Marc Rizzo

BIOGRAPHY – Mark Tremonti

Mark Tremonti is a Grammy-winning musician best known for his work as lead guitarist and songwriter for the rock bands Creed and Alter Bridge. Since his career took off in the late 90s, his playing has been featured on several multi-platinum records, he has helped design his own signature line of musical equipment through multiple companies, and he has released a guitar instructional DVD entitled “Mark Tremonti: The Sound and The Story.”

Born on April 14, 1974 in Detroit, Michigan, Tremonti’s initial interest in guitar came from his older brothers’ influence of listening to bands like KISS, Iron Maiden, and Metallica. He received his first guitar, a cheap Les Paul copy, when he was eleven years old, and he signed up for lessons soon afterwards. On his very first day, the instructor showed him a nursery tune, and Tremonti said he wanted to learn to play Metallica songs. When the instructor said he was not ready for that yet, Tremonti decided right then that he would learn what he wanted on his own.

By the time he was fifteen, his family had moved to Orlando, Florida, where he met future band mate Scott Stapp. He continued to work on his musical skills throughout high school. While attending college at Clemson University in South Carolina he discovered a music store that lended out instructional videos for free. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Tremonti used to take home some videos and would learn as much and as often as he could. After his first year of college, he moved back to Florida, attending Florida State University, where he was re-united with Stapp, and in 1995, Creed was formed.

Until their initial breakup in 2003, Creed released three albums with sales totaling over 30 million worldwide. They also had numerous hit singles, three Grammy nominations, and they also won the Grammy for Best Rock Song in 2001. In early 2004, Tremonti formed the band Alter Bridge with his band mates from Creed (minus Stapp), and they recruited Myles Kennedy for vocals. Alter Bridge has released three albums to date, and since Creed’s reunion, the two bands have coordinated alternating tour schedules.

Tremonti uses his signature Paul Reed Smith (PRS) model guitars, with both tremolo and fixed bridges. PRS also makes Tremonti signature pickups, which come stocked with the Mark Tremonti Model guitar. In other musical equipment, Tremonti has his own signature wah pedal through Morley and a signature phaser pedal through T-Rex. As for amplification, Tremonti uses a mix of Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifiers and the Uberschall and Shiva models made by Bogner for his distortion settings. For his clean sound, he uses Fender Twin ’65 Re-Issues, along with the G-Force effects processor by TC Electronics. He also uses Taylor acoustic guitars, D’addario strings, Planet Waves cables, and Dunlop Jazz III picks.

Tremonti’s discipline on the guitar is quite impressive, including a daily practice regimen of around eight hours. He has stated that after receiving such an honor as receiving a PRS signature model guitar, he knew that it was time to step up his game and prove that he truly deserved it. On “Mark Tremonti: The Sound and The Story,” Paul Smith, the founder of PRS guitars, said that one of their most extensive fret jobs ever came from one of Tremonti’s guitars. After years of constant playing and countless hours of practice. Tremonti has also received Guitar World’s Guitarist of the Year award three consecutive times and has been voted by readers of Total Guitar magazine as the fourth greatest metal guitarist ever. While balancing time between his two bands, he has stated that a solo project is in the works and that he will be doing lead vocal duties as well.