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 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 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 shred 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 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.

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.

Michael 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 simultaneously 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."

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.

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

Michael 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: http://t-rex-engineering.com/default.asp?show=page&id=2695

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 poweramplifier tubes through the use of an overdrive pedal.

In his debut, Michael was accredited for using Gibson, Ritz Guitars, Dean guitars into Boss overdrive (DS-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 guitars built by Wayne Charvel exclusively. 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 the mid 1990's to early 2000, Michael acquired an original vintage design Ibanez TS-9 which he now uses exclusively albeit in his 'new' sound (which is heard to contain more treble and sharpness/glassiness than the original 1980's MAB synth tone). Michael also prefers to use the new line of Marshall valve amplifiers recently, especially for the recording of Hands Without Shadows, in which he most likely used a Marshall JCM 2000 DSL head and cab.

Michael also uses Custom designed (or just undisclosed but stock) Dimarzio electric guitar pickups, which sound like that of the PAF Pro and the PAF in the neck position and Super Distortion (and possibly Norton, in the No Boundaries era)in the bridge position. Other pickups that he uses are EMG's (in his two Rocket guitars) and Seymour Duncans (in a few of his prototype Double guitars).

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.

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

Discography

Year	Title	Notes
1995	No Boundaries
1996	Holiday Strings
1999	Planet Gemini
2000	Lucid Intervals and Moments of Clarity
2000	Tradition
2004	Lucid Intervals and Moments of Clarity, Pt. 2	Compilation of Michael’s 3rd and 4th CD, remastered.
2005	Hands Without Shadows

Dvd

Title	Notes
	Speed Kills instructional DVD

| |Speed Kills 2 instructional DVD | |- |}

External links

• Michael Angelo Batio's Website
• Dean Guitars homepage
• Top 10 greatest shredders