As part of our coverage of this year’s Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival – currently winding its way through North America — we’re bringing you a series of “Rigged” columns in which several of the tour’s musicians take you on piece-by-piece guides of their current live rig setups. Check out the rigs of Machine Head’s Phil Demmel, Unearth’s Buz McGrath, Hatebreed’s Wayne Lozinak, In Flames’ Peter Iwers and Dethklok’s Brendon Small (they played one Mayhem show in CA). Here’s the other half Unearth’s twin guitar attack, Ken Susi: 

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As part of our coverage of this year’s Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival – currently winding its way through North America — we’re bringing you a series of “Rigged” columns in which several of the tour’s musicians take you on piece-by-piece guides of their current live rig setups. Check out the rigs of Machine Head’s Phil Demmel, Unearth’s Buz McGrath, Hatebreed’s Wayne Lozinak and In Flames’ Peter Iwers. Saturday, July 9 was Dethklok’s only performance of 2011, taking Megadeth’s place on the festival bill in San Bernardino, California, but band mastermind Brendon Small was kind enough to enlighten us about his rig anyway. Here he is:

Hello, MetalSucks! This is Brendon Small from Dethklok… let’s take a look at my rig:

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We think we do a pretty dern good job of getting metal musicians to take us behind the scenes of their gear setups in our ongoing Rigged features, but we absolutely love it when artists take it upon themselves to do it on their own. Today’s do-it-yourself edition of Rigged comes from solo instrumentalist Keith Merrow, and I really can’t think of a modern metal musician this side of Misha Mansoor whose gear would be more interesting to aspiring Internet nerd-faces. Solo instrumentalists like Merrow are the ultimate gear geeks, and since most of them don’t play live the only thing limiting what they can fit into their “rig” is the size of the apartment or house they can afford. Here’s a video Keith put together in which he runs through his entire home recording setup; amps, processors, pedals, computers, software, interfaces, monitors, guitars… it’s all there.

Keith Merrow’s latest album Awaken the Stone King was released in January of this year and is still fucking my face off. Peep it here and listen to the song with a guest solo by ex-Nevermore shredder Jeff Loomis.

-VN

[via Got-Djent.com]

As part of our coverage of this year’s Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival – currently winding its way through North America — we’re bringing you a series of “Rigged” columns in which several of the tour’s musicians take you on piece-by-piece guides of their current live rig setups. Check out the rigs of Machine Head’s Phil Demmel, Unearth’s Buz McGrath and Hatebreed’s Wayne Lozinak. Here’s In Flames bassist Peter Iwers:

Peter Iwers here from In Flames checking in from the road on the Rockstar Mayhem tour. Let me tell you a little bit about the gear I’m using this time around.

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As part of our coverage of this year’s Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival – currently winding its way through North America — we’re bringing you a series of “Rigged” columns in which several of the tour’s musicians take you on piece-by-piece guides of their current live rig setups. Check out what Machine Head’s Phil Demmel had to say about his super-sweet rig last week and what Unearth’s Buz McGrath uses in his current live set-up. Hatebreed are only appearing on three dates of this year’s tour, August 5th through 7th in Chicago, Detroit and Indianapolis. Here’s guitarist Wayne Lozinak on his rig:

What’s up MetalSucks readers? This is Wayne Lozinak from Hatebreed, and this is my live set-up.

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As part of our coverage of this year’s Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival – currently winding its way through North America — we’re bringing you a series of “Rigged” columns in which several of the tour’s musicians take you on piece-by-piece guides of their current live rig setups. Check out what Machine Head’s Phil Demmel had to say about his super-sweet rig last week. Here’s Unearth’s Buz McGrath:

Greetings! Let’s have a look at the rig I’m using on this year’s Mayhem Festival.

