The Prizes:
1 Pick Your Own DiMarzio pickups! http://tiny.cc/dimarzio
2 10 pack Ultimate Fusion Tuition DVD set by Derry Gabel http://tiny.cc/derryl
3 Ibanez DS7 distortion pedal from Magnus Olsson
4 Rick Graham,Chris Brooks, Magnus Olsson in Melodic Soloists CD collection
5 Tristan Klein - Universal Mojo CD
Just did an interesting 3-player interview at Shredaholic.com about the Melodic Soloists album.
The other two interviewed along with me are my fellow Scandinavian colleagues the amazing Mr Fastfinger and Mr Roo (the head of Mad Guitar Records).
Go ahead and read it here.
Thanks to Shredaholic for taking the time to talk to us, sorry for writing so much.
Cheers!
Magnus
21-05-2010: Melodic Soloists cd’s.
I just had a bunch of Melodic Soloists cd’s arriving in a box from Finland today, so now you can order your copy directly from me.
You will also get five Magnus Olsson/DiMarzio signature picks, a Mad Guitar Records sticker and some DiMarzio stickers included in the price as well.
Price are 100:- (Svenska kronor) including shipping, inside Sweden only. (Foreign people please contact me with where you are and I look into shipping costs).
Please buy this cd and support a label, Mad Guitar Records, that supports guitar music.
I am back home in Sweden again after a long playing job in France (around 90 shows).
It has been a great start of the year, playing a lot and meting loads of cool people, I just love that silly country down there. Nevertheless, it is great to be home for some rest again, but this spring and summer are really booked up, so I guess I will have to rest another year.
Right now am I preparing for a clinic at the 2010 Fuzz Guitar Show (8-9th of May).
I’m really looking forward to that; it is always a great show to be at.
Hope I see you all there.
More info about the show here (only in Swedish).
The coolest things this year (maybe the coolest thing ever) was that I got my dream Ibanez FR in January. It is a fantastic FR-shaped LA Custom Shop guitar, an absolute dream playing wise and even better sounding wise. It is the only guitar I have played since the day that I got it, amazing guitar.
It will be up on the gear page soon (just need to take some nice photos of it).
More updates coming soon.
Cheers!
Magnus
07-01-2010: New compilation album, new gear, new photos and loads of live playing.
I got honored by being asked to contribute with a song on the record label Mad Guitar Records (MGR) depute release album a long time ago, and that album are now out for sale.
The album is called “Melodic Soloists” and it is packed with tracks from some very talented players, more than 70 minutes of music from 17 different players.
Pasted from guitareuroshop.com, “17 Melodic virtuoso rock guitar songs – 6 unreleased tracks
With all the technically astounding guitar playing around these days, it’s easy to forget about the songs. Melodic Soloists is a showcase of highly skilled modern guitarists delivering emotive, melodic and groovy guitar driven rock music that’s sure to get your foot tapping.
This compilation features both recent releases as well as unreleased tracks. All featured guitarists are professional recording artists, so be sure to check them out!
Each CD sold includes 1 free Mad Guitar Records vinyl sticker.”
MGR are a new label supporting independent guitar music, you need to get this album just to support that someone tries to get music like this released.
Get your copy here www.guitareuroshop.com
Updates in the gear section:
I have gotten loads of new guitars since last time the gear section was updated and now a bunch of them have now been uploaded, a black Ibanez FR1620, a Ibanez AWD102NT, a ash Ibanez custom RG, a gold custom strat, a tele, a natural custom tele, a red RGA121. More while be added when I get the time to take photos of them. I have a really, really cool LASC FR coming in soon that I'm really looking forward too, I post photos as soon as I get it. Jump over to the gear page and have a look around, I think most of the new guitars are marked with a red "new" or something like that.
Updates in the photo section:
There are a new live music photo page up and running (take a look at the photo section, opens in a new window). The latest photos are Guthrie Govan at Vintage Guitar Show in Denmark and Dream Theater at KB Hallen in Copenhagen. Some of the Guthrie photos have been used by Shur guitars and can be seen on their webpage (they have also used some of my Scott Henderson photos).
Even newer photos are In Flames and Dead by April from Malmö the 14th of December.
It was long time since I wrote anything about what I have been doing lately, I almost feel like I’m dead when I look at this page. So what have been going on since the clinic in Denmark in October?
