Marty Friedman
Marty Friedman (born Martin Adam Friedman, December 8, 1962) is an American guitarist. He was the lead/rhythm guitarist for the thrash metal band Megadeth for close to ten years. He now resides in Japan. He hosted his own television programs, Rock Fujiyama and Jukebox English on Japanese television.
Friedman is a largely self-taught guitarist,known for his improvisation and for fusing an Eastern musical feel with Western musical styles, such as neo-classical, thrash metal and later into progressive rock. When playing, Friedman often arpeggiates chords using a picking technique called sweep picking.
Friedman has played a variety of guitars throughout his career. In his days with Cacophony, Friedman played Hurricane guitars, then Carvin guitars, primarily a V220M model. He also would use Carvin on his first solo recording, Dragon’s Kiss.
Prior to joining Megadeth, he formed and played lead guitar in several other bands, including Deuce, Hawaii, Vixen, and notably Cacophony. Cacophony featured neoclassical metal elements and synchronized twin guitar harmonies and counterpoints shared with guitarist Jason Becker on their two albums, Go Off! and Speed Metal Symphony.
When Marty joined Megadeth in 1989, he switched over from Carvin to Jackson Guitars. Primarily, he was responsible for popularizing the now highly acclaimed Jackson Kelly guitar, a sleeker and faster version of the Gibson Explorer Z style shape. The first line of KE1s, which were his signature models, had alder bodies with maple neck through construction and a single Seymour Duncan JB pickup as well as a Kahler Fine-tuning fixed bridge. Later versions of the KE1 would have a Floyd Rose double locking tremolo in place of the Kahler.
Marty used Jackson guitars up until 2000, when the company was bought out by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. Since 2000, Marty has endorsed Ibanez guitars. He has produced a signature model with Ibanez, but this model is as of now only available in Japan and not in the US.
It is hotly contested what amplifiers Marty first used with Megadeth on their landmark album "Rust in Peace." He almost definitely used a Bogner Triple Giant and a Tube Works solid-state preamp for solos, along with a VHT 2150 power amp. Marty and Dave Mustaine both used Custom Audio Electronics 3+ Preamps and VHT 2150 power amps on the commercially successful "Countdown to Extinction" and "Youthanasia" albums. When recording started on "Cryptic Writings, Marty switched to Crate Amplifiers.Contrary to popular belief the Bogner Fish, which is often cited as the preamp for the album, was first released one year after the album debuted, therefore making it impossible to be the preamp of use on this album, that is unless he received a pre-production model. He used these on all of his recordings after Youthanasia, primarily using Crate’s highly successful Blue Voodoo tube amplifiers. As of 2007 however, Crate has discontinued the Blue Voodoo and Marty now uses ENGL amplifiers. He uses Special Edition heads and Vintage cabinets from ENGL.
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