No. 0151986·thrash-metal·3 blocks
Master of Puppets
The definitive thrash metal rhythm guitar tone. James Hetfield's sound on Master of Puppets is built on an ESP Explorer with EMG pickups through a Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+ — a combination that produces a tight, aggressive, scooped-mid tone with razor-sharp pick attack and crushing low end. The Mark IIC+ is the holy grail of metal amps: its lead channel provides high-gain saturation with incredible note definition even at extreme gain levels. Hetfield's relentless downpicking technique is the engine that drives this tone.
Master of PuppetsSignal path · input → output · 4 blocksLive values · Boss Katana
Guitar
ESP Explorer (custom)
Pickups
HH
Tuning
bridge
Strings
standard
Noise Gate
Lead
Plate
Noise Gate
← Studio noise gate (FRFR essential)
Threshold
50dB
Release
30s
Level
0
Lead
← Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+
Gain
8
Volume
7
Bass
3
Middle
3
Treble
7
Presence
5
Plate
← Studio plate (light)
Time
3ms
PreDelay
20ms
Tone
4
EffectLevel
8
Engineer's note
File 015
The definitive thrash metal rhythm guitar tone. James Hetfield's sound on Master of Puppets is built on an ESP Explorer with EMG pickups through a Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+ — a combination that produces a tight, aggressive, scooped-mid tone with razor-sharp pick attack and crushing low end. The Mark IIC+ is the holy grail of metal amps: its lead channel provides high-gain saturation with incredible note definition even at extreme gain levels. Hetfield's relentless downpicking technique is the engine that drives this tone.
— James Hetfield
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