Most guitarists have that one piece of gear they can’t live without. For Brian May, his Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster makes all the difference to his tone, while Joe Bonamassa has recently developed an addiction to Crazy Tube Circuits White Whale reverb pedal.
Zakk Wylde, meanwhile, reckons his pedalboard wouldn’t be as much fun without his signature MXR ZW44 Berzerker Overdrive. First developed in 2011 and subjected to several reissues since, the pedal prides itself on being “loud, tough, and relentless.” It packs the usual overdrive pedal controls of output, tone and gain, and Wylde typically employs it in front of a high-gain Marshall JCM800 to boost his sustain when soloing.
Wylde has to switch up his gear for each of the acts he performs with. That includes Ozzy Osbourne, Black Label Society and Pantera. But regardless of the band, his silver OD is part of every lineup. And as EMGtv recently learned when they asked the veteran guitarist to name the one stompbox he couldn’t live without, no other pedal comes even close.
“As guitar players, we all love pedals, just because they're fun,” Zakk says. “Different sounds inspire you to write, to come up with ideas. When you hear a certain sound, whether you're playing an acoustic guitar, a piano, a clean guitar, or a distorted guitar, it inspires you to write a certain way. That's why pedals are great.
“I think, for me, it would have to be a distortion pedal: My Berzerker pedal. The rest of them — I love them, but if I didn't have the distortion, it wouldn't be as fun a night, that's for sure.”
As evidence, he points to how he and co-guitarist Dario Lorina are set up in Black Label Society.
“The way our heads are set,” he says, “it's dirty, but you could play AC/DC's 'Highway to Hell' or 'Back in Black' and there'll be no feedback.”
“Turn it down a little bit, and there's a bit of hair on there, but it's still clean. But you know what the Berzerker overdrive does? It just gives you more of what you have."
And by "more," Zakk means sustain. He notes that without the Berzerker, his sound cuts out too early. “As far as just waiting for sustain," he says, "you're not going to get it. You need that pedal to give you the oomph. So, for me, it would have to be the distortion pedal, the Berzerker overdrive.”
In the same interview, Wylde described writing "Miracle Man" — the first song he co- wrote with Osbourne — as a “monumental” moment in his career.
Speaking to Guitar Player, he says the riff's genesis pulls from Jimi Hendrix and his Ozzy predecessors, Randy Rhoads and Jake E. Lee.
“I’m aware of some of the great rhythm guitar parts that have been laid down in the past, like Jake E. Lee’s work on 'Bark at the Moon' and Randy Rhoads’ on 'Crazy Train,' ” he says. “It’s like a cocktail or a new dish. You use the ingredients that you have on hand to mix up something new that’s your own.”
He’s also hit back at the critics of his unusual picking style, citing two big-name players in his defense, and dished the dirt on Ozzy’s ultra-specific gear demands – with a legendary pedal strictly off the table.
The guitarist is due to jet off to Europe with Pantera later this month, and his trusty overdrive will be making the journey with him.
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