On System of a Down's 2025 stadium shows, Daron Malakian uses two Friedman BE-100 heads, a BE-100 Deluxe for dirt and a first-gen BE-100 for cleans, into Marshall 4x12s with Celestion G12M-70s. His board is just an MXR Phase 90 and a Boss DD-6, and he has said his 1962 Gibson Les Paul SG Standard is on nearly every recording since Mezmerize.
“pretty much all my guitars since Mezmerize and Hypnotize have been recorded with a 1962 LP SG Standard I have.”
“This one's rocking a pair of Seymour Duncan Saturday Night Special pickups.”
“The newer BE-100 Deluxe head (below) is used for dirty tones, while the first-gen BE-100 (above) stays dialed for cleans.”
“He runs two generations of Friedman BE-100 heads at the same time”
“The speakers are Celestion G12M-70s.”
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“pretty much all my guitars since Mezmerize and Hypnotize have been recorded with a 1962 LP SG Standard I have.”
“This one's rocking a pair of Seymour Duncan Saturday Night Special pickups.”
“The newer BE-100 Deluxe head (below) is used for dirty tones, while the first-gen BE-100 (above) stays dialed for cleans.”
“He runs two generations of Friedman BE-100 heads at the same time”
“The speakers are Celestion G12M-70s.”
“Malakian's main guitar for distorted tones was a 1962 Gibson SG through a 100-watt Marshall JMP100 amp and a single 4x12 cab.”
“Loaded onto Malakian's rack above the amp heads are a Shure AD4Q, Radial JX 44, MXR Smart Gate Pro, Voodoo Lab GCX, AmpRx Backline, and Furman PL-Pro DMC.”
“In addition to a Voodoo Lab Ground Control Pro switcher, Akai MPK Mini, and Scarlett Focusrite interface, the board is dead simple”
“the board is dead simple, with just an MXR Phase 90 and Boss DD-6 delay.”
“A Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus fires up the affair.”
“I learned how to play Iron Man, that was one of the first chord progressions that I learned”
“Crazy Train was another.”
“Then when I was 17 or 18 years old, my life completely changed, and I attribute that to the Beatles.”
Black-and-gold Gibsons and his Ibanez Iceman. Premier Guitar's 2025 Rig Rundown shows a Custom Shop SG, an Iceman with Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates, a Flying V with Saturday Night Specials and an ES-335. In the studio he has said his 1962 Les Paul SG Standard is on nearly everything since Mezmerize.
Friedman. He runs a BE-100 Deluxe for dirty tones and a first-generation BE-100 for cleans into two Marshall 4x12 cabinets loaded with Celestion G12M-70s. Earlier, Guitar World saw a 100-watt Marshall JMP100 with a modded channel.
Very few. Premier Guitar found just an MXR Phase 90 and a Boss DD-6 on a board switched by a Voodoo Lab Ground Control Pro, with an Akai MPK Mini and a Pedal Power 2 Plus. All of his drive comes from the Friedman.
Premier Guitar reports a custom Ernie Ball set, .010 to .050, and custom extra-pointy Dunlop picks, with most of System's catalog in drop C.
He learned Black Sabbath's Iron Man and Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train first, grew up on Kiss and Slayer, and has said the Beatles changed his life at 17 or 18 after he heard Strawberry Fields Forever.
Daron Malakian is the guitarist, co-vocalist and main songwriter of System of a Down, and the frontman of Scars on Broadway. This guide covers the guitars, Friedman amps, rack and pedalboard from Premier Guitar's 2025 Rig Rundown, the SG he has recorded with since Mezmerize, and the records he has said shaped him.
truerecs put this guide together from public videos, interviews and posts. Each item says how we know and links to the source. Daron Malakian didn't write it or choose anything on it. How we source gear guides.
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