Alexi Laiho

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Alexi Laiho

Background information
Markku Uula Aleksi Laiho
Birth name
Also known as Wildchild
April 8, 1979 (age 36)
Born
Espoo, Finland
Melodic death metal, power metal,
neo-classical metal, thrash metal,
Genres
symphonic black metal
Occupation(s) Musician, singer-songwriter
Guitars, vocals, drums, bass,
Instruments
keyboards, violin, banjo
Years active 1993present
Spinefarm, Nuclear Blast, Century
Labels
Media
Children of Bodom, Sinergy,
Associated
Kylhullut, Impaled Nazarene, Thy
acts
Serpent
www.cobhc.com
Website
Notable instruments

ESP Alexi Laiho Signature Models, Jackson Randy

Rhoads Customs
Alexi "Wildchild" Laiho (born Markku Uula Aleksi Laiho[citation needed]; April 8, 1979) is a
Finnish vocalist, composer, and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead guitarist as well
as lead vocalist for melodic death metal band Children of Bodom, and he is also the guitarist
for Sinergy and Kylhullut. He has previously played with Thy Serpent and Impaled
Nazarene on occasion, as well as Warmen and Hypocrisy.
Laiho was ranked #96 out of 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Guitarists of All Time by Guitar
World.[1] Guitar World magazine has also ranked him as one of the 50 fastest guitarists in the
world.[2] In addition, Roadrunner Records ranked Laiho at #41 out of 50 of The Greatest
Metal Frontmen of All Time.[3] In addition to this, Total Guitar did a voting poll to determine
the greatest metal guitarist of all time and he was voted #1 out of 20 metal guitarists.

Contents

1 Career
2 Guitar endorsements
3 Equipment
4 Tunings
5 Discography
6 See also
7 References

Career
In 2004, Laiho founded a side-project called Kylhullut, which was assembled together with
Tonmi Lillman (ex-Sinergy) and Vesa Jokinen 69er (from Klamydia). The band was created
merely for the entertainment of the musicians, and takes a carefree approach to their music.
The band's discography includes two EP's, and two full-length albums.
In February 2002 Alexi married Kim Goss during a private ceremony in Finland. Prior to the
marriage, they dated for four years. In 2004 they separated, but still remain close friends. He
has the letters "COBHC" (Children of Bodom Hate Crew) tattooed on his left hand and
"HATE" tattooed on his right hand as an homage to Ozzy Osbourne, who has a similar tattoo
with the letters O-Z-Z-Y, except it's on the left hand. Alexi has been featured on the cover of
Young Guitar Magazine several times, as well as being on the cover of Guitar World along
with master guitarists Steve Vai and Zakk Wylde. The "Wildchild" nickname is derived from
the song "Wild Child" by the band W.A.S.P. He also has a clothing line called "wild child
industries". His first guitar was a Tokai Stratocaster.[citation needed]
Children of Bodom Played the 2008 Metal Hammer Golden Gods awards, Laiho also received
the Dimebag Award for "Best Shredder", and he performed a track off of Children of
Bodom's 2008's album, Blooddrunk.
Laiho appears on Canadian thrash metal outfit Annihilator's 2007 album, Metal, as a guest,
performing a guitar solo on the song "Downright Dominate".

In spring of 2009 Children of Bodom was forced to drop out of their North American "No
Fear Energy Tour" when Laiho broke his wrist after falling out of his bunk when the tour bus
took a sharp turn on April 26, 2009, after the show in Palladium Ballroom, Dallas TX. Laiho
originally planned to continue touring despite his injury, but was forced to cancel the last 6
dates when any efforts to alleviate the pain failed.
On July 3, 2012, Children of Bodom announced on their Facebook page that they had to
cancel 2 European shows because Alexi had been taken to the hospital. The band released this
statement: It is with great regret that we are forced to cancel tonights show in Oslo as well
as tomorrow nights show in Malm. Alexi was rushed to the Oslo hospital earlier this
evening with extreme stomach pain. The doctors in the emergency unit checked him and
while we are still waiting for a diagnosis, they made clear that he will not be able to perform
within the next 48 hours. We apologize to all our fans who have bought tickets to these shows
we will try to reschedule both Oslo and Malm at the earliest possibility. Keep your fingers
crossed with us that Alexi will get well again soon!
And on July 5, 2012, the band followed up with another update from their Facebook page:
This is not an easy letter for us to write. Alexi is suffering from a serious infection. He is still
in hospital in Oslo under supervision of the doctors and we dont know yet when they will
release him. We have no choice other than canceling Ruisrock in Turku on Saturday as well.
This is a very bitter pill for us to swallow. We had decided to do only two festivals in our
homeland this summer to make it real special, and now this. We hope that we will be able to
make up for this very soon. To all our fans who had been looking forward to rock with us at
Ruisrock this weekend, take our apologies and enjoy the festival. In our spirits, we will be
there, too.

