Nail the ToneAvenged Sevenfold

Bat Country

Avenged Sevenfold · City of Evil · 2005

The Bat Country leads are a hot-wound bridge humbucker in a Schecter C-1 FR into Bogner Uberschall gain, with a Mesa Dual Rectifier blended in on the album's guitar sound. A Boss CS-3 does the heavy lifting on sustain and note-to-note evenness — engineer Fred Archambault has pointed to that pedal as a big part of Syn's lead tone. Keep the bass pulled back and the mids up: the sound is sharp and cutting rather than fat, which is why the harmonized lines stay readable over the rhythm tracks.

Where these numbers come from: worked out from the documented rig and the sound of the record

Tuning

Drop D

Both solos are in Drop D like the rest of the song, but they live above the 10th fret on the top strings — Syn takes the lead and Zacky doubles the harmony a third above, so the low D is only really there for the riffs.

Part: Solo

Guitar

  • Schecter C-1 FR · Seymour Duncan Invader · bridge pickup
  • Gibson ES-335 Dot · Gibson humbuckers · neck pickup

Amp

Bogner Uberschall

GAIN
7.0
BASS
4.0
MID
6.5
TREBLE
6.5
PRESENCE
6.0

Engineer/producer Fred Archambault has said the Uberschall he owned was used on the early A7X records and is blended into every album; he also described City of Evil as mostly Uberschall plus a custom Bogner and a Mesa Dual Rectifier, so accounts differ on how much of any single lead is one amp. Cabs were miked with an SM57 aimed dead center on the speaker, which is where a lot of that cutting upper-mid bite comes from.

Amp

Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier

GAIN
7.0
BASS
3.5
MID
5.0
TREBLE
7.0
PRESENCE
6.0

Named by Archambault as part of the City of Evil amp blend; use it layered under or alongside the Bogner rather than alone, and keep the bass low so the two amps don't stack up boomy.

Pedals

  • Boss CS-3 Compression Sustainer · compressor · Level 5, Tone 6, Attack 3, Sustain 5 — light squash for sustain, not a pumping effect
  • Visual Sound H2O Chorus/Echo · delay/chorus · Short slapback, low mix — documented in Gates' live rig, not confirmed on the session; a touch of echo helps the studio lead sit in the same space

Tone character

saturated EL34 high gain · forward upper mids · tight, controlled low end · compressed singing sustain · cutting bridge-pickup bite

hard

Fast alternate-picked sixteenth-note runs at 178 BPM plus position shifts high on the neck, wide bends that have to land in tune, and a harmony line that only works if your timing matches the other guitar exactly.

Want this on your own amp?

These are the record's settings. Tell us what you play through and we'll translate every knob to the amp you actually own — free.

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Sources