How do you sound like James Hetfield on guitar?

Hardwired… to Self-Destruct, Metallica’s latest album, is about to be released. With singles like “Hardwired”, “Moth Into Flame” and “Atlas, Rise!”, we’ve already had a pretty good warm-up – it’s shaping up to be a proper old-school album. When you think of Metallica, you probably think of frontman James Hetfield right away, who delivers both the brutal vocals and the tight rhythm parts. No one doubts he can play. So how can you get your guitar sounding like “Papa Het”? We’ll give you a few tips below!

James Hetfield: king of downstrokes

Hetfield is known as the king of downstrokes. A downstroke is simply a (pick) stroke downwards. He even plays the famous guitar riff from ‘Master of Puppets’ (yes, that really fast one) entirely with downstrokes. A downstroke often sounds more powerful than an upstroke (an upwards stroke), resulting in a seriously punchy tone. So how can you play downstrokes like James? Practise. A lot. We at Bax Music will admit that Hetfield’s ability to play downstrokes is pretty unique, so even with a massive amount of practice it won’t always be possible to match it. In that case, you could just choose to play your riffs with alternate picking. Just make sure that, like James Hetfield, you play everything ridiculously tight and hard to get that solid Metallica sound.

Guitars

Then of course, there’s the gear. For years, Hetfield has been one of the biggest names at Japanese ESP Guitars. He’s regularly seen with his ESP Snakebyte and more recently his ESP Vulture too. In the past, he played a white ESP MX model (EX-style) for years. His ESP Truckster and ESP Iron Cross (see photo above) also still show up regularly. Now, not everyone has Hetfield’s budget and connections, and you might be looking for a more affordable solution. Luckily, there are also LTD versions of James’ ESP guitars. If you want to upgrade your guitar, there’s also an EMG James Hetfield humbucker set. But as long as your guitar has a 24.75-inch scale length, a TOM-style bridge and high-output pickups, you’ll be well on your way.

Amplification

When it comes to amps, Hetfield has played all sorts. For his clean guitar parts, he often uses a Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus in the studio, thanks to its unrivalled clean channel. For overdriven parts, James has used, among others, a Marshall JCM800, Mesa/Boogie Triple Rectifier and Diezel VH4 in the past. These amps are of course great, but as long as your amp has enough power and plenty of gain, you’ll get pretty close. James also isn’t known as someone who uses lots of effects, but apparently he’ll sometimes use a Tube Screamer (for example, the Ibanez TS9) to give his already-driven amps that little extra push. With a Noise Suppressor (for example, the BOSS NS-2), he keeps everything nice and quiet and tight. When it comes to strings, James Hetfield is like most guitarists, since he’s a keen user of Ernie Ball Power Slinky’s. He also has his own signature picks from Dunlop.

What’s your favourite Hetfield riff? Tell us below!