Zakk Wylde launched his namesake gear brand, Wylde Audio, in 2015, in partnership with Schecter guitars. Consequently, that means there is no official website for the Ozzy Osbourne shredder’s brand as it sits within the Schecter stable, and it seems someone has capitalized on the vacant domain name to have an eyebrow-raising field day with Wylde-audio.com.
To date, the actual company has released a range of interesting electric guitars with all-new body shapes, from the Barbarian’s Viking-flavored take on the SG to the SG-meets-Flying-V Warhammer, and some slightly more garish designs, too.
As things stand, no pedals or amps have been released under the Wylde Audio banner, although Wylde has worked with Jim Dunlop and MXR on several signature stompboxes in recent years.
Thus, for the past decade, whether playing with Ozzy, Black Label Society, or more recently Pantera, Zakk Wylde has typically brandished his own-brand axes on stages across the globe. It’s a move that makes perfect sense as he looks to shine a light on his builds and shift a few more units in the process.
However, while covering the release of Wylde Audio’s latest creation, the brutally named Blood Skull Berzerker for Guitar Worldthis writer came across the imposter site. It’s full of extremely bizarre claims, crude AI imagery, and red flags aplenty.
Its first claim, icing the website’s ‘About Us’ section is that, “for over 50 years, Wylde Audio has been creating some of the most iconic and cutting-edge musical instruments and audio equipment in the industry.”
But it gets stranger the deeper you dive, with LA-based luthier Joe Wylde supposed to have founded the company in 1965. His craftsmanship quickly “spread among LA’s music community”, with famous LA residents Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, and Jimmy Page all falsely said to be early customers.
It’s also worth noting that the ‘firm’ is listed as being based out of El Paso, Texas dispite several mentions of its LA workshop.
Further still, there are mentions of signature artists, all of which are credited as using guitars, effects, and amplifiers that simply do not exist.
Metallica’s Kirk Hammett supposedly uses “the Berzerker Fuzz to craft his thrashing solos,” and, comically, John Mayer, a well-known gear snob/expert, “relies on his custom-built Wylde acoustics to create his hit records and soaring live solos”.
Ironically, there is no mention of Zakk Wylde anywhere on the website, but country music icon Brad Paisley gets a nod. Because, if you can believe it, he “harnesses the pristine cleans of the Valhalla amps for his trademark twang,” – another non-existent product.
The imagery is also alarmingly bad. There are body shapes that, beyond being inarguably disgusting, are highly impractical, with some pickups having unholy amounts of pole pieces. There’s even a guitar-sized effects pedal as the clearly AI-generated imagery falls way short of any whiff of believability.
Notably, some product names reflect those of genuine Wylde Audio creations, and – hilariously – the website often lists real product images of guitars and hard cases alongside wholly different AI-generated images, like an oddly-shaped case with a neck and implausible Floyd Rose built in.
The official Wylde Audio hard case is a standard rectangular shape. One image even includes a crude ‘Marshall amp’ which completely contradicts the text.
Then there are client testimonials, with profile pictures using the same AI imagery, and, perhaps the tip of the iceberg, a comment relating to “a crowded market of copycats”.
It’s unclear what exactly has happened here. The official Wylde Audio brand has always been housed on the Schecter website since the guitarist announced his new venture at NAMM 2015.
That, of course, eradicates the need for any official domain, meaning it is possible that whoever has plugged the gap either has a twisted sense of humor or needs to do a better job at convincing readers of the firm’s legitimacy.
Thankfully, there doesn’t seem to be any danger here. There are no ways of buying these fake products and when it does bizarrely picture and link to genuine products, the links go to Amazon – and often defunct links at that.
Still, it’s quality entertainment if nothing else.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings