Michael Angelo Batio

Michael Angelo Batio (IPA: [bæ: ti o]) is an American instrumental rock/heavy metal guitarist and columnist from Chicago, Illinois. He attended Northeastern Illinois University and received a bachelor's degree in music theory and composition. Guitar One Magazine named him the fastest guitar shredder of all time.[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 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 among others which received air time on MTV.

Batio has been playing guitar since the age of ten, and could play faster than his teacher within two years. He plays as a right-handed person even though he is left-handed. He has stated at guitar clinics that he is ambidextrous teaching 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. However, Dean Guitars recently finished production on a new quad guitar for Batio. [2] The Double Guitar [3] is another of his innovations, which he commonly uses live, but never in studio recordings. Another innovation of his is a type of string dampener (specifically "The MAB String Dampener"), a guitar accessory attachable behind 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 noted for his "MAB Over-Under technique", which he invented, where he flips his hand over and under the neck, approaching the strings from above, then below, instead of from under the neck like other guitar players.

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. The other one was intended 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[4]. 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.

Batio mentions on his official website ,"I am left handed so my right or "picking" hand was overall, the weakest part of my playing. I worked for 2 years in my early teens to master alternate picking while later working on tapping. Basically, anything and everything I could to strengthen my right hand. I started out being a purely legato player. You would never know that now. I concentrated on my 2 weakest areas- Alternate picking and tapping and perfected those. I am a firm believer in working on something you are deficient in. Once you master a technique that gives you "trouble", other areas of your playing improve dramatically."

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

Batio currently writes "Time To Burn," a monthly column for Guitar World Magazine.

Batio has a Dean signature 6 string model tentatively due for release in June 2007 and has released a signature overdrive pedal from T-Rex of Denmark seen here.

Equipment

Michael Angelo Batio is credited with his signature electric guitar sound which is presented 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 power amplifier tubes through the use of an overdrive pedal.

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

In around the mid 1990s to early 2000, Batio acquired an original vintage design Ibanez TS-9 which he now uses exclusively, until the creation of his new signature mode overdrive pedal by T-Rex Engineering's. Batio also prefers to use new lines of Marshall valve amplifiers, such as his use of the Marshall JCM 900 head and JMP-1 preamp during the recording of No Boundaries (mid 1990, when the JCM 900 debuted) and for the recording of Hands Without Shadows he used a Marshall JCM 2000 DSL head and cab.

Batio currently uses Custom wound [for Dean guitars] Dimarzio electric guitar pickups (which come stock with most of the Dean guitars he owns), which according to the Dean factory specifications, are Custom wound Super Distortion pickups, both neck and bridge models. The Dimarzios are in his Dean Time Capsule models while in his Dean Collector's Edition Hardtail, he uses the Seymour Duncan TB-4 JB model and SH-PG1 Pearly Gates™ model, both which come stock with the guitar. He has also used a combination of the Dimarzio PAF Pro in the neck position (for most of his early career, while in his time in Holland he used the Dimarzio PAF pickup) and the Dimarzio Super3 and in the bridge position during the No Boundaries era (he used to use the same Dimarzio combination but with the Super Distortion in the bridge position prior to No Boundaries). Other pickups that he uses are EMG 85 and 81 (in his two Rocket guitars and his new Dean signature). He also has the Seymour Duncans in some of his Double guitars, which he used at times during recordings for a different sound.

Batio 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.

In 2007, Batio, in conjunction with T-Rex Engineering launched a specialized overdrive pedal designed especially for him. The pedal is simply called Michael Angelo Batio Overdrive^[1]. It has been stated to have possibly more overdrive gain to satisfy Batio's taste for heavily overdriven guitar sounds.

Discography

Year	Title	Notes
1995	No Boundaries
1996	Holiday Strings
1997	Planet Gemini
1998	Tradition
2000	Lucid Intervals and Moments of Clarity
2004	Lucid Intervals and Moments of Clarity, Pt. 2	Compilation of Batio’s 3rd and 4th CD, remastered.
2005	Hands Without Shadows
2007	2xAgain	Compilation of songs from his No Boundaries and Planet Gemini albums, remixed, and with real drums.

Dvd

Year	Title	Notes
	Speed Kills instructional DVD
	Speed Kills 2 instructional DVD
	Speed Kills 3 instructional DVD
	Speed Lives instructional DVD
	Performance DVD

References

^ The pedal's official page is at T-Rex Engineering's website

External links

[1] The pedal's official page is at T-Rex Engineering's website

[1]