Me and my guitar: Sylosis's Josh Middleton

The creative force behind UK metal band Sylosis is going for gold with his new E-II Eclipse.

Body

"To me this feels identical to my ESP Eclipse II. The E-II series has pretty much taken over from that series from what I'm aware of. So I've got two of these out with me on this tour. I'm not really into modern guitar styles. I just prefer more classic or vintage-looking guitars with a bit more class. I'm not into Super-Strats or anything pointy."

Hardware

"This is brand new, it's the first tour I'm using it on. It comes with all black hardware and black EMGs, but I thought it would look really cool with gold hardware. So I fitted a new bridge and new tuners myself, which I hadn't done before, I was a bit worried they didn't line up… they look a bit wonky to me but I think that's fine! They're Grover 102GK tuners. I asked a local luthier friend which ones would fit and he recommended them. I couldn't find any of the Gotoh ones it came with in gold anywhere."

Jimmy Clip

"My friend Paul gave me this Jimmy Clip, which stops all the excess noise when you chug and then leave a little gap - it means you don't get any ring from the strings."

Pickups

"I've used the EMG 57/66 pickup set for a couple of years now. They're really consistent live, they have more of a passive pickup character to them. The thing I like about actives is the consistency across all of the strings - now and then, notes on the high strings can leap out and sound a bit shrill during leads.

"The EMGs are a bit more compressed, but I don't see the issue with that when you're playing metal. I tend to use both active and passive pickups in the studio, but the active EMGs just give you more of a consistent attack live, which sounds tighter. Especially playing in standard E, you want every note to have the same weight to it."