System Of A Down's John Dolmayan was seen with Yamaha Absolute Hybrid Maple drums in 2025, after years on a Tama Starclassic kit with a Tama signature snare and Paiste cymbals. Daron Malakian uses Friedman BE-100 heads, Gibson SGs and Ibanez Icemen, and Shavo Odadjian has played Thunderbirds, Warwick basses and Ashdown signature amps.
“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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“It’s a Tama Starclassic kit, which sounds great.”
“I use Paiste cymbals, mostly from their Signature line, but with a couple of Dimensions in there as well.”
“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.”
“the board is dead simple, with just an MXR Phase 90 and Boss DD-6 delay.”
John Dolmayan joined Yamaha in 2025 to play Absolute Hybrid Maple drums and hardware. On Mezmerize and Hypnotize he played a Tama Starclassic kit with two kick drums, plus a 14x6 John Dolmayan signature snare, with Paiste Signature and Dimensions cymbals including a 22-inch Dimension Mega-Bell ride.
A 1962 Gibson SG Standard leads, with Ibanez Icemen (his DMM1 signature came out in 2004), a Gibson Flying V and an ES-335; the SG, Iceman and V carry Seymour Duncan pickups. Early on he played a Fender Big Apple Strat, and on Mezmerize a 1964 Gibson SG Special and a Jackson Randy Rhoads V.
Two generations of Friedman BE-100 heads into Marshall 4x12 cabinets with Celestion G12M-70 speakers. On Mezmerize and Hypnotize he recorded through a 100-watt Marshall JMP100 with one channel modified for extra gain.
A dead simple board with an MXR Phase 90 and a Boss DD-6 delay, run through a Voodoo Lab GCX switcher and Ground Control Pro, with an MXR Smart Gate Pro in his rack and Ernie Ball .010 to .050 strings.
He started on Ibanez BTB basses and played Gibson Thunderbirds for most of System's career. Since 2017 he has played Warwick, including a custom Idolmaker and custom Streamers, through his Ashdown signature amps, the Shavo 1000 and the 2025 SO-1200.
System Of A Down are the Los Angeles metal band of Serj Tankian, Daron Malakian, Shavo Odadjian and John Dolmayan, behind Toxicity and Mezmerize. This guide covers the band's gear past and present: Malakian's Gibson SGs, Ibanez Icemen, Friedman and Marshall amps and his 2025 rack, Odadjian's Ibanez, Gibson Thunderbird and Warwick basses with Ashdown amps, and Dolmayan's drums and Paiste cymbals from the Tama years to his Yamaha switch.
truerecs put this guide together from public videos, interviews and posts. Each item says how we know and links to the source. System Of A Down didn't write it or choose anything on it. How we source gear guides.
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