Nigel Tufnel

Who: Lead guitarist with legendary metal band Spinal Tap. Immortalized in Marti Dibergi's 1984 film documentary (or if you will, rockumentary) "This Is Spinal Tap".

Albums: Only the film soundtrack album and 1995's Break Like The Wind are still available, though you can still get some of their classics if you hunt them down - original albums Brainhammer, Intravenous de Milo, The Sun Never Sweats, Shark Sandwich, Smell the Glove and Heavy Metal Memories were hugely popular with people that liked them.

Innovative?: His playing is so frighteningly fast that he actually has a fully-functional speedometer built into the body of this four humbuckered Music Man. Nigel is also the inventor of the 'amp capo', a three foot wide contraption that fits across the from of a 4x12, and changes the key of a song as you lift the capo up the speaker cab, by sonically squeezing the cones.

Techniques: In addition to playing electric guitar with a violin, he has created a style similar to two handed tapping, called two handed clapping. "Can't have clapping without two hands can you" he claims. On stage Nigel has played the guitar with a frisbee, a fish, costume jewelry and a prosthetic hook.

Guitar Gear:Nigel has a collection of guitars, which he plays, and cherishes. On the last world tour (1992) he originally planned to take 150 of them on the road with him, but whittled this down to a more practical 50 due to the prohibitive cost of guitar stands. Both of the Tap guitarists use specially modified amplifiers which go to eleven, which is one louder than the standard Marshall amp head. Nigel's other signature guitar, the NT Custom, is a Jackson/Marshall hybrid, which has a body shaped like a Marshall stack. It features a detachable extension cabinet, the functions of which is to make it harder to lift, just like a real stack.

He's Good Then: In addtion to being a brilliant guitar and bass player, Nigel also plays mandolin (check out the awesome Mixolydian cross-picking in Stonehenge), keyboard (the sad but beautiful D minor arpeggios in Lick My Love Pump) and sitar. Incidentally, he did not learn to play sitar by listening to Ravi Shankar. Nigel got interested in sitar by accidently listening to Chuck Berry 45's (round black things with a large hole in the center) at 78 RPM.

Controversial?:The lyrics of the chorus to Taps 1991 hit Bitch School ran thus: "I'm gonna chain you / Make you sleep our of doors / You'reso fetching when you're down on all fours / And when you hear your master / You will come a little faster, thanks to / Bitch School." The band were initially accused of sexism until Nigel pointed out his love of animals - the song is really about dog training.