The gears of the metal bands ～ Show me your stuff ! vol.2
Tobias Dahs －The guitarist from LEVIATHAN
Tobi: On this first picture you can see my ENGL-Screamer amplifier, as well as my 2x12 ENGL cabinet equipped with Celestion V30 speakers. Actually the ENGL Screamer is not the typical amp that you'll see in the area of Melodic Death Metal, simply because it doesn't offer as much gain or distortion as for example other amps of this category. But at least I came to the conclusion for myself that less distortion is a lot better, especially when you play live together with a keyboard.
The frequencies of both instruments are very similar and in order to keep the sound of the whole band clear and defined, it's good to reduce you gain output as much as possible. Another thing that I really love about the ENGL is it's very precise tone, the amp tends to separate the notes very clear, which is great if you play fast Death Metal riffs.
Tobi: Here you can see my pedal-board, or well actually what is going to be my pedal-board very soon. At the moment it still looks very empty, simply because I have just started to build it up. Up to now it only contains what I've been using live so far: My Boss tuner and my ENGL Z5 Footswitch, which allows me to control the different channels of my amp. But a few more pedals are already on the way to join this board. I just recently ordered an Rocktrone Tri-Wah Wah-Wah pedal and I'm still in search of a nice delay pedal to add to my setup.
Tobi: And right here you see my still new guitar. The Fernandes Vortex Elite 2009. Ever since I signed my first endorsement deal with Fernandes guitars in summer 2011 this has been my weapon of choice. It's the classical V-shape that you'll know from a lot of players in metal music and it comes along with an EMG 81 in bridge position and a Fernandes Sustainer on the neck. It also features a Floyd Rose Tremolo, something that I really love because it keeps your guitar in tune, no matter how crazy thing get on stage.
For strings I use Pyramid guitar strings in scale 010 to 046, which is basically one step thicker than the standard guitar strings you may know. I use this size simply because we tune our guitars down one whole step, to the famous tuning that you might know from the mighty Chuck Schuldiner and his band Death.
And last not but not least I wanted to talk a bit about why I use the V-shaped guitar, simply because a lot of people think it's a totally old-school shape that has been used way too much. But it's not just a cool looking shape, it also offers a great advantage to all the other guitar shapes. Because of the two wings at the end of the body, this guitar remains in the same position no matter if you play while standing or sitting. Your arm that rests on the body of the guitar makes it stay in that position. And this is really great because it makes it a lot easier to play also technically difficult passages while playing on stage.
