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NEWS:
Kirk's
wah history page is up, but does not contain info at this time.
Live Gear
Lists will only be made when they differ from Studio Equipment.

Studio
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Notes/Quotes:
- "...I used my
black Flying V with an old '57 humbucker, which I've had for 12 years
now. I plugged in through James' modified Marshall amp, mainly because
we didn't have a lot of equipment at that time. I also used a Boss
Distortion pedal." gw october, 1991
- Speaking about
the solo for 'Seek & Destroy:'
"When I was doing that guitar solo, I was using James' Marshall. That
was the Marshall-it had been hot rodded by some L.A. guy,
the same guy who hot rodded Eddie Van Halen's Marshalls [Jose
Arrendondo-MJF]-and when it came time to do my guitar leads, I just
plugged into that...I had my trusy old Ibanez Tube Screamer, my trusty
wah pedal, and my black Gibson Flying V that I used on the first four
albums-it was either a '74 or a '78, I'm not sure." Guitar World, March
2002
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Live
- Marshall JMP
2203
- Dunlop wah
- Boss
Distortion-Used for solos
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Studio
Notes/Quotes:
- "I was still using
the black Flying V and the Boss Distortion pedal through Marshall amps,
with TC Electronics EQ." gw october 1991
- "I was still using
the black Flying V, but on FADE TO BLACK, I used the neck pickup on my
guitar to get that warm sound. I played through a wah-wah pedal all the
way in the 'up' position." Guitar World, October 1991
- "Again, we were
using Marshalls; I tracked the whole album with Marshall amps and my
Gibson Flying V.

Studio
- Mesa Boogie Mark
IIc+ -This is the amp that James would later "borrow" and use it for
his main rhythm sound.
- Furman PQ3
parametric EQ
- Mesa Boogie Heads
slaved into Marshalls-JMP/JCM800
- Ibanez
tubescreamer-Used for Solos
Live
| 1986
RACK 1
- hush noise
reduction
- ADA FX2
- ADA STD-1
Stereo Tapped Delay
- ADA Digitizer
4
- Marshall JCM
800, horizontal input
- Marshall JCM
800, horizontal input
RACK 2
- Mesa Boogie
Mark IIC+ Long Head?? -I am not totally sure what MARK amp these
are. It is for sure a wide chassis head, most likely either a IIB
Coliseum or III Coliseum 300. This is a wide head, with no push/pull
pot on the 4th and 8th controls. The IIB doesn't have a push/pull
on the 3rd, 4th, and 8th controls. The III Coliseum 300 has push/pull
pots on all controls except the 8th (Reverb). I have also been told
that the IIC+ was available in a wide chassis head, so it could be that
too.
- Mesa Boogie
Mark IIC+ Long Head???
Other
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Notes/Quotes
- "I used a Mesa
Boogie Mark IIC+ amp and a black Randy Rhoads custom Jackson guitar."
Guitar World, October 1991
- "A lot of people
think I actually came into my own sound on that song [Master of
Puppets-MJF]. That had everything to do with buying Mesa Boogie Mark
IIC heads. Boogie made those heads for a short time in the mid eighties
and only made a limited amount of them. The moved on after that, and
they haven't really been able to recapture that sound since-I don't
know if they ever tried or not. But there's something about Boogie Mark
IIC heads that were really unique and very individual in their gain
stages and overall sound. Most of 'Master of Puppets' was tracked with
Boogie heads and Marshall heads combined, and I used my Gibson Flying V
and my Jackson. By that time, I also had my black Fernandes
Stratocaster." Guitar World, March 2002.

