Fredrik Thordendal

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Fredrik Thordendal
Fredrik Thordendal performing live at Mondo, Stockholm, Sweden during May 2005.
Background information
Birth name	Fredrik Thordendal
Born	February 11, 1970 (1970-02-11) (age 39)
Origin	Umea, Sweden
Genres	Metal, jazz fusion
Occupations	Musician, guitarist
Instruments	Guitar, bass guitar, synthesizer
Associated acts	Meshuggah Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects
Notable instruments
Custom Nevborn and Ibanez 8- and 7-strings

Fredrik Thordendal (born February 11, 1970) is the lead guitarist and a founding member of the Swedish experimental metal band Meshuggah.

Musical career

Under the name Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects, Thordendal released a solo album in 1997 titled Sol Niger Within with Ultimate Audio Entertainment. The album was remixed and re-released by Ultimate Audio Entertainment and Relapse Records in 1999 under the title Sol Niger Within version 3.33. The re-release contains two bonus tracks but omits several parts of the original version. Thordendal also featured on several tracks for drummer Morgan Ågren's Mats/Morgan Band.

As a guitarist, Thordendal draws attention with his clean, complex lead-playing and complex rhythm-playing, augmented by his use of low-tuned eight-string guitars. He also contributes to the songwriting for Meshuggah, as well as providing backing vocals in live performances. He also handles the bass guitar parts in the studio whilst Dick Lövgren covers the parts live.

Thordendal is also a producer of some note, having produced all of Meshuggah's recent material and also releases for various other bands, Switzerland's Fragment among them.

Thordendal has featured in numerous side-projects, such as XXX Atomic Toejam with Petter Marklund. The project had released a 7" two-track single "Celebration" under the name Sepülchre Inc., then took the moniker XXX Atomic Toejam and issued an MCD entitled "A Gathering Of The Tribes For The First / Last Human Be-In" on Cold Meat Industry and also featured a track on the "Karmanik Collection" compilation. A full-length album was long announced, but never surfaced. Thordendal also played bass for Petter Marklund's solo project Memorandum and together with Marklund remixed tracks on the 1995 compilation album "Ars Moriendi".

Thordendal features in the Darkane track "Psychic Pain" from the album Insanity, performing lead guitar. Thordendal also contributed to the song "Asphyxiate" which can be found on Scarve's album Irradiant.

Equipment

Guitars:
Thordendal's current main guitars are Ibanez Custom 8-String which feature RG-shaped or Iceman-shaped alder bodies with 3-piece maple bolt-on/neck-thru necks (30" {750mm}), rosewood fingerboards (no inlays), fixed bridge (actually an Ibanez FX-Edge fixed tremolo), one volume, one tone, and one Lundgren Model 8 pickup. Thordendal also has a 7-string acoustic Ibanez guitar.

Tuning:
Fredrik is tuned half a note down (F,Bb,Eb,Ab,Db,Gb,Bb,Eb). "Metalkult" On May 1, 2008.

String:
String gauges: 0.70 - 0.52 - 0.46 - 0.36 - 0.26 - 0.16 - 0.11 - 0.09. "Metalkult" On May 1, 2008.

• Amplifiers and Effects used Live:
  • Line 6 Vetta II Head Units
  • Fractal Axe-Fx Ultra (obZen tour)
  • 33 MIDI Breath Controller (built by Johan Haake)
  • Clavia Nord Modular G2 Engine
  • Digitech Delay Pedal
  • 2 Unknown Pedals (probably MIDI controllers that control parameters of the Vetta Head Units)
  • T.C. Electronics Pre-Amp

• Other Amplifiers and Effects used:
  • Marshall Valvestate 8200
  • Mesa/Boogie .50 Caliber+
  • Mesa Engineering Dual-Rectifier
  • Marshall JCM800
  • Marshall 1960A cab
  • Line 6 POD Pro
  • Rocktron Juice Extractor
  • T.C. Electronics Chorus & Flanger
  • Homemade "Les Amp" Head Unit
  • Homemade 1x12" Cabinet
  • Yamaha Breath Controller
  • Volume Unit (Yamaha BC controls amount of volume that the unit will allow through)
  • ADA Rackmount Delay

Discography

Meshuggah

• Psykisk Testbild (EP, 1989)
• Contradictions Collapse (1991)
• None (EP, 1994)
• Selfcaged (USA version) (1995)
• Selfcaged (1995)
• Destroy Erase Improve (1995)
• Chaosphere (1998)
• Nothing (2002)
• I (EP, 2004)
• Catch Thirty-Three (2005)
• Nothing - Re-issue (2006)
• obZen (2008)

Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects

• Sol Niger Within (1997)

External links

• Official Meshuggah Website
• Meshuggah at MySpace
• Meshuggah at Allmusic
• Meshuggah discography at MusicBrainz
• Thordendal's pedals explained