Michael Wilton

Michael Wilton
Background information
Also known as	Whip
Born	(1962-02-23) February 23, 1962 San Francisco, California, United States
Genres	Progressive metal
Instrument(s)	Guitar
Years active	1982–present
Website	http://www.michaelwilton.com

Michael Wilton (born February 23, 1962, San Francisco, California), also known as The Whip for how fast his fingers "whip" around the guitar fretboard, is an American guitarist for the progressive metal band Queensrÿche, which he co-founded in 1982.

Childhood

Wilton moved from San Francisco, California to Seattle, Washington at age 6. His father took him to concerts from an early age and introduced him to many musical styles, but especially jazz. At age 8, he started practicing on the bass guitar, learning songs by bands from his father's collections, such as The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. At age 13, he also got a nylon string acoustic from his aunt and accidentally blew his father's speaker. He convinced his father to give him the Fender Bassman and speaker cabinet Wilton inherited from an uncle who died in a motorcycle accident.

In high school, Wilton changed his mind and chose to play guitar rather than bass, when he bought his first guitar, a Les Paul copy and a fuzzbox. At school, he also joined some garage bands with his school-mates, including Chris DeGarmo, Queensrÿche's former guitarist. He began to explore the guitar world further by listening to hard rock and heavy metal music such as Judas Priest, UFO, Iron Maiden, and Van Halen, and he began practicing seriously, for 2 hours per day.

Career

Michael Wilton performing live.

After high school, Wilton attended the Cornish Institute of Allied Arts in Seattle, where he studied jazz and classical music. This was a big step in his life as he began to appreciate more ethnic and improvisational music, which later gave him influences as a progressive rock musician. At college, he also met Eddie Jackson and Scott Rockenfield, who are still active members of Queensrÿche. Wilton, DeGarmo, Jackson and Rockenfield began to play at some parties and called themselves The Mob. In the late summer of 1982, Geoff Tate was involved as vocalist to record a four-song demo. The band changed its name to Queensrÿche, and the demo was released in 1983, as the eponymous album Queensrÿche.

Wilton remains a guitarist in Queensrÿche to date. DeGarmo left Queensrÿche in 1998, following which Wilton gradually began performing most of the songs that previously featured DeGarmo doing the main solo live, including "Silent Lucidity", "The Mission", "En Force", "I Am I", "Take Hold of the Flame", "Best I Can", "The Killing Words", "Bridge", "The Lady Wore Black" and "Anybody Listening?", amongst others. Queensrÿche had first taken in Kelly Gray as guitarist, who was replaced in 2002 by Mike Stone, and in February 2009 by Parker Lundgren, initially as a touring guitarist but mainly as a rhythm guitarist only joining in for dual guitar solos in songs like "Neue Regel" and "London". After the band's tour for its 10th album, American Soldier, which started on April 16, 2009, Wilton took over all of the solos.

In 2002 he started a side band with former Alice in Chains guitarist and My Sister's Machine vocalist Nick Pollock called Soulbender, which has thus far released one album in 2004 and played various shows around the northwest. The band is currently on hiatus.

Equipment

Wilton has used many different guitars throughout his 30+ year career, mostly Gibson guitars and Fender guitars. He then began endorsing ESP guitars in 1989. He also has had two signature series from ESP, which are the 2004 ESP Signature Eclipse, which comes in three different colors, and the 2004 ESP Signature Skull. In 2010, ESP Released a new Michael Wilton signature, the LTD MW-Demon. Everything about the guitar is much like his previous MW-600, except it has a heavily distressed black finish with a custom demon graphic in the center of the guitar.

As for the amplifiers, he has acquired Marshall, Fender, Roland, and Orange amplifiers. The first 2 Queensryche records feature a Marshall JCM800 with a Celestion Vintage 30 - loaded speaker cabinet. His rig changed extensively in the late '90s, when he began using rack setups featuring Carvin, Yamaha, Roland, and Soldano equipment. It was changed up again in the early '90s, when he switched to Marshall and Bogner preamps. In the mid 90's his rig once again was changed up, featuring vintage amps like Marshall JMP's and JCM800's. In the late 90's, he began using Mesa/Boogie amplifiers, using the Dual Rectifier head, which was featured in the 2003 Queensryche record Tribe. In 2006 he signed a deal with Hughes and Kettner endorsing the Switchblade and MKII amplifiers. As of 2009, he has switch from a Hughes and Kettner endorsement to a Krank Amplification endorsement. He uses the Rev+ and Nineteen80 heads with Rev+ Cabs, Nineteen80 Cabs, and Rev Jr cabs.

Wilton, mostly on stage, uses a VOX V847 Wah pedal. Wilton is endorsed by Planet Waves, as well as Digitech.

Personal life

Wilton is an avid sports fan and guitar collector.

Discography

Queensrÿche

Main article: Queensrÿche discography

Soulbender

• Soulbender (2004)

Pamela Moore

• Stories from a Blue Room (2006)

Wratchet Head

• Coming For You (2010)

External links

• Official home page