Daron Malakian

A 2010 built custom shop Iceman guitar from Ibanez in the style of a mid-70s 2663 Artist Ibanez. Ebony colored mahogany guitar with long tailpiece and Gibson pickups. Guitar was used for the May 2010 Scars on Broadway show and the 2014 KROQ show with System. The guitar is on tour since the Wake Up The Souls tour in April as a backup.

In this photo you can see Daron with a Gibson ES-335.

"Along with the 1962 SG, Malakian also used a Jackson Randy Rhoads Flying V retrofitted with humbuckers and two early Eighties Gibson Korina Flying Vs for distorted tones." - Guitar World.

Daron used a white Fulltone Clyde Wah in 2002 for some wah wah action in improvised song intros.

Daron Malakian replaced his Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler with the Boss DD-3 Digital Delay for a simpler setup, as shown in a user-uploaded photo on 666kb.

Daron uses the MXR Phase 90 for some quirky sounds in solos and bridge parts (mostly in combination with a delay pedal) since 2006. Speed knob is set around 11 o'clock.

In this photo you can see Daron with a White Gibson EDS-1275 Double Neck Electric Guitar.

In this photo Daron is playing with a Gibson SG Junior 60's Electric Guitar.

We can see a Royer R-121 Ribbon Microphone on this Marshall Cab. During the Download Festival, June 2017.

“The P-90s really filled up a lot of sonic real estate. The humbucker gives you a very pointed attack, and the P-90s are much more wild and open. So both of them together did something really cool.”

Daron's main delay pedal since 2011. Used for solos and bridge parts. Delay time set to 800 ms, some repeats, nothing special. Was replaced for the Latin America tour 2015 with a Strymon DIG Dual Digital Delay by his tech Scott.

“The P-90s really filled up a lot of sonic real estate. The humbucker gives you a very pointed attack, and the P-90s are much more wild and open. So both of them together did something really cool.” - Guitar World

used to mic up amp on self titled album. source from sylvia massy's (System of a Down producer) official website: http://www.sylviamassy.com/how-to/

Daron brought the Boss RC-20 to the Souls 2004 show. It didn't end on his final pedalboard though.

Daron Malakian has used the Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner on his pedalboard since its release in early 2010, as shown in a user-uploaded photo on 666kb.

At 0:27 we can see that Daron uses a Shure SM 58 in this live Lowlands 2001.

The "Army Man" is a crusty old Western Electric frankenstein broadcast tube compressor I dragged out of an old radio guy's garage in Pasadena around 20 years ago. It has exposed wiring which I have not covered up, making it extremely dangerous when children or certain drummers are around. (hah!)

I have not done any maintenance to make this ancient compressor work properly. In fact, I don't want it to work properly because it makes anything you run through sound furry and explosive. For example, I'll route a mono drum room mic through it for extreme compression. Doing this makes the drums feel exciting without accentuating the high end on the cymbals. I might also go for the same effect on vocals and guitars, but in these cases it must be pushed to the absolute extreme to deliver the goods!

During a session, Serge from SOAD stuck a little toy army man in it, thus the nickname "Army Man" was born. That little toy soldier has has lived in there ever since and he must be doing a great job of guarding those precious components, it has never let us down.

This compressor was used all over the System Of A Down record, so much so that it probably would have been impossible to create the overall sound of that album without it.

"Malakian also used a Jackson Randy Rhoads Flying V retrofitted with humbuckers and two early Eighties Gibson Korina Flying Vs for distorted tones." - Guitar World.

The distinctive clean guitar intro to the song “Hypnotized” was created on a red Sixties Hagstrom through a small Watkins (W.E.M.) Dominator also of swinging-Sixties vintage. “I tried two or three different guitars for that part to see which one would cut,” he says. “The Hagstrom had just the right tone. And the Watkins gives a very punchy sound. It’s cool for arpeggiated parts or even little solo stuff. I also used the tremolo channel on the Watkins for the tremolo sections in some songs.” - Guitar World.

“The new songs are more technical than anything we’ve done in the past, there was just a certain way I wanted to hear everything come together with the bass. It was a matter of touch, of feel. Since I wrote it all, I thought it would work out better if I played it with my own touch." Daron Malakian.

The distinctive clean guitar intro to the song “Hypnotized” was created on a red Sixties Hagstrom through a small Watkins (W.E.M.) Dominator also of swinging-Sixties vintage. “I tried two or three different guitars for that part to see which one would cut,” he says. “The Hagstrom had just the right tone. And the Watkins gives a very punchy sound. It’s cool for arpeggiated parts or even little solo stuff. I also used the tremolo channel on the Watkins for the tremolo sections in some songs.”

Daron Malakian tracking guitar for the second Scars on Broadway album 'Dictator' with a Gibson ES-150DC in his living room in January 2012.

Daron used the MSD Silver Machine Wah from 2003 until the end of 2005 instead the Fulltone Clyde Wah.

Daron Malakian brought this pedal to the Souls 2004. It didn't end up on his final pedalboard for the show though.

Daron's wah since 2006, it replaced the MSD Silver Machine Wah. Was also used with Scars on Broadway in 2010 and System of a Down in 2011.

Used by Daron since its release. Daron's tech is switching from clean to dirt tones with it at the side of the stage so Daron's doesn't have to care about switching amps on stage. Clean sounds come from a Marshall Plexi head or a Divided by 13 FTR-37 head and dirt sounds from a modded Marshall Plexi head.

used to mic up amp on self titled album. source from sylvia massy's (System of a Down producer) official website: http://www.sylviamassy.com/how-to/

Daron Malakian used a SGI 44 on his pedalboard during the System of a Down shows in May 2011.

Daron used a prototype of the SIB Mr. Echo pedal in 2003 and 2004. It was called Mr. Delay at that time and only 2 of these pedals were produced.

Daron used the Alesis Micron Synth together with a Roland VP-330 in 2005 and 2006 for Old School Hollywood and War?.