Jon Levasseur of Cryptopsy on His Setup and Drop Tuning

[@bertrandlongpre3516]

A little harsh but I think Levaseur himself would agree with u. I remember reading in interviews that he never considered himself much of a lead guitarist concentrating more on riffs, drum beats and songwriting. However, I think that solos like Serial Messiah, Phobophile, Dead and Dripping, Cold Hate Warm Blood, We Bleed and more recently Red Skinned Scapegoat are totally original and amazing. No one sounds like him and I've never seen anyone being able to duplicate his solos with much accuracy.

[@olinsmith643]

Man, to this day I feel like he's a really great and original guitarist, both with rhythm and lead. really creative style that still stands apart as *his* style

[@carolshawol6699]

Nope nobody sounds like this guy my favorite guitar player when he left cryptopsy they just are not the same at all Chris donaldson is good and all but this man just has such a unique style of writing and playing witch to this day have not heard anyone else do

[@Impaled_Onion-thatsmine]

Yea and he played none so vile on that strat live too that was absolutely insane

[@GustavoDeath94]

Agree with you, Faceless Unknown have a sick solo too..(the best 10 seconds solo i already hear) and Slit your Guts

[@unholydeception]

My favorite solo from him is open face surgery

[@TheHipsterholocaust]

Next to Lord Worm, this man is the genius that made that band so unique, and amazing.

[@vitunpelle602]

dont forget the man who makes up half of Cryptopsys sound, aka Flo Mounier

[@itaxevasixn8808]

Okay I guess fuck flo right?

[@finderskeepers2238]

@Vitun Pelle and Randy Viger. Drummers don't write songs and music, especially in this style of music, very few exceptions, in general, guitarists and bassists do! Jon Levasseur was the true soul of Cryptopsy, both albums he's not on are not Cryptopsy albums. Not to mention, he took what was left of a ruined band after TUK and brought them back to respectable form in the space of one album and now they're still going! Gotta give it up for this guy! Flo's a great drummer but that's all, I personally wasn't impressed by his letter bashing fans who didn't like TUK, very unprofessional.

[@herpyderpy4366]

Realise I'm dipping into an ancient comment thread here, but Steve Thibault is greatly overlooked here. Despite only being with the band through to the first album, he crafted the signature Cryptopsy sound and taught Levasseur what Cryptopsy was supposed to sound like in terms of riffing.

[@dragonesk2206]

@@herpyderpy4366 I'd need to have Jon Lev himself come out and admit this to believe it. I know Martin Fergusson's side of the story (bassist on 1st album) and Steve Thibault was a poser who couldn't tune his own guitar or change a guitar string, Martin had to do it for him all the time. Like mentioned above and like most people know in the MTL metal scene, Jon was the real inspiration and talent behind Cryptopsy. He also remains the writer of their last full album and what a comeback it was!

[@LifegrindX]

HOLY SHIT!!! I've been waiting for something like this from Jon to hit KZbin since it started. He's probably had the biggest influence on my lead playing, period.

[@justinkantner7162]

I miss when Jon was in Cryptopsy, all the good songs came when he was in the band.

[@MrAntihumanism]

He's a great guitar player.

[@godkillgod1]

And seems like such a nice guy also

[@wjwtywty]

Finally saw Jon on the back stage!!! The best metal composer/guitarist ever!

[@mtlgtr-q6k]

He really is, the absolute best ever

[@RebornInFlames7892]

DAMMIT JON, WHY DID YOU HAVE TO LEAVE AGAIN :(

[@sea23lion]

Finally I can see how he plays insanely so close view!!!

[@matdemaz]

Guitar God.

[@Senseimeditacion]

Great guitarrist *.*

[@gorzunggore2592]

I love these kind of guitarists, true musicians, today every young guitarist urges to get a 7 strings guitar when you want to downtune. He's in 11-56, like Bill Steer of Carcass. No need for extra big gauges.

[@hbc431]

ive always enjoyed that with jon and bill using super old school guitars with a classic tone and making them sound very beautiful and heavy at the same time

[@joaostvitor]

this sound with a strato? awesome

[@zbox6420]

Strats are incredibly underrated in metal, nobody sees how single coils are an angry peice of tech, with their unstable electrical signal delivering punishment upon the listener

[@SwansongTV]

yeah your correct, a lot of people refer to anything below standard as drop, but youd at least expect a string company to know the difference.

[@Holtenstein]

Why does the title say drop tuned instead of down tuned?

[@WildChildMcCloud]

That's what I was wondering.

[@nicklausbooks1593]

Cool video! I too use D'Addario as they're the best for what I need.

[@FSATA]

The next album it´s gonna be brutal brutal brutal fucking brutal!.

[@TheObolus]

@Mirrorrim Les Pauls are great for metal as long as it Gibson made before they outsourced a few years back. PRS can be awesome too as long as you have the right one.

[@mlisecarbas9925]

oh we did enjoy the next sound the gaved us...thanks again

[@TheObolus]

Makes sense, D'addario's almost never break either compared to a lot of others. I don't know if a strat is the best choice of guitars for metal though.

[@GeorgRavioli]

His middle pickup I'm pretty sure is whatever came with the guitar, and the other two I can't tell because neither of them have any label (from looking at the video of him playing Serial Messiah). They have a cover on them that EMG pickups have, so that might be a clue.