Same
recording amps as before, this is when Kirk began using ESP guitars
with EMG pickups.
Notes/Quotes

Studio
- Mesa Boogie Mark
IIc+
- Mesa Boogie power
amp
- Mesa Boogie Quad
Preamp
- ADA MP1 preamp -Used
along with his tube screamer for leads. Used without TS for clean
- Aphex Parametric EQ
- Ibanez Tube
Screamer-Solo boost
- Mesa Boogie Heads
slaved into Marshalls
Live
| 1989
RACK 1
- furman power
conditioner
- Mesa Boogie
Midi Matrix
- empty space
(1)
- Mesa Boogie
Studio Preamp
- graphic eq
- Mesa Boogie
strategy 400
- Mesa Boogie
strategy 400
RACK 2
- Furman power
conditioner
- DBX 463x Noise
Gate
- ADA MP1
- Boss tuner
- 2 vertical
parametric tuners
- Yamaha SPX
90II
- unknown rack
unit
- Roland DEP-5
- ADA MQ1 eq
Other
- Ibanez Tube
Scremer-Solo Boost
- Mesa Boogie
Quad Preamp
- Dunlop Wah
- Vox Wah
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Notes/Quotes
- "I used a Mesa
Boogie power amp, an ADA preamp, and an Aphex Parametric EQ on this
album. We wanted a clean guitar sound for 'One.' The first solo went
fine, but I had trouble with the second; I just couldn't nail it. I
only had eight days to record all my leads because we were heading out
on the 'Monster's of Rock' tour. As a result, I was never happy with
what was on the record, and I flew to the Hit Factory in New York
between gigs to patch up the solos. I did the third solo in a couple of
hours. I worked out the first right-hand tapping thing and from there
it flowed very well. I think it worked because I was so pissed off that
the second solo wasn't working out. When I had to play that live, it
didn't feel right because it was so clean. So I started playing it full
volume with full distortion on my neck pickup, and liked it better. In
retrospect, I think I should have played it that way on the album."
Guitar World, October 1991
- "...I also used an
ADA preamp and an ADA MP1-it was a programmable digital amp that had
tubes in it, with a separate rackmounted EQ. I remember blending that
thing with the Boogies for lead sound and clean sound. The clean sound
on 'One' was done almost exclusively with an ADA MP1 [KIRK'S clean
parts on ONE, not the clean intro parts James plays-MJF]." Guitar
World, 2002
- Onstage, Kirk
Hammett favors Strat-type guitars with EMG pickups. He has two Tom
Anderson guitars, a Kramer, an ESP, a Jackson, and a Fernandes.
"Believe it or not, they all sound tremendously different. My ESP has a
really bright, even tone, and a tight low end, so it's good for a song
like 'Blackened' which has a lot of single notes and not many chords.
It's the best guitar for percussive riffs. The Tom Anderson guitars
have a great lead tone-the notes all sound really fat, and very
distinct from each other. The Jackson is the warmest guitar I have-it's
great for fingerpicking stuff."
But most of Metallica's albums [meaning prior to AJFA at the time of
the original interview] were done with an early 70s Gibson Flying V
that Kirk no longer takes on the road. In the studio, he uses Mesa
Boogie Simul-class II amps, but his onstage MIDI setup includes a Mesa
Boogie Strategy 400 poweramp and an ADA MP1 preamp. He runs his signal
through a Jim Dunlop Crybaby wah, Yamaha SPX-90II and Roland DEP-5
digital signal processors, an ADA MQ1 equalizer, and an Ibanez Tube
Screamer [TS10]. "The Tube Screamer has a certain warmth and
smoothness. A lot of other distortion pedals just sound like
chainsaws." Each of his four 4x12 Mesa Boogie cabinets is fitted with
two Celestion and two Electro-Voice speakers. His strings are Dean
Markleys, gauged .009-.042. Both he and James use green Jim Dunlop
Tortex picks. Guitar Player April 1989

