Spanish symphonic alchemists Diabulus In Musica are primed to release their new record Argia on April 14th in Europe, and a day later in the U.S., so now is as good of a time as any to check in with the band’s new six-string slinger Alexey Kolygin (the band’s entire drums/bass/guitar backbone underwent a change in 2013, leaving only vocalist Zuberoa Aznárez and keyboardist Gorka Elso from their old lineup). He’s the breakdown of his rig, which features the Engl/EMG/ESP trifecta of some of the best European metal. That’s a hell of a lot of Es, isn’t it?
My gear is quite simple. I like the sound I get using the minimum amount of gear, it allows me to have a more clear control of the sound. I think this is very important when playing in a band.
My main guitar is my beloved ESP SV Standard with EMG 81 pickups. It’s really an aggressive guitar! The sound is really heavy and harsh. My tuning is B-drop so it’s important that low-freqs sound clear and with my ESP I can achieve that. I tried other guitars with the same tuning but the sound is not that clear. My Zakk Wylde Dunlop 10-60 strings also help to obtain that clear and punchy sound; they give me lightness in my solos and a good tension on the thick strings to play fast riffs.
I use and ENGL Fireball 100 amplifier with a 4×12 cabinet. It’s an easy to use amplifier. The clean sound is very pleasant and the distortion is clear and powerful. It’s really welcome the mid-boost button and the noise-gate. I think it’s a good amplifier for metal, complete, aggressive and strong.
In the pedal side I have a Korg pitchblack tuner (fast and accurate), a Boss Noise Suppressor (essential for palm-mute) and an Electro-Harmonix LPB-1 to give more sustain to my solos.
