#Esp metallica ride the lightning pro#

‘Carl’ was the sixth build that Lawrence completed for Hetfield.ĭue to the questionable state of the reclaimed wood from the garage, Honduran rosewood was inlaid beneath the guitar’s rustic top so that its bridge and tailpiece could anchor to something sturdy. This guitar was built for Hetfield using wood salvaged from the band’s old rehearsal garage, where they wrote the bulk of material for Ride… and 1986’s Master of Puppets. Most notable among them is the Garage Days guitar, or as Lawrence calls it, ‘Carl’. Many have heard about the custom builds that master luthier Ken Lawrence has made for Hetfield over the years. Hammett recently returned to Gibson, which is now under new (and better) leadership. Hammett soon followed suit, as both left for ESP. It’s possible that Hetfield’s Electra and Burton’s Aria were made in the same Matsumoku factory.Īfter a brief stint with Gibson, Hetfield left due to a soured business relationship with the company during the Henry Juszkiewicz years.

All of these instruments were manufactured in Japan.

#Esp metallica ride the lightning pro#

Meanwhile, Cliff Burton used an Aria Pro II. Kirk Hammett used a few Fernandes Stratocaster copies – an FST-135 that he nicknamed ‘Edna’, and a customized red 1985 FST-65 with a CS Style 22F. The guitar that launched James Hetfield’s career – and remains part of his studio arsenal today – is a late 1970s Electra Flying Wedge Model 2236, a Flying V copy with a bolt-on neck. But prior to their partnership with Gibson, the gear they used was often made elsewhere, generally in the Asian market. Metallica have long been the archetypal American metal band.

There was no question about it.” Japanese guitars We knew that was going to be the opening track. We heard it and stuck it onto Fight, and it worked fantastic. Cliff wrote that on a down-tuned acoustic guitar… He had a really good grasp of playing the guitar, and a good grasp of classical modulations. In a Guitar World interview from 2016, Hammett confirmed that Cliff Burton recorded the acoustic intro to Fight Fire with Fire, the opening track on Ride the Lightning. Image: Ross Marino / Icon and Image / Getty Images Cliff Burton played acoustic guitar on recordĬliff Burton. According to Mike Fortin, the prototypes he built, as well as Hammett’s signature Randalls, are still in heavy rotation in the studio and provide the basis for the Fractal profiles the band use live. In spite of the band using Fractal units on stage, they still use their ‘real’ amplifiers in the studio. This KH103 was essentially a three-channel tweaked variation on the Fortin Meathead. These prototype amps were built using more expensive components that one would find in a production-model Randall, though Hammett still uses his production-model signature amp too. In 2011, Fortin made four hand-built prototype amps under the Randall banner for Hammett, all based on his Fortin Meathead model. Hammett’s signature amp can be traced back to a Fortin Meathead. Randall had done this before – setting up licensing deals with boutique builders such as Egnater and selling the results as Randall amps – and explains why certain-era Randall amps are more sought-after than others. This amp was actually designed by Mike Fortin and was simply licensed by Randall Amplifiers for use by Hammett. While it’s true that Hammett played a superb-sounding amp that said ‘Randall’ on it, it was not actually designed by Don Randall.