Studio
Notes/Quotes
- "I used a Bradshaw
because the mids were clean and the low end sounded real percussive.
The harmonic distortion also sounded nice and dirty. For the highs we
used two Marshalls. We combined all the sounds and put the Bradshaw
preamp through a VHT poweramp. We put it all through Marshall cabinets
with 30 watt speakers and blended all the room mikes. My sound is a lot
thicker and punchier than before, and I think it's better than ever."
Guitar World, October 1991.
- "My philosophy has
always been a clean amp with a stomp box. I hate the sound of piling
distortion on top of distortion. I was using a Mesa Boogie preamp, but
I've gone back to the ADA MP1 with an ADA programmable EQ [MQ1-MJF]
through a Mesa Boogie Strategy 400 power amp. For leads, I use a low
gain setting on the ADA MP1, but switch on an Ibanez Tube Screamer.
Using the Tube Screamer in conjunction with a tube amp reallly brings
out the tube qualities of the amp. And there's just something about
that simple, raw, gritty, fuzz box sound. One of the best lead sound I
ever got was when I played an Electro Harmonix Big Muff through a
Montgomery Ward amp with 3" speaker for a Jeff Beck tone." Guitar
Player, October 1992.
- "VHT power amp
[2150-MJF] with Bradshaw preamp through Marshall cabs for lows.
Straight Marshall for highs. I didn't use the Boogie Gear I used on
'Master of Puppets' and 'And Justice For All.' I also stopped using the
ADA preamp [He did continue using it though, especially live-MJF]. The
Bradshaw is my favorite preamp..." Guitar Player, September 1991.
- "Again, I was
playing my ESP with a wah pedal, and this time I used a bunch of
different amps. We were combining Boogies and modified Marshalls; I
also think we had a clean old FEnder in there, and maybe even an old
Vox amp, and they were all blended together to get that tone. I can
remember getting that lead guitar sound together very quickly, very
spontaneously." Guitar World, March 2002.
- "We blended two
sounds: A VHT power amp [2150-MJF] with this new Bradshaw preamp
through a Marshall cabinet-which was great for the lows and mids-and a
straight Marshall [head-MJF] for the highs. There's no direct signal. I
didn't use the Mesa Boogie gear I used on MASTER OF PUPPETS and
JUSTICE; it just didn't have the biting top end of the Marshalls
[Another interesting statement...You can clearly see Kirk using Boogies
in the studio-MJF]. I also stopped using the ADA preamp [And another
interesting statement...You can see the mp1 in Kirk's rack during the
studio...Maybe he didn't use it, but it was also in his live rack-MJF].
We tried Bogner [Fish-MJF] and Marshall preamps, too, but the Bradshaw
was my favorite. When we play live, I'm probably going to use the two
amp setup, probably with a Bradshaw Patchmate, which lets you switch
amps through MIDI. It will probably be the VHT/Bradshaw combo for the
rhythm tone, adding the Marshall for my solos."
"No Tube Screamers this time [Although you can see one on the floor in
various shots-MJF]. The wah was my only effect so far [Take note of "So
far," meaning he could have used other effects after this time-MJF],
though we have yet to record some solos. I used an old Vox, which is a
bit warmer than a Cry Baby. The highs aren't as brittle, and it scoops
a little differently. [James commenting on this:] The Vox is
'mouthier-' it really talks." [Back to Kirk:] Some people say that
players hide behind wah pedals, but for me, they augment a solo and
