Ye Olde Metalheads Thread (post up if your 30 yrs +)

[OmegaSlayer]

I posted back in the day, I post again...closing in fast towards the 50s...

What changed is that my memory fails, so I'm trying it to train it by relearning songs by heart, starting with the easier stuff, trying to relearn note by note 3 songs per week

So I'm doing loads of old stuff from the 80s, where solos have less amount of notes to remember, and some I refused to learn back in the days because it sounded like wigglywagglying without a melodic concept or phrase, like loads of stuff from Dave Murray or Kirk Hammet

 

[budda]

Guess I didn't read why you quit touring?
As strong as the GAS is, I'm considering thinning the heard from 40ish down to 10 because I don't play most of them...

We had a shitty tour lined up, everyone was burnt out, and I was done driving 10 hours a week to spend money to not have any fun doing it.

I'm still not uber warmed up to pop sensible music and I don't know if it's because what I'm writing is even farther from it or I still have holdover mentality from my teen years. I have friends who like punk and/or metal but also enjoy pop punk and pop music since it's similar musical ideas. I dunno if I'm more picky or what .

Another thing I'm trying to do as I get older is get out of my own way. That's a big ole work in progress.

 

[DerekS]

I'll bite.

I'm turning 50 tomorrow. Interestingly, I'm playing guitar better now than ever; have actually developed a regular practice regimen versus just noodling while watching TV...and it's largely due to the huge influence that Japanese music has had on me over the last several years. On a similar note, I'm also listening to a much wider variety of music these days (going all the way back to the 1920-30s) which has really helped to improve my songwriting. That said, I'm still perfectly content with having music more as a hobby and releasing songs whenever I feel like it as opposed to having it be more like a career.

 

[STRHelvete]

I liked stuff like Manson and Rob Zombie and stuff but I have to say my venture into the heavy stuff started with this band right here.



Which also started my love of guitar. The first guitar I fell in love with was the Gibson Gothic Flying V played by Morgan Lander of Kittie. This particular picture was the one in all the Musician's Friend/guitar catalogs. This image is forever burned into my head

Somehow Kittie got me into heavier and heavier stuff until I found the love of my life, black metal.

 

[USMarine75]

the first guitar i had gas for...ibanez destroyer dt-555bk

my first guitar...cort effector (yes, i still own it 27 yrs later)

Hell yeah.

It was good enough to record most of VH1 with.

 

[littlebadboy]

54 here. I thought "little bad boy" was a cool nick 40 years ago. It was my mother's nickname for me in our local language. But, I didn't think how it would work out when I get older. Poor planning.

I started playing the guitar because I wanted to play Roland Orzabal's solo in "Shout" (Tears for Fears) back in the 80s. Living in a 3rd world and not having much money, I tightened my belt to save my lunch money to buy a knock off black strat made of plywood. My parents wouldn't buy me one because they think all rock/metal headbangers are addicts. There was no social media at the time and didn't know much about electric guitars... I didn't know that I needed a guitar amp. I just plugged into the mic input of my cassette player.

U2, The Cult, etc, came into the scene. Metallica happened, as well as all the other Thrash Metal bands. My interests shifted.

40+ years after, I ended up here in America. I thought it was a requirement to have as much guitars as I can. I only had cheap guitars in my collection, until I realized that it was ridiculous not getting to play all, but still buying strings for them! So, I decided to sell all and/or keep only the guitars I care for and need. I currently have a 7-string GOC, a mod'ed PRS S2 in drop C, and recently got a guitar that I intend to keep on standard E tuning for just in case. So, I have one guitar for a specific use. It made me appreciate each guitar for their particular setup traits. I never got to be a shredder. I couldn't afford to get better guitar lessons and the time to practice when I was younger. But, I get by with what I can do.

It has been an awesome experience! I got to play with bands playing original music that I get to collaborate or compose myself back in my former country, gig at places I never thought I would, etc.

I don't gig anymore. Life and family happened that I don't regret. I like my life now watching my kids grow up and find it interesting that they take some of our traits and interests or doing what I couldn't do in my younger years.

I don't plug into a mic input of a cassette player anymore. I plug into a computer using what technology amazingly enables us musicians to do these days. I don't even need a band to make music anymore!

I do not have the time to play as much as I want these days as I need to part time to meet my family's needs. My daughter does Jiujitsu, Judo, Wrestling, also plays the guitar, while my wife likes to travel. Things that a teacher paycheck couldn't afford.

It's the Architects, Spiritbox, Novelists, Thornhill, etc these days.

I still haven't tried to play that Roland Orzabal's solo in "Shout" yet. Someday.

 

[Grindspine]

I guess I am kindof "ye olde metalhead" in my forties.

