Gear used on early A7X albums: The vault of Fred Archambault

[Awex Came]

We had some students on here that were interested in seeing some actual pieces of gear that Avenged Sevenfold used on some of their albums. I paid a visit to their longtime friend/engineer/producer Fred Archambault and he showed me some gear that he still had that was used by them. Fred worked on A7X albums such as Waking the Fallen, City of Evil, Self Titled, Diamonds in the Rough, and Nightmare along with albums from many other bands. Fred was the last person to record The Rev (for Jeff Dunham's 2008 Christmas Album, also featuring PG) and the ONLY person to record him professionally.

Fred also expressed that he would be open to possibly doing a Q&A or maybe livestream here on the site since his name comes up from time to time and many students have questions.

The gear will be posted in the comments here. One piece of gear will be posted on its own thread. Here is that other thread

 

[Awex Came]

Here's the Boss CS-3 Compressor pedal that Syn used mostly on leads/solos. Not sure if those are his settings marked or not. Guitar leads are very dynamic, so a compressor will help tame those dynamics. Syn also partially used this as a "boost" to add extra input signal into his amplifier to achieve a nice saturated sound. This has been discussed in a previous thread and is said to be a big part of his lead tone in the earlier days.

 

[Gabby Heafy]

Here's the Boss CS-3 Compressor pedal that Syn used mostly on leads/solos. Not sure if those are his settings marked or not. Guitar leads are very dynamic, so a compressor will help tame those dynamics. Syn also partially used this as a "boost" to add extra input signal into his amplifier to achieve a nice saturated sound. This has been discussed in a previous thread and is said to be a big part of his lead tone in the earlier days.


View attachment 1689
View attachment 1690

wow .. so cool! thanks a lot for sharing

 

[Awex Came]

Sorry that the pictures are so dark, the studio lighting is dim to create ambience. Here's an old Schecter Scorpion guitar the Syn used on the leads/solos on Waking the Fallen. This is before Avenged was officially with Schecter. Funny enough, the "Scorpion" shape became the "S-1" which eventually became the shape that Zacky Vengeance used for his Schecter signature model.

Fred says that he gave this guitar to Syn and he left it there. @Syn Gates, if you see this, go pick up your guitar!

 

[Awex Came]

Here's the Bogner Uberschall amplifier they used back in the day. They still use an Uberschall in the studio to this day, just not the one pictured. This amp is a large part of their sound, and is blended in to some capacity on each album. This is a very early revision made by Reinhold Bogner. Unfortunately, this amp was put away and I didn't want to make Fred take it down, so this is the only picture i got.

 

[Awex Came]

This is a Schecter Synyster Gates model that was given to Fred by Brian. What makes this unique is that it has a hardtail bridge, not a Floyd Rose. They now make Syn models with Hardtail bridges, but this was before they were ever publicly released and this has a different bridge than you would find on current production models

 

[Awex Came]

Bonus: Here are various A7X plaques that Fred received

 

[Awex Came]

As stated in the original post, there is one more piece of gear that was used that will have its own thread. This comment and the original post will be updated with a link to that thread when it's posted.

Edit: Here it is

 

[Awex Came]

wow .. so cool! thanks a lot for sharing

No problem!

 

[Matt Wildcat]

Awesome thread man, thank you for sharing! It's so weird to see the old Syn model with a hardtail, I remember seeing the new models with them and it threw me for a sec LOL. Also, absolutely love that Scorpion! Though it's weird seeing what I've come to know as "Zacky's guitar" model with that headstock

 

[Rad Synner]

Fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing all this goodness! I think that Fred doing a Q&A here would be fantastic! On the same note, I also have plans for the streaming service and I would love to even do an interview type of thing with Fred. He has such a wealth of knowledge and expertise and great stories!!

