Player No. 074nu-metal
Mick Thomson
Slipknot's #7 and the band's lead riff architect, Thomson built his sound on tight, percussive down-tuned rhythm playing through a rotating cast of aggressive high-gain heads — a VHT Pitbull on Iowa and Vol. 3, a Marshall JCM800 with a Maxon boost on All Hope Is Gone, and later his Rivera KR-7 signature. He favors fixed-bridge guitars with hot active pickups voiced for a controlled low end, because the band's drop-B and drop-A tunings turn loose bass into mud.
nu metalmetalalternative metal
ThomsonFILE 074
The Thomson catalogue
Field notes on Thomson
All field notes →The Edge's Delay Settings Decoded: How U2 Gets That Sound
Dotted eighth notes, analog repeats, and the delay settings that define U2's guitar sound. Plus how to set it up on your modeler.
How to Get Stevie Ray Vaughan's Tone on Line 6 Helix
The complete SRV Helix preset guide. Amp model, drive settings, and the secret sauce that makes it sound like Texas.
Sidechain vs. Inline Noise Gates: When the Detector Needs Its Own Signal
A sidechain noise gate reads your clean guitar to decide when to open while it mutes the distorted signal. Here's why that stops high-gain chatter when an inline gate can't.