Synyster Gates: "The first record I played on in its entirety was the second record..."

Synyster Gates was interviewed by Ultimate Guitar, here's an excerpt:

Have you been using Schecter with Avenged since the beginning? 
The first record I played on in its entirety was the second record ["Waking the Fallen"] and I played Schecter but it wasn't my model. I used a different amalgamation of guitars to fit different things. So I kinda knew I wanted something very broad coming from the attempt to be a studio musician. I definitely really wanted something that could fit loosely in any sort of context. 

What is it about the Sustainiac pickup you dig? 
It was just fun at first. I had this guitar tech with me in the studio - Walter Wright - and he was a pedal junkie. He built his own stuff back when a lot of people weren't using that kind of thing. It was very similar to my setup. It just becomes part of your playing and I do it a lot with the quintessential Dimebag dive-bomb. Then I started using it more melodically and applied it to more musical forms. 

Click here to read the full interview