 

[Awex Came]

Awesome thread man, thank you for sharing! It's so weird to see the old Syn model with a hardtail, I remember seeing the new models with them and it threw me for a sec LOL. Also, absolutely love that Scorpion! Though it's weird seeing what I've come to know as "Zacky's guitar" model with that headstock

Agreed lol the hardtail is weird for a sec. But I kinda like the idea of it since the Floyd can be a real pain sometimes. And it is kinda ironic that the shape became known for Zacky's guitar, also interesting to see how many iterations of that shape there were

 

[Awex Came]

Fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing all this goodness! I think that Fred doing a Q&A here would be fantastic! On the same note, I also have plans for the streaming service and I would love to even do an interview type of thing with Fred. He has such a wealth of knowledge and expertise and great stories!!

No problem! Fred is amazing, he's very open about everything and happy to share his "secrets". As I'm sure you know, the reality is that engineers and producers rarely get the love and appreciation they deserve so I'm sure he's grateful to have so many people interested in his work which is why he's so open about things. The Q&A/Livestream would be a great idea in my opinion. Let me know and I can put you guys in touch

 

[Rad Synner]

No problem! Fred is amazing, he's very open about everything and happy to share his "secrets". As I'm sure you know, the reality is that engineers and producers rarely get the love and appreciation they deserve so I'm sure he's grateful to have so many people interested in his work which is why he's so open about things. The Q&A/Livestream would be a great idea in my opinion. Let me know and I can put you guys in touch

Oh yeah, people rarely know how it's like behind the scene and the huge amount of work that goes into the process of music production. But I think this is a brilliant opportunity! By all means, I am really stoked at the possibility of having Fred on! This would be on of the first things I'd do as soon as the stream section as up! By all means, I'd really love if you can put us in touch!

 

[Awex Came]

Oh yeah, people rarely know how it's like behind the scene and the huge amount of work that goes into the process of music production. But I think this is a brilliant opportunity! By all means, I am really stoked at the possibility of having Fred on! This would be on of the first things I'd do as soon as the stream section as up! By all means, I'd really love if you can put us in touch!

Most definitely, he would be a great way to kick it off. I'll DM you right now

 

[ari.mac]

Thank you so much for sharing this absolute gems!! It's so weird to see the Syn model with the hardtail bridge also, I must have missed the newest models that don't have the floyd rose, I've only ever seen those
I love that Scorpion too, really nice!!!
Looking forward to the future stream with Fred (hopefully)!!!

 

[Awex Came]

Thank you so much for sharing this absolute gems!! It's so weird to see the Syn model with the hardtail bridge also, I must have missed the newest models that don't have the floyd rose, I've only ever seen those
I love that Scorpion too, really nice!!!
Looking forward to the future stream with Fred (hopefully)!!!

No problem! It is kinda weird. The model they have with a hardtail is actually the Syn Standard, not the custom. Here's a link to it: https://www.schecterguitars.com/guitars/synyster-standard-ht-detail

The Scorpion is pretty cool. I tried to buy it, but it's not for sale (we'll see about that lol). Hopefully we can get him on here!

 

[William B.]

Really cool

 

[redlipsofdeceit]

Oh, man, it's so nice of you to post these gems! Thank you so much!
Fred has a personal A7X museum, and this is so cool! Hahaha
I would love if the livestream with him would happen! The Q&A idea is brilliant. We need to make this happen!
Can't wait to see more!

 

[Rad Synner]

No problem! It is kinda weird. The model they have with a hardtail is actually the Syn Standard, not the custom. Here's a link to it: https://www.schecterguitars.com/guitars/synyster-standard-ht-detail

The Scorpion is pretty cool. I tried to buy it, but it's not for sale (we'll see about that lol). Hopefully we can get him on here!

There's actually also a custom one that's hardtail:

Shopping

www.schecterguitars.com

But I think those models makes sense. Floyd Rose can be a hassle for some more beginners and so having a models that's affordable but is still a signature model is great.

The custom is also great for some who just don't like floyd rose but still want the model. It's also great for some more standard studio use. Syn's signature guitars are fantastic!