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“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 Vocabulary for 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.

Shop Page Hamilton's Gear:

ESP LTD Horizon 87 Solidbody Electric Guitar - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/9gKdg4

DiMarzio Air Norton - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/k0x2O0

D'Addario EXL140 XL Strings - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/anEGON

Eventide H9 - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/baQr0x

Boss MT-2W Metal Zone Waza Craft - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/AW4MPK

Boss DS-2 Turbo Distortion - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/1r4d9D

Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/JzDdK2

Boss ES-5 Effects Switching System - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/ZQgj6K

Pedaltrain Nano+ - https://sweetwater.sjv.io/XYJ9mG

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0:00 - D'Addario Strings

0:15 - Chris Kies Intro

1:43 - Page Hamilton Intro

3:09 - ESP LTD PH-600

4:23 - ESP LTD PH-600 MG

5:51 - Helmet Tunings

6:26 - "Sinatra"

7:32 - Scoring Films and TV on Guitar

10:08 - Working on In Dreams Movie at Abbey Road

10:51 - Touring in David Bowie's Band

12:08 - Page Hamilton Strings & Picks

13:57 - Codesigning DiMarzio Air Norton

16:25 - ESP Horizon Customs

18:02 - Page Hamilton Studied Martial Arts

19:54 - D'Addario & the Rig Rundown

20:27 - Fryette Pittbull Ultra-Lead 3-channel amp

26:23 - Page Hamilton Pedalboard

31:50 - Why Page Hamilton Still Plays Guitar

33:47 - D'Addario Strings

[Brought to you by D’Addario: https://ddar.io/wykyk-rr]

© Copyright Gearhead Communications LLC, 2024

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