Marty Friedman’s MF-1 Is ‘More Than Just a Metal Guitar’

Marty Friedman’s longest relationship, even with girls, is with Jackson. Or so he jokes in this exclusive video that covers his lengthy history with the company and what led to returning to the fold to develop his new MF-1 signature models.

“I started with Jackson before I even had any kinds of dreams of being endorsed by anybody,” recalls Friedman in an exclusive video interview with Jackson. “I just wanted to play the guitar.”

So Friedman saved up his money and purchased his first Jackson guitar –– one that he would play for several years during his time with Cacophony and Hawaii. During his tenure with Megadeth in the 1990s, Friedman inked an endorsement deal with Jackson and enjoyed his very own signature Kelly. As he moved on to other projects and began focusing more on his solo career, Friedman also worked with other guitar companies but after the release of his acclaimed 2014 solo album, he gravitated back home to Jackson.

“I did an album called Inferno and it had just the most massive amount of guitar on this record, and when I went on tour I was just realizing that I needed more of an overall metal workhorse guitar,” explains Friedman. “When you are playing live and playing really aggressive, heavy stuff most of the time, I found that the Jackson guitars suited me more for that Inferno tour than the previous guitar I had.”

But Friedman wanted more than “just” a metal guitar — one that could go from a full blazing, super heavy track to a super, super mushy ballad and everything in between.

In the clip below, Friedman explains more about the development process to achieve his ask and discusses a few of the key features of his new Jackson signature guitars.  The footage also highlights Friedman’s fretboard mastery and finesse as he plays his USA model and provides additional exclusive snippets from his upcoming album Wall of Sound, due out August 4.