Monday, January 3, 2011

Who is Zachary James Baker?

Who is Zachary James Baker? The heavy metal and rock music world knows hims better by his stage name Zacky Vengeance. He is the rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist for the American metal/rock band Avenged Sevenfold.

Biography

Baker was born December 11, 1981, he taught himself how to play the guitar when he was thirteen. He attended Huntington Beach High School, and formed Avenged Sevenfold there with M. Shadows and The Rev. Before Avenged Sevenfold, he was in a punk band called MPA*, which stands for Mad Porno Action. He implied that they were not successful. Baker came up with his stage name "Zacky Vengeance" because he wanted to get back at all the people from his youth who doubted his potential. He also came up with Johnny's stage name "Johnny Christ," saying it suited him. Vengeance was also responsible for the creation of the acronym "A7X".^[1]

Despite being left-handed, Vengeance recalls the first guitar he learned to play on was actually a right-handed his parents had bought him for his thirteenth birthday. He learned by playing upside-down, watching his favorite bands and other people he knew who played, and practiced as much as he could. He would also read each edition of Guitar World cover to cover, learning the tabs of the songs published therein and watching the professionals perform them until he could play just as well. His influences in his style are Rancid, Misfits and Bad Religion. Vengeance's favorite bands also include Metallica and Guns N' Roses.
In high school he played baseball. He claims that if not for his music career, he would have played in college and might have gone pro. He was scouted by the New York Yankees. He played first base, third base, and catcher for his high school baseball team. His favorite Major League Baseball team is the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim^[2]

Equipment

Guitars

Vengeance uses Schecter Guitars, and endorses the company.

The Vengeance standard
The Vengeance Standard model
The Vengeance Standard model (rebel flag as seen in "Walk" at Ozzfest in 2006)
The ZV special designed by Zacky Vengeance
The ZV Blade
The ZV special with FR (as seen behind the scenes in the Live in the LBC DVD)
The ZV mirror
The ZV "Gynecologist" with blood splatters. This version is different to the others as this comes with Seymour Duncan Invaders instead of his usual Seymour Duncan SH-4 "JB" set
Vengeance has many custom shop S-1 models made exclusively for him.
All models are loaded with Seymour Duncan JB Pickups.
Formerly a Gibson SG left-handed was used by him (as seen in Warmness on the soul music video)