Guitar endorsements
In January 2003, ESP Guitars announced a line of Alexi Laiho Signature Models. The US
version guitars are a slightly different shape than what Alexi usually plays, as the SV shape is
a copyrighted Jackson shape. So to avoid a lawsuit, ESP made the bottom horn slightly larger
and also put in a cut-away to get to the higher frets, like a modified B.C. Rich Ironbird.
Another difference is the use of solid black or yellow pinstripes on the paint finish instead of
his traditional pinstriped design which lies on the bevels of the guitar.
The guitar comes in two finishes: black with yellow stripe and white with black stripe. The
guitar has a neck-thru 25.5 design, using a 3-pc unfinished maple neck with a 24-fret ebony
fingerboard and pearl sawtooth inlays, although Alexi does not actually use these in live
shows
The ESP Alexi includes white binding on neck and head, the ESP custom shop version comes
with a natural maple neck while the LTD is painted, and it comes with professional-quality
components including a Floyd Rose original tremolo, Gotoh tuners, Schaller straplocks and a
single Seymour Duncan AHB-1 in the bridge position, (or an EMG HZ H4 humbucker).
Alexi's personal guitars, as well as Custom shop, Standard, and the models made for the US
market are equipped with an MM-04 preamp.
As of 2007, a cheaper model (the Alexi- 200) is also available, in either solid black or white
finish. It's a bolt on, 25.5" Scale with the body made out of basswood, with a maple neck and
rosewood fingerboard. It features a Floyd Rose Licensed bridge and one EMG-ESP LH-301
bridge pickup. There is also a Limited Edition Alexi signature guitar (the ESP LTD Alexi-

600SE) which is black and pink. He also has a Custom Shop and Standard version of the
Black and Pink guitar in his traditional pinstriped design that is not available in the USA.
There are seven ESP models that he actually uses (custom shop models are mostly seen in
Japan)

ESP Alexi Laiho "Greeny" signature model

1. Scythe (available in Standard version, Custom Shop Version and USA version) white with
black pinstripes and Scythe inlays,Chrome hardware
2. Arrow Head (Alexi's first ESP signature) (Only available in Custom Shop version) Black
with solid yellow pinstripes very much like the USA Alexi and the Alexi 600 but with pearl
Arrow Head inlays, Gold hardware
3. Sawtooth (Custom Shop Version) Black with luminous pinstripes and luminous sawtooth
inlays (Standard Version) Black with white pinstripes and pearl sawtooth inlays both the CS
and STD version are available in chrome or gold hardware
4. Katakana (originally there were 10 made for the Finnish market, now available in a STD
version) Black with yellow pinstripes 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 frets with pearl sawtooth inlays katakana
(Japanese letter) inlays in the 12 fret which spelled "Alexi", gold hardware with larger
cutaway, frets 2124 scalloped.
5. Pink Sawtooth (STD&CS) Black with Pink pinstripes pink sawtooth inlays frets 2024
scalloped, black hardware with larger cutaway
6. Blacky (STD&CS&USA) Matte black with gloss black pinstripes black pearl sawtooth
inlays, frets 2024 scalloped, black nickel hardware with larger cutaway
7. Greeny Matte black, light green pinstripes and green skeleton.
Note: The 2010 version of Scythe, Sawtooth, and Arrow Head has the larger cutaway like the
Pink Sawtooths

Equipment
Alexi Laiho has used the Lee Jackson GP-1000 preamp from the very beginning of his career
and up until his endorsement with ENGL, still always employed it with various other different
amps and preamps, creating a stereo of Amp sounds. Note that, for the first half of his career,
he used Marshall 1960A cabinets (with 75 watt Celestion speakers) and various power amps,
including Lee Jackson Sp-1000, Rocktron Velocity 300 among others. After Hate Crew
Deathroll, he started experimenting with different amp heads including the Krank Revolution,
Marshall JCM800 KK (which he used to record Blooddrunk, and which he still uses

frequently), and the Engl Special Edition EL34 head (in sinergy, mainly). As of late August
2011, Alexi is now signed with Engl and is currently using the e530 preamp with various
poweramp and cabinet combinations since their last 2011 tour.
Laiho first used an Ibanez RG 220B (maple fingerboard) along with a Jackson Custom Shop
(bought from a member of the Finnish band STONE,(Jiri), which Roope Latvala was part of)
to record the first Children of Bodom record and eventually switched completely to Jackson
Guitars which he used for several years until 2 of his 3 Jacksons (the one with the WildChild
sticker and the one with white pinstripes) were stolen. He asked Jackson to make him another
one, but the time-table they gave him for its production was too long (around a years time).
ESP came to him and said that it would take around 3 months for his new signature model to
be up and running, so Alexi took this offer. Thus he switched to ESP guitars. The change
occurred shortly after the release of Hate Crew Deathroll. His ESP guitars are based on the
Jackson Randy Rhoads, except the body is cut slightly different on North American models.
They all feature a single bridge pickup and double-locking tremolo. He is known for using a
passive EMG ALX pickup with an on board active preamp circuit to boost the output signal
as oppose to active pickups. Laiho uses Audiotech Guitar Products Source Selector 1X6 Rack
Mount Audio Switchers.
He also uses DR Strings Hi-Beam 1150 gauge for D Standard tuning. For Drop C, he uses
DR Jeff Healey Signature 1056 Strings. He has also recently been given a signature set of
DR strings. He uses Jim Dunlop Jazz III picks.