I have been playing shows around Sweden, a lot of them. I gave also been recording original material (where one of the tracks is on the above talked about album). I won’t say that it will be for an album, it probably won’t. It will most likely be stuffed in a drawer to never be heard by anyone.
I have also done a couple of cool photo jobs during this time, mainly products and live music.
Right now am I playing in France until the middle of April, about 100 shows that I’m really looking forward to (actually, the first show are today, great fun!). I love the challenge (and hand workout you get) of playing live almost every day of the week for a long time. You really have to push yourself to come up with new ideas to play to not get stuck in a rut and become burned out by it.
I love the idea of trying to make the next day better than the last and improve on my playing.
But it is not just playing wise,it is also vocal wise, singing backup well.
And the most important part, entertainment, doing a good and pro job with it.
During the stay down here will I be trying out a new prototype DiMarzio Jumper cable that is a softer (more flexible) version of the old DiMarzio Jumpers. Softer cable are sometimes required when it is tight with space and you have two pedals with the input/output jacks on different sides of the pedal (one with the jack up away from you and one with the jacks on the side).
It is all over my pedalboard now, and I think it will work great. What I want to try is how well they will take the beating from heavy use in a tough environment.
I’m confident it will work great.
Well, time to leave for sound check.
Cheers!
Magnus
PS: Don't forget to contribute to the competition below! :DS
20-12-2009: Truth In Shredding presents "Marco Sfogli - Shred This Too".
Get your shops up, get your hands warm, download the BT and play your heart out.
Marco Sfogli wants you to play... so Truth In Shredding has lined up this awesome judging firepower:
The Prizes:
1 Tom Quayle: Toadworks John Bull Mark III
2 Magnus Olsson: Ibanez SM7 Smash Box
3 Marshall Harrsion: signed guitar transcription volume 1
4 Richie Kotzen: signed Peace Sign
5 Lori Linstruth, Arjen Lucassen: signed Guilt machine
03-10-2009: Time for some freaking updates on this page.
I will be doing two DiMarzio/Ibanez clinics at the Vintage Guitar Show in Svendborg, Denmark the 26th and 27th of September. It is a two day complete guitar madness event and loads of other cool players will be there too, Guthrie Govan, Mattias IA Eklundh (both clinic and a Freak Kitchen show), Dave Kilmenister and many more. See their webpage and program here.
Dream Theater also performs at KB arena in Copenhagen the 27th, so it can be a super guitar day.
Click on the photo to get a larger version.
Photo by: Svante Brodin ar Crafton Musik AB, taken at Fuzz Guitar Show.
The Fuzz Guitar Show was this weekend and it was a great event, as always.
My clinic on Saturday went down really well, it was full house, good sound and I even felt that my playing was okay. Taking the stage just after Micke Nord is a tuff task for sure.
Massive thanks to all of you who came to my clinic.
And also to all of you that came up and talked for a while in the Ibanez/DiMarzio display.
My clinic was filmed by Ayman Mokdad from France, and I hope I will get my hands on those movies soon, so I can get them up here.
Ayman is a great, great guitar player himself, check out his webpage here.
It was cool to see the première of Peter Iwars (In Flames) new Ibanez signature bas, PIB1.
Now I will dive right back into the studio again continuing recording new music.
I have gotten in contact with the great Danish drummer Morten Løwe Sørensen and I hope we will get a project going.
He is an amazingly talented drummer, check out his myspace page here (no, we won’t doing metal).
I will start doing live jobs again next month, which will be great fun, but I really needed the break I’ve had to clear my head and to get some new music under my belt.
Cheers for now!
Magnus
PS: I will post the videos from the clinic as soon as I have them.
PS (again): One more thing.
All the finalist for Ibanez/Crafton Solomania guitar solo competition have been selected and sent to Mr Paul Gilbert. So now we are only waiting for his final verdict to know who the winner is.
Congratulations to the five players that went to the final race.
The players are. 1. Jannick Damkvist (DK)
2. Fredric Forsman (SWE)
3. Anton Lindsjö (SWE)
4. Dennis Petersen (DK)
People’s choice 5. Christopher Vest (DK).
Thanks to all the rest of you who sent in fantastic playing, really inspiring to hear what all of you did with my backings. I hope this will happen soon again.
11-02-2009: Ibanez/DiMarzio clinic at Fuzz Guitar Show .
