Pic by Oscar Rodriguez
This article series is about the tools of popular guitarists. What are their favorite guitars and how is it related to them? This time with Ronny Lee Marks (Upon Stone).
Pic: Steven Grise
When you start guitar playing and do you remember your first guitar?
“I started playing guitar probably around 8 or 9 years old. My parents first made me play piano and I hated it! I asked if I could play guitar instead and they allowed it. I ended up hating it equally as much at first but was forced to keep playing and progressing. It wasn’t until my dad showed me ZZ Top and brought me home a guitar tab book of their greatest hits that I started to enjoy and take guitar more seriously.” “My first guitar was a crappy little nylon acoustic. My dad also had a few nice guitars of his own (couple old Martin Acoustics and a Gibson ES335) that I would mess around on as well. Eventually once I started progressing enough my dad bought me a sunburst Fender Strat.”
What are your influences and which guitar players are your faves?
“Besides the huge amount of amazing metal bands that constantly influence and inspire me, I also get inspiration from art, movies, video games, and books. Anything dark, scary, epic, and atmospheric can inspire a good riff or song idea. And as far as favorite players, this list could go on forever! But a few off the top of my head would be Alexi Laiho, Roope Latvala, Gary Moore, Michael Amott, Jake E. Lee, George Lynch, Andy LaRocque, Kai Hansen, and Michael Weikath.”
How many guitars do you own and what are your favorite models?
“At the moment I own 3 guitars. A USA Jackson SL1 Soloist, Ibanez RG752M in road flare red, and an old early 90s MIJ Charvel Avenger. At the moment I think my favorite and the one I have the most connection with would be my Jackson soloist.”
What do you think makes the perfect guitar and amp?
“Honestly, just give me one of the EVH 5150s and call it a day!”
How do you feel about the question of modeler or tube amp?
“I love both! I think both have their advantages and disadvantages over each other and there’s no wrong answer. As long as it inspires you and makes you sound and rip hard, who cares!? At the moment I am currently rocking a Fractal Audio Fm3 with a Seymour Duncan Powerstage 170 and I’m loving it. It’s a super light compact rig that sounds massive.”
Which guitars and amps were used on the new album or for recordings?
“For guitars I believe we used my Jackson Soloist for its entirety. As for amps, we used two from Taylor Youngs awesome collection which were the Dean Costello Heavy Metal Warfare and a SNK VH300”
When you only can choose one guitar, which one will you take?
“My dream guitar would either be a Rhoads or a Star shape, neck through with 24 ebony frets, a nice bright glossy color (like red or purple), a humbucker in the bridge and a single coil in the neck (both slanted of course!) And it’d be topped off with gold hardware and a gold schaller double locking trem. It would probably say ESP, Jackson, or Caparison on the headstock as well.”
