- 37 minutes ago
Become a member (it's FREE) at https://digtb.us/signup
Buy official DTB merch at http://digtb.us/merch
On this episode of DTB’s “Gear Masters”, Marcus Siepen, guitarist of the power metal band, Blind Guardian, shows off the gear that he uses onstage, while on the Somewhere Far Beyond North American Tour 2025 with Ensiferum and Seven Kingdoms. Blind Guardian is currently supporting their newest album, Somewhere Far Beyond (Revisited).
PLAY THE SAME GEAR:
Solar Guitars S1.6 MS Marco Siepen Signature Electric Guitar - https://www.solar-guitars.com/product/s1-6ms-marcus-siepen/
Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker Pickup Set - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/aO3gmq
D’Addario NYXL Electric Guitar Strings (10–52) - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/GKrWB6
PRS Custom 24 Electric Guitar - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/VxoPeJ
Fishman Fluence Devin Townsend Signature Pickup Set - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/JK5n0e
Jackson MJ Series Randy Rhoads Electric Guitar - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/o4QMDe
Gibson Chet Atkins Solid Body Acoustic Guitar - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/nXDMxR
D’Addario Coated Acoustic Guitar Strings - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/OeGq0K
Schaller Strap Locks - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/da2P5K
Shure QLXD4 Wireless Guitar Receiver - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/2anDzM
Whirlwind MultiSelector 4-Channel Bidirectional Switcher - https://amzn.to/4qMqULR
Neural DSP Quad Cortex - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/VxzQgk
Dunlop Tortex Green Guitar Picks (0.88 mm) - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/VxoP9J
Dunlop Tortex Blue Guitar Picks (1.0 mm) - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/zx1MKx
Vision Ears Ultimate 7 Custom In-Ear Monitors - https://vision-ears.de/
ENKI Guitar Cases - https://guitar-center.pxf.io/3JbQKy
VIDEO INFO:
Film Date - December 2, 2025
Location -The Vic Theatre in Chicago, IL
KEEP UP WITH BLIND GUARDIAN:
Facebook - https://facebook.com/blindguardian
Instagram - https://instagram.com/blindguardian
Twitter - https://twitter.com/blind_guardian
FOLLOW US:
Website/Email List - https://www.digitaltourbus.com/#/portal/signup
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/digitaltourbus
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/digitaltourbus/
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@digitaltourbus
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/digitaltourbus/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/digitaltourbus
Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/digitaltourbus/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/digital-tour-bus-llc
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/user/digitaltourbus
VIDEO SUMMARY:
00:00 Introduction
00:39 Skip Intro
00:52 Guitars
07:49 Amp & Rack
11:37 Picks
13:29 Guitar Case
ABOUT DIGITAL TOUR BUS:
Digital Tour Bus is your backstage pass to your favorite touring artists! With daily video releases, we cover all genres, and have had the pleasure of featuring the likes of Matchbox Twenty, Twenty One Pilots, Megadeth, MGK, Papa Roach, AJR, Pierce The Veil, Simple Plan, A Day to Remember, and thousands of others over the past 15 years. "Bus Invaders" takes you inside an artist's home on the road, "Cooking at 65mph" sh
Buy official DTB merch at http://digtb.us/merch
On this episode of DTB’s “Gear Masters”, Marcus Siepen, guitarist of the power metal band, Blind Guardian, shows off the gear that he uses onstage, while on the Somewhere Far Beyond North American Tour 2025 with Ensiferum and Seven Kingdoms. Blind Guardian is currently supporting their newest album, Somewhere Far Beyond (Revisited).
