Since joining Periphery in 2011, guitarist Mark Holcomb has toured the world over, bringing his calm, cool, and precisely collected style of playing to the progressive metal masses. With a sound built around deliberately tight polyrhythms, often backed by soaring, atmospheric guitar work, Periphery's songs can depend on the silent spaces between notes just as much as the notes themselves. For this reason, when Mark was conceiving the idea of his signature PRS guitar, he worked with Seymour Duncan to create a pickup set that would enable such precision -- without feeding back. The result was a Limited Edition, 25.5" scale PRS Custom 24, loaded with Seymour Duncan Alpha and Omega pickups, wound to Mark's specs.

We sat down with Mark before a Periphery show this past winter to talk about his history with the band, their songwriting techniques, and his new signature PRS. We even got him to share some valuable advice for up-and-coming musicians.