No. 0671988·thrash-metal·4 blocks
One
'One' moves from a clean, mournful arpeggiated intro to the machine-gun thrash outro — and the tone is the famously dry ...And Justice for All guitar sound. James Hetfield tracked rhythm on an ESP MX220 with EMG 81/60 pickups through a Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+ borrowed from Kirk Hammett, with a parametric EQ in the loop and the parts triple-tracked. Kirk's lead and the war-machine solo ride a wah over the same Mark IIC+. No reverb, no delay — the dryness is the sound.
...And Justice for AllSignal path · input → output · 7 blocksLive values · Line 6 Helix
Guitar
ESP MX220 'Eet Fuk'
Pickups
HH
Tuning
bridge
Strings
standard
Volume Pedal
Noise Gate
Deluxe Comp
Cali IV Lead
4x12 Uber T75
Tilt
Volume Pedal
← Volume pedal
Pedal
100%
Noise Gate
← Studio noise gate (FRFR essential)
Threshold
-50dB
Decay
0.3s
Level
0
Deluxe Comp
← Light studio compression
Threshold
-32dB
Ratio
2:1
Knee
6dB
Attack
0.0s
Release
0.2s
Mix
0.4
Level
0dB
Cali IV Lead
← Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+ (Lead channel)
Drive
0.7
Bass
0.5
Mid
0.3
Treble
0.8
Presence
0.7
ChVol
0.6
Master
1
Bias
0.6
BiasX
0.5
Sag
0.5
Hum
0.5
Ripple
0.5
4x12 Uber T75
← Marshall 4x12
LowCut80Hz
HighCut9500Hz
Level
0dB
Pan
0.5
Delay
0
Tilt
← B&B parametric EQ / global brightness
Tilt
0.5
CenterFreq
1000Hz
Level
0
Engineer's note
File 067
'One' moves from a clean, mournful arpeggiated intro to the machine-gun thrash outro — and the tone is the famously dry ...And Justice for All guitar sound. James Hetfield tracked rhythm on an ESP MX220 with EMG 81/60 pickups through a Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+ borrowed from Kirk Hammett, with a parametric EQ in the loop and the parts triple-tracked. Kirk's lead and the war-machine solo ride a wah over the same Mark IIC+. No reverb, no delay — the dryness is the sound.
— James Hetfield
Sources · Verified by
Field notes for this tone
All field notes →Metallica Rhythm Tone Settings: Hetfield's Sound by Era
James Hetfield's rhythm tone broken down by album era: settings, gain structure, and how to dial it in on real amps and modelers.
Misha Mansoor / Periphery Djent Tone Recipe
Periphery's djent tone decoded: the Mesa Dual Rectifier gain structure, OD808 pre-tightener, EQ shaping for extended-range guitars, and how to build it on any modeler.
Fix Your Fizzy High Gain in 2 Minutes
Six specific causes of fizzy high-gain guitar tone and the exact settings fixes for each. No vague advice, just the data and the dial positions.