PLAY THE SAME GEAR:
Solar Guitars S1.6 MS Marco Siepen Signature Electric Guitar - https://www.solar-guitars.com/product/s1-6ms-marcus-siepen/
Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker Pickup Set - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/aO3gmq
D’Addario NYXL Electric Guitar Strings (10–52) - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/GKrWB6
PRS Custom 24 Electric Guitar - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/VxoPeJ
Fishman Fluence Devin Townsend Signature Pickup Set - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/JK5n0e
Jackson MJ Series Randy Rhoads Electric Guitar - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/o4QMDe
Gibson Chet Atkins Solid Body Acoustic Guitar - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/nXDMxR
D’Addario Coated Acoustic Guitar Strings - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/OeGq0K
Schaller Strap Locks - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/da2P5K
Shure QLXD4 Wireless Guitar Receiver - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/2anDzM
Whirlwind MultiSelector 4-Channel Bidirectional Switcher - https://amzn.to/4qMqULR
Neural DSP Quad Cortex - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/VxzQgk
Dunlop Tortex Green Guitar Picks (0.88 mm) - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/VxoP9J
Dunlop Tortex Blue Guitar Picks (1.0 mm) - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/zx1MKx
Vision Ears Ultimate 7 Custom In-Ear Monitors - https://vision-ears.de/
ENKI Guitar Cases - https://guitar-center.pxf.io/3JbQKy
VIDEO INFO:
Film Date - December 2, 2025
Location -The Vic Theatre in Chicago, IL
KEEP UP WITH BLIND GUARDIAN:
Facebook - https://facebook.com/blindguardian
Instagram - https://instagram.com/blindguardian
Twitter - https://twitter.com/blind_guardian
FOLLOW US:
Website/Email List - https://www.digitaltourbus.com/#/portal/signup
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/digitaltourbus
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/digitaltourbus/
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@digitaltourbus
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/digitaltourbus/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/digitaltourbus
Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/digitaltourbus/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/digital-tour-bus-llc
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/user/digitaltourbus
VIDEO SUMMARY:
00:00 Introduction
00:39 Skip Intro
00:52 Guitars
07:49 Amp & Rack
11:37 Picks
13:29 Guitar Case
ABOUT DIGITAL TOUR BUS:
Digital Tour Bus is your backstage pass to your favorite touring artists! With daily video releases, we cover all genres, and have had the pleasure of featuring the likes of Matchbox Twenty, Twenty One Pilots, Megadeth, MGK, Papa Roach, AJR, Pierce The Veil, Simple Plan, A Day to Remember, and thousands of others over the past 15 years. "Bus Invaders" takes you inside an artist's home on the road, "Cooking at 65mph" sh
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Back then Renny Rhodes was my main guitar, so I brought up this one.
00:04The wiring is a bit different to what you usually would get because I don't like push-pull ports.
00:09If unit A should go down in the middle of the gig, we press one button and unit B is up and running.
00:30Hey everybody, this is Markus of Blind Guardian. We're in Chicago today and I'm here to show you my gear on this current US run.
00:49And we'll start with the guitars I guess.
00:52So, first one and main one is this Solar S1.6MS.
01:04And surprisingly the MS stands for Markus Sieben, so this is my signature model.
01:10I use this for pretty much everything, unless we need a different tuning which we don't need on this run.
01:17So it's tuned a half step down, like we use it for all of our songs.
01:26Yeah, main guitar, two Fishman pickups.
01:29It's the Fishman Fluence Modern Set.
01:33Fishman Bridge. Fishman Bridge. Ever Tune Bridge.
01:37Locking tuners and yeah, I'm super happy with this guitar. I use it all the time.
01:44And that's a beast.
01:46The wiring is a bit different to what you usually would get because I don't like push-pull ports.
01:51So this is volume, this is tone, but there's no push-pull function.
01:55I can access the different voicings through the five-way blade switch.
02:01So this is voicing one, the active one.
02:04If I go to position two, this is voicing two.
02:07In the middle, both on in voicing one, voicing two for the neck, voicing one for the neck. Very simple.
02:16String-wise, I'm a Daddario guy. Those are the NYXLs. The gauge is 10 to 52.
02:26I've been using them forever. My favorite strings. They're super reliable. Stay in tune. Perfect.
02:33The strap is by a German company called Richter Straps. All my straps are actually made by them.
02:40This is one of their regular straps. I'm sorry, I don't know what exactly the model is, but you can buy this very same strap from their webpage.
02:49And on one of my other guitars, I'll show you a strap that they customized for me, but we'll get there.
02:55But it's always Richter Straps.
02:58So, guitar number two, even though it has a four on the headstock, but that's cheating, is this PRS Custom 24.
03:10I'm using this for a couple of songs, because I like the shorter scale length.
03:16Because there are a couple of songs where I have to play some pretty weird chords and over-stretch my fingers.
03:22So, it's just a question of having it in a more comfortable way.
