Matthias Jabs
On October 25, 1955, German guitarist, composer, and virtuoso Matthias Jabs was born. He redefined the lead guitar sound of the band "Scorpions" and became one of the most melodic, precise, and influential guitar heroes in the history of world hard rock and metal.
(Photo by Joel Barrios)
1. He was born and raised in the city of Hanover, West Germany, a drab industrial city that after World War II surprisingly became a fertile rock and roll hotbed from which German rock legends emerged.
2. As a child, his parents enrolled him in classical piano lessons, but like many boys of his generation in the 1960s, he became bored with the rigid exercises and dreamed of the explosive electric sound that emanated from the radio.
3. The early turning point in his life occurred at the age of thirteen, when he received his first guitar and began teaching himself to play by ear, while obsessively listening to British and American blues and rock records.
4. The first musical influences that shaped his worldview were Jimi Hendrix, Rory Gallagher, Jeff Beck, Johnny Winter, and Ritchie Blackmore of the band "Deep Purple," from whom he absorbed the combination of bluesy fire with technical precision and catchy melody.
5. An amazing and fateful trivia detail from his youth is related to high school in Hanover. When the young Jabs had difficulty studying math, his parents hired a private tutor for him who was an outstanding student in the city, none other than Francis Buchholz, the bassist for the band "Scorpions."
6. That early connection between the student and the math teacher would change the history of heavy rock a few years later, as Buchholz remembered well the phenomenal talent of the boy he taught.
7. Before becoming an international star, Jabs gained extensive stage experience in the local Hanover rock scene. Between 1975 and 1976, he played in the band "Deadlock", the band that later evolved into the well-known German metal band "Victory".
8. In 1976, he joined the hard rock band "Fargo" from Hanover, where he played alongside bassist Peter Knorn, who later became a leading executive in the music industry. Between 1977 and 1978, he led the band "Lady", where he had already begun to develop the style of harmonic and melodic guitars that would become his trademark.
9. In the spring of 1978, the Scorpions faced a serious existential crisis. Virtuoso guitarist Uli Jon Roth announced his departure immediately after recording the masterful live album "Tokyo Tapes" to form the band "Electric Sun" and move in a more spiritual and neo-classical direction.
10. Rudolf Schenker and Klaus Meine were desperately looking for a lead guitarist who would not only be able to perform the complex pieces of Roth and his younger brother Michael Schenker, but would also bring a more modern, energetic, and American spirit that would allow the band to break through the borders of Europe and Japan.
11. The band flew to London and held grueling auditions for about 140 guitarists from across the UK and Europe, but none of them created the personal and musical chemistry the members were looking for.
12. Upon their return to Hanover empty-handed, Francis Buchholz suggested inviting his former mathematics student, Matthias Jabs, into the rehearsal room. From the first chords of the audition in June 1978, it was clear to everyone that the search was over.
13. Jabs joined "Scorpions" in 1978. The band’s documented Knebworth Festival appearance took place on June 22, 1985, on a bill that included "Deep Purple" and "UFO".
14. The biggest drama at the beginning of his career occurred around the recordings of the sixth and seminal album "Lovedrive", released in early 1979. In the midst of recordings at Dierks Studios in Cologne with producer Dieter Dierks, Michael Schenker unexpectedly left the band "UFO" and asked his brother Rudolf to return to his mother band.
15. Although Yaves had already recorded significant parts of the album and brought new ideas with him, the band decided out of family and commercial loyalty to give Michael another chance, and Yaves was forced to step aside in a noble and rare step in the world of rock.
16. Both Matthias Jabs and Michael Schenker played guitar on "Lovedrive". Recorded during a transitional period, the album combines their playing with that of Rudolf Schenker.
17. However, Michael Schenker's comeback fell apart within weeks during the 1979 European tour due to breakdowns and personal crises. The Scorpions management called Jabs to replace him on hours' notice, and after this happened repeatedly, Jabs set a clear condition: he would only return as a full, permanent member of the band. In April 1979, he officially became the band's sole lead guitarist to this day.
18. Already on the 1980 album "Animal Magnetism," Jabs proved why he was the right man in the right place, when he introduced the world to the song "The Zoo", which became one of the highlights of every band performance.
19. For the solo and accompaniment of "The Zoo", Jabs used the Talk Box effect for the first time in his life, a device that transmits the guitar sound through a plastic tube into the player's mouth, in precise combination with a Wah pedal. The result was a talking, rough, and mesmerizing guitar sound that became one of his most distinctive hallmarks.
