My Rig

MY RIG: THE WEIGHT OF SILENCE

The Weight of Silence are a force to be reckoned with. The Melbourne via Sydney via Manilla via Geraldton trap-metal powerhouse have been building a fervent fanbase for a couple of years now, with their most recent single Silencer seeing them team up with Hunt the Dinosaur for their latest single ‘Silencer. We recently caught up with axeman Benny ‘420’ Emkhe to compare rigs and talk tech.

ESP CUSTOM SHOP: ‘I mainly play ESP guitars for all things live and in the studio, I’ve been playing Horizon models for a long time now, they feel really comfortable to me, very dependable on tour, they seem to stay in tune in all climates!’

‘My main touring guitar since 2015 has been my ESP custom shop model, it’s pretty standard as far as Horizon models go, though my custom model has a few little spec and aesthetic differences I prefer. Sperzel tuners, white EMG 81 in the bridge and an 85 in the neck, a teardrop headstock and a star inlay on the first fret. It has white binding over the body neck and headstock, I really love that aesthetic of the white binding and white pickups on the gloss black finish.’ ‘I use a bunch of other standard ESP Horizons on the road for other tunings, but you can really hear the quality of the timber in the custom shop, lots of resonance and sustain, amazing to track with in the studio. Though recently I’m mainly using it for leads as it’s a string through bridge and I’m using Evertune these days for tracking rhythm guitars.’

SAMSON AIRLINE WIRELESS

INSTRUMENT PACK: ‘Right now my live sound is really simple, I still prefer to use real guitar amps, so it’s basically my guitar hooked up to a wireless Samson Airline pack plugged into an MXR EQ, MXR noise gate, a Carbon Copy delay, EVH phase 90, TS808 Tube screamer and a 535Q Crybaby into an amp.’

BLACKSTAR BLACKFIRE 200w:

‘Recently I’ve been using a Blackstar Blackfire 200w head, a signature Gus G amp that he’d used last time he came out to Aus with Firewind. Great sounding amp live, super clear mid range. I’m the only guitarist in the band so I really need that to cut through the mix well and get the point across. It’s pretty empty without it!’

BY PABLO FRANCOIS

BLACKSTAR BLACKFIRE 200W ESP CUSTOM SHOP SAMSON AIRLINE WIRELESS INSTRUMENT PACK