03:28Yeah, regular Custom 24. Again, Fishman pickups. This is the Devon Townsend set.
03:35The wiring here is a bit different. They have three voicings.
03:41So, this is usually the active high gain voicing, voicing one.
03:48Again, through the blade switch, I can go to voicing two.
03:52And if I want the single coil voicing here, I have the push-pull thing.
03:57Yeah, same thing. Same strap, same Richter strap.
04:04What I'm using, I'm using Locks Strap Locks. That's a German company.
04:09And to me, that's the most reliable locking thing for guitar straps.
04:17I tried them all in the past and they all failed at some point.
04:21And it sucks if that happens in the middle of the gig and you're trying to catch your guitar.
04:27Those ones are super reliable, so I have them on all of my guitars and all of my straps.
04:33Yeah, that's guitar number two. As I was saying, for comfort reasons, I like the shorter scale length for a couple of songs.
04:43Then...
04:45Ah yeah, it's the same strings, same tuning. It's the same for all the guitars.
04:52Guitar number three is this Jackson Randy Rhodes.
05:02That's the MJ version, so made in Japan, which they released like two years ago, something like that.
05:10I don't remember.
05:12I've always been a big fan of the Randy Rhodes shape and I brought this one out now because we're playing the Somewhere Far Beyond album,
05:19which we originally released in 1992.
05:25And back then Randy Rhodes was my main guitar.
05:28So for nostalgia reasons, I brought out this one.
05:32Again, I'm just using it for a couple of songs.
05:35Again, Fishman pickups, Fishman Fluence Modern again.
05:40And in this guitar, I went the lazy way.
05:46I just used the main voicing.
05:50So voicing one, the active voicing.
05:54So there's no push pulls and no five way plates, which it's just the two pickups in that voicing.
06:01And yeah, that's a very great sounding guitar.
06:05And as we were talking about, that's a Richter strap as well, different model.
06:09And they made me several ones with our Blind Guardian Dragon Tribal, whatever you want to call it logo on there.
06:18So that's the other Richter strap that I'm using.
06:22And final guitar from my side for the acoustic side of things.
06:33This is a Gibson Chet Atkins.
06:36So acoustic guitar, but solid body, as you can see.
06:40So not a hollow body, which is brilliant because it can't blow up on stage, no matter how loud the stage might be.
06:49So this is, it sounds great, it plays great.
06:53It's also the Adario strings.
06:56Yeah, they're those coated ones.
06:58I think it's the latest series that they put out and they're brilliant.
07:03Yeah, it's the coated ones.
07:06Yeah, this is not the original pack.
07:08So I always take the cardboard off because of weight issues and stuff like that.
07:13Yeah.
07:14So yeah, this is the, whatever it is, it's an 1152 set.
07:18Yeah.
07:19And they're the coated ones.
07:21They last forever.
07:22They sound great.
07:23It's also, as all the other guitars, tuned down half a step.
07:27And this is used for all the acoustic songs in the set.
07:34And since this is a flight show for us, that's all the guitars that I have with me.
07:40So I'm limited to four guitars on flight shows, unfortunately.
07:44This thing is from our base, the top board here is from Johan, our base player.
07:51So that's not mine.
07:53Everything below is mine.
07:55So we start with a, with a small rack.
07:58It has my two Shure wireless units, the QLX-D4s.
08:05They go into the whirlwind multi-selector.
08:11As you can see, Willem color-coded them.
08:13So we can switch between, between the wireless systems.
08:17We can switch to a cable for the acoustic songs, because the acoustic guitar is on the cable.
08:24And I think white is just muting the whole thing.
08:29From there, we go into the main rack.
08:33We go into this Fetronix RSW, which distributes the signal that's coming from the wireless systems to both quad-cortex units.
08:46So I have two quad-cortex that are identical.
08:51Both are fed with a, with a sound from the guitars at the same time.
08:56Both go back into this unit in stereo and out of this unit to front of house.
09:03And with this button, we can switch between both quad-cortex.
09:10So if the main one, if unit A should go down in the middle of the gig, we press one button and unit B is up and running.
09:16And also connected to this thing is my, my MIDI controller.
09:24I'm using a WUZ, it's a Belgian company, a MIDI controller.
09:29And the MIDI signal is also split by this thing to both quad-cortex.
09:33So whatever I switch, both switching at the same times.
