Bill Kelliher's incredible tone journey

Filmed at the Mojotone warehouse, ‪@mastodon‬'s Bill Kelliher explains how he went from classic rock to punk to metal - and how that journey informed the Hellbender pickups he developed with Mojotone.
HELLBENDER PICKUPS
‪@mojotoneofficial‬ say: "Brutality and beauty: we took this project on with the man himself as he explored his own metamorphosis. These Hellbender pickups really are a product of Bill's journey in its entirety; uniquely winding range around his life experiences.
"Bill Kelliher wanted a pickup that had the versatility to play every sound and tone found in his collection, tones he's collected over a lifetime.
"With its distributed coil design, using two different wire gauges for increased dynamics and smooth coil-tapped tones, the Hellbender pickup set offers versatility to players in need of every sound from crushing high gain crunch to delicate and lush cleans."
Go here for more info: bit.ly/43WDxaY
For the lastest news on Mastodon: www.mastodonrocks.com/
Cooking with Bill Kelliher bit.ly/deathpickles
Are Bill Kelliher’s new Mojotone Hellbender pickups the most versatile metal humbuckers ever made? bit.ly/mojotonehellbender
More Bill Kelliher on Guitar World: bit.ly/billkelliher
@mastodon @mojotoneofficial
#mastodon #billkelliher #mojotone #guitarworld #guitar #guitartone

[@shaunbristow5639]

If there's one thing I've learned from this video it's that I've been playing Colony of Birchmen all wrong for about the past 17 years

[@samclemmons5373]

For a long time you didn’t hear that much from Bill, but now he’s like the face of Mastodon.

[@MatthewJBRO]

That’s because if you let Brent Hinds do the interview you won’t be able to understand what the heck he said.

[@ethanaubrey858]

@@MatthewJBRObro I’m dead😂😂😂

[@iHazPwnPhone]

He might be the butthole of Mastodon….

[@VlaDuZa]

One of the things I love about this band is that every member feels like a front man. I guess it has a lot to do with the fact that 3 out of 4 members are lead singers and Keliher sings backing vocals as well as the fact that they all write the songs together so when they get interviewed, they all have insightful things to share about the songs and the riffs.

[@mojotoneofficial]

Man what a great time we had making this with Bill K. !!!

[@feno8983]

Hey, on your page, where Bills pickups are, there are 3 pictures. The third one is Bill playing his signature Sparrowhawk with... Lace sensor pickups. I guess you might wanna change it up :)

[@Rooster7six]

What Mojotone amp is he playing here???

[@SixPounder-pv5og]

This needs answering

[@mojotoneofficial]

@@SixPounder-pv5og Mojotone British 100 Watt head kit.

[@Rooster7six]

@@mojotoneofficialthank you so much! Ordering!

[@robertjmessenger]

This dude is a riff master. Some of my favorites are his backing riffs behind their solos. Just honey thick

[@lorenmars5244]

This dude's choice of notes, his modes, is what makes him stand out. "The Unexpected" Kind of a heavy metal Jimmy Page.

[@jackenglish1979]

Watching Bill Kelliher play Battery is a treat I didn't know I was in for today.

[@LambChopper678]

I rate these highly, have the rich mid bump of alnico and crunchy attack of ceramic all in one 👌🏻

[@clintn6677]

I just watched one of your vids demoing them and it got me g.a.s.n'

[@jww732]

The big dog has spoken!

[@PhillipCalvin627]

New tone capture videos incoming?

[@wheresallthezombies]

Man, the tone in this video is wild. Equally as good as the riffs!

[@bigblacc317]

From Divinations to Pushing the Tides...that Mastodon tone is always so good

[@yoe91]

I could never get into Mastodon, but that is a very nice guitar tone, and he's articulate and honest in describing his guitar playing.

[@modusceo]

They basically entirely created their own genre in metal. All the open string accents on top of the chords with Brent’s banjo style lead over it

[@FawazAzim]

God dammit. His playing is so tight and clean. One of my all time favourites.

[@DavidOakesMusic]

Bill is one of the cleanest tightest guitarists out there.

[@Ryan-kc5pl]

Such a smooth player

[@nigelhasenbaum]

The tone is incredible...basically SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH the whole time.

[@user-zs1gx8ke8g]

Love this, love BK sharing the way he does so frequently. Brilliant.

[@dannyb6618]

This must be the year of awesome signature pickups.. Damn so much killer choices.. Oh and what an awesome player Bill is!!

[@timguitar862]

Bill is the man!! Best, most influential guitarist in my arsenal.

[@Rooster7six]

Ordered my Mojo Tone amp! The Hellbender pickups are killer too.