I will do an Ibanez/DiMarzio clinic (demo) at Fuzz Guitar Show the 18th of April in Gothenburg, Sweden. My clinic will be at 17:00 at the main stage but I will be hanging around in the Crafton (Ibanez and DiMarzio distributer in Sweden) both days.
Fuzz Guitar Show are at Quality Hotel 11/Eriksbergshallen in Gothenburg the 18th and 19th of April. The show is open from 10-18 on Saturday and 10-17 on Sunday.
Click on the picture below to visit www.FuzzGuitarShow.com for more information about the event. There will be loads of other artists and players doing clinics and demos both days, and plenty of new gear to try.
The Ibanez “Solomania – Play for Paul Gilbert” is getting close to the end.
The last date to submitting a solo is past and all the players are being judged.
Look for the result at www.crafton.se soon.
All I can say so far is that the amount of great players in Sweden and Denmark is breath taking.
It is super inspiring to hear what everybody played over my backings, great fun.
I also would like to take a chance to send out a massive thank you to the people that came to my clinics at 4-sound (Estrad) and Ljudfront in Stockholm last weekend.
And an extra massive thanks to Marcus and the people at Ljudfront for making it a fantastic day. Great fun that so much people came.
Thanks also to Tobbe for having an after-party with pizza and guitars at his place after the clinic.
Thanks Tobbe!
A massive huge mega thanks to Niklas for being a fantastic driver and for helping out!
I owe you one, man!
The 28th of March will I do an Ibanez/DiMarzio clinic at Ljudfront in Järfälla (Stockholm).
Starting time is set to 3 a clock.
See the poster above or Ljudfronts webpage (www.ljudfront.se) for more info.
I have had the honor to be picked as one of the judges, among Paul Gilbert (main judge), Mick Suyama (Ibanez artist relations) and Jan Bluthger (guitarist and Crafton salesperson in Denmark), in an Ibanez guitar-solo competition called “Solomania” held by Crafton (Ibanez distributor in Sweden and Denmark).
I have also supplied the backing tracks for the competition; the backings are the same chord progression in 3 different styles, Pop, Rock and Hard Rock.
Me, Mick and Jan will pick 4 players, the audience will pick one with votes, then all those five are in finals and will be sent to Mr. Gilbert, then he alone picks the winner among those five.
First price, aside from the honor of winning and being the best player, will also get to pick one of 3 Ibanez Prestige models (FR1620-BK, RG2550Z-GK orS5470-TKS) to take home as a winner’s trophy.
2-5 prices are a “goodies” pack from D’Addario and Planet Waves .
I’m sorry to say that only players living in Sweden and Denmark can participate in the competition, but go in and download the backings and have a go at it anyway. I would love to hear what you come up with, so please send me your track even if you live from outside of Sweden and Denmark (if you are from Sweden and Denmark, the just upload your track on the competition page).
Just click the image above to get to the competition page.
Good Luck! (But luck has nothing to do with, it’s all about playing well and better then everybody ells).
I have gotten a lot of mails about updating my “Guitar-setup” page again, so now have it finally been done. I have uploaded the pages from my old webpage, but will try to change them with new text and pictures as soon as I get the time for it. But I hope the old ones will do until that. The "Links" page have also been updates.
And my I also wish you a very nice and guitary Christmas weekend.
I'm still spending all my time in the studio writing and recording, but 2 days ago did a friend come over with two videos from a clinic in Lund (Sweden) this year.
My playing was not great that night, but it turned out to be okay, so I uploaded the vidoes up on my YouTube page.
It was filmed by Christian Johansson on a compact pocket camera the 4th of November 2008.
The songs are called "Power Lane" and "En Liten Beck". "Power Lane" is sort of a Shawn Lanish, melodic tune (It might not come out that whay, but I was thinking of him when I wrote it and when I play it). “En Liten Beck” is inspired by Jeff Becks techno stuff with a bit of oriental feel to it.
23-11-2008: Tremologic sound clip, new guitars and an Ibanez guitar solo competition.
I have been spending almost every day, from early morning to late night, in the studio for the last weeks practicing and writing and it feels great to get in contact with that creative side of music again.
I have taken a vacation (read about it in a post further down) from all sorts of session and covergigs for some time now to get time to focus on my own music for a while.
It is a great life, in every way except economically, to start the day with a little walk with the dogs and then just sit in the studio playing, writing and recording until late night, only with short breaks for food and walking the dogs (who probably hate me for making noise and being boring).
