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Kirk Hammett is best known for his longtime role as the lead guitarist for Metallica. While most casual fans of Metallica (and that would be anybody who cites The Black Album as their favorite in the band’s catalog) assume that Hammett had been with Metallica since the beginning, true fans know that he jumped onboard in 1983 after the original lead guitarist, Dave Mustaine, left and formed Megadeth. This of course caused a lifelong competition between the lead guitarists as well as the bands at large, with Megadeth stalwarts hailing Mustaine as the second coming and Metallica freaks chanting Hammett’s name as the king of Thrash Metal. Either way you look at it, both Metallica and Megadeth made incredibly complicated riffs and solos and helped to create the burgeoning Thrash scene. When it comes down to it, though, Metallica grew while Megadeth remained stagnant and more than a little boring. This is thanks in part to Kirk Hammett’s ever-evolving soloing style.
Hammett is very well known for using Wah-Wah effects in his soloing. After all, he was one of the first guys to master it. As far as guitars are concerned, Hammett and much of of Metallica favor ESP guitars. ESP, being relatively new in the mid ‘80s, was not well known until Hammett endorsed their second signature line. Since 1987 was right around the time the Black Album catapulted Metallica from a Metal band into a Top 40 Pop group, ESP similarly saw an explosion of popularity.
ESP also was the guitar of choice for Hammett when he was making the incredibly catchy riffs that populated the Black Album. Enter Sandman, the group’s most popular song, was recorded on his beloved ESP M-II Standard and the guitar’s crunchy, pedal-complementing tone was perfect for the song, which made it on Rolling Stone’s list of the five hundred greatest songs ever made. Since the ‘80s, Hammett has been using his ESP KH-2 on tour. Also referred to as “Skully”, this signature model is a modified ESP M-11 with EMG and Seymour Duncan pickups to deliver his signature drop-D sound.
Continue to Kirk Hammet part 2>>
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