Loyal, longstanding partnerships with ESP, DiMarzio, and Fryette have forged a foundational triumvirate of tone helping the underground alt-metal titan construct Meantime and Betty, tour in David Bowie’s band, and contribute to film scores for Heat and Catwoman.
“I could not exist without guitar,” admits Helmet founding lead guitarist and singer Page Hamilton. “I know this to be true because I’m a miserable asshole if I don’t play guitar. When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is play guitar. It’s an incredible instrument and I just love it.”
But what does one do with that creative codependency? Page Hamilton’s impactful contributions to rock music were cemented when Helmet wrote and recorded a pair of back-to-back blisters with 1992’s Meantime and 1994’s Betty. Those pillars of ’90s alternative metal and guitar granite forever chiseled out his place in hard-rock history.
Since 1989, Hamilton and Helmet have dished out a total of nine studio albums (plus a live set) that balance punishing, fastened-down ferocity with mercurial moments of melody that make their sledgehammer fall harder.
Beyond that legacy, Page was a part of David Bowie’s band for the 1999 Hours tour, playing Saturday Night Live and being included on two live albums from the Starman. Further diversifying his guitar vocabulary, he’s contributed to several film scores for Heat, Titus, In Dreams, Catwoman, and Chicago Cab. He’s explored the instrument’s outer realms with German avant-garde guitarist Caspar Brötzmann on a live improv album (1996’s Zulutime), and expanded his vocabulary by diving into jazz guitar, noting in our Rundown he’ll release an album next year. Hamilton has even put out a guitar instruction DVD, Sonic Shapes: Expanding Rock Guitar Vocabularyfor Hal Leonard. All of this (and more) accomplished because guitar is his lifeblood.
And we found out during our Rig Rundown—filmed May 7, 2024 at Nashville’s Exit/In—that most of this material was spawned from three key ingredients, all still in his rig: ESP Horizon guitars, Fryette amps, and DiMarzio humbuckers. These partnerships with each company are not gratuitous or grifting. He’s been aligned with ESP since 1989. He started working with DiMarzio in the early ’90s, and he and Steven Fryette have sharpened his sound since 1996. These three friendships have fostered an integral strand in Page’s tonal DNA, and Hamilton covers each at length with us. Plus, he breaks down the simplifying move from a complicated Bradshaw rack-switching system to something more modern and efficient, with five Boss boxes and a duo of H9s.
Brought to you by D’AddarioPunk Rock Pink
A friend suggested Hamilton visit ESP Guitars’ small NYC shop in 1989. He wanted to find an instrument that looked good and sounded better. After trying a few out, he landed on a magenta Horizon Custom that still shapes Helmet’s sound. After thousands of shows, several surgeries, and having the original Horizon Custom go missing for weeks when touring in Mexico, Hamilton now keeps the old friend at home, but he still honors his 35-year connection by bringing out the above relic’d ESP LTD PH-600 MG Page Hamilton Signature. The lone humbucker is a custom jobber from DiMarzio’s longtime chief design engineer Steve Blucher, who originally voiced the pickup with Hamilton in the early ’90s. (DiMarzio’s current offering of this pickup is the Air Zone model.) Helmet typically tunes to drop C or drop D depending on the era of material. All his guitars take D’Addario EXL140 Nickel Wound Light Top/Heavy Bottom strings (.010–.052) and he attacks them with Clayton 1.52 mm rounded triangle guitar picks made from acetal.
Like its inspiration, the pink Horizon Custom has a pointy reverse headstock and Floyd Rose tremolo.
Silver Is First
Most Helmet fans will associate Page Hamilton with his pink Horizon. Its radical hue and the trem spring in place of a neck pickup certainly make it a head-turner, but his first signature collaboration with the Japanese brand was this brushed silver ESP LTD PH-600. The look on this PH-600 is taken from an aluminum-leaf finish originally done in the ’90s by NYC artist Erik Sanko (of the Lounge Lizards and Skeleton Key) on one of Hamilton’s old guitars. When ESP and Hamilton were workshopping the collaboration, Page thought he’d use a neck pickup for film work and other projects, but quickly found out that the extra knobs and controls only got in the way during Helmet shows. (The production model featured a DiMarzio FastTrack in the bass slot.) This run of signature models included a Wilkinson VS-100N vibrato.
