What's up everyone? And welcome to Ola Testing Sh*t.
Today I'm trying out the rig of Alexi Laiho of Children of Bodom.
This is basically the top of the crop
when it comes to Alexi Laiho signature guitars
under the Ltd name.
And then you have also the ESP obviously,
which is for like...
You can get a guitar for 5,000 euros or something like that.
This is 2,000 euros to get.
It's a high-spec'd Ltd.
You have a Floyd Rose 1000 bridge,
you have the EMG HZ pickups, so passive pickups.
You also have the single coil right there,
which is not very common for an Alexi Laiho guitar.
Most of his guitars didn't even have a neck pickup at all.
You have an alder body, you have a maple neck,
it has a Makassar fretboard
with the highest 5 frets being scalloped,
so that's a cool little nifty thing right there.
Luminlay side-dots.
And look at this incredibly cool-looking graphic right there.
It's just a really good-looking guitar.
I think they absolutely nailed the looks of this guitar right here.
Look at that neck joint too, man.
Holy shit.
Now, something that comes in the E-II and the ESP versions of Alexi Laiho's guitar
is also a ESP preamp booster.
I had to purchase one myself
and put it into this guitar.
So, I had to go to a Finnish website
that exclusively sells these preamp boosters.
My tech installed it into this guitar,
so it's not a stock feature for this Ltd right there.
You have to buy one personally and put it in yourself.
But the more expensive versions, the ESP and the E-II,
they do have this preamp booster.
And the amplifier of choice today is the Marshall JVM.
Something that Alexi was using in his last years
of Children of Bodom, and Bodom After Midnight.
And the coolest part about Alexi Laiho is that
there are a bunch of videos and a bunch of photos out there
of his settings.
Some of Alexi's rigs were auctioned off
and on the pictures there you can see how the settings were marked.
So, he basically used the OD2 channel,
red mode, and these settings right there.
Alexi Laiho is obviously a legend
and for me personally, the more I listen to Children of Bodom, because--
I didn't necessarily listen to them back in the day when I was growing up.
But now that I listen to them, I'm becoming more and more of a fan
and I fully understand the legacy that he left behind.
And it's definitely really inspirational, and the songs are f**** kickass.
I have already made a full cover of Are You Dead Yet?
together with Samus, the drummer.
That you can watch if you click over here, OK?
With this Marshall amplifier, I'm also using
this Marshall amplifier that has Celestion Greenbacks in it.
I'm miking it up with an SM57 for a change.
You know, I'm sick and tired of the Neumann right now,
so I'm just using an SM57.
How about that?
I'm also using a stereo microphone over there.
And this right here is the rig.
Yes.
That is incredibly chunky, man.
Just listen to that lowest C.
So this ESP preamp booster that's installed in here
it has a couple of different EQ DIP switches
and a maximum boost of +18 dB.
I'm using Alexi's choice,
which is available in the settings, when you get this ESP booster
and yeah, man.
As you can see, the gain is at 9 o'clock.
So not that much gain being dialed in.
A lot of that chunkiness comes from this preamp booster.
So, I'm gonna see if I can...
What is it now? Is it green?
Orange.
That's too much gain, but it really gives a...
A nice kinda bottom end right there.
Alright, let's try out the neck pickup right here.
OK, so...
Obviously, single coil.
It sounds like a single coil neck pickup.
Shit, OK.
I'm just trying to feel the scalloped frets right here.
I'm not really feeling it.
It's an Yngwie thing, but I'm not Yngwie.
Yeah, let's crank the gain a little bit.
Holds tuning.
I mean, you can hear that it's boosted right here.
You really have to turn down the gain a lot
and up with the volume to get that clean going.
Still not clean.
OK, we have orange, sorry.
Here.
You still hear that it's breaking up, right?
The neck pickup is OK.
Alright, let's go back.
Oh, hello.
I think OD1 and OD2 are supposed to be the same
so you can mirror the channels and have two exact same channels, if you want.
But I'm gonna check anyways.
There's a little bit more low end on OD1, I think.
The low end is more filtered on OD2,
so you get a little bit more tightness in the low end on OD2.
I think I personally prefer OD1 over OD2.
Just because you have that preamp boost happening for the pickup,
it's just--
It becomes a little bit too much on OD2, check this out.
You really get that...
If you're into that, then yes.
But I think I prefer this one.
It's a little bit more natural, the OD1, I think.
So that is the Alexi Ltd Ripped signature guitar
and the Marshall JVM for you right there.
Basically the core of Alexi's tone.
And with Alexi being such an absolute shredder,
I understand this combination of the preamp boost,
you know, for those really...
You know, you can't really escape when you have a preamp boost like that.
It's like, you can hear everything.
Perfect for leads.
And this channel right here, it's really...
You know, razor blade type of tone.
I really, really like this guitar.
I really like how it plays.
The build quality feels very, very solid.
And it's just...
Yeah man, it reeks of good quality.
But you know, I kinda expect that when you buy something for 2,000 euros.
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Thank you so much for watching, goodbye.