[@acledfloyd]

I love Mastodon. I have a BK600 and it’s one of my favorites

[@samillsley738]

Hearing Bill play drinking and driving by black flag is fucking incredible 😂 I love that song

[@johnnyb3987]

I dont know what's all involved here, but that rig sounds excellent.

[@RJ-Rocks]

Bill you are such an amazing guy. Great player! Tell us more about that amp!

[@TwilightCalzone]

I'm glad he calls out mid-boosting. I think that's key to a good, beefy tone.

[@warrenstemphly5756]

And Justice for All respectfully disagrees

[@ryinrumery2124]

@@warrenstemphly5756 that's not a good tone though, and justice for all sounds like absolute shit.

[@patrickolivier1]

@@ryinrumery2124the songs are masterpieces, the guitars tones are hard to listen to and enjoy, I agree

[@sEaNoYeAh]

​@@warrenstemphly5756 James Hetfield famously called And Justice Metallica at their most anal. Everything is trying to be excessively tight and it sounds a bit anaemic in places as a result, doubly so with the inaudible bass tracks. I reckon most people would say Master of Puppets, Black Album definitely have better tone, probably most of their other albums too tbh. Ride the Lightning at least for me.

[@warrenstemphly5756]

@@sEaNoYeAh I think it has to do with eras/phases of life, when I first heard AJFA I was pretty new to metal and to me it sounded so completely different from anything else at that time. I was a sophomore in high school and that album totally imprinted on me.

[@Mudd1429]

I have a set and they’re absolutely killer pickups! Covers a lot of ground! Met Bill too and he’s such a cool guy!

[@Aaron-zh4kj]

So many good nuggets of wisdom for guitar players in this video, if people pay attention. So many of those are lessons I learned on the road with my band. I only wished I learned them earlier. Also, while I know almost nothing about mastadon, I’m a big fan of his choice in typology of gear. A great Marshall inspired amp circuit with a great speaker cabinet and a good hotter, articulate bridge humbucker with strong singing (not overbearing) mids is the key. I’m slightly more Van Halen camp than him in that, I tend to not use an overdrive in front and use less gain, as I like to use the volume control to clean up (though suppose if I found a good OD I like, I guess I could always turn it on and off at will). Another great guitarist to study in similar ways is Alex Lifeson in the latter third of Rush’s career. His sound and choice in gear was incredible, and he had extra uniqueness in that he had to find a solution as the only guitarist in the band. He had the best of every sphere: beautiful dreamy ambient cleans, great hard rocking rhythm guitar, and screaming leads. My personal favorite is his sound on the Snakes and Arrows Tour. He had this subtle stereo modulation on everything, but it didn’t have a cheesy 80’s chorus sound. It sounded huge and aggressive, something that’s hard to accomplish as the sole guitarist in a band.

[@williamlowe7718]

You wanna learn more about mastodon, you must listen to Blood Mountain, front to back, in one sitting, through headphones....then go back and listen to all the rest.👍👍

[@Aaron-zh4kj]

@@williamlowe7718 I'm finishing up packing to move tomorrow morning, so maybe I'll throw that on real quick while I work. Thanks for the recommendation.

[@ultimatemetalguitartones]

Amazing dude and player

[@meaningfulcontributionjunkie]

Line 6 insane mode tone for some reason?

[@17Gron]

That tone! Damn!

[@JA-ng7yo]

My rig is a Peavy vypyr 2 with a blown speaker, i use an Aux cable to plug into a pyle amp that's wired to some stereo speakers. It gets me by.

[@ehambright]

Killer pickups!!!

[@m.n.goodbye9481]

He creates stories with the riffs that’s why every mastodon song is a classic

[@ozcountryliving4751]

He is the man!

[@worthweaver9429]

YES

[@GozMaster]

Bill is the best.

[@bezerah3695]

Saw these guys almost a decade ago at knot fest 2015 and they had a good set I wasn’t too into them just recently started getting into them and as a giant old school black metal, death metal fan and also into old school thrash and modern metalcore and basically any and every genre this band is really impressing me such massive fucking tone yet clarity. Damn man if any of y’all wanna recommend me songs or albums please do.

[@thenext9537]

I don't know who this is, but that opening riff sound was like YEA SONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN.

[@IainFrame]

Bill is a machine. Rifflord.

[@syracuse6651]

Great tone

[@JaFoste_Studio]

I had hoped that double cut guitar he had was going to become a production model

[@bruth6138]

Bill is a great dude although I always feel like If I needed the chrome refinished on my Chevelle, he'd be the one to do it.

[@jonwanrocks]

DANG!

