Michael Angelo Batio

Michael Angelo Batio (IPA: [bæ: ti o]) is an American heavy metal guitarist from Chicago, Illinois. He attended Northeastern Illinois University and received a bachelor's degree in music theory and composition. Guitar One Magazine rated him the fastest guitar shredder in the world. [1].

Career

Batio began his recording career in the band Holland with vocalist Tommy Holland. Their Atlantic Records album, Little Monsters, met with moderate success in the mid-1980s. He later later joined Jim Gillette on Gillette's solo album, Proud to be loud. The two metal stars, as well as bassist T.J. Racer and drummer Bobby Rock went on to found the metal band Nitro, releasing two albums. Nitro also filmed a music video for their song Freight Train which received air time on MTV.

Batio has been playing guitar since the age of ten, and could shred faster than his teacher within two years. He has stated at guitar clinics that he is not ambidextrous, but he has taught himself to play two guitars at the same time — either in synchronized or separate harmonies. He also invented and successfully played the very first 'quad' guitar. However, the instrument was stolen during a Nitro show in El Paso, Texas, and only two of the four parts required for its assembly have ever been recovered. It is because of this that he has not played the quad guitar in many years. The Double Guitar [2] is another of his innovations, which he commonly uses live and in studio recordings, as is the string dampener, a guitar accessory attachable to the nut of the guitar and flipped into active position during performance. The string dampener eliminates unnecessary buzz and noise from the guitar's strings, allowing the player to easily use legato techniques and finger-tapping techniques without any unwanted sounds. He is also notable for his "piano"-technique, during which he flips his hand orientation around the neck, and approaches the strings from above, instead of from under like other guitar players.

Batio has recently revealed that the name for his latest album, Hands Without Shadows was inspired by Chinese fans who said that he shifts his hands around the guitar neck so fast that he does it without shadows.

Batio's skills can be seen in the film "Shock 'Em Dead"(1991) as the stunt-hands for the character Angel Martin who makes a deal with the devil in order to become a guitar god.

He has also had a long-term relationship with Dean Guitars, promoting their equipment and leading Dean-sponsored guitar clinics around the world to teach his techniques. Batio has released two popular instructional DVDs, entitled Speed Lives and Speed Kills, to teach fellow guitarists how to play his pieces of music. Furthermore, he is releasing a DVD featuring his Double Guitar Solo, which can now be seen on the Dean Guitars website[3]. It features tribute covers of Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water, Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze and Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train, with Batio's full backing band.

Michael taught guitarist Tom Morello (of Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave fame) while Michael was attending college. Tom has credited MAB with teaching him in a feature article in Guitar World Magazine in 2005.

Equipment

Michael Angelo Batio is credited with his signature electric guitar sound which resembles that of an 80's video game synth sound, as presented by him in songs such as 'Freight Train' and 'No Boundaries'.

The 'secret' to this sound as revealed by himself in his official forum is his use of a lot of mid boost in his amplifiers and also the overdriving of the poweramplifier tubes through the use of an overdrive pedal.

In his debut, Michael was accredited for using Gibson and Dean guitars into Boss overdrive (SD-1, OD-2) pedals into Marshall amplifiers. He was then endorsed by Randall amplifiers (during the Nitro years) until the original owner sold the company. There was a time just after Randall was sold when he appeared with Randall amplifiers (live and in videos, circa 1990's and during the recording of Speed Kills) but in actuality used Marshalls. Also when Dean was sold in 1986, he began to use Gibson and Ritz guitars exclusively, until he was endorsed by Washburn. The most recognisable smooth, fiercely ovedriven and punchy synth-esque sound is actually a combination of the Boss OD-2 pedal (with the Drive at full) into a Marshall JCM 800 lead series (Michael also uses modded Marshall JCM 800's) set at medium gain and slightly high volume.

In around 2000, Michael acquired an original vintage design Ibanez TS-9 which he now uses exclusively in his albeit 'new' sound (which is heard to contain more treble and sharpness/glassiness than the original MAB synth tone.

Michael also uses Custom designed Dimarzio electric guitar pickups, which are not available commercially, but sound like that of variations of the Super 2 and the PAF (in the neck position) and Super Distortion (in the bridge position). Other pickups that he uses are EMG's (in his two Rocket guitars) and Seymour Duncans.

Michael also uses Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifiers for his rhythm playing, which adds a different dimension to his guitar sound in contrast to his usual Marshall driven synth sound.

Discography

External links

• Michael Angelo Batio's Website
• Dean Guitars homepage
• Top 10 greatest shredders of all time by Mike
• Guitar Lesson - Introduction to Shred Guitar
• Videos

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