Rig Rundown: MGK’s Justin Lyons and Sophie Lloyd

MGK—formerly known as Machine Gun Kelly—released his seventh studio record, Lost Americana, last August. When he took it out on tour, he hired two firebreathing fretboard masters, Justin Lyons and Sophie Lloyd, to knock his audiences dead. Ahead of their gig at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, PG’s Chris Kies met up with Lyons and Lloyd to get the lowdown on how they bring MGK’s music to life. Scope some of the highlights below.

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Make Your Mark

This PRS Mark Tremonti is one of Lyons’ current favorites, despite the black finish—typically, he’d never take a black guitar, but this one’s so good that it gets a pass.

Bow Down

Just before Christmas, Reverend sent over this Sensei model, along with a Roundhouse. Lyons, who’s in talks with the company to build a signature model, can’t put the Sensei down.

Justin Lyons’ Tone Master Rig

For their amp-free, in-ear monitor stage setup, Lyons loves the Fender Tone Master Pro unit, which lets him emulate his treasured Mesa/Boogie amps. Tack a TS-style boost in front and he’s in tone heaven. He also digs Mark Lettieri’s patch pack.

Kiesel Engine

Lloyd was Kiesel’s first female signature artist, and she brought a stable of them out with MGK. Lloyd’s models feature black limba bodies and walnut necks, with Kiesel Lithium pickups in the bridge position. Her signatures are unique because they include a Sustaniac in the neck position, which makes the guitar “ring out forever” and offers different octave options. Lloyd uses the kill switch on her guitars during the show for “big ending” moments. She runs her Kiesels with Ernie Ball Paradigm strings (.010–.046).

Sophie Lloyd’s Kemper Rig

Back home, Lloyd likes playing through a Neural Quad Cortex, but on this tour, she’s running a Kemper Profiler like the rest of the band. She was skeptical at first that it could replicate that magic of her favorite Diezel amp, but it does the job—and then some.

The rack backstage carries the Profiler brains, plus the Radial JX42 and Shure AD4Q units that handle Lloyd’s and Lyon’s signals.