Gus G

Gus G

Kostas Karamitroudis (Greek: Κώστας Καραμητρούδης) aka Gus G., born September 12, 1980 in Thessaloniki, Greece is a heavy metal musician. He currently plays with Ozzy Osbourne and his own band Firewind. He has also played in Mystic Prophecy, Nightrage, Armageddon (band), Arch Enemy and Dream Evil.

At the age of 18 he left Greece to enroll in the Berklee College of Music, but left after only a few weeks and began working on making a name on the Metal scene. During his brief time at Berklee Gus came into contact with Joe Stump, who he credits as a great influence on his career [1]. On July 2005, he temporarily replaced Christopher Amott as guitarist of melodic death metal band Arch Enemy on their Ozzfest dates, and also contributed to their album Doomsday Machine by playing lead guitar on the song "Taking Back my Soul".

He has made guest appearances for various artists, such as providing solos on the songs "Felonies of the Christian Art" and "Life Deprived" by Old Man's Child, from the album In Defiance of Existence, and a few solos on the album Gallows Gallery by the Japanese avant-garde black metal band Sigh).

Most recently Gus gave two guest solos for the new Nightrage album Wearing A Martyr's Crown marking a return to his former band. The solos appear on the instrumental Sting Of Remorse.

The stage name "Gus G." has two sources of origin - "Gus" is a common Greek American English translation of the name "Kostas," and "G" was a nickname given to him by a friend during his time living in the U.S.

Gus G was chosen as the third of the three best guitar players all over the world in 2003 by the Japanese magazine BURRN!.

In 2010 Gus G appeared alongside Firewind in Issue 3 of the Eternal Descent Comic Book series.

Gus G appears on the cover of Total Guitar issue 203 with Ozzy Osbourne. During the Total Guitar interview, Gus talks about his playing on the new album, what it was like replacing Zakk Wylde and working with Ozzy. He also talks about Ozzy guitar legends Randy Rhoads and Jake E. Lee.

Gear

Gus teamed up with ESP Guitars to make two custom model guitars to his specifications, the "Gus. G FR" and the "Gus G. NT". The 'NT' was used in the videos for "Falling to Pieces", "Breaking The Silence" and "Tyranny". The 'FR' is featured along with the NT model in the video for "Falling To Pieces" and was discontinued in 2009 for North America, being replaced by the 'NT'. In a 2009 video of Gus playing backstage at Muskimesse Frankfurt with his new T2 amplifier, he is seen with a white ESP Gus model with a black Firewind logo on the front. Before using ESP, he was endorsed by Washburn, playing a Culprit with a chrome pickguard, and before using a Fender Floyd Stratocaster. Recently Gus has released 2 new signature series guitars in Japan the ESP GUS G. NT-II what is a white version of his normal signature guitars with the Firewind symbol on the neck at 1-15 frets, and also in black on the body. And ESP GUS G. FM-NT who is the same as the GUS G. NT ESP the only change made is to the frets who are now the same as at the ESP GUS G. NT-II. In march 2010 ESP announced a new Gus G guitar the EC Revolver, it has a custom graphic finish 22 frets and it is a scale 25.5"

Gus G. NT Body Alder Neck Hard Maple 3P Fingerboard Rosewood, 22 frets Scale 25.5 inch (648mm) Nut Carbon (42mm) Joint Set-Thru Tuner Sperzel Trim Lock Tuner Bridge Tune-matic / Stop Tailpiece Pickups Bridge: Seymour Duncan Distorion Neck: Seymour Duncan '59 Controls Master Volume, PU Selector, Coil Split SW Colour See-Thru Red Price ¥378,000 ($3,214.07, £1,682.35)

Gus G. FR Body Top: Figured Maple, Back: Alder Neck Hard Maple 3P Fingerboard Rosewood , 22 frets Scale 25.5 inch (648mm) Nut Lock Nut (42mm/R2) Joint Set-Thru Tuner Sperzel Trim Lock Tuner Bridge Floyd Rose Pickups Bridge: Seymour Duncan Distortion Neck: Seymour Duncan '59 Controls Master Volume, PU Selector, Coil Split SW Colour See-Thru Red Price ¥417,900, ($3,552.45, £1,858.89)

While playing with Ozzy Osbourne during the Blizzcon 2009 closing ceremony, he could be seen playing 2 ESP Eclipse II guitars, one in Amber Cherry Sunburst tuned to Standard D, and another one in Vintage Black, tuned to Dropped C.

In terms of picks and strings, he used GHS strings early in Firewind, gauge 10-52, then switched to DR, using 9-50. Currently he uses Elixir 10-52. He uses Dunlop 1.5mm delrin picks. Gus has used Marshall Amplifiers in the past as well as Krank, however more recently, he uses Randall T2 and V2 Amplifiers. Gus has a signature Randall amp designed by him and based on the T2 head named Heaven and Hell. It features 2 channels, each using independent gain and tone controls. The head has a 400 watt output.

In January 2010 he was featured on the Blackstar Amplification website to be using the Series One 200 head and matching cab. “This is the new amp that will take over the Metal world! Amazing tone, incredible gain and top notch quality! The Blackstar Series One 200 is my new addiction!”.

External links

• Gus G.'s official website
• Firewind's official website
• Gus G.'s signature ESP models