The Misfits’ Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein Gets Literal with a Metal Guitar

I wasn’t expecting much from a rig rundown with The Misfits’ guitarist Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein (currently he’s handling touring guitar duties for Danzig). Three-chord punk rock isn’t where I go for intricate pedalboards (or intricate playing). So I put off watching this for a few days, but I’ll be The Damned if he doesn’t have some weird shit going on in his Horror Business.

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First of all, what the hell is going on with his guitar? He machines the entire thing himself at his shop. The removable metal wings are bolted onto a graphite neck through design, and he deals with the pain in the ass of a Floyd Rose just to avoid cutting himself. Hats off to you sir, for completely ignoring all standards and just doing your own thing.

I also love how he blatantly talks mess on Oktober, the company that released a line of guitars based on his design.

Doyle’s amp setup is pretty unconventional too. He’s using a Demeter TGP-3 preamp into a pair of Ampeg SVT Classic 300-watt tube bass heads that are effectively acting as power amps. What’s especially strange here is that this is almost the exact setup that Dean DeLeo from Stone Temple Pilots uses. Technically DeLeo uses VHT Classic Stereo power amps, but the tube configuration is very similar (the 6550 tubes in the Ampeg are slight variation on the KT88 tubes that VHT uses).

Of course he ruins the whole thing with that Digitech Hardwire distortion shitbox. But that’s how we roll in Jersey. We give you something nice and then wipe our ass with it.

Source: Premier Guitar

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Chris Alfano has written about music and toured in bands since print magazines and mp3.com were popular. Once in high-school he hacked a friend's QBasic stick figure fighting game to add a chiptune metal soundtrack. Random attractive people still give him high-fives about that.

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  • I would love to see someone, anyone recreate this setup (obviously minus Doyle’s handmade Annihilators). Such a weird rig that I was curious to hear in person and even got the chance to hear during a soundcheck recently. It sounded terrible by itself, but awesome with the whole band.

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