Adrian Smith

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2009) (Find sources: Adrian Smith – news, books, scholar)

Adrian Smith
Background information
Birth name	Adrian Frederik Smith
Born	27 February 1957 (1957-02-27) (age 52) Hackney, East London, England
Genres	Heavy metal, progressive rock, hard rock
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Guitar, vocals, bass
Years active	1972 - present
Labels	EMI
Associated acts	Urchin, Iron Maiden, The Entire Population of Hackney, ASAP, The Untouchables, Psycho Motel, Bruce Dickinson, Kai Hansen, Michael Kiske
Website	http://www.ironmaiden.com
Notable instruments
Jackson Adrian Smith Dinky Gibson SG Lado Earth Ibanez Destroyer

Adrian Smith (born Adrian Frederik Smith, 27 February 1957, Hackney, East London, England) is an English guitarist and one of three guitarists/songwriters in the British band Iron Maiden. He also performs backing vocals on some songs, along with Steve Harris.

Biography

While at school, Adrian befriended Dave Murray and formed his first band Urchin as lead singer and lead guitarist. Adrian had bought his first guitar from Murray, a Woolworths' Top 20, for five quid (later he painted it silver and sold it again for 12 quid, as he states in the Early Days DVD). Murray left Urchin to join Iron Maiden, the new band of another local musician, Steve Harris. Smith continued to front Urchin, with limited success, until joining Maiden in early 1980 for the Killers album (released in 1981), replacing Dennis Stratton. Smith first wrote songs for Maiden on the 1982 album The Number of the Beast, and was the band's secondary songwriter from then on (often in co-operation with Bruce Dickinson). Smith and Dave Murray combined playing dual lead guitars helping to forge the trademark sound of Iron Maiden. Some notable lead duets are "The Duellists", "2 Minutes to Midnight", "The Trooper", "Alexander the Great" and "Rime of the Ancient Mariner". Notable solos include "Wasted Years", "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "The Wicker Man".

Adrian's solos are usually composed rather than improvised. His legato playing is very smooth and fast and typically even his very fast passages have a musical function and relationship to the chord structure behind the solo, drawing from modes and arpeggios which are more often from blues licks.

Smith released a solo LP with the band ASAP (Adrian Smith And Project) titled Silver and Gold in 1989. Following its release, Smith departed from Iron Maiden in 1990 when recordings for the No Prayer for the Dying album were about to start, and was replaced by Janick Gers. After releasing the experimental Somewhere in Time and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son albums, Steve Harris had decided to take the band back to a more traditional hard rock direction which can clearly be heard on the No Prayer for the Dying album. This album featured one last song co-penned by Adrian with Bruce Dickinson, "Hooks in You".

Bruce Dickinson's comment on Adrian:

"When he left the band in 1990, I think everybody was a bit surprised at how much we missed him and certainly, I don’t think anybody had realized how much the fans would miss him - big time. I wouldn’t have rejoined Iron Maiden if he wasn’t in the band. I just don’t think it would have been complete without Adrian, and now, it’s great having three guitarists."

In 1996, Adrian joined forces with former Helloween vocalist, Michael Kiske on Kiske's solo album Instant Clarity. He plays guitar on a few tracks and co-wrote a few songs.

Later, Adrian formed his alternative rock-influenced band Psycho Motel. This band was a progression from an earlier music project of his, The Untouchables, which had featured some of the members from ASAP and Jamie Stewart (former bassist of the rock group The Cult). The band recorded two albums, State of Mind (1996) and Welcome to the World (1997). Smith would also play on Bruce Dickinson's Accident of Birth and The Chemical Wedding albums. The influence of this more progressive direction, as well as Adrian's heavier rhythm guitar playing, on Iron Maiden's own performances since he rejoined the band is clear.

On 22 August 1992 Smith made a brief appearance onstage with Maiden to play "Running Free" during the Castle Donington 'Monsters Of Rock' Festival.

In 1999, Smith re-joined Iron Maiden for the "Ed Hunter tour", a tour in support of the video game of the same name. Since then, Iron Maiden have released 3 studio albums, Brave New World in 2000, Dance of Death in 2003 and A Matter of Life and Death in 2006. He remains with the band to this day.

