Christian Olde Wolbers

Christian Olde Wolbers is the guitarist of the industrial metal band Arkaea. He is the former bassist and guitarist of the industrial metal band Fear Factory.

While in Fear Factory, he played bass from December 1993 to 2002 when the group disbanded. Since the group reformed in 2003, Christian has switched to guitar, replacing ex guitarist Dino Cazares (Byron Stroud of Strapping Young Lad fame filled the empty bass position). In 2009, Christian and drummer Raymond Herrera parted ways with Fear Factory when vocalist Burton C. Bell chose to reform Fear Factory with original guitarist Dino, current bassist Byron, and ex-Strapping Young Lad drummer Gene Hoglan.^[2]

In addition to his role as bass player he handled "extra sound bites" and "transforming cuts" on the group's Digimortal album. He is talented at many other instruments including keyboard, turntables and upright bass. He is also a remixer and "beat maker" working under the name "The Edgecrusher" (taken from the title of a Fear Factory song of the same name).

Wolbers did not come to North America until 1993, after being in college in 1990/1991. He joined Fear Factory in December 1993 after former bassist Andrew Shives was asked to leave the group. He met the band in Los Angeles, California through Bobby Hambel of Biohazard in Dec of 93' at a club being asked by Burton C Bell if he knew how to triple pick, before finally joining and creating the now "classic" Fear Factory line-up. Christian's recorded outputs with the band were on five albums, Demanufacture (1995), Obsolete (1998), Digimortal (2001), "Archetype" (2004), and "Transgression" (2005). In July 2005, Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws reported that Olde Wolbers was in a relationship with singer Karen Damen of the Belgian group K3. Although born in Belgium, Christian holds the Dutch nationality.

Reformation of Fear Factory

In April 2009, it was announced that Fear Factory was reforming, but longtime member Wolbers would not be included. Wolbers is currently working on musical project Arkaea with fellow ex-(founding) Fear Factory drummer Raymond Herrera^[3](re-worded).

Contributions

In 2006, he helped with the production and mixing of Danish/French metal band Mnemic's third album Passenger. He has also produced Bleed the Sky's Murder the Dance. Also in 2006 he produced Canadian band Threat Signal's debut album Under Reprisal. He has filled in as live guitarist for Korn on their European tour only for the three first shows. He appears as a guest guitar player together with singer Teri Flynn on the EP This World by breakbeat production group The Autobots. ^[4]

Equipment

In an issue of Guitar World (November 2005), for an article called "Vulgar Display of Power," in which guitarists show fans their gear, Christian credits Stephen Carpenter for his design philosophy, saying "Stephen saw me going through a spider's web of wires and cable patches, so he took me over to Bob Bradshaw (CAE) to have him build my rig... Now my setup has no problems or noise."

• Jackson Christian Olde Wolbers USA Custom Shop 7-String (red with sticker; said to be his favorite piece of gear)
• Jackson Christian Olde Wolbers USA Custom Shop 7-String - Brown/Wood
• Jackson Christian Olde Wolbers Signature 7 string Dinky Archtop - Black
• Jackson Christian Olde Wolbers Signature 7 string Dinky Archtop - Desert Camo
• Jackson King V USA Custom Shop - 7 string
• Jackson Silverburst USA Custom Shop Electric Guitar w/Tremolo
• ESP Custom Shop 7-String - Black with Stickers (As seen on the Archetype bonus DVD , and Big Day Out 2004 (Sydney Australia)
• Randall V2 Guitar Amp Head, Randall XL Series RS412XXL 260W 4x12 Guitar Extension Cabinet Black & Randall XL Series RS125XL 260W 2x12 and 1x15 Guitar Extension Cabinet Black (2007 Sponsorship)
• Custom Hufschmid 7 string shaped like a strat
• Two Digitech Wh4 Whammy Pedals
• Dunlop Crybaby Wah
• CAE r5-10 Controller
• Krank Smalltone Custom Volume Controller
• Boss DD-6 Digital Delay Pedal
• Digitech X-Series Multi-Chorus
• X-Wire Wireless Unit
• ISP Decimator Noise Reduction
• Korg DTR-2000 Rack Tuner
• CAE Custom Switcher/Interface
• Emagic MT4 Midi Unit
• Boss RGE-10 Micro Series EQ
• Whirlwind MLTDIR Multi-director
• Mac G4 Laptop (uses a program called "Guitar Rig", which he used in the studio, and it sounded "amazing," so he now uses it in his live setup, in a move he calls "the way of the future." He uses it mainly for clean tones, and the occasional weird sound effect.)
• Randall released a signature amp, the V2 Archetype.

References

External links

• Christian Olde Wolbers at MySpace
• Christian Olde Wolbers guitar rig including Guitar World scan.