embellish certain parts.
Live
- Boss SE-50
- Vox Wah
- -Juice Goose
Power Conditioner
- ADA MP1 Preamp
- ADA MQ1 EQ
- Rocktron Juice
Extractor
- Bradshaw
Switching System
- Eventide Ultra
Harmonizer H3000
- Custom Audio
Electronics Preamp
- EMB Audio
Remote Wah System-Click HERE for info regarding Kirk
and WAH
- "Lunchbox"
Aphex Parametric EQs
- VHT 2150 Power
Amp
- Mesa Boogie
Mark IV
- Marshall 1960
Cabs
- Ernie Ball
Volume Pedal (Controls wah)
- Ibanez TS10
Tube Screamer (solo boosts)
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| 1993
RACK 1
- Juice
Goose...power conditioner
- Eventide Ultra
Harmonizer H3000
- Boss SE50 (2)
- ADA MQ1 EQ
- ADA MP1 Preamp
- Rocktron Juice
Extractor
- CAE 3+ Tube
Preamp
- __
- EMB Audio
Remote Wah System-Click HERE for info regarding Kirk
and WAH
- 2 Vertical
Parametric lunchbox EQs
- Rocktron
Patchmate
- Rocktron/Bradshaw
Switching System
RACK 2
- Furman power
conditioner
- __
- __
- ADA MP1 Preamp
- ADA MQ1 EX
- Mesa Boogie
Mark IV
- Mesa Boogie
Triaxis Preamp
- Mesa Boogie
Strategy 400 Power Amp
- Mesa Boogie
Strategy 400 Power Amp
- Ibanez TS10
Tube Screamer-Solo Boost
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Studio
- Matchless
Spitfire
- Vox AC30
- Little Lanilei
- Mesa Boogie
Mark IV
- Mesa Boogie
Triaxis
- Ibanez Tube
Screamer TS9
- Live Preamp
and Poweramp Racks (See Below, Live Section)
- Matchless
Cheiftain
Notes/Quotes
- "The only real
influence that the music I've been hearing has had is that it's sparked
my interest in all the old, shitty sounding Electro-Harmonix and MXR
effects pedals I used to use when I was younger."
"I think the VG-8 is one of the best inventions ever. If you get tired
of one sound, you can just switch presets and explore entirely new
possibilities. I've spent hours fucking with around with it." Guitar
World, July 1996
- "For the
'Load' album, I was experimenting so much with tone I had to keep
journals on what equipment I was using. For 'Hero of the Day' I know I
used an 1958 Les Paul Standard with a Matchless Cheiftain, some Boogie
amps and a Vox amp-again, they're all blended." Guitar World, March
2002.
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Live
Kirk's
effects are provided by the rackmounted preamps and the only thing he
has access to is his wah, which is actually a remote housed in an Ernie
Ball volume pedal. Here is a photo of Kirk's racks:
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Live,
Kirk had two 20 space racks that housed his preamps and poweramps. On
top of the preamp rack is a JCM 900 lead 1936 2x12 guitar
cabinet.
Kirk's
preamp rack contains the following:
- Juice goose
grand loop control 320 (power strip)
- EMB Audio
Remote wah-Click HERE for
info regarding Kirk and WAH
- Nady 1200
wireless system
- sony wrr-840
wireless system
- TC electronics
m2000 effects processor
- Bradshaw
RSB-18R switching system
- Custom Audio
Electronics 4x4 switcher
- Mesa Boogie hi
gain amp switcher
- Marshall jmp-1
preamp
- Mesa Boogie
Triaxis (clean)-SETTINGS
- Mesa Boogie
Triaxis (distortion)-SETTINGS
- Mesa Boogie
Dual Rectifier SETTINGS
- Mesa Boogie
Dual Rectifier SETTINGS
Kirk's
power amp rack contains the following:
Also
used were a Roland VG System and an Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer for solos
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Kirk's
modified Ernie Ball volume pedal that is actually a controller for the
EMB AUDIO REMOTE WAH SYSTEM. THERE ARE NO OTHER WAH MANUFACTUER'S
GUTS/SYSTEM INVOLVED.

