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OPETH GUITARISTS MIKAEL ÅKERFELDT AND FREDRIK ÅKESSON SHOW OFF THEIR PRS SIGNATURE GUITARS AND LIVE RIG (VIDEOS)…
Posted on April 11, 2012
OPETH guitarists, Mikael Åkerfeldt and Fredrik Åkesson, caught up with PRS Guitars at the end of last year to talk about their signature PRS Guitars and run through their live rigs. Check out the videos below and a description of what each one covers.The SE Mikael Åkerfeldt is a singlecut, mahogany body guitar with a flame maple veneer and a 25" scale length, 24 fret maple neck with an ebony fretboard and bird inlays. One of Mikael's favorite specifications is the satin finish on the neck, which allows for effortless playing up and down the length of the neck without your hand sticking and slowing you down. Mikael goes on to explain: “From solos to rhythm, I can do pretty much everything on this guitar. It's my favorite guitar of all time”.
For the complete series, see here: http://www.prsguitars.com/allaccess.
Unlike some of their past (heavier) albums ‘Heritage’ has a more progressive vibe. To achieve this, Mikael and Fredrik used a wide range of PRS guitars (in addition to their signature models) on the album, including a JA-15, Tremonti, Starla and an Angelus acoustic. Once recorded OPETH returned to PORCUPINE TREE mastermind Steven Wilson’s studio to mix the album with him:
"We've worked with different engineers but we never had anyone that we wanted their opinion on our music apart from Steven. The last album we did with him was Damnation. He was busy when we were doing Ghost Reveries and Watershed. He's just one of those guys I completely trust musically. He's been sort of a mentor to me in some way. I've learned a lot of stuff from him about production".
Mikael has been playing guitar since he was in third grade (an acoustic guitar that he painted knobs on, dreaming of playing an electric ax). Though he hadn't heard of PRS when he started playing, eventually he recommended PRS to a friend looking to buy a guitar. Mikael later bought that very guitar from his friend, and that started him on the path to becoming a PRS signature artist.
In this video Fredrik Åkesson tells the story of how he became a guitar player and how he was later introduced to PRS Guitars by his bandmate, Mikael Åkerfeldt. Five years later, Åkesson has his own PRS SE signature model, which Fredrik calls "a dream come true".
In this video Fredrik walks through his pedals, effects and amplifiers. Essentially, Fredrik's setup drives four sounds: crunch/heavy rhythm, clean, warm carbon copy/delay and lead. One tip from Fredrik...his pedal board is comprised of mostly "control" pedals while the "audio" pedals are racked mounted with Fredrik's amplifier for a shorter signal path for the purest tone.
The SE Fredrik Åkesson is a singlecut, mahogany body guitar with a quilted maple veneer and a 24.5" scale length, 22 fret wide fat mahogany neck with an ebony fretboard and PRS bird inlays. Fredrik's model also comes with a volume and tone control for each pickup with a 3-way toggle on the upper bout, but this traditional configuration is "inverted" with the treble controls in front of the bass controls to mirror Åkesson's preferred setup, which allows easy access to the bridge pickup controls. Fredrik also requested an extra-deep cutaway on the body to hit the high notes more easily.
That’s a whole load of gear! Find out more about OPETH by pointing your mouse in this direction.
Click here to buy OPETH’s latest album ‘Heritage’.
Point your mouse in this direction to find out more about Mikael’s side project with PORCUPINE TREE front man Steven Wilson, ‘STORM CORROSION’.
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