It wasn't metal that got me into guitar as much as it was grunge. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Alice in Chains, the whole Seattle Sound movement in 1991-92 was what got me to pick up my dad's Alvarez acoustic and start playing. Metallica's Black Album and Megadeth's Countdown to extinction both hit big around the same time. From there I branched out to AC/DC and Iron Maiden before getting into heavier stuff like Pantera, Death, Morbid Angel, Sepultura, and Carcass. My first band was basically a group of high school friends trying to play a bunch of Slayer, Metallica, and Megadeth covers in my friend's rather nice basement half the night and then playing Doom and Quake after. My guitar equipment at this time was an '85 Platinum Series Warlock and a Crate GX212+ combo. Before the nineties were done I added a Washburn Dime, DOD Metal X pedal (gotta have a Lamb series, Grunge style pedal), and a B.C. Rich USA Warlock NT, which is still one of my favorite six stringers. I was lucky enough to take a computer assisted music theory class in high school and got an introduction to MIDI recording. Nineties industrial, NIN, Ministry, KMFDM, Godflesh, Front Line Assembly, and Stabbing Westward became big influences during that time too.

Fast forward to college and the early 2000s. I listed to broader music styles and was more accepting of stuff that was not the heaviest. I got really into Incubus, Cold, and Evanescence for a while before hearing metalcore for the first time. Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying, God Forbid, Norma Jean, Unearth, and Darkest Hour really pulled me back into playing during that time period. Since you cannot have modern metalcore without the melodic death metal that inspired it, a bunch of Swedish bands went into my playlists at the time too. At the Gates, In Flames, Hypocrisy, Dissection, and Meshuggah were another fresh round of inspiration. By this time I had gotten a Mesa/Boogie Triaxis and a massive Mesa Strategy 500 power amp. For a short while I even had an Eventide GTR4000 as my effects processor, though I hit some hard limits with the capabilities so sold it after a few years.

In 2007, I started working weekends for radio company, covering live events for a contemporary pop station and an oldies / classics station while finishing school and starting my career in lab medicine. By 2014, I quit my medical lab job and took a full-time position as a guitar tech, which is about the time I joined Sevenstring.org. My younger coworkers got me into djent and deathcore while having access to so many new guitars got me into my first Ibanez Prestige RGD. The Acacia Strain, Emmure, After the Burial, and Chelsea Grin became regulars on my playlists. I expanded out my guitar equipment with a Mesa Mark 525 and a wide array of pedals. Getting a promotion to sales in 2018 gave me a lot of access to recording knowledge and equipment training as well. I was able to set up guitars for some famous guitarists and bassist, including Joe Walsh and Rex Brown. Once I even shipped a guitar to Slash! I had a pretty great run working in the music industry and still miss it. But life pulled me back into working into the medical field.

Now in the 2025, I am back to working a medical lab job full-time and left my radio and guitar tech jobs (for now) but at least have my guitar collection and a nice little home studio. I am now over thirty years of playing guitar and bass...I think it is time I record more or do something more substantial with it!

 

[Grindspine]

And along with the prior personal guitar biography, a bit more of a photo dump seems appropriate.

 

[High Plains Drifter]

@Grindspine and @littlebadboy - I sincerely enjoyed reading your more in-depth accounts of where you started and how you got to where you are now. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Thesius]

I can finally post in this thread as of today. I was a long time lurker of SSO. I finally joined in 2010, but only had like 60 posts. I quit guitar around that time and didn't start playing again till 2021? Started posting a lot since then. When I started playing guitar again I couldn't decide what amp I wanted so I was rocking an Aristides 060R plugged into Rocksmith lmao. I'm still only playing on my PC, but at least with Neural now. Back in 2010 I couldn't imagine having a quarter of the guitars I have now, or acquiring some of my white whales from back then.

 

[Moongrum]

I can finally post in this thread as of today. I was a long time lurker of SSO. I finally joined in 2010, but only had like 60 posts. I quit guitar around that time and didn't start playing again till 2021? Started posting a lot since then. When I started playing guitar again I couldn't decide what amp I wanted so I was rocking an Aristides 060R plugged into Rocksmith lmao. I'm still only playing on my PC, but at least with Neural now. Back in 2010 I couldn't imagine having a quarter of the guitars I have now, or acquiring some of my white whales from back then.

happy birthday, big dawg

 

[Grindspine]

I can finally post in this thread as of today. I was a long time lurker of SSO. I finally joined in 2010, but only had like 60 posts. I quit guitar around that time and didn't start playing again till 2021? Started posting a lot since then. When I started playing guitar again I couldn't decide what amp I wanted so I was rocking an Aristides 060R plugged into Rocksmith lmao. I'm still only playing on my PC, but at least with Neural now. Back in 2010 I couldn't imagine having a quarter of the guitars I have now, or acquiring some of my white whales from back then.

Happy bday!! (belated a little bit)

 

[JJ-A]

This is a great thread - pushing 56 here... oh no...
I've been listening to hardrock and metal for over 40 years, so I don't think it's something that will go away - luckily... How did I get into this kind of music? well, hard to tell, but I guess I must heard something somewhere that I liked and just moved on from there. I believe where things really started to move forward must have been around 1983-84, 'cos a lot of cool records were released during that period and many of my friends were also getting into the genre, so as soon as someone got a new record we would meet and discuss every little detail, listening to the record over and over and studying the cover and inner sleeve, everything was new and exciting.