Personal life

In his spare time, Adrian loves fishing, as can be seen on the Rock In Rio DVD.

Adrian has a wife named Nathalie, and three children, son Dylan Smith (born in 1989) and twin daughters Natasha Smith and Brittany Smith (born in 1991).

Equipment

Guitars

Smith's current preferred guitar is his Jackson signature model Dinky, though he has used a variety of others over his career including several different Dean models, Jackson, Ibanez Destroyer, Gibson Les Pauls, a Gibson Explorer, Gibson SGs and Lado Guitars. On the A Matter of Life and Death DVD he says the first decent guitar he bought was a Gibson Les Paul Goldtop that cost him £235 when he was 17; he's still using it, and "it's still probably the best guitar I've got". He had to work on a building site all summer to pay for it. Until recently when he returned to Jackson, from the late '90's through to 'A Matter of Life and Death' he mainly used 3 Fender Floyd Rose Classic Stratocasters. These Stratocasters are all totally stock instruments and his original (and main one) feature the custom wound DiMarzio humbucker made specifically for Fender for this guitar in the bridge position, and a Floyd Rose locking tremolo system. His two others - a white one which has the stock Fender DH1 humbucker in the bridge position and a Schaller Floyd Rose II tremolo On, and the back up sunburst one used on the Dance of Death tour for dropped tunings also has the standard Fender DH1 humbucker but has a Floyd Rose original. Most of Adrians guitars recently have been H/S/S style Strats however he uses the bridge humbucker almost exclusively. Adrian uses gauge 9 strings (light top/heavy bottom) and has his action set slightly higher than average. Contrary to common belief, Adrian does not use the Seymour Duncan JB Junior pickup, which is favoured by fellow Iron Maiden guitarist Janick Gers. For his solo work with Bruce Dickinson he has used (at least live) a Jackson King V guitar tuned down to D, this guitar was custom made and has a reinforced neck which has steel and carbon fibre rods either side of the truss rod as he was using heavy gauge strings (low A and E strings were Bass strings) providing a darker and heavier sound. He has also used this setup on occasion after re-joining Iron Maiden. In the booklet of their album A Matter of Life and Death, Adrian is shown with a custom double-neck Jackson Soloist. Smith used the guitar, a 6/12 string, for the song "Children of the Damned" during Iron Maiden's 2007 tour. As of August 2007, Adrian Smith is endorsing Jackson guitars, his first guitar company endorsement in over fifteen years. The latest is the Adrian Smith San Dimas Dinky.^[1]

• Three Fender American Floyd Rose Classic Stratocasters (two sunburst the second being used as a backup instrument) equipped with an original Floyd Rose double-locking tremolo system his main one is an early one and featurs a custom wound DiMarzio humbucking pickup and the other, which is a later model with the Fender DH1 humbucker. 1 white one which, production wise falls between the two sunburst models, this one has a Schaller Floyd Rose II and the Fender DH1 humbucker in the bridge. the mid and neck single coils on all guitars are also the stock pickups.
• Two Gibson SGs (the second is normally used as a backup guitar).

Adrian has around 30 guitars in his collection. This is the list of guitars which can be seen on various pictures;

• Jackson Adrian Smith San Dimas Dinky guitars
• At least seven Jackson/Charvel custom Stratocasters/Superstrats, one of them with integrated MIDI systems
• At least four custom Lados (two Lado Earths, one Lazer with MIDI system, and a Lado custom Strat)
• At least four Fender Stratocasters
• At least three Gibson Les Pauls
• At least five Gibson SGs
• Ibanez Destroyer II
• Ibanez Roadstar
• Dean Baby ML
• Roland G-707 MIDI guitar
• At least two ESP Mirages
• Hamer Standard
• Squier Telecaster
• Jackson custom doubleneck Soloist
• Jackson KV2
• Ovation acoustic guitar
• Taylor acoustic guitar
• Woolworths Top 20

Specifications

For Jackson Adrian Smith San Dimas Dinky with white scratch plate (Main guitar):

• Alder body
• Ebony fretboard
• Ernie Ball Strings (.009, - .046)
• Tuning: Standard (low to high: E A D G B E)
• Fender SCN Samarium Cobalt Noiseless pickups (neck and middle)
• DiMarzio Super Distortion (bridge)
• Floyd Rose tremolo

For Jackson Adrian Smith San Dimas Dinky with black scratch plate:

• Alder body
• Maple fretboard
• Ernie Ball Strings (.009, - .046)
• Tuning: Drop-D (low to high: D A D G B E)
• Fender SCN Samarium Cobalt Noiseless pickups (neck and middle)
• DiMarzio Super Distortion (bridge)
• Floyd Rose tremolo

For the sunburst Fender American Stratocasters:

• Ernie Ball Strings (.009, - .046)
• Tuning: Standard (low to high: E A D G B E)
• Fender Texas Special Pickups (neck and middle)
• custom wound DiMarzio and Fender DH1 humbuckers(bridge)

For the Gibson SG:

• Ernie Ball Strings (.009, - .046)
• Tuning: Drop-D (low to high: D A D G B E)
• Stock Pickups

For the Gibson Les Paul Deluxe Goldtop:

• Tuning: It's changing. On his early tours, Powerslave tour and Chemmical Wedding tour was this guitar tuned standard. On Accident Of Birth and Somewhere Back In Time tour 2009 was this guitar tuned to Drop-D tuning.
• Ernie Ball Strings (.009, - .046)
• DiMarzio Super Distortion (bridge)
• Gibson Mini Humbucker - original pickup (neck)
• This is Adrian's favourite axe as he says on The Making Of A Matter Of Life And Death DVD.

Effects, controllers and processors

• Dunlop Wah Controller
• Yamaha MFC10 Midi Foot Controller
• Digitech Whammy Pedal
• Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer
• Mike Hill B.I.S. Isolation hole

Amplifiers

• Two 300-Watt Marshall 1960A Angled-Front 8x12 Cabs

Loaded with 75-Watt Celestion G12-T75 Speakers

• Two Marshall 30th Anniversary 6100LM 100-Watt All-Tube Heads

Units and tuners

• Shure U4 Wireless Receiver
• Whirlwind Multi-Selector 4-Channel Selector
• Dunlop DCR-1SR Rack Wah
• Peavey Tubefex Tube Preamp & Multi-Fx Unit

Reference: Guitar World December 2006

Equipment of the Somewhere Back In Time Tour

• Jackson Custom Strats with ebony and maple necks
• DiMarzio Super Distortion Humbuckers
• Gibson SG
• Gibson Les Paul Gold Top
• Double Neck Jackson
• Marshall DSL heads
• Lexican MX200 FX
• Dunlop rack wah
• Ibanez Tubescreamer
• Yamaha Midi footswitch

Discography

Urchin

• Black Leather Fantasy (1977)
• She's A Roller (1977)
• Urchin (2004)- Best of/Compilation

Iron Maiden

• Killers (1981)
• The Number of the Beast (1982)
• Piece of Mind (1983)
• Powerslave (1984)
• Live After Death (1985)
• Somewhere in Time (1986)
• Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988)
• Brave New World (2000)
• Rock in Rio (2002)
• Dance of Death (2003)
• Death on the Road (2005)
• A Matter of Life and Death (2006)
• Flight 666 (2009)

A.S.A.P.

• Silver and Gold (1989)

Psycho Motel

• State of Mind (1996)
• Welcome to the World (1997)

Bruce Dickinson

• Accident of Birth (1997)
• The Chemical Wedding (1998)
• Scream for Me Brazil (1999)

Guest appearances

• Earthshaker (1983) - Earthshaker - wrote and "gave" them "Dark Angel", he does not actually appear on this album.
• Hear 'n Aid (1985) – "Stars"
• Rock Aid Armenia – The Earthquake Album (1989) – "Smoke on the Water"
• Iron Maiden - Live at Donington (1993) - "Running Free"
• Michael Kiske – Instant Clarity (1996) – "The Calling", "New Horizons"
• Humanary Stew: A Tribute to Alice Cooper (1998) – "Black Widow"
• "Various Artists" (2005) - Welcome to Nightmare: An All-Star to Alice

References