(Photo credit: musiclegends.ca)

MetalSucks is sponsoring the current U.S. tour of Protest the Hero, Periphery, Jeff Loomis, The Safety Fire and Today I Caught the Plague (dates here). We’ll be featuring a “Rigged” column from one member of each band in the coming weeks, taking you through their live gear setups piece by piece. Last week ex-Nevermore shredder Jeff Loomis took us on a tour of his gear, and today we’ve got Protest the Hero co-axeman Luke Hoskin:

Hi, I am Luke. I play guitar in Protest the Hero.

My live rig is very simple these days. With all the hype surrounding Axe FX and other digital guitar processors, I have been motivated to keep it simple — and LOUD.

Below is a quick walkthrough of the gear I am using on this tour with Periphery, Jeff loomis, The Safety Fire, and our friends from home, Today I Caught the Plague.

Haters beware, I will backtrace all critical remarks left in the comments section!

This is an Ibanez RG I acquired overseas. It’s a gem (with a g).

I brought my Parker Fly Mojo along on this tour and can’t wait to use it live. It’s so light, it feels like a toy, but I will be damned if it doesn’t play itself.

My favourite piece of gear is my Splawn. I used it for our entire new album, and the settings are still pretty much the same. It’s called a “nitro” and it just sounds so warm and clear. I can’t say enough about it, really.

I also bring another favourite along as a back up. It’s a VHT Deliverance. It really doesn’t get much simpler: one channel, no effects loop. Nothing to hide behind!

I have a couple rectifier cabinets along with me. It was the first type of cabinet I bought as a young one, and I still love them.

I use this MXR Zakk Wylde overdrive because my Maxon got stolen in Australia. It’s okay. I couldn’t really be upset though, because I was escaping a Canadian winter at the time…

Sometimes my crew leaves nice messages for me so I know that people care about me on stage :) Thanks, Rich.

I run this little guy through the effects loop. The Decimator is the best noise suppressor I have used for the money. Be careful though, it will squelch your tone completely if you crank her up too far…

I spent $500 on this harmonizer with dreams of actually learning how to use it. That never happened. So I use it for a ‘bounce back’ delay on a couple of the tunes we are playing nowadays. If you have an ounce of patience, though, I am sure you could make this pedal do incredible things.

These are the strings I use:

These are my pooches. And when one pooch uses another for a pillow, I get inspired.

– Luke Hoskin / Protest the Hero