It must have been around 1984, I was watching the news for some reason and they were running a two minute story about a studio here in Denmark, not that exciting really, but they showed something for approximately 10 seconds that caught my attention. A band called Metallix were recording an album and I thought it sounded fantastic. The next day I talked to some of my metal-friends and one of them who had also watched the news said: 'My older brother knows that band but he says they are not called Metallix, they are called Metallica...' Me: OK..??? A week later I went to the local record store to look for something by that so-called Metallica band but couldn't find anything, so I walked up to the desk and asked - the answer: 'never heard about it, but I can find out if they have released something...' Then the guy started looking in a really big book and guess what... *yes, they've released one album called Kill 'em all, should I order it for you..? Yep, you do that. So, what they were showing on the news must have been the recording for the 'Ride the lightning' album.
But was does all this mean..? it means I'm old...

It was 1988, we were going to the 'Monsters of rock' festival in Schweinfurt Germany, headliner was Iron Maiden. Some friends and I had booked the trip though a company called 'Rockbussen' (The rockbus), it was an old clapped out Mercedes-Benz with no toilet of course. We jumped on bord and just under an hour later we were approaching the German border - and that was the only time we ever heard the busdriver over the speaker-system, he said: 'HEY..! Listen... can't you put that weed away until we've crossed the border...' The smell in that bus must have been insane, but who knows...
But what does all this mean..? It means you could smoke and drink almost anything on a metal-bus back then, but today you can hardly risk opening a deck of Marlboro reds in public,

I miss the old days

Stay safe everyone

 

[JSKrev]

In my early 40's. My original rig was a Strat with Floyd into a DOD American Metal and Crate G60. I was trying to get the Entombed sound, which was already old school by that time. From there, it was RG350 into dual-channel JCM 800. I think I programmed a Digitech RP-12 for heavier distortion. It was a lot harder to find extreme music; you had to read magazines and take gambles based off cover art. My heroes were Chuck Schuldiner and Bill Steer.

 

[kleinenenten]

In my early 40's. My original rig was a Strat with Floyd into a DOD American Metal and Crate G60. I was trying to get the Entombed sound, which was already old school by that time. From there, it was RG350 into dual-channel JCM 800. I think I programmed a Digitech RP-12 for heavier distortion. It was a lot harder to find extreme music; you had to read magazines and take gambles based off cover art. My heroes were Chuck Schuldiner and Bill Steer.

Still heroes! And I LOVED my Super American metal. I've had plenty of HM-2 style pedals, but something about DOD always caught my attention.

 

[jaxadam]

DOD American Metal

One of the first pedals I ever had was a DOD Metal Maniac. That thing was rough to get good sounds out of.

 

[wheresthefbomb]

One of the first pedals I ever had was a DOD Metal Maniac. That thing was rough to get good sounds out of.

My first pedal was a loaner DOD Grunge, sounded like shit on every setting through my little Yamaha practice amp.

 

[JSKrev]

In my early 40's. My original rig was a Strat with Floyd into a DOD American Metal and Crate G60. I was trying to get the Entombed sound, which was already old school by that time. From there, it was RG350 into dual-channel JCM 800. I think I programmed a Digitech RP-12 for heavier distortion. It was a lot harder to find extreme music; you had to read magazines and take gambles based off cover art. My heroes were Chuck Schuldiner and Bill Steer.

My Strat was HSS with a JB in the bridge. Probably worth nothing. It also had a cigarette burn on the headstock.

 

[G_3_3_k_]

Hmmm…. I thread of retrospectives about elder heads. Interesting. I’ll bite.

I’m 44. Got started playing when I was 14? On my dad’s acoustic guitar. Metallica got me started. But I had a steady diet of Megadeth, Pantera, Ozzy, NIN, Fear Factory, Soundgarden, AiC, Tool, Dream Theater, Satriani, Vai, EJ, Pink Floyd, Rancid, Misfits, Black Flag, The Vandals, The Offspring, The Cult, etc. if it was Angry, Aggressive, Musically interesting, or had good songwriting, I was digesting it.

My first guitar gas was an Ibanez JS100. My dad being a musician actually bought it for me for Christmas. My first amp was a Crate BV50 with a Crate 112 with a V30 in it. So the Marshall JCM thing is kind of in my blood since that was basically a JCM clone.

I bought my second guitar myself at 17? Had a summer job working at a drive in. Put everything down on the guitar. It was a JEM7V. I let a girlfriend convince me to sell it a few years later. I LOVED that guitar.

Like everyone I was gasing hard for a Recto or a 5150.

My first band was a Nirvana cover band. I hated Nirvana at the time. My second band never got off the ground. And they eventually ran off with my JS100 and BV50. Took me years to get a new amp. I played my electric unplugged for probably 4 years?