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(Photo by Fiaz Farrelly)

Greetings to all you MetalSuckahs from Reno, Nevada where Machine Head are doing a warm-up show before the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival starts in two days. My name’s Phil Demmel, I’ve been playing guitar with these guys for the past nine years and I’m stoked to share with you gear-heads the rig that I’m currently using.

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(Photo from Old_Skool_Metal_Head’s Flickr)

Welcome back to Rigged, in which your favorite metal musicians take you on a step-by-step rundown of their entire live rig. Revocation are currently touring North American with Forbidden, White Wizzard and Havok — brought to you by MetalSucks (dates here) — so we asked both Revocation axemen Dave Davidson and Dan Gargiulo to take us on a tour of their gear setups. Check out Dave’s gear here, and Forbidden guitarist Steve Smyth’s here. Here’s Mr. Gargiulo himself:

*Ahem* Now if I may bring everyone’s attention on me for a moment, I’ll tell you guys a little something about my super sweet setup.

I recently began using a Jackson KE2 live, strung up with D’addario 10-52′s. Those thick low strings add some punch and definition to all the power chords we’re strummin’, and like Dave said, they feel great to tremolo pick on. Not only does this guitar look and sound killer, but I feel safe knowing that it’s pointy enough to use as a deadly weapon in case my life is threatened.

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Welcome back to Rigged, in which your favorite metal musicians take you on a step-by-step rundown of their entire live rig. Revocation are currently touring North American with Forbidden, White Wizzard and Havok — brought to you by MetalSucks (dates here) — so we asked both Revocation axemen Dave Davidson and Dan Gargiulo to take us on a tour of their gear setups. In case you missed it here’s Forbidden guitarist Steve Smyth’s rig. Next week we’ll feature the newest member of the Revocation clan Dan Gargiulo, but in the meantime here’s the MS crack panel #1 ranked Modern Metal Guitarist Dave Davidson:

Hello, fellow guitar nerds and gear snobs! Dave from Revocation here, giving you a quick rundown on my live rig.

I use Jackson WR1 Warriors with Dimarzio pick ups (D Activators in the bridge and a Super 2 in the neck position on my white one, and a Liquifire in the neck position on my red one). To me the Jackson Warrior is one of the most badass looking guitars on the market and as an added bonus they also play great and sound killer! I just got my new custom a few weeks ago and I haven’t been able to put it down since.

Both guitars are strung with D’Addario strings with a light top and heavy bottom, .10-.52. I had been using .10-.46 but I find that for me the heavier gauge on the bottom has a much better resistance, so when I’m tremolo picking the string stays nice and tight.

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Welcome back to Rigged, in which your favorite metal musicians take you on a step-by-step rundown of their entire live rig. This week Forbidden will embark on a North American headline tour with Revocation, White Wizzard and Havok — brought to you by MetalSucks (dates here) — so we asked guitarist Steve Smyth to take us on a tour of his gear setup. Without further ado, here’s Steve…

What’s up MetalSucks readers! Steve Smyth here. I’m about to take you through a rundown of my live rig here with Forbidden, in advance of our upcoming headline tour through North America.

While I am a firm believer that tone is in the hands first, I am also a firm believer in finding and using the gear that you feel best expresses the style of music you’re playing.

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What’s going on, readers of MetalSucks? You’re reading the words of Max Zigman, Cary Geare, and Spencer Edwards of Son of Aurelius. We’ve been asked aplenty about how to get good tone and what we use to achieve our sound, so here is a little overview of our gear. Of course, good tone doesn’t just start at the instrument; it starts with consistently good technique.

The Guitars: An Ibanez RGT6EXFX and Jackson DK2 Pro. Both stock, strung with D’addario strings:

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[A couple of weeks ago The Ocean's Robin Staps took the piss out of us with a mock gear column... and now he's back to take you on a step-by-step walk-through of his actual live rig. Gear nerds, you're gonna love this one; Robin's got a very, very interesting setup. Check out our recent Rigged columns with Between the Buried and Me guitarists Paul Waggoner and Dustie Waring and BTBAM drummer Blake Richardson. Between the Buried and Me, The Ocean, Job For A Cowboy (and on select dates Cephalic Carnage) are on tour through May 15th; get dates here.]

