Trivium hung out with Premier Guitar before their show at Marathon Music Works in Nashville on April 28, 2014. These metal-headed Floridians, each brandishing his own signature axe, show that you don’t need an amp to rawk.
Matt Heafy’s Guitars
Matt exclusively plays his Epiphone Limited Edition Matt Heafy Les Paul Custom 6- and 7- string models. These Signature Les Pauls are pimped with a blacked-out ebony gloss finish, a SlimTaper D-shaped neck, a carved-out Axcess heel for easy reach to the upper frets and a black LockTone Tune-o-matic/stopbar bridge. Like so many metalist guitarists before them, these LPs sport EMG 85s in the neck position and EMG 81s in the bridge position.
Corey Beaulieu’s Guitars
Corey plays his Jackson Corey Beaulieu USA signature model KV6 and KV7 (6- and 7-string models respectively). Both models feature alder bodies (AAA flame top on trans finish model), quartersawn maple necks with a compound radius, ebony fretboards with old-school shark-fin inlays, covered Seymour Duncan Blackout pickups, 3-way toggle switching, single volume controls, and original Floyd Rose tremolos.
Paolo Gregoletto’s Basses
Paolo plays his sinister-looking BC Rich Paolo Gregoletto Signature 5-String NT Warlock Bass, both the PS5WBK and PS5WS models. Both basses feature mahogany bodies, neck-through construction with maple, 12” necks, ebony fretboards, and 24 jumbo frets. Both basses rock EMG MMCS pickups. The main difference between the two is that the black NT is so dark and scary that it looks like it made a deal with Beelzebub.
Amps
Matt, Corey, and Paolo all use Kemper Profiling Amps. The distortion patches that both Matt and Corey use for rhythms and leads were profiled from the EVH 5150 III—which was the amp used for creating Trivium’s signature sound while recording the group’s latest album. For clean tones, Matt and Corey use the Kemper factory built-in profile of a Vox AC-30, tweaking in their own personal EQ settings. They do not use any backline amp or cabinets. They go direct from the Kempers into the mixing console and use in-ear monitors onstage. The only acoustic sounds on the stage are the drums and vocals. The rest of their racks consist of Monster Power PRO 2500 Rack Mountable power conditioners and Shure ULXP14 Wireless guitar and bass systems. These rigs are very simple but effective.
Effects
All of the effects used by Matt, Corey, and Paolo are Kemper factory built-in effects. The wah has been tweaked with specific settings to have the sweep and low/high points that these players desire. The delays, phaser, chorus, and any other oddball sounds are stock Kemper effects with slightly tweaked settings to dial-in a desired sound.
Matt, Corey, and Paolo all use Behringer FCB1010 MIDI foot controllers. They have two CC pedals. One is assigned to a wah and the other is assigned as a volume pedal that when backed all the way off, will mute the guitar signal and also activate the guitar tuner on the Kemper profiling amp.
Special thanks to Trivium guitar tech Jeremy Frost for his help with the technical background of these rigs.
