Sick Riffs: Nicklas Thomsen reveals the destructive riffwork behind Ghost Iris's Final Tale

Sick Riffs #93: If you're the proud owner of a 7-string electric guitar, today's Sick Riff is for you. Final Tale - taken from Copenhagen bruisers Ghost Iris's 2019 album Apple of Discord - sees guitarist Nicklas Thomsen open with a notably chunky main riff that immediately sets the stage for the rest of the track.

Now, Thomsen joins Guitar World to show you the ground-pounder in all its glory. You'll need to tune to drop A, with the low string tuned to E for this one. So that's: E-A-E-A-D-F#-B.

Thomsen plays an Ibanez Axion Multi-Scale 7-string electric guitar fitted with Fishman Fluence humbucking pickups through a Kemper amp modeler.

"We had a tour lined up throughout Europe and UK supporting Our Hollow Our Home from April 11 through May 5, and had been preparing for this tour for the better of 6 months," Thomsen says. 

"So to have it taken away from us at such short notice was a devastating blow for the band, both mentally and financially. And of course our entire run of summer shows and all festival shows have been cancelled as well.

"Even though we don’t rely on Ghost Iris for a living, the losses are near-fatal since we invest absolutely everything we have into the band at this point. The entire music industry is suffering right now, and this band is no exception.”

Support Ghost Iris

https://ghostiris.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/GHOSTIRIS/
https://www.instagram.com/ghostirisdk/?hl=en
https://twitter.com/ghostirisdk?lang=en
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0OG1DoaGFeeXGYBGbbCjka
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/ghost-iris/956868700

Sick Riffs is a Guitar World video series designed to help guitarists affected by the coronavirus. Self-isolating players around the world have each filmed a lesson where they teach you one of their own guitar riffs, up close and personal. If you dig the lesson, we encourage you to buy music and merch from the artist or stream their music.