Part I of Metal Mike's (HALFORD, PAINMUSEUM, SEBASTIAN BACH) Thunder In The East Tour Diary is currently available online at Jackson Guitars. An excerpt reads as follows:

Part II: Thunder Down Under

"Metal Hails!

So we are back in Australia, a place where not many U.S. rock bands get to come and play, mainly because Australia is far, far away and building a strong fan base is hard to do when you never tour in a particular place. I’ve been one of the lucky guitar players, having been here with Sebastian Bach last September for two headlining shows in Sydney and Melbourne, and again right now playing the country's biggest arenas supporting Guns N' Roses. We’re doing 11 shows in Australia and New Zealand over a month.

This is more of a superstar level of touring, as many bands simply can’t afford to take that many days off between show days. A day off means one thing—you are bleeding money on hotels and salaries while making none. However, we are in Guns N' Roses land and, quiet frankly, the opportunity that Axl is giving us is way greater than anyone out there.

We were met in Perth with three days off. On the second day off, we met our new crew at the arena to go over the rental gear that we will be using during the tour. I’m pretty particular about the gear that I use, so I took the opportunity to personally check over everything that arrived. I receive many questions about the exact specifications of the Jacksons that I play, so maybe this is a good place to answer some of them. All my Jacksons are U.S.-made (off-the-rack and custom shop) and are equipped with Seymour Duncan® pickups. The neck pickup is an SH4 Jeff Beck model; the regular pickup that comes with the U.S.-made RRs. My guitars do not have any specific modifications outside of strap locks. I set up my own guitars as well, and although my guitar tech still asks me why, I prefer to change my own strings. The guitar is the most important thing that you will hold in your hands while you play a show, and I want everything to be as perfect as possible. The strings are D'Addario® 9-46 for both my standard and drop D tuning needs. That's pretty much it on the guitar side. Jacksons are probably the most consistent guitars that come out right out of the box; they all play evenly well and whenever I do get a new guitar, it feels like picking a good friend up at an airport. So it’s very clear why I’m a huge fan of Jackson! I have some guitars that I save mostly for the studio and some that are in my live setup, but I alternate between them, basically going for what feel right to me at the moment."

Read more here.