Misfits guitarist Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein has announced that his own guitar gear company, Von Frankenstein Monster Gear, has officially opened for business.
To launch his latest business venture, the shredder has unveiled a comprehensive catalog of electric guitar strings, which comprises both regular gauges and a collection of signature string sets.
As well as having a trio of his own signature sets – which have been developed in collaboration with Sheptone – Von Frankenstein has teamed up with fellow shredders Jeff Loomis, Logan Mader and Gary Holt, who have been bestowed signature sets of their own.
Chief among the collection, though, are Von Frankenstein’s three sets: Abominators, Decapitaters and Monsters. The first is used by Von Frankenstein while playing with his own band, Doyle – whose first album is also called Abominator – and features a light top string and a heavy bottom string, with the set ranging from .010 to .060.
The other two, meanwhile, are used for Misfits exploits, with Decapitaters weighing in with a heavier bottom four strings (.010, .013, .018, .030, .042, .065) in comparison to the Monsters (.010, .013, .017, .028, .038, .052).
Four regular Von Frankenstein sets covering Regular Gauge, Light Gauge, Heavy Gauge and Medium Gauge are also available.
“These strings are far superior to anything I’ve used before,” Von Frankenstein boldly states. “We went through many different alloys and configurations to find the perfect combination of crushing tone, strength, durability, and most of all: feel.”
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The Misfit maestro’s strings were all road-tested while he was on tour in March and April, and are handcrafted one at a time.
Joining Von Frankenstein’s own signature strings are three Jeff Loomis sets – the six-string Nemesis (0.011 - .056) and Sentient-6 (.009 - .046), as well as the seven-string The Seven Strings of God (0.009 - 0.062) – and two Gary Holt sets, the Toxic Rocks and Collateral Damage.
Both are, in essence, the same set, though the Collateral Damage swaps out Toxic Rocks’ .053 bottom string for a heavier .060 alternative.
A final set belonging to Logan Mader, the Low-G 7 String, covers the .010 - .064 range.
All the strings are currently available for a reduced price of $13.49 To browse the whole collection head over to Von Frankenstein Monster Gear.
Von Frankenstein is nothing if not entrepreneurial. His venture into the world of guitar strings is arguably the business venture we might expect of him, though the guitarist does have his own line in Vegan Monster Protein powder – just the thing to help build enough muscle while manipulating the heavy low strings on a set of Decapitaters.
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Matt is a Senior Staff Writer, writing for Guitar World, Guitarist and Total Guitar. He has a Masters in the guitar, a degree in history, and has spent the last 16 years playing everything from blues and jazz to indie and pop. When he’s not combining his passion for writing and music during his day job, Matt records for a number of UK-based bands and songwriters as a session musician.
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