I have been cheating a bit with the vacation to relearn to use the amazing Swedish tremolo invention Tremologic to record some sound clips with it. A short description for all of you how don’t know what Tremologic is, it is a tremolo with one tremolo arm for each string and were all the strings are completely independent of each other. It is sort of like having a mini tremolo for each string so you can, for example, raise pitch on one string and at the same time lower pitch on two others (you can raise or lower strings pitch in any sort of combination you want). And since the strings are completely independent of each other can you do open tunings, tune up or down anyway you like and on a floating bridge guitar. You can do double-stop bends or even break stings without the others strings going out of tune. The ability to bend strings up and down without having them affecting each other really turns a tremologic equipped guitar into a new instrument with abilities to do things that never have been done on guitar before. It takes a lot of practice to learn how to use it and to start getting ideas that are beyond what you can do on a normal guitar, to start to see the potential of the tremolo.
But sometimes when I play around with it do I tumble over lines and sounds that just make my ears do a loop, holding a chord and bend different notes in it up and down is an amazing sound.
Anyway, and to keep a long story short, here are a little clip of what the Tremologic can sound like.
It’s just a short little piece, sort like a demo for a demo (hmmm….).
Get it here. (2 mb, mp3 format)
I’m sitting in the studio right now recording backing tracks for an Ibanez guitar solo competition that will go on here in Scandinavia early next year. It will be the same chord progression in three different styles, pop, rock and hard rock. I’m not sure what exact date the competition will start, but will post news about it as soon as I know. It will be great prices, guitars and stuff, and Mr Paul Gilbert will be the judge, so look back for more news on that soon.
The 3rd number of Fuzz guitar magazine, with my RIFF column about hybridpicking have been out for a while now, go get it. Next number will be out early December.
You can get a number here.
I have gotten some new guitars and pedals, so I will try to upload some pictures on the gear site later today.
I have been looking for a way to make more frequent updates here, even when I’m not home at my own computer, so I will add a new blog function here in the next few days that I can update from any computer anywhere. It will also use that for news that really has noting, or very little, to do with my own music. As you probably noticed is there no information about covergigs, session work or anything ells I do with music here at MagnusOlsson.com. I consider this page to be about my own music only, so the blog can be a good place to write about the other things I do too.
It will also be sort of like a diary for me, so I will write about other things then music too.
Look back for that in the next couple of days.
08-11-2008: The ”Ibanez On Tour” clinics tour, 7 shows and 2997 kilometer of Swedish road, are over for now.
Almost all shows went better then ever before, so I can promise that it will be a new tour soon.
It started with a really great show at Play Palace in Sunne and ended with a fantastic evening at Helges Håla (Swedens number one guitar shop) in Växjö.
It really is fantastic to travel around in “guitar land” and meet loads and loads of brothers and sisters (read as completely guitar crazy people) every day.
A massive thanks to all of you guys in the shops who helped us arranged the nights and an even bigger thanks to all of you who came to see us.
Here is a photo page from the show at Helges Håla.
Here are some low resolution videos of 2 songs, and a jam with the talented guitar player Hakim Krim, form the same show. Filmed by Björn Sjöblom, thanks for getting it up on YouTube!
The tunes are my very old seven string demo song “Seven Tuff Guys…” and a brand new one called “En liten Beck”, the jam are over ZZ Tops “Tush”. http://www.youtube.com/user/Bjoran77
I will post up my own photos (photo from my camera, but not really taken by me) as soon as I get time to go through them.
I also ended up falling in love with a black FR1620, so pictures of that will be up on the gear page soon.
Updating on the page has been a bit on the low priority list for the last couple of days, sorry about that. But I have been locked in the studio working on my fingers and music for my upcoming clinic tour.
An extra day have been added to the Ibanez clinic tour, Friday the 31st will I be at 4-sound city in Stockholm. From what I heard are they having a guitar day in the shop and I will in there all day talking and demo DiMarzio and Ibanez with anyone who wants to listen. I don’t think I will be playing any songs there since I can’t get my gear with me on the train up from Skövde. But if I can find a good amp that works in the shop will I play some tunes if there are time for it (and if it is okay with the shop owner).
So here are all the dates.
See you all out there!
