{"id":643325,"date":"2026-08-18T09:49:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T09:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/643325\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T09:49:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T09:49:14","slug":"meet-michael-w-klein-the-builder-behind-some-of-metals-most-brutal-guitar-tones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/643325\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Michael W. Klein, the builder behind some of metal\u2019s most brutal guitar tones"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes, Michael W. Klein is tagged in posts filled with horrifying noises. They\u2019ve been shared online by musicians fighting to contain the fury and chaos of his Oni pedal, a high-gain collaboration with God\u2019s Hate and Twitching Tongues guitarist Taylor Young that\u2019s capable of peeling skin from skulls. \u201cI\u2019m like a proud father watching their kid round the bases,\u201d Klein says with a laugh when he brings up the videos. \u201cGod, that thing is nasty.\u201d<\/p>\n

If he wanted to, Klein could field a whole baseball team of bench-clearing brawlers, having spent the past decade building a rep as an amp<\/a> and pedal<\/a> maker of particular renown among artists whose tastes run to these kinds of extremes. Alongside Young, also an in-demand producer whose Los Angeles-headquartered studio The Pit has become a hub for musicians seeking grimy, mosh-forward textures, his champions include Sammy Duet, of Goatwhore and sludge-metal comeback kids Acid Bath, Matt Harvey, main man of San Jose death metal veterans Exhumed, and thrash titan Gary Holt<\/a>, who riffs in both Slayer<\/a> and Exodus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sitting in his basement workshop as we talk over Zoom, Klein wears a cream Eyehategod shirt while surrounded by boxes of stuff \u2013 miscellaneous tools, screws, cables, stuff \u2013 that he\u2019ll put to work in pursuit of noises that would terrify the average person on the street. \u201cI hate to use the word craftsmanship,\u201d he says, trailing off. But, in fairness, what other word is there? Klein\u2019s approach is a fascinating marriage of creativity, technology and old-school trial and error \u2013 he will do the scut work of populating a circuit board by hand while contemplating what it means to devote love and care to something so outwardly confrontational.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spoken with Taylor, Sammy, Matt about this \u2013 it\u2019s almost like those guys and myself are philosophically grounded and driven,\u201d he says. \u201cAs a fan of heavy music I tend to gravitate towards music that feels that way as I\u2019m experiencing it. I\u2019m into builders who are that way, too, like Dean Costello. When you hear his amps, and you see how he builds them, it\u2019s so clear that there\u2019s deeper meaning behind it. I\u2019ve been fortunate that other nerds see that in my stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MichaelMichael W. Klein. Image: Kelly Powell, Elements Brand HausDon\u2019t Quit Your Day Job<\/p>\n

Klein is fully aware that he is never going to be a unit-shifter of any real note, and equally steadfast in his desire not to be. Based in Kansas City, he has a full-time job that he has no intention of quitting and his equipment is produced in small runs that are pored over in his spare time, reflecting a passion that has been there since he was a teenager studying the chugs on Metallica<\/a> records. \u201cA friend I used to jam with would tease me about how I spent more time trying to get my guitar rig to sound like [Sepultura<\/a>\u2019s] Chaos A.D. than playing together,\u201d Klein recalls.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the vibrant messageboard scene of the early internet opened doors in terms of starter-pack electronics knowledge and records that pushed his metal<\/a> fandom towards more esoteric realms. When he emerged from college completely broke and minus all the gear he\u2019d sold to buy food and other unfortunate necessities, Klein stopped short of replacing it. What if, he thought, instead of chasing gear that may or may not sound the way he wants it to, he made it himself? \u201cIt just built from there over time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the first tube amps I built was a 40-watt simplified Dumble<\/a> circuit,\u201d he continues. \u201cI had never done anything from scratch quite like that. I remember finishing it, measuring everything, doing startup and it sounded great. That was a turning point for me. In my mind, there were so many legends about tube circuits, specific builders, and all this black magic. I realised there wasn\u2019t anything special \u2013 if I could do it, anyone could.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MWKImage: Kelly Powell, Elements Brand HausAccess All Areas<\/p>\n