“I drive ESP crazy because they build me these beautiful guitars and then I have them rip everything out. I just can’t deal with a neck pickup in Helmet,” Hamilton laughs.
Let's Dance
When Hamilton was a part of David Bowie’s touring band for the Hours tour in 1999, this ESP Vintage Plus S-style joined the party with its custom DiMarzio HSS configuration. If you dig up Bowie’s Saturday Night Live performance of “Rebel Rebel” from October 1999, you’ll see Hamilton riffing on this same Vintage Plus ESP. Additionally, while only playing eight shows with the Thin White Duke, Page and this guitar were featured on a pair of live releases—Something in the Air (Live Paris 99)in 2020 and At the Kit Kat Klub (Live New York 99)in 2021.
Hamilton describes his brief time around Ziggy Stardust as “just hanging out with your super-cool uncle who happens to be a genius.” Hamilton shared a few more quotes that Bowie bestowed on him about Page’s approach to guitar: “He was really complimentary about my guitar playing, noting ‘that it sounds like it’s very abstract what you do, but it’s very thought out. And you remind me a bit of Phil Manzanera [of Roxy Music].’ That was an amazing experience.”
Viper
Here’s a late-’80s ESP Horizon Custom that Hamilton got around the same time he scored the original magenta Horizon that was his main dragster for decades. This one is wrapped in a snakeskin finish and still gets used on a nightly basis.
My Way
This sunburst Horizon is in a custom drop-D tuning (D-A-D-G-D-E) that gets used for “Sinatra” off Strap It On.
Fryette Firepower
Hamilton has worked with Steven Fryette for nearly 30 years when a VHT power amp (then owned and operated by Fryette) helped salvage the recording of Aftertaste. Since then, Hamilton has slowly morphed his live rig to only having Fryette gear, eventually landing on a KT88-loaded Pittbull Ultra-Lead 3-channel head over 10 years ago. Page uses complex chords in Helmet and doesn’t want the note nuances and melodies lost in the mix of a mushier amp. This head runs into a Fryette 4x12 cab outfitted with Eminence P50E speakers.
Page Hamilton's Pedalboard
Hamilton used to travel with a full Bradshaw rig with rack gear, but he’s reduced things to a digestible manner with a pair of Eventide H9 units and a handful of Boss boxes—a PS-5 Super Shifter, a MT-2W Metal Zone Pedal Waza Craft, a TS-2 Turbo Distortion, a NS-2 Noise Suppressor, and a FB-2 Feedbacker/Booster. A couple of Peterson Stomp Classic tuners keep the Horizons in check, and a Boss ES-5 Effects Switching System organizes all his sounds and settings.
Shop Page Hamilton's Rig
ESP LTD Horizon 87 Solidbody Electric Guitar
DiMarzio Air Norton
D'Addario EXL140 XL Nickel Wound Electric Guitar Strings - .010-.052 Light Top/Heavy Bottom
Eventide H9
Boss MT-2W Metal Zone Waza Craft
Boss DS-2 Turbo Distortion
Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor
Boss ES-5 Effects Switching System
Pedaltrain Nano+
- Tim Commerford: Wakrat and the Power of Now ›
- Rig Rundown: Helmet's Page Hamilton ›
- Rig Rundown: All Souls' Antonio Aguilar ›
The Man in Black returns with the unreleased Songwriter album. John Carter Cash tells us the story.
“The Man Comes Around” is a much-played song from the final album Johnny Cash recorded before his death in 2003, American IV: The Man Comes Around. Now, the Man in Black himself has come around again, as the voice and soul of an album he initially cut in 1993, titled Songwriter. It hits the street on June 28.