My tone obviously starts with my guitars, two Paul Reed Smith Custom 24s.

I have always loved these guitars but simply couldn’t afford them until we got an endorsement with them 2 years ago. The elegance of their design is really just the surface-level: beyond lies unrivaled playability, perfect craftsmanship, a comparably light weight and yet endless sustain. And yes, these guitars are not just pretty, they are also more sturdy than any other guitar I’ve ever had: I have had to deal with 5 broken headstocks in my career as a musician with this band, but to date my PRS guitars have remained in good order. I guess you are naturally taking better care when you are playing such a classy and precious instrument.

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[Welcome back to Rigged! Last week The Ocean's Robin Staps played a little prank on us... but don't worry, he'll post his real rig rundown in a few days. Between the Buried and Me guitarists Paul Waggoner and Dustie Waring walked you through their live setups piece by piece a couple of weeks ago, so this week it's BTBAM drummer Blake Richardson's turn. Between the Buried and Me, The Ocean, Job For A Cowboy (and on select dates Cephalic Carnage) are on tour now; Get dates here.]

Hey what’s up y’all?! Blake from Between the Buried and Me here. I’m taking time out of my super mega busy schedule to give you guys a little info on the gear that I am currently using. Now, for some of you extreme lurkers, you may have noticed that I change parts of my set up from time to time. I enjoy doing this because it not only gives my job a little spontaneity, but it also gives me a newfound inspiration in my playing. Anyways, here is a little breakdown of my current set up.

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[Welcome back to Rigged! Last week Between the Buried and Me guitarists Paul Waggoner and Dustie Waring walked you through their live setups piece by piece. This week it's The Ocean mastermind Robin Stap's turn to show you his, um, "gear." Next week BTBAM drummer Blake Richardson breaks down his kit, and the week after that Robin Staps will be back for round 2. Between the Buried and Me and The Ocean begin their MS-sponsored tour with Job For A Cowboy (and on select dates Cephalic Carnage) this week. Get dates here.]

Hey everyone, happy to introduce you all to my rig and to some of the gear I use.

Let me start with the amp. My amp’s a classic 5150, don’t need to say much about it I guess… all tubes, nice fat tone, good attack and definition. I installed 2 pressure gauges in the front panel: they’re always telling me how much pressure is left in the air tank that’s behind the amp, so in case Loic farts too heavily and I need to inhale oxygen on stage, I never run out! Our live show is pretty sudorific anyway, ya know, gotta be prepared!
The outside is cobra leather. I killed that snake with my bare hands last summer, during our headlining tour in Burkina Faso. Had to smuggle it back to Germany, not an easy undertaking!

The wood is actually 100% mahagony which I intentionally made look like laminated fibre, because I felt the mahagony look would have compromised the cobra leather finish.

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[The live rig rundown Veil of Maya's Marc Okubo did for us last year was so popular that we've decided to make it into a regular column! Welcome to Rigged. In this inaugural edition, Between the Buried and Me guitarists Paul Waggoner and Dustie Waring take you through their live setups piece by piece. Coming soon, BTBAM drummer Blake Richardson and The Ocean's Robin Staps. Between the Buried and Me and The Ocean begin their MS-sponsored tour with Job For A Cowboy (and on select dates Cephalic Carnage) next week. Get dates here.]

To all our fellow string pluckin’ heavy metal headbangers, howdy! This is Paul Waggoner and Dustie Waring, and together we are the guitar duo for Between the Buried and Me. It’s come to our attention that there are some folks out there speculatin’ on what sorts of gear we put to use in conjurin’ up all these rowdy sounds. Well, here we are, to do right by all who take up an interest in such matters.

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