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Studio
- Lovetone Meatball
- Lovetone Wobulator
- Lovetone Brown
source
- Lovetone Way Huge
Swollen Pickle
- Live Preamp and
Power amp racks
- Digitech Whammy
- Vox AC30
- Matchless Cheiftain
- Trainwreck
Notes/Quotes
- "One company that I
love is Lovetone. Unfortunately, you can't get that stuff anywhere in
the States, which really pisses me off. Then when you do get it you
have to get an alternative power supply-but it's worth it. Their Brown
Sauce [Source-MJF] is amazing, I love that pedal. I also use the Way
Huge Swollen Pickle Fuzz box, that's great too."
"In the studio, we mainly use Boogie amps, Matchless, and Marshall. I
was also impressed with the Vox AC30, I didn't really know how good
that was before. Then there's this Trainwreck made by Ken Fisher in the
United States. There's so few of them but they sound absolutely
incredible. The last one up for sale went for $14,000"
"Live I use a Boogie Dual Rectifier and the Tri-Axis amp. My tastes in
tone have definitely changed. I don't like so much distortion these
days and the Boogie is nice and crisp. But when I need that bit of
extra kick I'll use the Tri-Axis." Total Guitar, February 1998

Studio
Live
Same Live
Racks

Same Live
Racks


A few
words about this list before we get into it too much. This is a list of
all that can be seen in the studio, it does not necessarily mean that
Kirk did use every single amp/pedal on St. Anger or that it played a
vital role. His main recording setup was the Marshall plexi, Dumble
SSS, and live rack. Items that were a main part of Kirk's recording
gear are marked with an *
Studio
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This is Kirk's main recording area where his main
amps are setup.