This punk commitment to accessibility is fundamental to Klein\u2019s approach \u2013 he keeps his prices as low as possible, especially considering the labour involved, and is really only in it to help other people make the cool stuff he\u2019s always liked. Once he realised he could do it, it was a short hop to thinking he\u2019d like to bring some of the sounds in artists\u2019 heads screaming into reality. A crucial moment arrived in 2015 when, following an Exhumed show, he wandered over to Harvey and offered to buy him a drink.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him how much I appreciated what he does,\u201d Klein remembers. \u201cI was like, \u2018I build guitar stuff, and if there\u2019s anything you\u2019d ever like to have, I would be honoured to build it.\u2019 He had a pretty lofty idea \u2013 a preamp that had the distortion<\/a> channel of an Ampeg<\/a> VH-140C, a clean channel, and then built-in reverb<\/a> that was assignable to either channel. At that time, I was making my circuit boards by hand, drilling every pad, etching them. That was a logistical nightmare to tackle, and it was also such a blast. That was the impetus for the word of mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, Klein approached Duet with a similar offer through Instagram, while Young was introduced to his work by his former Nails bandmate Leon del Muerte, who was himself introduced to Klein by Harvey, his former Exhumed bandmate. The circle, it spins. Now, having seen Klein in action, they\u2019re all intent on hipping people to what\u2019s going down in Missouri. \u201cI really like working with DIY people,\u201d Young observes. \u201cAnd it doesn\u2019t get more DIY than Michael\u2019s \u2018only-man\u2019 operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OniOni pedal. Image: Kelly Powell, Elements Brand HausOni Option<\/p>\n

To make Oni, Klein was tasked with turning a \u201cpedal<\/a> chain of ridiculousness\u201d into a box that Young estimates still gets used on 50 per cent of sessions at The Pit. \u201cIt was a combo of the original Slayer tone, an OD-1, Boss<\/a> 10-band EQ and a RAT<\/a> to get more grit and slime out of it,\u201d Young says. \u201cI floated Michael an idea for this chain as a pedal and he sprinted with it. We landed on modded versions of each pedal in one box, but each with their own individual low boost, and a switch to choose which is first in the internal chain.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Acid Bath playing stadiums alongside System of a Down<\/a> thanks to a Crowbar-style TikTok glow up, plenty of eyes will also be resting on Klein and Duet\u2019s Tube Screamer<\/a>-esque Dybbuk pedal and their SPD100 amplifier, which both featured in Klein\u2019s latest drop. Crucially, though, he\u2019s not just slapping famous names onto things in order to glom some of their buzz. He\u2019s making tools that are there to be used. \u201cI like everything to make sense and have a purpose,\u201d Klein says, and that extends to the process itself.<\/p>\n

On one hand, each component finding its right place is about doing the job to the best of his ability, but on the other it\u2019s also about how it makes him feel. \u201cThe thing I realised over time is that I was not only building and designing and modding stuff for this love of guitar tone, it was also a way of managing mental health issues,\u201d Klein notes. \u201cI\u2019m dealing with depression and anxiety and suicidal thoughts, all this stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a way for me to work with my hands and be creative in a way that helped quiet that stuff down, at least temporarily,\u201d he continues. \u201cI\u2019m in a better place than I\u2019ve been in a while. But that is still there. It\u2019s crazy for me that people are interested in this thing I\u2019ve done for myself, because I\u2019m a hopeless nerd and because I have difficulties. If that interest suddenly stopped, I would still be down here in my shop building stuff because I need to. And, because it\u2019s fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sometimes, Michael W. Klein is tagged in posts filled with horrifying noises. They\u2019ve been shared online by musicians…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[264],"tags":[153345,128876,18,117,19,4286,17,7163,337,87758],"class_list":["post-643325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-amplifiers","tag-effects","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-industry","tag-ireland","tag-metal","tag-music","tag-pedals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117115891202429110","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}