Dan Donegan

Dan Donegan (born August 1, 1968 in Oak Lawn, Illinois) is an American musician and guitarist for heavy metal band Disturbed. Donegan began playing guitar as a teenager and eventually formed a band called Vandal, which was an '80s-style hair band. Recently, Donegan was added to the guitar show "Chop Shop's" list of "Top 100 Most Complete Guitar Players of All Time" at number 76.

History and personal life
Donegan had very long hair during the early days of Brawl and Disturbed. According to Disturbed's DVD titled M.O.L., Donegan got a job with his father doing construction work. He was required to cut his hair for it, but instead opted to wear a wig to fool his dad and keep his long hair. It worked, and his dad eventually let him keep his long hair. Donegan lives in Chicago with girlfriend Ashley Massat. His two children, a daughter named Maya and a son named Justin live with their mother Nicole Donegan.

Technique and style
Donegan is a self-taught guitarist. He uses one handed and two handed tapping in many of his solos, with pull-offs, legatos and hammer-ons, also sometimes using the "flick off" technique, as used in the solo for the song "Indestructible", and in others as well. His heavy riffs and sweep picking are seen in many music videos. He uses his DigiTech Dan Donegan, "The Weapon" for many effects in and out of his solo work. He also combines arpeggios with finger tapping and many other techniques. He is known for shredding in some songs and uses finger vibrato on occasion. He uses the whammy bar in many songs to give it a certain sound effect.

In the video "The Making of Indestructible", he mentions he prefers "tasteful" solos, as opposed to shredding solos that rely primarily on speed. Disturbed's frontman David Draiman mentions "he [Donegan] can rip with the best of them". David also mentions "He's [Donegan] in my opinion you know among the best in existence, and he doesn't give himself enough credit". In the 80's, he was in a hair metal band known as Vandal, where many of his solos were shred guitar solos, but he would incorporate other techniques, which many consider his own style of playing.

Equipment
Early on with his career with Disturbed, Donegan played Gibson Les Paul Standards and SGs. Then, he switched to play a few Paul Reed Smith models, the Tremonti Model and a PRS Singlecut. In 2005, Washburn Guitars built Donegan his own signature model called the Maya, named after his daughter. For 2010, Dan built a signature guitar with Schecter guitars, that is based on the ultra classic model (his being the ultra DD). Donegan is a fan of GHS Boomer guitar strings and uses the 12-52 gauge set. He also uses Seymour Duncan pickups in his guitars.

Donegan has primarily used Randall (his signature being the 1086) and Mesa/Boogie Amplifiers, using Randalls for indoor events, and using MESA amps for outdoor gigs. He used to play on Marshall amps during the very early days of Disturbed.

Donegan also uses the DigiTech Dan Donegan, "The Weapon", that DigiTech made for him. He also uses the DigiTech Whammy Pedal and has been seen using the DigiTech Metal Master distortion pedal. According to an interview in 2000, Donegan also uses the BOSS PH-2 Super Phaser, a Dunlop Crybaby Wah, and an Ernie Ball Volume pedal. He also uses a BBE Sonic Maximizer.