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The
following photo and information comes from an overseas guitar magazine
and the translation is by Robert...Thanks!
1)
Line 6 duoverb
2)
Marshall 1960b cabinet the
logo is taped of in the classic streetmetal way, you have trendmakers
and trendfollowers...All the cabinets of Metallica have celestion 30
speakers, doesn't mather what brand.
3)
Fender stratocaster early
60's in lake placid blue with a later put on badass bridge
4)
californian barstool even
guitar heros need a piece of wood
5)
Marshall Super Lead Plexi top the classic british amp, complete with the
original cabinets
6)
Marshall 1960b zie nr.2
7) ESP
the Mummy maybe the most
famous and favorite ESP from Kirk, he ownes the design, with
filmlegend BORIS KARLOFF in one of his most famous movies
8) Mesa
Booge triple rectifier on
stage metallica plays trough different Boogie pre-amps but the sound of
the rectifier is THE typical metallica sound for many years, and what
about the new rectifier-backline??
9)
Dumble super string singer a
really rare and expensive top from the legendend in amps, the amp guru
ALEXANDER (used to be HOWARD) DUMBLE, the power of this amp is 150 watt
but that's the only thing that's known about this amp. Stevie ray
Vaughan used to play this amp! He enjoyed the glass feel and pure volume
10)
Brown cabinet it's red, we don't know more
about it.. Information is welcome
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Notes/Quotes
- "We used our
road rigs in the studio so we'd have maximum reproduction of our studio
tone live. The bulk of my tone came from that setup, and then, whenever
needed, I embellished it with other amps-a bunch of Marshalls, some
Randalls, and a rare, dual powered '59 Fender Twin Reverb, which is one
of my favorite amps. I recorded using two 4x12 cabs-a Mesa Boogie
loaded with Celestion Vintage 30s and an old Marshall cab from the
Sixties with a cool pinstripe grille and 25-watt Celestion Greenback
speakers."
"I used my Whammy pedal, but I locked up my wah pedals for this album,
once again because I'm avoiding things I did in the last century and
also because I didn't want it becoming an albatross [This statement is
rather interesting, considering you can see various wahs in the
studio-MJF]. Of course, I still have my fleet of wah pedals at home,
and I still use them all the time."
Other pedals Hammett stomped on during the making of the album include
all four Line 6 Modeler pedals (FM4 Filter, MM4 Modulation, DL4 Delay,
and DM4 Distortion) and a Pefftronics SB-100 Super Rand-O-Matic. "The
Line 6 pedals are just great. If you have all four, then the sky's the
limit. I try to get al four running at the same time!" The guitarist is
equally enamored of the Rand-O-Matic, which is a wacky
phaser/flanger/wave shaper/delay device with a clever 'randomness'
circuit. "It's incredible. It's totally random, uncontrollable and
unpredictable. I love it to death!" Guitar World, August 2003
- [Bob Rock
interviewed by Guitar World-MJF]
"We were having fun using all sorts of different amps. Every day James
and Kirk would bring in a new amp and plug it in, and if that inspired
us, that would start the song. We added a 50-watt Wizard and a Marshall
DSL 2000, and they sounded great. And Kirk's been collecting lots of
vintage amps, so we tried a few of tohse. The only other amp that was
an oddball was a Silvertone that I bought just down the street. We've
used that pretty much for anything that was dirty-clean, and with an
RCA RC44 mic on it, it sounds amazing." Guitar World, August 2003
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Live
On top of racks:
- Pedalboard
- Digitech XP-300 Space Station
Rack One
- Furman PL Pro
- TC Electronics
G-Major
- Mesa Boogie
Triaxis-SETTTINGS/INFO
- Shelf: Weber
MASS, Digitech WH1 Whammy (1 of 2, #2 is on pedalboard)
- DMC System Mix
Plus
- .
- .
- Mesa Boogie
Strategy 400 Poweramp
- Mesa Boogie
Strategy 400 Poweramp
Rack 2
- Furman PL Pro
- Sony WRR-840
Wireless
- Dunlop 1SR
Rackwah-SETTINGS, Wah History
- Dunlop 1SR
Rackwah-SETTINGS, Wah History
- TC Electornics
G-Major
- Rack Drawer:
Ibanez TS9 tubescremaer, modified by Analogman
- DMC GCX Audio
Switcher
- DMC GCX Audio
Switcher
- Mesa Boogie
Triaxis-SETTINGS
- Mesa Boogie
Triaxis-SETTINGS
- .
- Mesa Boogie
rackmount Dual Recto-SETTINGS
- Mesa Boogie
rackmount Dual Recto-SETTINGS
Pedalboard:
- Line6 DL4 Delay
- Line6 MM4
Modulation
- Digitech WH1
Whammy
Ground Control Pro
The following refer to the Ground Control Pro footcontroller that
Kirk's tech, Justin, uses to control the changes during a show. For
those not familiar with this setup, the first set of 8 are the actual
units which reside in a loop (GCX audio switcher) and the second set of
4 are the actual "tone" used during a show.
- 1-WAH-1SR
rackwah with 5 controllers
- 2-TUBE-Ibanez
TS9 tubescreamer, used for solos
- 3-JS-Digitech
WH1 Whammy in rack (I think)
- 4-TC-TC
Electronics G-Major
- 5-FLOOP-FLOOP=Floor
Loop, Kirk's pedalboard
- 6-TRIAXIS-Triaxis
- 7-RECTO-Recto
1
- 8-KID-Recto
2 (I think)
- 1-MEAN-Dual
Recto
- 2-MEAN
2-Dual Recto
- 3-SCREAM-Dual
Recto, Triaxis
- 4-CLEAN-Triaxis
Other Onstage
- Ernie all
Volume pedal-Connects to midi solutions pedal controller and into TC
Electronics G-Major
- Midi Solution
Pedal controller
- DBX 1074 Quad
Gate
Backstage
- Mesa Boogie
Tremoverb combo
- Mesa Boogie
Dual Rectifier- Settings HERE
- Mesa Booogie
Stilleto- See settings HERE
- Ibanez TS9
Tube Screamer-See settings HERE
- Vox Wah
Notes
- The Mesa
Boogie Dual Rectifiers onstage are just for show and are not used.
- Audio-Technica 2500 Artist
Elite for guitars (actually a drum mic)
- A&S road cases, soundproof
iso cabs

2006 LIVE: Stones gigs
- Same live racks as 2003-2005
LIVE: VH1 Hall of Fame
- Randall RM100 head (not sure on the modules used)
- Mesa Boogie Dual Recto head (chrome chassis 2 ch)
- Vox (?) wah
- Normal floor pedals
LIVE: South Africa
- Possibly just a few Mesa Boogie Recto heads, maybe
the Randall RM100 head, normal floor pedals. Not sure if he used his
rack setup.
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