09:37So that's a, yeah, very simple, elegant and very effective setup.
09:45It's two amps.
09:48For the, for the heavy side of things, I'm using a Silver Jubilee Marshall.
09:55I'm boosting it with, I think this captures, what did I use for that one?
10:00Of a, of a king of tone, I think.
10:03Effect wise, I'm not using too much.
10:05I'm using a bit of reverb, a bit of delay and a bit of chorus for the clean sounds.
10:10For the clean amp, I'm using a jazz chorus.
10:15And obviously there's a noise gate in there, but I think that's, that's about it.
10:20So the, the, the programming is rather simple.
10:23Because I don't like to use too many things if I don't really need them.
10:30Because the more you use, the more can go wrong.
10:33And I like to keep it simple and straightforward.
10:36And the layout is always the same.
10:39On channel one, but, well, it says E, but for me that's one is my, my heavy rhythm tone.
10:47That's a clean tone.
10:48This is a crunch tone.
10:50This is a lead tone.
10:52And the top row is bonus versions that I might need for, for special songs.
10:57If it's, if I need a, a special delay time, for example, for some clean parts or whatnot.
11:03And yeah, that's, that's basically, I have four versions of this preset.
11:10So, uh, the main one is for my, for my signature guitar.
11:14And the other ones are slight adaptations for the other guitars.
11:18To keep it all in the ballpark.
11:23And that's it.
11:24So all the sounds that you're hearing is quad cortex only.
11:27There's nothing else, uh, affecting the tone.
11:31And yeah, quad cortex is way to go in my opinion.
11:36You will see two kinds of picks.
11:40Um, this is a regular Dunlop Tortex, uh, 0.88 as you can see from the green color.
11:48So they print those for me, but it's, it's basically the regular pick that you can buy just with my print.
11:55And I also have them in, in, uh, one millimeter.
12:00Simply because usually I go for the green ones because I like it.
12:03But on, on some occasions I like it a bit heavier, a bit sturdier than I can switch to the blue ones.
12:10It's just so I have both options.
12:12Uh, in the moment they are scratched.
12:15Normally they are not, but, uh, I hurt my finger yesterday pretty bad.
12:19So I need some more grips because of the band-aid.
12:22So I don't lose them.
12:24So, uh, usually they're unscratched.
12:27And, um, we're playing with in-ears.
12:30So we have wedges on stage, but we're not using them.
12:33It's nice to put your foot on top.
12:35But, um, my in-ears, the, uh, the headphones that I'm using are from a German company called Visionears.
12:43Um, they are the Visionears 7, Ultimate 7, whatever they're called, 7.
12:49Uh, in my humble opinion, perfect in-ear monitors.
12:54But obviously that's up to everybody to make up his own mind.
12:58But very reliable.
13:00They sound great.
13:01They sound rather neutral.
13:02That's something that's important for me because I want to really hear the sound that I'm sending to the PA.
13:07And I don't want my ears to present any frequencies to me that actually are made up by the in-ears and not coming from my unit.
13:17So I prefer to be rather neutral and flat sounding.
13:22So that works for me.
13:24And we almost forgot something.
13:26Uh, as I said, uh, I am bringing for flight shows, I'm bringing four guitars and we transport them in Anki cases.
13:34So I got two of those, uh, one for the Strat-type guitars.
13:40Uh, this one is for, actually it's made for V-shaped or Explorer-shaped guitars.
13:46So the, the Randy Roles is in there, but it also fits the Chet Atkins.
13:50So, um, that way I can fly my acoustic with me.
13:55So shout out to Anki, perfect cases, um, the guitars stay safe.
14:00And yeah, I thank you all for watching this.
14:03I hope you liked what you saw, that you might be interested in checking out the gear yourself if you haven't tried it yourself yet.
14:10Um, we're still on the road here in the U.S. for the next two weeks.
14:14I don't know when you will see this, but we'll, we'll be here until December the 13th, I think is the last gig.
14:21If you only see this afterwards, too bad.
14:24If you see it in, in the right time, come check us out.
14:29Uh, you can check us out online, uh, blind minus guardian, guardian, yeah, minus guardian.com.
14:36On Instagram, uh, Facebook, wherever, it's all blind guardian.
14:40And yeah, come check us out.
Comments