[@brendanscott8989]

blows my mind away the amount of local live guitarists in metal that don't understand that if you boost the mids you'll sound better when playing with other instruments. sure it doesn't sound as great in your room playing solo but it will sound great with a full band. game changing info right there.

[@chrisbose]

i wish bill was my dad, hahaha, such a cool dude! imagine a sitcom with 2 dads, bill and brent as the dads and it's jam palace, uncle troy and aunty brann come over all the time to keep the house ship shape, lmao, that'd be soooooooo good!!!!

[@brownsparlour9813]

My fave guitarist got the original bk600 love it man but the new one at 2k for an ltd nope 😅

[@richard8su]

Hell yeah!!! Tough guys play Peavey!

[@joeylizotte7537]

..the Peavey "Butcher".

[@jdfenix7]

Dang man that’s one nasty tone. Love it

[@user-nk8ww9ce9k]

Thats a nice warehouse. I wonder what kind of system they use for inventory.

[@SteveMcT]

Please make these in green or gray burst, and I'll buy one of each

[@jessejorgensen3931]

Decent gear makes all the difference. I almost gave up on playing. I thought i just sucked. Self taught. Then i got a marshall and tube screamer and and suddenly the mud was gone.my solos sounded nice and round instead of sharp and muffled how does that happen?I scooped the mids too but it always felt lacking. Love your stuff i replaced all the electronics in my epiphone custom. Night and day difference. I have the mojotone 59 pickups to put in my 59 ri . The gibson pickups that came with it are nice and slightly warm but a little muddy at times. I like the amp.

[@pedroroggla8129]

he has a very similar tone to what you can achieve with the eyemaster and a tube amp

[@ashleyjackson8538]

Any video with the BK , is cool as f*#k

[@forestcitytrivia9167]

This guy is a riff machine.

[@m.n.goodbye9481]

Dude is sick and has grown up into a mature man since his side swoop stretched ears but always the sickest rifffs. Blood Mountain is in my top 5 metal albums Of all time.

[@joejohnson8966]

1:25 true

[@Jarrodpimental]

His tone sounds like a car side swiping a brick wall.

[@pricc-om]

Yea, bvt like, in a good way. That'z what makez a good aggrezzive gvitar (and bazz) tone.

[@crunch_amp9282]

Where can you get that amp

[@mtrich8113]

Great taste in guitars the ltd's.

[@hogie1259]

Which amp kit is he using?

[@OleHickory69]

“Some of that tight palm muting stuff I need aNew amp”😂😂😂😂

[@OleHickory69]

And why demo on a shittier Gibson?

[@neiljewen5734]

What Black Flag song is he playing at 00:22?

[@dpatsios92]

i think its drinking and driving

[@markolsen4394]

Mojotone smokes

[@pippydog28]

His signature pickups are definitely mid driven

[@coryleblanc]

anyways babe here's Blood n Thunder

[@benpotter4905]

Hey that doesn’t look like his signature Friedman Butterslax

[@r987p]

Sounds like good ole' Metal zone: gain 10 Tone: 10 No mids to me 😂

[@laynefuller]

What's that LTD model

[@drdoom8793]

Both are his sig models, I believe. He has a few different versions

[@Rooster7six]

What Mojotone amp is he playing?!?!?!

[@joeylizotte7537]

A DIY kit they sell.

[@Rooster7six]

Which one? Sounded pretty good.

[@lucasricardofolco442]

Is he the cook from Blood in blood out that handed out pork chops?

[@shanemcconnell1736]

Does he work at Home Depot when he’s not touring?

[@joesmith8398]

Geez, sounds like he's playing through a Boss Metal Zone....yeecch !!

[@treishtrei]

Funny how many players play battery wrong

[@thelongvirtuesignal8551]

You don not need an expensive rig to be able to hear your mids lol

[@shining5695]

Next year you will see him advertise his new pickups. I have a copy of the first Signature Sparrowhawk which used Lace signature pickups. The next model used Seymour Duncans. Man Bill's tone crisis must be worse than mine 😂 do not buy signature guitars for the sound. Its justified to get them for looks or identify with the band but other than that we are talking about recreating the tone artists who have dozens of different guitars and recording approaches. If I can save the next guy, I will be happy. Do not buy a signature guitar. Its better to get the most sold classic models. They are there for decades for some reason. Whatever this guitar can offer soundwise, an Epiphone LP can even do. Looks though? Yeah Sparrowhawk does look very beautiful. Don't get me wrong I really like the dude but this is just Biz they are doing.

[@IsaacCarney-ck2kq]

so... is he not with victory anymore?

[@SixPounder-pv5og]

This is obviously a British amp kit.... but it sounds modded... need details...