For fans who know Cash only through his much-loved American Recordings series, this is a very different artist—healthy, vital, his signature baritone booming, his acoustic playing lively, percussive, and focused. This is the muscular Johnny Cash heard on his career-defining recordings, from his early Sun Records sides like “Cry! Cry! Cry!” and “Folsom Prison Blues” to “Ring of Fire” and “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” to later, less familiar hits like “The Baron” and “That Old Wheel.” In short, classic Cash—the performer who became an international icon and remains one even 21 years after his death.
I recently visited the Cash Cabin recording studio—a log cabin on the Cash family property in Hendersonville, Tennessee, that was originally built as a sanctuary where Johnny wrote songs and poetry—with PG’s video team of Chris Kies and Perry Bean to talk about Songwriter with John Carter Cash, the son of Johnny and June Carter Cash.
In addition to getting the lowdown on Songwriter from John Carter Cash, he showed us some of the iconic guitars—including original Johnny Cash lead guitarist Luther Perkin’s 1953 Fender Esquire and a Martin that was favored by the Man himself—that dwell at the busy private studio. Check out this visit.
Nancy Wilson’s rhythm-guitar playing is under-sung hero of Heart’s sound. After auditioning for her sister Ann’s band with a performance of Yes’ “The Clap,” she transformed their sound—just check out the intro to “Crazy On You” to instantly hear the influence of her acoustic playing. And together, they transformed classic rock. On this episode, we talk about how Wilson’s acoustic and electric playing is the element that delivers the band’s signature sound. Lindsay Ell calls in to drop a line, and our hosts go shopping for Gibson Nighthawks and vintage Ovations.
ESP Guitars introduces the new LTD DX Series, offering high-quality guitars at a more affordable price.
The LTD EC-200DX FM, M-200DX, and TE-200DX are each being made in two new finishes, and are available now at ESP dealers worldwide.
“The DX Series provides a solution for customers who want a high-quality, low-cost entry point to ESP features and playability,” says Blue Wilding, ESP Brand Manager. “We want our guitars to be accessible to every level of player and at every budget, and the DX Series delivers way more than anyone would expect for their modest price."
Available in Blue Burst and Charcoal Burst finishes, the LTD EC-200DX offers a flat-top single-cutaway Eclipse body with a bevelled edge. It’s built with bolt-on construction at 24.75” scale, featuring a very comfortable poplar body with a flamed maple top, and a roasted maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard. This guitar includes a TOM-style bridge and tailpiece, 24 extra-jumbo frets, dot inlays, and black chrome hardware. The EC-200DX includes a set of ESP’s acclaimed LH-150 humbucking pickups with matching black chrome covers, providing punchy, great tone for all genres of music, along with the flexibility of single-coil tones controlled by a push-pull switch on the tone knob.
The LTD M-200DX is available in Blue Burst and Purple Burst finishes, offering the streamlined M shape with a great-looking burled poplar top. Built with bolt-on construction at 25.5” scale, the M-200DX includes classy features like a roasted maple neck, rosewood fingerboard with 24 frets, black chrome hardware, a TOM-style bridge with string-thru-body design, body binding, offset dot inlays, and a reverse headstock. The M-200DX also features ESP LH-150 humbucking pickups with matching black chrome covers. Also available in Blue Burst and Purple Burst finishes, the LTD TE-200DX offers the classic LTD TE shape with features for contemporary guitarists. These include a lightweight and comfortable poplar body with a burled poplar top, and a roasted maple neck with rosewood fingerboard and 24 frets. The TE-200DX also features a hardtail bridge, black chrome hardware, black body binding, a tiltback headstock, and a set of acclaimed ESP LH-150 humbucking pickups with matching black chrome covers.
For more information, please visit espguitars.com.
In the first installment of his new PG column, master guitar builder Paul Reed Smith explores the truth and mythologies about the wood our instruments are made of, and why the neck and body of your guitar is also its sonic soul.
