Aaron Marshall says his old Strat-Metal Zone setup from ninth grade would “still smoke most rigs these days”
He may now have his own signature guitar with Schecter, but Aaron Marshall hasn’t forgotten the rig that started it all.
In a new interview with D’Addario, Marshall revisits his early musical journey – including the humble high school setup he claims would “still smoke most rigs these days”.
Like many players, Marshall’s obsession with music came before the instrument itself.
“As a kid, the first thing I fixated on or latched onto was certainly music. Guitar entered the picture after hounding my parents for drums, funny enough, which did happen,” says the Intervals guitarist. “But the pivotal moment was.. our first DVD player.” More specifically, Carlos Santana’s Supernatural Live on DVD.
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“Watching that at home in the living room was kind of a crazy experience,” Marshall recalls. “I was probably blown away by how enamoured my parents were with it, so I actually gave it some attention. And it made me wanna explore music. That was probably the catalyst for my dad taking me to a pawn shop and we got my first acoustic guitar. ‘Oh, okay, well, we’ll start with that. See if you like it. See if you commit.’”
As with many first acoustics, it felt enormous.
“I could barely get my arm over it,” he says. “And did that for a while, and then it became a Stratocaster. I learned everything from Blink-182 to Slipknot on that thing.”
Not long after, Marshall found himself in his first band: “[It] was not too long after discovering the guitar. I’d say ninth grade. I remember a friend who was a drummer who’s a couple grades ahead of me. I guess there weren’t a lot of options… and they wanted someone to come play guitar in their band, and it was like the first time anyone had given me a shot.”
What followed was, in his words, “your quintessential first emo band” – and a rig that still earns his respect.
“The rig was the midnight blue made-in-Mexico Stratocaster into a [Fender] Hot Rod Deluxe with a [Boss] Metal Zone. That’ll still smoke most rigs these days too,” Marshall insists. “I was in like a progressive metal band, kind of like Between the Buried and Me, Protest the Hero. And I did that up until I left those guys and started doing Intervals like 15 years ago.”
Check out the full interview below.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
