Steve Di Giorgio

Steve Di Giorgio
Di Giorgio performing with Testament in 2017
Background information
Born	(1967-11-07) November 7, 1967 (age 57) Waukegan, Illinois, U.S.
Genres	Death metal black metal thrash metal power metal progressive metal hard rock jazz fusion speed metal symphonic metal folk metal heavy metal
Occupation	Musician
Instrument	Bass guitar
Years active	1984–present
Member of	Testament Charred Walls of the Damned Futures End Spirits of Fire Act of Denial
Formerly of	Sadus Death Control Denied Sebastian Bach Dragonlord Soen Ephel Duath
Website	stevedigiorgio.com

Steve Di Giorgio (born November 7, 1967) is an American bass guitarist. He is known for his work with numerous heavy metal bands such as Sadus (of whom he was one of the co-founders), Death, Testament, Megadeth, Sebastian Bach, Iced Earth, Autopsy, Obituary, Control Denied, Dragonlord and Charred Walls of the Damned, and he has performed on over 50 albums as a guest, session or full-time band musician.^[1]

Di Giorgio has played bass guitar in heavy metal and death metal bands such as Death,^[2] Autopsy,^[3] Control Denied,^[4] Ephel Duath,^[5] Obscura,^[6] Artension, Faust, Memorain, Painmuseum, Suicide Shift, Soen,^[7] Vintersorg,^[8] Dragonlord,^[9] Iced Earth,^[10] Sebastian Bach,^[11] Obituary,^[12] Megadeth,^[13] and is a founding member of Sadus.^[14] He is a founding member of the jazz band Dark Hall and has played bass in other bands such as Testament,^[15][16] Futures End,^[17] Synesis Absorption, Mythodea, Charred Walls of the Damned,^[18] Anatomy of I,^[19] Gone in April, and Spirits of Fire.^[20] Along with his bass duties in Sadus, he also plays keyboards. In October 2019, he founded the fusion-world-metal group Quadvium with fellow fretless bass player Jeroen Paul Thesseling.^[21][22][23] A year later, he formed the death metal supergroup Act of Denial.^[24][25][26]

Within his genre, Di Giorgio is respected for his highly technical playing skills.^{[27][28][29][30]} He is also credited with being the first bassist to bring fretless bass playing into the heavy/extreme metal genre, and often plays bass by using his fingers, although he has been seen using a pick on certain songs. Di Giorgio has stated that his main influences as a bassist are Geddy Lee, Chris Squire, Geezer Butler, Steve Harris, Stanley Clarke, Jaco Pastorius, Billy Sheehan, Dave Pegg and Charles Meeks.^[31][32]

Di Giorgio has been married for years,^[33] and is the father of a daughter who was born in April 1994.^[34][35][36] The family currently resides in Antioch, California.^[37]

Di Giorgio endorses Ibanez Guitars and primarily plays a number of different fretted and fretless BTB basses. He previously played two custom Mjolnir basses by Thor Bass; a custom made 5-string fretless model which he has converted to a 3-string and a custom-built 6 string fretless. He's also played custom ESP basses, mostly a F-series fretless 5-string bass in a dark green finish, but also uses a very unusual double-neck construction with a fretted and a fretless neck in one body. He currently uses an EBS Fafner head as his main sound, but has also used Ampeg and Randall in the past.^[38]

Di Giorgio's bass guitars

• 4001 Custom Rickenbacker (1981)
• Fully Custom Homemade Fender-Like Fretless (1991)^[39]
• 4001 Rickenbacker (1975)
• Custom Carvin BB75F (1996)^[39]
• Custom Carvin BB75 (1999)
• ESP – LTD F-205 (1999)
• ESP Custom Forest 5-string Fretless (1999)^[40]
• ESP Doubleneck Bass^[41]
• Thor Bass Mjolnir 5-string fretless (2008),^[42] since converted to be played with only 3 strings.
• Thor Bass Mjolnir 6-string Fretless (2010)^[42]
• Thor Bass Freyja 7-string Fretted (2013)
• 4003W Rickenbacker modified with a fretless ebony fretboard by Larry Davis (2014)
• Ibanez BTB1605E with a fretless neck (2016)
• Ibanez SDGB1 Steve Di Giorgio signature bass (2023)^[43]