[@rascal1717]

GeorgRavioli I'm very late haha but after a show a few years back we were having a chat with Oli, Cryptopsy's bass player, and my friend mentioned how wicked it was for Jon to play fender and have such a huge sound, and Oli replied "oh yeah it's the EMG man". So yeah, that's the pickup he uses.

[@shadowalk]

Yes, that bridge pickup on his strat is an EMG 81. That neck pickup seems like a new addition...probably an EMG SA. That middle pickup looks unplugged.

[@elviradark6902]

With him Cryptopsy became a Death Metal gods, when he left Cryptopsy became the most hateful band in the Death Metal community. I still cannot recover from The Unspoken King lol

[@ov6021]

I'll say this the unspoken king is not as bad as It sounds

[@Mirrorrim]

@TheObolus I think it's all about how it plays at the end of the day. I've used all sorts of "metal" guitars in the past, ESP, Ibanez, Jackson, Schecter etc but I have to say my two favourite guitars to record and gig with were distinctly less "metal" than any of those. The first was an old Les Paul, and the second was a PRS Custom. Sadly I no longer own either, but both of them were a dream to play :)

[@cmm98]

Hail JON!!

[@bassistfromhell94]

Nasum shirt ftw

[@MorbidMinisterX]

Ten four, My mistake. Thanks for clearing that up \m/

[@Moonsorrow15]

And then Jon leaves again, fuck sake -_-

[@belphegor79]

Rage Nucleaire is awesome!

[@andrez2862]

Por ahí leí que Jon tenía trabajos tocando con una banda de Free jazz alguien sabe cómo se llama o donde puedo escucharlos?

[@rekleoa]

@TheHipsterholocaust Back in the early days, flo's drumming was not like any other band's. I could recognize Cryptopsy just by hearing the drums.

[@squidsalive]

custom nasum shirt?

[@schecter707]

What pickups are those?

[@shadowalk]

EMG 81 bridge and probably an EMG SA in the neck position. Middle pickup looks like stock and looks unplugged.

[@rekleoa]

@TheHipsterholocaust perhaps...

[@candybycameo2194]

Does anyone know the exact model strat he plays? Always been really curious as to whether or not it's a baritone, and other facts about it. Heard it's a fat strat, i'd like to know MORE.

[@nekromachine]

+Lawrence Swingle I believe it is just a HSS strat (Just like the one and only Andreas Kisser used on what are my faviourite Sepultura albums). I'm certain Jon uses an EMG 81 in the bridge and that goes into a Mesa Triple Rectifier. Other than the HSS configuration it is standard 25.5" scale-length and dropped down a tone or one and half (With a beefier set of strings to compensate. A good starting point would be an 11 - 52 but as he points out, For his wants/needs he keeps his 3rd unwound. I have to buy a set and a few singles to get the exact gauge which I like for drop tuned stuff on my regular 25.5" scale 6-strings. I have a 28" baritone 6-string which is brilliant & I have an 080 on the bottom of that, It is brutal, Along with some 7-strings that are 27.5" and an 8-string, The 8 is the Ibanez M80M which is 29.4", It is a beast). Like said though I still get what I need/want from dropping down my regular scale-length 6-strings). I hope that helps Lawerence dude and it makes sense. The only thing I've had to do on a few of my own is drill through the machine heads to accomodate the lower, Very heavy gauge strings plus some minor setup tweaks to intonate...etc.

[@zyxwfish]

+Lawrence Swingle I was looking at strats on ebay and the old Japanese fender hss strats have a black nut with a maple fretboard like Jon's.

[@WildChildMcCloud]

It's just a regular Strat with an EMG. He probably has all the tremolo springs tightened down using it as a hardtail.

[@brianbumstead2682]

Awesome :0

[@mynam3isstupid]

@ritualdefacto nah he plays in B

[@metalmikow]

emgs i believe.

[@TheModernHermeticist]

The nose

[@RobcadRadDad]

go listen to none so vile, whisper supremacy then kindly eat your words bud.

[@McMinnManiac]

Ha ha ,that's funny ,they may have been the business men of the group. Business men are always taking credit for every idea ,that sees the light of day

[@jesperkatsimpas]

well, its whatever works best for you, but single coils arent really what comes to my mind when i think death metal, humbuckers will give your tone more balls 9 out of ten times

[@5044Nathan]

I bet lord worm is gonna come back someday

[@sixthgatebass]

thank god this was wrong

[@jonniefast]

old cryptopsy > new garbo

[@ov6021]

​@@jonniefast get a life

[@NightwindK]

Absolutely wrong there. Rage Nucléaire is a project of Frozen Shadows (black metal) guitarist Alvater featuring Dan Greening (vocals). Levasseur and Rage Nucléaire are only connected through Cryptopsy, he is not in the band.

[@belphegor79]

No you're correct. You'd think d'addario would realize the difference.

[@petesorensenguitar]

Seems like he stopped playing for ages.

[@jesperkatsimpas]

no

[@jesperkatsimpas]

haha, alrighty then

[@TheHipsterholocaust]

@rekleoa, however today he's replaceable. Sure he was a great drummer, but a composer? I think not. He just took charge and lead the band as if he defined Cryptopsy as a direct contributor to the music, beats n' rhythms aside.