[@doric_historic]

My guitar tone could not cut through a wet cigarette paper...

[@lpamiot]

My Metal Zone sounds better.

[@TavaresProject]

I'm not digging it.. but as long as he likes it.

[@ottomattix86]

Apparently tons and tons of fans do too lol

[@ilovecakeyo]

I like the tone, just don't care for the music he makes.

[@LukeCannotSkate]

It sounds like a JB but... fizzy? Maybe its the rest of the setup in this video but it doesn't sound great. Also the guitar sounds like it's slightly out of tune

[@BaldyMacbeard]

"The greatest thing I've made"? Like he was sitting around, winding pickups by hand on his own? Or more like "I've given feedback on how I like the results and David Shepherd and his mates creates a pickup that I wanted". I find that the way we express ourself speaks volumes...

[@flynncrawford4261]

That tone sucks

[@miguelmeillon5418]

Great guitarist but in this video his tone is really crappy

[@shan2un]

Too much gain

[@JaRule88]

🫵🏻🐔

[@sensory_deprivation4126]

Seriously 😳

[@edwardcullenhotass]

The whole mids thing is a debate on itself. On one hand, yeah, don't scoop all the mids, LOL. THat sounds like shit. On the other, Death and Metallica have always sounded better recorded than Mastodon, LOL. It's not about being louder than everyone else. It's about sitting in the whole band mix right. Guitars are not the only instruments competing for mids in the whole band.

[@samclemmons5373]

Josh Homme from QOTSA is the master of mids.

[@oli8624]

I mean, the midrange is a really wide spectrum. I would define it from like 420 - 6000 Hz. All the great guitar tones sit in that range, even Metallica and death. For example the "scooped" tone of the black album is mainly a mesa boogie mark 2 C++, wich is by itself a extremely mid heavy amp. Using the on board 5 band EQ they scooped the 750hz frequency, but boosted the lower mids, higher mids and lower highs. So it's also very mid focused, but with a scoop at 750. Compared to marshalls, wich are quite present in the 800hz range, they just have a fundamentally different sound. But the guitar will always be a mid dominant Instrument and the only other things in that frequency range are the snare, toms and the singer. Therefore you need mids to be heard. It is just dependend on where exactly all the other instruments sit in the frequency range to determine what exact mid frequencies you need the most to be heard the best in the context of the mix.

[@edwardcullenhotass]

​@@oli8624 I wouldn't consider 6K mids at all. I agree, there is a lot of midrange present in a guitar tone, and you need mids to be heard, true. And it also depends on the aesthetic of the music overall. But you gotta remember, you gotta be heard, but you also gotta let the other instrumetns be heard. But you also gotta consider the fundamental of a low E is like 80Hz. Also, try to cut evrything above 6K that you mentioned as mids, and all of a sudden, your guitar sounds so dull and unexciting. I don't have a gripe with saying guitars need midrange, but I do have a girpe with the current forum trend of all mids is all you need. I hate it when people dial in a 5150 with the mids on 6, and then use a tube screamer, an emg 81, v30's, and an SM57. Honk city.

[@Spector06111]

Sounds like some beginner bands tone

[@birdybutch]

awful sound

[@raulleon4824]

I hate his tone, I saw them live a couple of weeks ago and they sounded awful.

[@joeylizotte7537]

Idk what he uses in front of his amp, or how it's dialed in.. but that 2x12/2x15 cab looks and sounds awesome!

[@johnnichols8553]

Yeah I don't like his tone either, hurts my ears like a rasp being dragged thru them. They sounded awful when I saw them live too, you couldn't understand a single word, the drums overpowered everything, riffs could barely be made out, and overall too loud. But Opeth, who opened for them, had a perfect mix. Not too loud (didn't even need earplugs), could understand all the vocals and hear every instrument.

[@rovespasiano7425]

mastododon is overrated

[@kimseniorb]

ouch he can’t play at all, good songwriter though

[@Drewthemagnificent]

How so?

[@clementnunes5070]

...

[@jcout25]

All he does is play guitar, mate. Your favorite Mastodon riff? Yeah, he wrote it. He can play better on his worst day than you'll ever achieve in your life.

[@clintn6677]

Man, I took a lesson from him and he was playing some stuff from his other bands that was really technical. I've taken lessons from some shredders and Bill can hold his own

[@kimseniorb]

@@jcout25 lol dude don’t get butthurt over someone else inability. my granny plays better than him. off time and not in tune. beginner level

[@leftturnlarry1974]

What amp is he playing through ?

[@clintn6677]

Looks like a Mojotone 2204 but he has to be boosting it