It appears the U.S. armed forces stationed in Afghanistan are equipping their armored vehicles with some motherf**king loud speaker systems with one goal in mind: To blast the ears off the Taliban with heavy metal and thundering guitar riffs!

To quote the news source;
When terrorist asshats open fire in Marjah, an armoured vehicle wired up to powerful speakers blasts out country, heavy metal and rock music so loudly it can be heard up to two kilometres (one mile) away.

The choice of artists and songs has been hand-picked to piss off the Taliban, according to one US special forces officer. “Taliban f**king hates that music,” said the colonel involved in these psychological terror operations, in the Helmand province area.

“Some local farts complain but it’s a way to push them to choose. It’s keeping up the morale among our guys as well,” he added after one deafening round of several hours of Blodfis and Slayer. The officer said they also broadcast messages from the Afghan government, as well as threats to the Taliban — there are no obscenities, “but we tell them they’re gonna die”, he smiled.

We’ve heard of several metal and rock bands being used as weapons here, but some of them include Metallica, Cannibal Corpse, W.A.S.P., Slayer, Blodfis, Sepultura, and more. I personally believe that if they wanted to torture those Taliban bastards, they should use some awful boy band songs or Barney the Dinosaur’s theme. Now THAT would be inhumane warfare, lol…

Is this pretty awesome? Or something that should be stopped? Tell us what YOU think in the comments below!

Just check out the pictures below. This first one is referred to as the “Jackson Extreme #6″ and has been designed by Jackson’s in-house designer and builder, Mr. Pablo Santana (no correlation to that other guitar Santana dude btw)

Anyway. He named it the “Extreme #6# and the name suits this beast well. You want spikes and devilish edges? You got it! You want shark-fin inlays and a neck-through solid construction? You got it!


Little is still known about this guitar, but we can assume that if enough people show interest – they will find it worthwhile to put into production. So far this is just a Jackson custom shop job.

(One thing though – why did they settle for such generic looking tuner keys on a custom guitar?)

Now another interesting guitar is the one designed by Rob Cavestany of Death Angel. The one pictured below has cool blood drip inlays! Wouldn’t you like to add one to your collection?

Having a bolt-on neck, this is one of their more affordable Floyd Rose Virgos. But don’t let the Mahogany body or bolt-on maple design fool you into thinking this axe ain’t evil….because it IS evil!

Like some other skull-crunching B.C. guitars, this axe will deliver great sound with its BC Rich BDSM humbuckers, and it plays smoothly on the ebony (jumbo fret) fretboard.

Beware of the Virgo!

Key features of the new Kerry King signature model are:
Solid maple neck-through construction.
Maple body with flame maple veneer
Classic BC Rich Warlock body shape
Unique, tribal design pattern
Grover® Mini Rotomatic tuners
Fretboard: Ebony fretboard with tribal inlays
24 Jumbo frets
Scale: 25.5″
Kahler® Hybrid® 7 bridge

Pickups: EMG® 81 bridge, EMG® 85 neck, with EMG® PA2 Preamp
Controls: 1 volume, 1 tone, 1 three way toggle, 1 mini toggle to activate the PA2 preamp.

Kerry King is one of the “old-school” Thrash Metal veterans, and an awesome guitarist. He is know for his crushing riffs and heart-ripping tones. He also swears by BC Rich guitars and plays nothing but the most wicked looking axes of them all.

The Kerry King Signature 7 Warlock is another one in the series with King-approved design and specifications that he craves.

Are you gonna own one?

You can’t go wrong with this thing on stage. The top of the mahogany body shape is somewhat similar to the BC Rich Warlock, but with a curvier feel to it. The bottom reminds me of the Silvertone Apocalypse’s pointy and symmetrical horns.

The long and sleek neck goes all the way through the body for optimal tone, and features tribal style inlays all down the fretboard. It’s a mean, thunder-packed, goth-chick magnet from hell.

I hope to have a review of the AX-404 here soon. Until then, drool over the specs, or check out what some players are saying over at Musician’s Friend.

Technical specifications for the ESP LTD AX-404

* Neck-Thru-Body
* 34” Scale
* Mahogany Body
* Maple Neck
* Rosewood Fingerboard
* 40mm Standard Nut
* Extra Thin U Neck Contour
* 24 XJ Frets
* Black Nickel Hardware
* Grover Tuners
* ESP BB-604 Bridge
* EMG 35DC (B&N) Active p.u.
w/ EMG B64 3-Band Active EQ
* Finish: Black

Click here to order it at the lowest price I have found, at MusiciansFriend.

This new model has the following features:

• Construction: neck through
• Body wood: nato (eastern mahogany)
• Body thickness: 45mm
• Top style: side beveled
• Body binding: no
• Headstock style: Widow
• Headstock color: onyx
• Headstock binding: no
• Tuners: Grover Rotomatics
• Neck wood: maple
• Back of neck: onyx
• Neck binding: no
• Fretboard: ebony
• Inlay: none
• Frets: 24 jumbo 2.9mm
• Factory strings: 45 – 130
• Scale: 35”
• Bridge / Tailpiece type: adjustable stop
• Pickups: 2 active EQ black P style
• Controls: 2 volumes and 2 tones (center detent)
• Hardware: black chrome
• Finish: painted glossy
• Color: onyx with red pinstripes on the body edges

This Widow bass looks about as close as it gets to the one used by Blackie Lawless in this classic video:

[youtube width="425" height="335"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZb3Xya7jQ8[/youtube]

This first Washburn PS series (not to be confused with the more recent, 2006 Washburn PS series) came in several versions:

- Washburn PS2000MIL, Millenium Edition. Only produced in a quantity of 100, this version was covered with genuine Swarovski rhinestones – creating an incredibly sparkly guitar.

- Washburn PS2000B, Black Edition. This was the cheapest version with plain black finish, but otherwise good quality and similar features to the other versions.

- Washburn PS2000FL, Flameburst Edition. This one is also considered very rare. It features a gorgeous sun flameburst maple top, similar to a Les Paul finish.

- Washburn PS2000Rose. A black verison of the PS, decorated with a copy of the rose tattoo Paul wears on his shoulder.

- Washburn PS Black Diamond. A fractured mirror guitar only produced in a quantity of 100. The cracked mirror Washburn PS continued the tradition from the old cracked mirror, or “Mirrorball” Ibanez Iceman that Paul created in 1979.

Other common features of the 2000 Paul Stanley Washburn PS series included a star tailpiece, dual Seymour Duncan pickups, Grover tuners, Tune-o-matic bridge, abalone block inlays, Buzz Feiten Tuning System, and ebony fingerboard. A signature Paul Stanley studded leather guitar strap also came with these guitars. Many of them initially retailed for around $10.000.

One of a kind Washburn PS models: