Brent Hinds passed away on August 20, 2025. He was fifty-one years old. He was the lead guitarist and co-vocalist of Mastodon for twenty-five years — the musician that his bandmate Bill Kelliher (Series 2 #186) called “our quote-unquote lead guitarist,” a characterization that Hinds himself might have amended: “I’m not a metal guitarist,” he shrugged to Guitar World in 2022. He had been raised around country music in Helena, Alabama; he incorporated country’s melodic directness and harmonic simplicity into Mastodon’s progressive metal context the same way he incorporated everything else — instinctively, freely, without concern for whether it belonged there. “I like to sprawl out in a song,” he said. “I think living in the city and being cramped around people causes these unconscious decisions for my songwriting. The only case scenario that I have to really spread out is in a song. Having the kind of sound I have, when I play and get into it, I get kinda lost, and before I know it 13 or 15 minutes have passed.” He owned a Silverburst Flying V commissioned from Gibson Custom Shop in 2005, fitted with Classic ’57 humbuckers, strung with D’Addario .060s to handle the low tunings. He ran two vintage Marshall JMP heads alongside a 1998 Diezel VH4, feeding custom painted Orange PPC412 4×12 cabinets. He loved his Orange Thunderverb 50: “I love the feedback. I get these ghost-notes that I can’t get out of any other amp.” He designed the “Mastodrive” overdrive pedal under his Dirty B. Hinds brand — 250 units, each with a signed certificate. He transformed metal guitar. He was fearless. He played like he meant it. He is gone, and the music remains.
Brent Hinds was born on October 25, 1974, in Helena, Alabama. He was raised around country music — a musical context that shaped his melodic sensibility and his instinctive harmonic approach, both of which were as evident in Mastodon’s most progressive compositions as the metal influences. He co-founded Mastodon in Atlanta, Georgia in 1999-2000 with Bill Kelliher, Troy Sanders, and Brann Dailor. He served as lead guitarist and co-vocalist across Mastodon’s entire catalog — eight studio albums from Remission (2002) to Hushed and Grim (2021) — and was central to the visual and sonic identity of the band throughout. He also played guitar in Fiend Without a Face (his surfabilly side project), the supergroup Giraffe Tongue Orchestra, and Legend of the Seagullmen. Guitar World described him as “the fearless, heavily tattooed guitar-slinger who helped lead Mastodon for a quarter century” and who was “a major figure in pushing metal guitar, and metal as a whole, into uncharted territory in the 21st century.” He passed away on August 20, 2025. He was survived by his family, his bandmates, and the music he made.
Background: Helena Alabama, Country Music Upbringing, Atlanta, “I’m Not a Metal Guitarist,” 25 Years of Mastodon
Hinds’s relationship to heavy metal was simultaneously total (he was one of the most celebrated and most distinctive lead guitarists in the genre for twenty-five years) and ambivalent (“I’m not a metal guitarist”). This tension — between what Mastodon’s music required of him technically and tonally, and what he actually heard himself as — was the productive creative tension that gave his guitar playing its specific character. He was not trying to be a metal guitarist playing metal solos; he was a guitarist who played what he heard, and what he heard was country music, psychedelia, progressive rock, and a instinctive melodic language that happened to be deployed over blast-beat rhythms and low-tuned heavy riffs. The country music upbringing — a musical tradition built on specific melodic directness, emotional honesty, and the specific major/minor harmonic language of American roots music — gave his leads a quality of human directness that straight metal lead playing often lacks.
His compositional approach, documented in Bill Kelliher’s Guitar World description, was the opposite of Kelliher’s systematic riff construction: “When I write songs I’ll spend months piecing them together, whereas Brent says, ‘Let’s jam and write whatever on the spot in the studio.'” This contrast — between the riff architect’s patient construction and the lead guitarist’s spontaneous generation — produced the specific creative dynamic of Mastodon’s songwriting: Kelliher providing the structured foundation, Hinds providing the inspired improvisation over and around it. Both approaches were essential; the combination of them was what made Mastodon.
His commitment to Flying V guitars as his primary instrument is one of the more specific visual identities in progressive metal. The Flying V — Gibson’s original 1958 futurist design, radical for its time, still radical — is an unusual choice for a guitarist in a progressive metal band that draws as much from psychedelia and country as from metal. The Flying V is a metal guitarist’s guitar (Dave Mustaine, Michael Schenker, and many others used it as their primary instrument), and Hinds’s use of it placed him visually in the metal tradition while his playing constantly pushed against that tradition’s boundaries.
The Rig: Brent Hinds’s Guitars, Amps, and Effects
Guitars
Gibson Custom Shop Silverburst Flying V (2005, Primary Career Guitar — D’Addario .060 Strung): Brent Hinds’s primary and most historically significant guitar is the Gibson Custom Shop Silverburst Flying V commissioned in 2005 — the guitar most associated with his visual identity across Mastodon’s peak creative decade. The Mixdown Magazine Gear Rundown confirms: “Speaking to Premier Guitar in 2014, guitarist Brent Hinds mentions he commissioned his Silverburst Flying V from Gibson in 2005, fitted with Gibson Classic ’57 humbuckers and strung with D’Addario XL Nickel Wound .060s to suit the low tunings used by the group.” The Silverburst finish — the metallic silver-to-black sunburst associated with Adam Jones of Tool (who helped popularize it) and subsequently with the specific visual aesthetic of progressive metal — gave Hinds’s guitar an immediately recognizable visual character on stage. The Classic ’57 humbuckers provide a specific vintage-PAF tonal character: warmer, more dynamic, and less compressed than modern high-output pickups, with a specific clarity in the midrange that preserves note definition in Mastodon’s complex harmonic passages. The .060 gauge low string supports the low tunings (C and D standard) across which Mastodon’s catalog spans.
Epiphone Brent Hinds Flying V Custom Signature (Production Signature Model): Hinds’s production signature guitar is the Epiphone Brent Hinds Flying V Custom — confirmed in the Australian Guitar review. Features: mahogany body, glued-in mahogany neck carved to a 1958 rounded profile, ebony fingerboard with pearloid block inlays, set-neck construction. The ebony fingerboard’s specific bright, snappy attack character provides additional treble definition for Hinds’s lead lines above the Flying V’s naturally warm mahogany body resonance. The Epiphone production price point made the Hinds signature accessible to players who couldn’t afford the Gibson Custom Shop original.
Electrical Guitar Company Custom Lucite Flying V (Limited Edition, Acrylic Body): The Mixdown Magazine Gear Rundown documents one of the more unusual guitars in Mastodon’s live history: “Renowned for their meticulously crafted aluminum instruments, Electric Guitar Company crafted Hinds a limited edition Custom V made out of Lucite, widely used for various purposes as a durable acrylic material.” The EGC Lucite Flying V — a V-shaped guitar with a clear acrylic (Lucite/plexiglass) body — provides completely different acoustic properties from the mahogany Flying V: acrylic’s specific resonant behavior, with no wood-based formant shaping, produces a different harmonic character. The visual impact of a see-through acrylic Flying V is self-evident.
B.B. King Lucille ES-355 (Semi-Hollow, “Despite Not Being a Very Metal-y Guitar”): The Mixdown characterization is precise: “Despite not being a very metal-y guitar, Hinds often manages to wrangle some filthy tones out of a B.B. King Lucille ES-355.” The Lucille is B.B. King’s signature ES-355 — a fully-bound, multi-ply semi-hollow with stereo wiring capability and Varitone selector. It is about as “not metal” as guitars get. Hinds played it and got filthy tones from it. This is entirely consistent with his “I’m not a metal guitarist” self-assessment: the choice of instrument, for him, was guided by what sounded right rather than by what genre expectations demanded.
Lap Steel Guitar (Stage, Orange CR120 Combo): The Premier Guitar 2014 Rig Rundown documents: “His lap steel runs through an Orange CR120 combo.” A lap steel guitar — a resonator-style instrument played flat on the lap with a metal slide — is the most specifically country-inflected instrument in Mastodon’s live setup. Its appearance reflects the country music upbringing that shaped Hinds’s melodic sensibility: the specific Hawaiian/country slide guitar tradition is one of the formative traditions of American music, and its presence in Mastodon’s live set is the most concrete demonstration of how Hinds’s non-metal influences manifested in the band’s music.
“My Overall Favorite Guitar for Sound” (GuitarPlayer, Unspecified Model): The Equipboard documentation references: “In an interview with GuitarPlayer, Brent Hinds says, ‘My overall favorite guitar for sound…'” — the completion of the quote is not available in the excerpt, but the documentation establishes that he had a specific favorite guitar for pure sound quality that he identified in the GuitarPlayer interview context.
Amps
Two Marshall JMP MkII Lead Series Heads (1977 and 1978 Vintage, Primary Tone): Hinds’s primary amplification is two vintage Marshall JMP heads — confirmed by both the Premier Guitar 2014 Rig Rundown and the Mixdown Gear Rundown: “two Marshall JMP MKII Lead Series heads (one from 1977, the other from 1978) to pull the brunt of his tone.” The Marshall JMP era (1973-1981) is the handwired period of Marshall production — before the transition to printed circuit boards — and these specific 1977 and 1978 JMPs provide the specific warm, harmonically complex tube tone of vintage Marshall at its most celebrated. His Premier Guitar description: “I’m running two Marshall JMPs and a ’98 Diezel VH4.” Running two identical (or near-identical) vintage amp heads simultaneously provides redundancy, additional power, and the specific character of slightly mismatched vintage circuits creating subtle intermodulation in the combined tone.
1998 Diezel VH4 (High-Gain Third Amp, “More Stacked Gain”): The 1998 Diezel VH4 — one of the most celebrated high-gain amplifiers in metal, known for its four-channel architecture and extremely articulate, modern high-gain character — provides the “more stacked gain” dimension alongside the vintage JMP tone. The VH4’s specific tight, articulate, extremely high-gain character contrasts with the JMPs’ more vintage, warmer British tube response — the combination of the two amplifier families gives Hinds’s sound its specific range: the warmth of the JMPs with the precision of the Diezel.
Orange Thunderverb 50 (“I Love the Feedback — Ghost Notes I Can’t Get Out of Any Other Amp”): Hinds’s love for the Orange Thunderverb 50 is documented in the Orange official site: “I love the feedback. I get these ghost-notes that I can’t get out of any other amp. Get yourself a Thunderverb 50!” The specific “ghost notes” — harmonic content appearing in the amp’s natural feedback and resonance that is not directly produced by the played notes — is the specific quality of the Thunderverb 50’s EL34 power section at high volumes. Like Pepper Keenan (Series 2 #184) and Kirk Windstein (Series 2 #185), Hinds found the Orange Thunderverb’s specific character compelling. His description of ghost notes reflects the same sensitivity to the amp’s natural harmonic generation that defines his “I’m not a metal guitarist” approach: he was listening to what the amplifier was doing, not just to what the guitar was producing.
Orange CR120 Combo (Lap Steel Amp): The Premier Guitar 2014 Rig Rundown documents the Orange CR120 combo as the dedicated amplifier for his lap steel guitar — a smaller, more focused amplification for the lap steel’s specific acoustic character, separate from the massive head/cabinet setup for his electric guitar signal.
Orange PPC412 4×12 Cabinets (Custom Color, Multiple Pairs): All guitar amplifiers fed two custom painted Orange PPC412 4×12 cabinets each — the Orange 4×12s equipped with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers (documented in the Equipboard entry about the Celestion Vintage 30 speakers in his Orange cabs). The custom paint colors on the cabinets reflect the visual dimension of Mastodon’s stage presentation.
Effects
Ibanez Tube Screamer (Primary Overdrive, Pedalboard Start): The Premier Guitar 2014 Rig Rundown documents Hinds’s pedalboard signal chain: “The main board starts with an Ernie Ball VP Junior volume pedal that connects to an Ibanez Tube Screamer.” The Tube Screamer — appearing in Kelliher’s rig as well (as the Maxon OD808 equivalent) — provides the standard mid-boost, soft-clipping overdrive that focuses and tightens the already-driven vintage JMP tone. In the context of two vintage JMPs plus a Diezel VH4, the Tube Screamer’s “makes it more pissed” function is as relevant as it is in any other amplifier context.
MXR GT-OD and MXR Phase 90 (Overdrive and Phaser, After Tube Screamer): “From there, the signal runs through two MXR pedals — a GT-OD and a Phase 90.” The MXR GT-OD (a clean boost/overdrive with a distinctive clean-boost mode that maximizes the amplifier’s own gain character without adding colored overdrive) provides a second drive stage after the Tube Screamer. The MXR Phase 90 — appearing across multiple rigs in this guide (Pepper Keenan’s, Kirk Windstein’s Down rig) — provides the four-stage phasing modulation for his psychedelic and spacious passages.
Boss DD-6 Digital Delay (Delay of Choice, 2014): “His delay of choice is the Boss DD-6.” The Boss DD-6 Digital Delay — a six-second digital delay with warp mode and twist mode — provides standard echo effects for melodic lead passages and the specific looping/warp functions for more experimental applications.
ISP Decimator (Noise Gate, After Delay): The ISP Decimator noise gate — appearing across multiple professional high-gain guitar rigs in this guide — manages the noise floor of the three-amp setup. With two vintage Marshalls and a Diezel VH4 running simultaneously at performance volume, the ISP Decimator’s threshold gating is essential for controlling the signal between phrases.
Dunlop Cry Baby 105Q Bass Wah (Wah Choice): “A Dunlop Cry Baby 105Q Bass Wah.” The 105Q is specifically a bass wah pedal — designed for the lower frequency range of bass guitar, its sweep is weighted toward low-mid and bass frequencies rather than the treble-forward sweep of standard guitar wahs. Using a bass wah on a down-tuned guitar provides a specific vocal, warm wah character appropriate for the low-register guitar parts that Mastodon’s C and D standard tunings require.
Dirty B. Hinds Mastodrive (Signature Overdrive Pedal, 250 Units): The Equipboard documentation captures Hinds’s own launch announcement: “Hey everyone, it’s your boy bHinds here with a special announcement. With the help of some talented people, we are rolling out the ‘Dirty B Hinds’ brand with our first product the ‘Mastodrive’ pedal, with art by the wizard himself @lurklovesyou aka Russ. We’ve only made 250 of these bad boys and each comes with a signed certificate by yours truly.” The Mastodrive — a limited-edition overdrive pedal produced under his own brand — represents the most personal piece of commercial gear associated with his name: his signature overdrive character in 250 individually signed units.
TC Electronic PolyTune Mini and MXR Custom Audio Systems Buffer (Utility): A TC Electronic PolyTune Mini (polyphonic chromatic tuner) and an MXR Custom Audio Systems Buffer (signal buffer to prevent signal degradation from long cable runs on large stages) complete the documented pedalboard chain.
Playing Style & Tone Philosophy
Brent Hinds’s playing style was the most instinctive and the most specifically un-metal in Mastodon — the approach of a musician who played what he felt rather than what the genre expected, whose country and psychedelic influences were as audible in his leads as any metal influence, and whose specific willingness to “sprawl out in a song” and get “kinda lost” for thirteen or fifteen minutes produced some of the most genuinely transcendent guitar moments in twenty-first century metal. He was described by Guitar World as a guitarist who “transformed metal guitar” — and the specific transformation was not technical but aesthetic: he made metal guitar feel human, spontaneous, and melodically accessible in ways that the genre’s prevailing technical and aggressive conventions often prevented.
His tone philosophy was the “ghost notes” philosophy — the awareness of what the amplifier was doing beyond the notes directly produced, the willingness to incorporate the amp’s natural harmonic feedback into the music as compositional content. The Orange Thunderverb 50’s ghost notes. The two vintage JMPs’ intermodulation harmonics. The Diezel VH4’s articulate precision. Together, these produced a lead guitar sound that was simultaneously heavy (the three-amp setup, the vintage Marshall warmth) and open (the ghost notes, the country melodic sensibility, the “not a metal guitarist” approach to the instrument).
How to Sound Like Brent Hinds
Guitar: Gibson Flying V or Epiphone Brent Hinds Flying V Custom signature — mahogany body, set-neck, Classic ’57-equivalent humbuckers (not ultra-high-output active pickups; vintage-character passive humbuckers suit his specific tone). D’Addario .060 gauge or equivalent heavy strings for the low-tuned passages.
Amp: Two vintage Marshall JMPs (1970s) alongside a high-gain modern amp (Diezel VH4 or comparable). Orange Thunderverb 50 for its specific ghost-note feedback character. Orange PPC412 4×12 cabinets with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers.
Amp Settings (Marshall JMP MkII Vintage — Primary Tone):
| Control | Setting (0–10) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Volume/Preamp | 7–9 | Pushed into natural vintage Marshall saturation |
| Bass | 5–6 | Full — the Flying V mahogany needs bass support |
| Mid | 6–7 | Forward — Hinds’s leads need midrange to cut through the mix |
| Treble | 5–6 | Present but warm — the vintage JMP character |
| Presence | 5 | Natural — allow the ghost notes to emerge |
Effects chain: Ernie Ball VP Junior volume pedal → Ibanez Tube Screamer → MXR GT-OD → MXR Phase 90 → Boss DD-6 → ISP Decimator → Dunlop 105Q Bass Wah (deployed for lead passages). The approach: play melodically, play from instinct, let the amp’s ghost notes become part of the music. “Sprawl out.” Get lost.
Influence & Legacy
Brent Hinds’s influence on progressive metal guitar is the most instinctively creative in the tradition — a guitarist who demonstrated that the genre’s technical and aggressive conventions were optional rather than obligatory, that a lead guitarist could draw from country, psychedelia, and surf music and still produce metal guitar of genuine originality and genuine power. His death at fifty-one represents one of the most significant losses in contemporary heavy music.
The Mastodon catalog — from the technical brutality of Leviathan to the psychedelic grandeur of Crack the Skye to the dense complexity of Hushed and Grim — documents twenty-five years of guitar playing that consistently refused the easy option, the genre-expected choice, the technically correct but emotionally empty solution. He took the harder path and produced the more interesting music. Guitar World: “a major figure in pushing metal guitar, and metal as a whole, into uncharted territory in the 21st century.” He was fearless. He was unrepeatable. He was Brent Hinds.
Internal Links:
- Bill Kelliher, Hinds’s Mastodon guitar partner whose riff architecture Hinds’s lead work complemented at #186
- Kirk Windstein of Down/Crowbar, a contemporary in the Southern heavy metal tradition at #185
- Pepper Keenan of COC/Down, who shared Hinds’s love of the Orange Thunderverb at #184
- Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth, a progressive metal guitarist who similarly transcended genre boundaries at #168
Frequently Asked Questions: Brent Hinds Mastodon Guitars & Gear
What guitar did Brent Hinds play?
Hinds’s primary guitar was a Gibson Custom Shop Silverburst Flying V commissioned in 2005 — fitted with Gibson Classic ’57 humbuckers and strung with D’Addario XL Nickel Wound .060s for low tunings. His production signature is the Epiphone Brent Hinds Flying V Custom with mahogany body, 1958 rounded neck profile, and ebony fingerboard. Other documented guitars include an Electrical Guitar Company Custom Lucite Flying V (clear acrylic body), a B.B. King Lucille ES-355 (“despite not being a very metal-y guitar”), and a lap steel guitar running through an Orange CR120 combo.
What amplifiers did Brent Hinds use?
Hinds’s 2014 live setup: two vintage Marshall JMP MkII Lead Series heads (one from 1977, one from 1978) for the core British vintage tube tone, plus a 1998 Diezel VH4 for additional high-gain saturation — all feeding custom painted Orange PPC412 4×12 cabinets with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers. He was also an enthusiast of the Orange Thunderverb 50: “I love the feedback. I get these ghost-notes that I can’t get out of any other amp. Get yourself a Thunderverb 50!” A separate Orange CR120 combo drove his lap steel.
What effects pedals did Brent Hinds use?
The 2014 Premier Guitar Rig Rundown documents his pedalboard: Ernie Ball VP Junior volume pedal → Ibanez Tube Screamer → MXR GT-OD → MXR Phase 90 → Boss DD-6 Digital Delay → ISP Decimator → Dunlop Cry Baby 105Q Bass Wah. He also produced 250 units of his own “Mastodrive” overdrive pedal under the Dirty B. Hinds brand, each with a signed certificate, and used a TC Electronic PolyTune Mini for tuning and an MXR Custom Audio Systems Buffer for signal management.
What did Hinds mean by “I’m not a metal guitarist”?
“I’m not a metal guitarist,” Hinds said to Guitar World in 2022. He was raised around country music in Helena, Alabama and incorporated country’s melodic directness and harmonic sensibility into his playing alongside metal. His lead guitar approach drew from psychedelia, progressive rock, and country as much as from metal conventions. He described “sprawling out in a song” and getting “kinda lost” for thirteen or fifteen minutes — an improvisational, emotionally exploratory approach distinct from the technically precise, genre-conventionally correct style of most metal lead guitarists. He was a guitarist who happened to be in a metal band, not a metal guitarist who happened to write accessible melodies.
What were Hinds’s “ghost notes” on the Orange Thunderverb?
“I love the feedback. I get these ghost-notes that I can’t get out of any other amp.” Ghost notes are the harmonic content that appears in an amplifier’s natural feedback and resonance — the notes produced by the amp’s own interaction with the guitar’s signal at high volumes, which are distinct from the notes directly produced by the player. The Orange Thunderverb 50’s specific EL34 tube character and its interaction with the Flying V’s feedback resonance at high volumes produced harmonic ghost notes that Hinds incorporated into his playing as compositional content. This sensitivity to what the amp was doing beyond the directly produced notes reflects his broader improvisational, instinctive approach to guitar playing.
When did Brent Hinds pass away?
Brent Hinds died on August 20, 2025, at the age of fifty-one. Guitar World reported his death as “a body blow” for the guitar world, describing him as “the fearless, heavily tattooed guitar-slinger who helped lead Mastodon for a quarter century” and “a major figure in pushing metal guitar, and metal as a whole, into uncharted territory in the 21st century.” He was co-founder of Mastodon and had been with the band from their formation in 1999-2000 until his passing. He was survived by his family and bandmates, and by the twenty-plus years of music he created with Mastodon.
What was Brent Hinds’s compositional approach?
Bill Kelliher described the contrast in Guitar World (2024): “We’re opposite sometimes. When I write songs I’ll spend months piecing them together, whereas Brent says, ‘Let’s jam and write whatever on the spot in the studio.'” Hinds himself confirmed: “I like to sprawl out in a song. The only case scenario that I have to really spread out is in a song. Having the kind of sound I have, when I play and get into it, I get kinda lost, and before I know it 13 or 15 minutes have passed.” This spontaneous, instinctive approach — contrasting with Kelliher’s systematic riff construction — produced the specific improvisational quality of Mastodon’s most expansive compositions.