Date: 28 October
Time: 18.00
Place: Play Palace
Kolsnäsvägen, Sunne
(Inka Musik)
Date: 29 October
Time: 18.00
Place: 4Sound, Falun
Date: 30 October
Time: 18.00
Place: Allmusikverkstan, Skövde
Date: 31 October
Time: All day, until 20.00 in the night.
Place: 4-Sound city, Stockholm.
Date: 4 November
Time:18.00
Place: Into Music, Lund
Date: 5 November
Time: 18.00
Place: Musikexperten, Alingsås
Date: 6 November
Time:18.00
Place: Helges Håla, Växjö
05-10-2008: A new number of FUZZ guitar magazine with ”part 2” of my Hybridpicking column will hit the shops the 7th of October. Go get it!
It has fellow DiMarzio player Yngwie on the cover, and a great interview with him inside, a must have!
Visit their webpage FUZZ.se for sound files and other cool guitar stuff (in Swedish only).
Don’t forget to go active on the FUZZ guitar forum, here.
Loads of time is spent on this webpage right now, being updated almost every hour.
Regards!
Magnus
ews, Update, News, Updat
This page is under construction!
Sorry for the mess.
Please bear with me for a day or two, I’m working hard to fill in the blanks ASAP.
e, News, Update,
News, Update, News, Update, News, Update.
N
04-10-2008: Finally!
My new webpage is up and running. The pages are still being updated and fixed but will be done within a day or two. I had to change over on the server to not completely lose track of what was going on (a lot of files to look after).
I hope you like the new look and please look back soon again when all pages are full of information again. Send me a mail if you have any suggestions of stuff you would like to see here, I love to get some outside input.
There are some real news if you just scroll down a bit.
02-10-2008: Today I had a photo session with the young and talented photographer Karolina Donnerot to get some shots to the new Ibanez catalogue and other promo stuff (and for my webpage).
It’s always a bit strange being in front of the camera instead, as normally, behind it, but it is really hard taking pictures of yourself (I have tried).
Anyway, the start page you passed on your way here are for that session.
I jumped on the grunge wagon a bit too late, I think, but that’s okay, I never really liked grunge anyway.
More pictures from that session will be posted soon.
I’m also working hard to get this new page up and running, it takes a lot of time that I don’t really have.
Regards
Magnus
26-09-08: Hi, everybody!
It’s finally time for some serious updates around here!
First I would like to take the time to welcome you to a brand new MagnusOlsson.com.
All pages are new, fresh and updated, so have a look around. Hope you enjoy the new look!
A massive thanks to Mikael Runnström at Miru Design (www.mirudesign.se) for making the page, thanks Mikael.
What ells are new?
I have started to write a monthly column in Scandinavia’s biggest guitar magazine Fuzz (www.fuzz.se) and the first number came out early this month, so go check that out. It is a great honor to be there among players like Mattias IA Eklund and other inspiring guys.
The column is called “Riff” and is basically about playing guitar, technique and other “playing” related things. The first couple of months are about basic hybrid picking.
Check out their webpage for sound clips, riffs and other cool guitar stuff. If you are Swedish, please help us getting the Fuzz forum going.
We all benefit from having a good and healthy guitar magazine in Sweden, support it, buy it!
I will be doing a two week Ibanez/DiMarzio clinic tour here in Sweden the second and third week of November. Exact dates and places are not set yet, so check in for more info on that, I post as soon as I know. My goal is to get hold of a video camera so I can record some shows to post here, I hope I can pull that off.
It has been a very busy year and I have been doing a lot of live playing this year, way over 150 shows, and have decided to take a break from it for a couple of month to not burn myself out and to concentrate on writing and recording my own music. Tons of ideas in bits and pieces, everything from just small ideas to almost finished songs, are lying around in my computer just waiting to be worked on, but I never really get time to really dig in and be totally focused on it because I travel around like a maniac playing live all the time. Playing loads of different styles in so many different situations all the time makes it really hard to really get into it for more than a day here and there, which makes it really hard to be 100 % focused.
So I decided on a break from live shows playing other peoples music for a while, and I hope it turns out well. I will play the last “session” gig for a while in Denmark the 26th of September.
Well, loads of other pages to update, but check back soon, updates will be more frequent from now on.
All photos on this page are taken by me, unless notated otherwise.
Start page picture by: Karolina “Karro” Donnerot.
Menu picture by: Evelina Andersson.
No photos have been taken from the web.
The DiMarzio sunburst logo is a trademark of DiMarzio Inc. and is used by permission.
