Marco Sfogli has been blowing the minds of industry veterans like James Labrie for a decade now with his trademark blend of soulful, inflective rock stylings and stunning technique. We first spoke to Marco around the release of his first solo album, There’s Hope, back in 2008, but over the years had never been able to meet up in person – until now! At this year’s NAMM, Guitar Messenger’s Ivan Chopik managed to track down the incredible axeman at the DV Mark Amplifiers booth, where he described and demonstrated the terrific tones of the new Triple Six III head that he helped develop:

IC: Tell me a little about this brand new amp that you’ve got coming out on the market.

MS: We actually worked a lot on this new Triple Six III head. I wanted to have a really good crunch channel to be used as a main lead tone, so it’s very… I think we got to a point where the crunch channel became my actual lead tone, so I’m quite happy with it. It has a lot of harmonics, a lot of singing qualities. I think we came out with some cool lead tones. It’s kind of different from what I used in the past, because I’m looking for a different kind of tone, and I love the way it came out. I really can’t wait to use it.

IC: What’s going on in your world? I know you like to keep busy with a lot of different projects.

MS: You know, recording a lot, doing a lot of sessions, a lot of studio work. I’m done with the latest Virgil Donati record, and then I hope I’m going to tour with James Labrie in the summer whenever he’s done with Dream Theater. This is pretty much it. I have a lot of sessions going on when I come back to Italy, so I try to keep it busy.

IC: Have you been working on writing any new solo material?

MS: Not yet. I decided to take a break from the solo things to concentrate on other things like collaborations and sessions and stuff, but I will surely do another solo record in the future. I’ve got to sit down and write some music. It will take time, it will be fun. It’s going to be a cool 2014. NAMM has been great, I’ve met a lot of people, I met you, and it’s been great. So thanks for having me for this interview.

IC: Thanks for doing it, man. Glad we finally got to meet in person after all these years. We had our first interview, what, maybe four years ago or something at this point?

MS: Yeah, maybe more. There’s Hope came out in 2008. So it’s maybe six years!

DV Mark Triple Six III

120W, 3 channels, all-tube head, 26.67 lbs/12.1 Kg. Like the previous version, the Triple Six III offers three completely independent channels and 120 watts of pure tube tone from two massive KT88 tubes. A new setting of channels gives you greater control of the crunch sound.

[Special thanks to Chris Dingman and Alexander Pierce for their fantastic video work, and Chris’ additional editing assistance!]