20. Later in his career, Jabs returned to using the Talk Box on a number of the band's notable songs, including "Media Overkill" from the album "Savage Amusement", the song "Money and Fame" from "Crazy World", the song "To Be No. 1" and "Raised on Rock" from the album "Sting in the Tail".
21. 1982 marked the band's meteoric breakthrough into the American market with the album "Blackout." During the recordings, vocalist Klaus Meine lost his voice and had to undergo complex vocal cord surgery, while Jabs and Rudolf Schenker led the construction of the most rhythmic and aggressive songs of the band's career.
22. On the huge breakthrough single "No One Like You" from "Blackout", Jabs provided a masterful display of melodic guitar, from the opening arpeggio and piercing melody to the precise central solo, a combination that made the song a number one hit on the Billboard Rock Chart in the United States.
23. For the fast and furious theme song "Blackout," Jabs used a black 1963 Fender Stratocaster guitar that he nicknamed the Trouble Guitar, after installing a Floyd Rose floating bridge and a Bill Lawrence Humbucker pickup, which allowed him to perform dramatic tremolo dives in a style reminiscent of Eddie Van Halen of the band Van Halen.
24. The peak of Jabs' commercial and artistic success with the band came in 1984 with the release of the legendary album "Love at First Sting", which sold millions of copies and became a timeless rock classic.
25. On one of the album’s enduring anthems, "Rock You Like a Hurricane", Jabs is responsible for the cutting guitar opening that rides on Shenkar's heavy riff, and for his fast, melodic, and explosive solo at the end of the song, which is considered by critics and guitarists to be one of the greatest hard rock solos of the 1980s.
26. On the same album, Yavas also shined in the stadium anthem "Big City Nights", in which he incorporated rich guitar harmonies, and in the monumental rock ballad "Still Loving You", in which the delicate and dramatic dynamics between the guitars of Shenkar and Yavas thrilled millions of listeners around the world.
27. Beyond his playing, Jabs also contributed to the band’s songwriting, including "Tease Me Please Me", "Don’t Believe Her", "Lust or Love" and "Money and Fame" from 1990’s "Crazy World".
28. Visually, Jabs is most recognizable for his 1976 Gibson Explorer guitar. In 1979, he painted it white and applied diagonal black stripes to it using two-inch-wide industrial stage tape, a design that became so iconic that Gibson adopted it and created the Explorer 90 model for him, with a body slightly reduced to ninety percent of the original size for maximum comfort on stage.
29. Alongside the Explorer, Jabs developed his famous signature model with Fender, which was named the Jabocaster, and later collaborated with the top German guitar builder Boris Dommenget, who hand-crafted the Mastercaster and Explorer models for him, as well as with Cort on his signature Garage models.
30. On the legendary double album "World Wide Live" from 1985, you can hear the full power of Jabs as a live performer, including his solo showcase piece "Six String Sting", in which he demonstrated virtuoso mastery of tapping techniques, legato, and dizzying speed without ever losing his sense of melody.
31. In the 1990s and 2000s, Yabes led the band through stylistic changes and ambitious projects, from the heavy album "Face the Heat" from 1993, through the symphonic project "Moment of Glory" with the Berlin Philharmonic in 2000, to the successful acoustic album "Acoustica" from 2001, in which he demonstrated spectacular virtuosity on acoustic and classical guitars.
32. In March 2008, he fulfilled a personal dream and opened his own luxury guitar shop, MJ Guitars, named after his initials, at Pariser Straße 32 in Munich. During the Scorpions' world tours, Jabs hunts down rare vintage guitars and historic amplifiers for the shop, which has become a pilgrimage site for guitarists from all over the world.
33. On the band's albums of the last few decades, including 2004's "Unbreakable," 2010's "Sting in the Tail," and 2022's "Rock Believer," Jabs was the driving force behind the band's return to its classic 1980s DNA, alongside his longtime bandmates and energetic drummer Mikkey Dee.
34. For his enormous cultural contribution to Germany and its representation in the world, Jabs, along with his friends Rudolf Schenker and Klaus Meine, were awarded high state honors, including the Order of Honor of the City of Hanover in 2000, the State Prize of Lower Saxony in 2014, and in 2023 the high decoration of the Grand Cross of Merit of Lower Saxony.
35. Even after nearly five decades at the forefront of the world's greatest stages, Matthias Jabs remains a model of elegance, modesty, and uncompromising professionalism, a guitarist who has proven that supreme technique is at its peak when it serves the song, and that a truly great guitar solo is one that the audience in the stadium is able to sing along with, note after note.
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