What's the story there with the Blood Skull Berzerker? 'I said, 'I want to make the most awesome jazz guitar I could possibly make!' That's all I'm saying! I just thought of Joe Pass, the great Joe Pass, and Pat Martino; I put them into a blender and came up with the Berzerker!' Do you design the guitars yourself? 'I literally draw them out by hand. I trace other bodies, like an SG when I did the Barbarian. It's basically an SG that I just put tweaks on – made the horns a little bit different, changed the body contour a bit, made the bottom a little curvier.' Is that essentially what you did with the Blood Skull? 'Yeah – I did a new tweak on an existing body shape and then some blending of different shapes that we dig, you know? I'm just having a good time with it. I'm looking at all the cool old guitars, all the different brands and everything. When I was 15 I wanted to be one of those guys with a guitar with the horns on top and bottom!' What other developments are coming from Wylde Audio? 'We're talking about doing amps and stuff like that now. It'll be a whole batch of different stuff – heads, cabs, micro-amps, practice amps. Then, obviously, plugins, the Fractal element of things. It's not just tube amps. 'That's been in the works for a while; it's coming to fruition now. And then I've got another guitar that we're going to be doing, called the Wrathmaker. It's another new body shape. I have the prototype at my house and I'll be getting the actual guitar soon enough. And we're doing another IronWorks.' Like the Barbarian you did with Schecter? 'I think we're going to do that with the Viking V. I'm working on the design right now. Then we're doing CarvedWorks as well – instead of IronWorks, which has the metal front with the carvings, CarvedWorks is going to be a wood body. The actual design will be carved into the body. The prototype looks badass!' Elsewhere, you're playing huge shows with Pantera. 'We just had a great time doing six weeks out there. That was a blast. The next adventure is we're going out with Metallica, and then some headline shows.' I saw somebody wrote, 'This is nothing but a tribute band,' and it's like, 'Yeah… that's exactly what it is' Are you considering recording new Pantera music? 'There were talks about stuff, because Dime recorded tons of unfinished riffs, and there were things he had lying around like incomplete songs or whatever he was jamming on. It was just him putting stuff on a tape recorder.' Are there plans to do anything with those recordings? 'The way I look at it is, it's just like if Eric Clapton was playing with Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding, and honoring Jimi Hendrix, and calling it the Jimi Hendrix Celebration. It's a if they were like, 'We have these songs that Jimi never finished; one's called Purple Haze. It's just him on a tape recorder, with a rough outline of the song.' 'So it would be like if Eric, Noel, and Mitch recorded Purple Haze because Jimi had demoed it on acoustic guitar. It's already written – it's just bringing these hidden gems to life that were never recorded properly.' Is that to say you're considering taking Dime's demos and bringing them to life? 'It's still songs that Dime and Vinnie Paul had written; it's just that it was on a tape recorder. Anything like that would still be what it is: a celebration of them and a tribute to them. I saw somebody wrote one day, 'This is nothing but a tribute band,' and it's like, 'Yeah… that's exactly what it is.'' Is there a timeline for these recordings? 'I don't know – it's just talks of it, like, if the guys would ever want to do something like that. If the guys want to do new songs and mix it up, we'll throw some dark horses and hidden gems out there.' Head to Schecter Guitars to check out the current Wylde Audio range.
Yahoo
17-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Paging all 'shred warriors,' Wylde Audio's Berzerker takes the shape of metal guitar to new extremes
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Wylde Audio has unveiled its latest made-for-metal electric guitar for current Pantera reunion shredder, Black Label Society founder and Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde, and it looks like something straight out of the encyclopedia of medieval weaponry. Immediately assuming the opposite end of the aesthetic spectrum as the Hello Kitty Stratocaster, the evocatively titled Berzerker is a metal guitar through and through. No jazz, please. Ration those blues licks, and if you must play them, play them through a high-gain metal amp. Come on, just look at this thing. 'Crafted for the true metal enthusiast, this axe embodies the soul of legendary guitarist Zakk Wylde,' says Wylde Audio. 'Equipped with high-output EMG active pickups, the Blood Skull Berzerker delivers an iconic tone with unparalleled clarity and sustain.' Where do you start with a body shape like this? Well, maybe with the finishes. Wylde Audio is offering this in Blood Skull graphic finish, a Slayer fan's fever dream if ever we've seen it, and in this raw-topped Corridors finish, which has an Escher-esque vibe. Nose to tail the design of this is brutal. It is with some satisfaction to see that this has a reverse six-in-line headstock. And being a Zakk Wylde production, you've got a pair of active EMG humbuckers to help put some weight – not to mention clarity – behind those riffs. There is an EMG 81 at the bridge and an EMG 85 at the neck. These are controlled by dual volume controls plus a master tone knob, with a three-way pickup selector mounted… Well, it's kind of hard to see on this model but you'll find it on the lower horn. For all intents and purposes, this is a double-cutaway. But really it's a quadruple cutaway. It will be interesting to see how this feels on a guitar strap, or played seated. As for the fundamentals, the Berzerker has a mahogany body – the Corridors has some maple on the top to give it that surrealist look. Image 1 of 4 Image 2 of 4 Image 3 of 4 Image 4 of 4 The neck is three-piece maple, fashioned into Wylde's signature C shape, and joinis the body with a deep-set, glued-in neck joint. The fingerboard is ebony, inlaid with runes, and has a 14' radius. There's some Gibson-esque DNA here, what with Wylde a former user and abuser of the Gibson Les Paul Custom. We have a Tonespro Locking Tune-O-Matic bridge and tailpiece, and the guitar has a 24.625' scale length. The black Speed Knobs are perhaps a nod to his old Custom, too. Other details include Grover tuners, the frets are extra-jumbo, the nut is a Graph Tech Tusq XL and the nut width is 43mm. Schecter is listing this at $1,699, and the price does not include a guitar case. For more details head over to the Wylde Audio page at Schecter Guitars.
