“The essence of Zacky’s tone”: KHDK collaborates with Zacky Vengeance for gnarly Night of the Living Shred pedal
KHDK has partnered with Avenged Sevenfold’s Zacky Vengeance for a gnarly new limited-edition signature guitar pedal named the Night of the Living Shred.
Given its name, there’s no prizes for guessing the aesthetic theme that Vengeance opted for with the fuzz/distortion stompbox, which visually envisages an alternate universe wherein “zombies had already won the war”.
Why is this important? Well, the grisly cosmetics are said to be matched by the pedal’s unruly tones, which have somewhat amusingly been compared to the sound of “munching on brains”.
For those wanting more accessible adjectives, the Night of the Living Shred is dubbed a high-gain, tight distortion preamp pedal based on Vengeance’s go-to sounds, with wholly independent gain and fuzz tones.
In practice, those gains and fuzzes can be tailored into the signal chain as desired, with the stompbox offering dedicated Fuzz and Drive control knobs to help. Volume, Treble and Bass control knobs, as well as a sole footswitch, complete the topography.
The Night of the Living Shred was born out of Vengeance’s love for the Misfits’ Static Age pedal – which KHDK built under the Misfits brand – and vows to deliver heavy distortion and a gritty fuzz.
According to KHDK – which also released a signature pedal for Slipknot’s V-Man earlier this year – the pedal in question has been in development for over a year, and pays homage to Vengeance’s “love of metal and punk rock”.
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The artwork, it should be noted, was designed by Mario Lopez, whom KHDK also tapped for its Scott Ian JSL signature pedal.
“Fun,” Vengeance said when explaining what the pedal is about. “This is about recreating the sounds that made me want to play guitar in the first place.”
The Night of the Living Shred is available now for $250.
Visit KHDK for more info.
Vengeance isn’t the only Avenged Sevenfold member to get a new piece of signature gear. Last week, Synyster Gates and Ernie Ball teamed up for two sets of signature electric guitar strings – all while teasing what could be a signature guitar amp.
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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.