Dave Mustaine

Dave Mustaine is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, actor and author. He is known as a co-founder of the American heavy metal band Megadeth, its guitarist, lead singer, and primary songwriter as well as the original lead guitarist of the American band Metallica. He is one of the main protagonists for Kids and Gods of Heavy Metal.

Bio
Birth Name: David Scott Mustaine Date of Birth September 13, 1961

Age: 56

Genres: Thrash Metal, Heavy Metal, Speed Metal, Hard Rock

Instruments: Guitar, Vocals

Relatives: Emily (née David) Mustaine (mother), John Mustaine (father), Pamela Anne Casselberry (wife), Electra Nicole Mustaine (daughter)

Equipment
Dave used B.C. Rich guitars early in his career (and for his entire duration with Metallica), most notably a B.C. Rich Bich 10 string with just the regular six strings. First the guitar started in a natural finish, but Dave painted it black around the time 'Peace Sells' was released. In 1987, he switched to Jackson Guitars.

In March 2009, while he was guest hosting Bruce Dickinson's Friday night radio show, Dave attributed his choice of the Flying V guitar to being a fan of UFO's Michael Schenker when he was growing up.

After switching to Jackson Guitars he helped to re-design the guitar maker's version of the King V model (at the time, it was a "double Rhoads size" meaning it had two of the longer fins from the RR). The reshaped Dave KV1 model had slightly shorter fins, Kahler bridge and Seymour Duncan TB-5 bridge and SH-4 neck pickups. He also specified 24 frets rather than the original King V's 22, a tradition that Jackson still keeps on its King V models today, and the KV1, as have all of Dave's signature models, also featured a smaller, medium fretwire compared to the extra jumbos featured on most Jacksons.

Today he uses his signature models by Dean Guitars, the Dean VMNT and Zero. The USA models were available briefly in limited run after release, although the Korean and Chinese models are in continuous production. Dave uses the USA and Korean models on stage.

He has also recently collaborated with Marshall Amplification in order to produce the 1960DM Dave Mustaine Signature Cabinets. He is now using his signature Marshall cabinets on tour.

Dave endorses Seymour Duncan and has his own Signature Live Wire pickups and uses Cleartone strings (.011 - .054 for D tuning, .010 - .052 for E tuning). The Seymour Duncan Dave Mustaine Signature Live Wire pickups were announced at NAMM 2015 and the official product video was performed by Danny Young on the Seymour Duncan YouTube channel.

Dave has also used Ovation acoustic guitars for most of his career. However, he stopped endorsing the company after receiving a signature acoustic from Dean, dubbed the Mako.

He also has his own signature Zoom pedal, called the Zoom G2.1DM.

Trivia
and kicked it in anger, to which Mustaine responded by physically attacking Hetfield and McGovney and verbally abusing Ulrich. Mustaine was fired following the altercation, but the next day, Mustaine asked to be allowed back in the band and was granted his request. Another incident occurred when Mustaine, who had been drinking, poured a full can of beer down the neck and into the pick-ups of McGovney's bass. McGovney then told Mustaine and Hetfield to leave his house and left the band shortly after. Performance wise, 'The Conjuring' is one of the heaviest songs on the record, but unfortunately it's got black magic in it and I promised that I wouldn't play it any more, because there's a lot of instructions for hexes in that song. When I got into black magic I put a couple of spells on people when I was a teenager and it haunted me forever, and I've had so much torment. So I look back now and I think, 'Hmm, I don't wanna play "The Conjuring".'
 * Panic was his first band. The lineup was Mike Leftwych on drums, Bob Evans on bass, Tom Quecke on rhythm guitar, Pat Voeks as the vocalist, with Dave as the lead guitarist. Both Mike Leftwych and the sound man were killed in a car crash after Panic's second show. Dave says after the band started to fall apart in 1981, Quecke also died.
 * In 1981, Dave left Panic to join Metallica as the lead guitarist. Metallica's drummer Lars Ulrich had posted an ad in a local newspaper, The Recycler, looking for a lead guitarist. In his own words, Mustaine remembers his first meeting with James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich: "I was in the room warming up and I walked out and asked, 'Well, am I gonna audition or what?', and they said, 'No, you've got the job.' I couldn't believe how easy it had been and suggested that we get some beer to celebrate."
 * On one occasion, Mustaine brought his dog to rehearsal; the dog jumped onto the car of Metallica bassist Ron McGovney and scratched the paint. Hetfield allegedly yelled at Mustaine's dog
 * On April 11, 1983, after Metallica had driven to New York to record their debut album, Mustaine was officially fired from the band because of his alcoholism, drug abuse, overly aggressive behavior, and personality clashes with founding members Hetfield and Ulrich, an incident Mustaine refers to as "no warning, no second chance".
 * He is the original illustrator of Megadeth's mascot, Vic Rattlehead
 * He's checked into rehab 17 times.
 * He holds black belts in taekwondo and karate.
 * He was a guest MTV news reporter during the 2010 presidential election.
 * He co-wrote the Metallica song, Leaper Messiah but was never credited with the writing credits.
 * His favorite book is "The Art Of War" by Sun Tzu
 * Mustaine had practiced black magic in his teenage years, which became inspiration for a couple of songs on the second album Peace Sells... but Who's Buying?. Mustaine stated that he no longer wishes to play those tracks because of his changed spiritual beliefs. He said of one such song, "The Conjuring":