THE AXEMEN SERIES : Thanos Grigoriou of Phase

1.Tell us your name and the band you play for

 

Thanos Grigoriou, Phase

2.Who made you want to pick up the guitar

Ritchie Blackmore

3.Are you self taught or did you take lessons?

Had very few lessons, probably about 10, but most of the work was done by ear, or by downloading incorrect tablatures in text format back in the late 90’s

4. Can you read music, Can you read tab?

I can read sheet music, with staves and all, but not prima vista level- I do just fine with tabs,we’ll have a book with sheet music out soon as well!

5.Do you feel like you have your own sound / tone ?

 

100% ! Slight distortion and lousy guitar playing that is!

6.Tell us about your guitar ( brand ,model . year , color )

Right my main instruments are a 2016 Epiphone Les paul custom, another Black Les Paul that is essentially the first guitar I bought back in 2008 with money that I saved by working on an internet cafe, and it has a line6 variax transplanted in it by FonMusic. I also play an Epiphone ej200 acoustic guitar

7.What about pickups? Passive or active ? Tell us about them

They're all passive. Epiphone alnico humbuckers and I have a Tony Iommi bridge pickup on the Frankenstein project guitar.

8.Lets get into amplification, Same drill brand , model , speakers etc

I play a VOX 100VR 2x15"

9.Do you have a pedal board? Tell us about that badboy

I have a small pedal train, with the tuner being my favorite one. I play cheap replica pedals like kokko distortion and that, a behringer phaser, a crybaby my mate Arman Esfandiari hi as gifted to me and that's pretty much it. I will invest on some expensive delay units to put on the amps loop,but I wouldn't spend much on simple signal processing effects.

10..Now tell us your Dream Rig in detail…..

  

I'll buy an AC30 or an old fender next chance I get, just because they look cool and simply they reached cult status by people that played them, just because they didn't have much of an option. Kemper looks cool too. Nothing too fancy.

11.What guitarist can you not stand?

Yngwie Malmsteen

12. Is tone more important or is technique?

I think only the songs matter, everything else is secondary

13. Name your top 5 guitarists

Jimmy Paige, Ritchie Blackmore, Keith Ritchards, Rory Gallagher, Jimi Hendrix

14.Who is the most overrated guitarist

John Petrucci

15.Who would you like a one hour private sit down lessons with anyone dead or alive?

I don’t know about lessons but I’d happily go on a bender with Jimi Hendrix