Understanding that a landslide in a presidential election is 55 percent in one direction, I do not believe that what follows will get anywhere near 100-percent agreement. But, let’s go through the debate again. I don’t really use the term "tonewood." Because the internet uses the word, the word is used, but at PRS we just talk about wood, its beauty, and its ability to ring.
By definition, I guess tonewood is a wood used on musical instruments that helps give the instrument a “good tone.” Certain woods are classified as tonewoods and some are not. For me, the species is less relevant than the qualities of the wood. Those qualities are: length of time the wood rings when you hit it, the amount of water remaining in the wood after it is dried, the resins in the wood being crystallized/not gooey, the ability to have strength as necessary (i.e., a fretboard needs to be resistant to sweating, whereas back wood doesn’t), its ability to not warp over time, and its aesthetic appeal. A magic guitar can be made of many different types of wood, but those woods need to have certain qualities and need to be handled correctly throughout the manufacturing process. So to me, woods matter.
“Tonewood,” it follows, is not about making a “better-sounding” guitar. It is about making guitars that sound different and musical because of the woods chosen in the build.
When I started making guitars, I could trust the research of the guitar-making masters that came before me and use the woods they had decided on, or I could experiment with all the available woods. My decision was to trust what the masters had used because I didn’t have the time to experiment. Over the last 15 years, we have been able to experiment with woods that are not considered vintage tonewoods. I’ll give you an example. Vintage guitar fretboards are typically made of rosewood, ebony, or maple. There are several species within those wood types that work, but generally, the ones that were used were Brazilian rosewood, East Indian rosewood, African ebony, and sugar maple. The guitar I am currently playing has a ziricote fretboard and a chaltecoco neck. Chaltecoco is used for fence posts in Guatemala, and somehow that has given it a low-class reputation on the internet. To me, it makes fantastic electric guitar necks: It is strong, straight, and rings for a long time once dried. I used that guitar last night, and I’ll use it tonight. It’s got a beautiful sound.
“While the tonal differences in electric guitars start acoustically, they carry through when the guitar is plugged in.”
I also had a guitar with the exact same specs but a mahogany neck—same pickups, same parts—and both guitars sound different. The mahogany-neck guitar has a different kind of midrange, which I really like. I gave the instrument to Al Di Meola the other day, and he loved it. It was very musical in its tone. I’ll also add that while the tonal differences in electric guitars start acoustically, they carry through when the guitar is plugged in. Pickups are microphones, amplifying the acoustic tone of the guitar. In addition, pickups have a frequency response, a harmonic content, an attack and sustain characteristic, and an amplitude all their own.
To me, if wood doesn’t matter, then logically it follows that the material the bridge is made of doesn’t matter and the material the nut is made of doesn’t matter. What I believe, because of scores of experiences, is that if we make two identical guitars out of different woods, the guitars will sound different from each other. Then, if we exchange all the parts from guitar A and guitar B—the tuning pegs, nut, electronics, bridge—they would sound almost the same as they did, and still different from each other.
Let me tell a story. Once, I was at the Guitar Summit show in Frankfurt, and I took two Cremona violin makers who were at the show to my wood supplier to pick out curly maple back wood. They both picked about 35 backs out of what was in my friend’s booth. When they were done, the supplier looked at me with his jaw dropped, and said, “Oh my god.” I said, “What?” He said, “Look—all the backs they picked have the same number on them.” I said, “What does that mean?” He said, “The ones they picked all came from the same tree!” What they had been doing when they went through the pieces of wood was not to look at the curl, but to tap on them to find out how long they rang and whether they had a good note. They picked the backs that had the longest ring time. I learned something that day.
Bottom line, to throw away one of the main ingredients for making instruments because the internet says “it doesn’t make any difference” is, to me, like saying dead strings, rubber bridges, soft finishes, and wet woods make no difference. With all due respect, I don’t buy it.