Matt Heafy's guitar rig and strings: the Trivium gear breakdown, sourced

Matthew Kiichi Heafy, born January 26, 1986 in Iwakuni, Japan, is the vocalist and rhythm/lead guitarist of Trivium, the Orlando, Florida metal band he has fronted since he was 12 years old. His family moved from Japan to Orlando when he was a baby; he tried out for Trivium as a guitarist, and when original singer Brad Lewter quit within a month, drummer Travis Smith persuaded Heafy to take over vocals too. He has handled both roles ever since, across ten studio albums from Ember to Inferno (2003) through In the Court of the Dragon (2021).

Heafy is self-taught on guitar and largely self-taught as a vocalist. He taught himself the growls and screams that define much of Trivium's sound, badly damaged his voice using improper technique in the years leading up to a 2014 Rock on the Range show, and began formal training with vocal coach Ron Anderson that same year. Outside Trivium, he fronts Ibaraki, a black metal project he launched in 2022 with guest contributions from Ihsahn of Emperor, Nergal of Behemoth, and Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance on its debut album, Rashomon. He is also a daily livestreamer on Twitch, running guitar clinics and Brazilian jiu-jitsu classes alongside his music, and hosts "Chaos Hour" on SiriusXM Liquid Metal.

Heafy's gear relationships span more than two decades: Dunlop for strings and picks, Epiphone for his main guitars, and EVH for amplification, all documented on the instruments he actually plays live, not just in press photos. Premier Guitar's December 2022 Rig Rundown with Heafy and fellow guitarist Corey Beaulieu, filmed ahead of a Nashville headline show, is the most detailed primary source for his current touring setup and the citation base for most of this page.

Epiphone's 6- and 7-string Matt Heafy signatures share a body, a neck profile, and a pickup pair, but Epiphone's own spec sheets show real differences underneath the family resemblance:

The longer 25.51-inch scale on the 7-string is the detail worth knowing before you buy: it is not a simple one-string add-on to the 6-string body. The extra length helps the low B string hold pitch and clarity, the same reason most 7-string metal guitars run a longer scale than their 6-string counterparts.

Trivium spent close to a decade touring almost exclusively on digital modelers, first the Fractal Axe-Fx, then the Kemper Profiler, after adopting them in the early 2010s. That changed in 2019, when the band went into the studio to record What the Dead Men Say without a single amp on hand. "We had to scramble to find somebody who had tube amps that we could use to track, so after we finished that album, I never wanted to be stuck in that situation again. I scoured Reverb and bought all my favorite amps and everything we used for all our past albums," Corey Beaulieu told Premier Guitar in 2022.

The tube amps Beaulieu rebuilt his collection around ended up back on the road too. "We've used some sort of iteration of the 5150 formula on nine of our 10 albums, so it made sense to tour with. Plus, the EVH 5150III 100S were featured on [2021's] In the Court of the Dragon, so it made sense these would be the ones," Heafy told Premier Guitar in the same interview. The band now tours with matching 5150III 100S heads and cabs for both guitarists, sending the amp signal to a Two Notes Torpedo Captor X and out to front-of-house instead of relying on a miked cabinet onstage.

Heafy is a documented Dunlop, Epiphone, and EVH artist, all three visible on the instruments he plays live rather than only in press photos. His string and pick deals are literal signature products bearing his name, with a direct quote from Heafy about why he uses them. The Epiphone and EVH relationships are confirmed the same way as most Rig Rundown gear: on camera, on the actual guitars and amps he tours with, filmed the afternoon of a real Trivium headline show.

Dunlop Trivium Signature Guitar Strings, the set reviewed above. Dunlop Trivium Signature Guitar Strings, 7-String, the companion set for "Chugasaurus Rex." Jim Root, Slipknot's guitarist and another Dunlop String Lab metal signature artist. Mick Thomson, Slipknot's other guitarist. Best guitar strings for metal, ranked picks across metal tunings and styles. Drop D tuning guide. C# standard tuning guide.