How to Copy/Imitate Metallica's Guitar Tone

So, you wanted to know how to get that heavy fat guitar tone of metallica? Well you are in the right spot. But before we get into details, first you need this 3 things:

1. An Amplifier (every amplifier that has an EQ knobs on it like bass, middle, treble reverb on it. A Presence knob is only optional, the points is the EQ knobs are the most important thing that is! )
2. Noise Gate pedal/stomp box (But please! Don't lessen the threshold and attack/ratio settings)
3. A gauge .11 set of strings (This is very important because James Hetfield uses this set of strings everytime on every guitar that he has. Unless you wanted to sounded like Kirk Hammett then use gauge .9 set of strings)
4. A Graphic EQ pedal (I don't care how many fucking bands that you have within your Graphic EQ pedal. What we want is an motherfucking GRAPHIC EQ PEDAL!)

And now! Quit whining and let us go to the SERIOUS MOTHERFUCKING STUFF! And this time, this is where the shit that is about going to happen. But before I start, if you're looking for that bluesy, jazzy, glammy tone shits... then you're reading the wrong page, asshole!

Metallica's tone settings is achieved by three optional ways. The following is:

• Amp Slaving - wherein you need two tube amplifiers that has a effects loop return input jacks or a speaker output jack.
• High Gain Distortion - any high gain distortion that has sweepable mids settings on it
• Recording Audio Software or Digital Audio Workstation - any software that supports third party software that you can install a VST plug-ins on it
• TC Electronic G-Major 2 Rack - Just kidding! I know you're probably having a problem buying one and we are not taking this walkthrough. But hey! James's and Kirk's using it. Goodbye tons of pedals.
• An Ear - of course we know you have one. Well if you don't have one then get one! )

GUITAR AMPLIFIER SLAVING Today you can do amp slaving with modern amps with it's effects loop return. But what I'am about to explain to you now is the old way of amp slaving, because I like it more by doing it from where it all started. First you need to jack your guitar to the amp's drive channel of the slave amp (preamp). And at the back of the slave amp that you'll be using, there is this two speaker outputs. With this two speaker output you will be jacking it into the master amp (power amp). In this way you will boost the volume and tone of your amp. And not only that! You will get the dose of the tone of a 6550 to a 6L6. Which is freakingly insane and out of this world heavy fat sound. And FYI, Metallica are not the only ones who uses this kind of technique, but a lot of artists did it. And the most famous of them all is Eddie van Halen for who exceptionally discovered his signature Brown Sound. And by doing this you will not only fry your tubes, but it will also destroy your amp. That's why! Before doing it you will need a power attenuator (and Hotplate is the best that there is). By connecting the speaker output of your amp to the power attenuator and the other speaker output through the primary amp that we will be using as a poweramp. In that case you won't be frying your tube and not destroying your amp if you slaved an amp to another amp. And after that you could tweak your preamps tone control or EQ knobs to your own desire(which is your slaved amp). But in our situation, we actually wanted to sound like Metallica as close as we can get. So you need to dial the preamps tone or EQ knobs. The Volume must be at 8, the Bass should be crank to 6 (this is important so that you won't damage your speakers because if you dialed that knob at 8, you will be sorry), the Middle knob should be atleast 2-4, and the Treble knob is at 7-8. And the Gain is at 7-8. And for the power amp, the volume is at 3, the bass is at 8, the Middle is scooped, and the Treble is at 6.  Now that's it for the settings if you wanted Metallica's tone if you're using a slave amp.

HIGH GAIN DISTORTION Ok, I know you have a tight budget and you can't simply buy two tube amps all at once. So for the best alternative possible options, we are going to use a High Gain Distortions. A distortion pedal is so heavy and something that is not any ordinary pedals/stomp boxes that you will never see everyday. This distortion pedals are so tightly saturated, loud, and heavy that no any typical Jazz or Blues Guitarist will not surely like to have one at anytime on their rig setup. And even John Mayer will never buy one. And no, I don't hate the guy. But I surely hate him for letting those Victoria Secret ex-girlfriend cry because of dumping them. The FUCK! Why do I care and why I am becoming TMZ all of a sudden!?! Anyway, if you're buying one, you need a high gain distortion that has a sweepable mid frequency or same as like that, and with tons of tone shaping. These are some famous high gain distortion pedals that you may want to look at:

• Boss's Heavy Metal HM-2, Metalzone MT-2, Metalcore ML-2, Distortion DS-1X
• Mesa Boogie's Throttle Box EQ (the Motherfucker of all pedals), Throttle Box
• DOD's FX86 Deathmetal, FX69 Grunge
• Digitech Hardwired TL-2 Metal Distortion, Metal Master, Hot Head, The Lyra Pedal (Limited)
• Marshall Guv'nor
• Wampler Triple Wreck
• MXR Super Badass Distortion, Fullbore Metal, Custom Badass '78
• Electro-Harmonix Metal Muff. Big Pie Muff
• Tech21 Hot-Rod Plexi Analog Distortion
• Blackstar HT Metal , LT Metal
• Line6 DM4 Distortion Modeler
• Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer, TS9 Tube Screamer, Tube King

We will need to set our amp's Middle tone/EQ knobs to 4. In this case, our guitar tone will be preserved and the shape of the tone of our guitar will be maintained, so we're not going to totally scoop our amp's Middle tone/EQ knob. But the dial on our distortion pedal's mid knob must scooped. If you don't have a Middle knob in your pedal, skip this settings. The Bass knob for distortion pedal should be at 6-7, but the Bass knob for our amp should be at 10. The Treble knob for our pedal is at 7 same as with our amp's Treble knob so that the sound will not overlapped the frequency and the tone shape will not sound so thin. This is basically the main wrong beliefs of everyone of dialing the Treble to ten. Don't believe everything what you read in the internet! SHIT! Did I just said that?! That will include me also! Oh! Well! There you have it!

This is the good part. Let us now shape our tone artificially by tweaking our Graphic EQ Pedal. Most of us would probably don't use a graphic eq pedals. But we're using this pedal so that we could copy the most possible way. So we're using this pedal to imitate the closest tone of Metallica by simply filtering the Low Pass Frequencies and the High Pass Frequency of Metallica's tone. By adding a Graphic EQ we will emulate their heavy tone riff. In this setting we will copy what Metallica does by doing a V shape on the Graphic EQ panel. But first! The 100hz and 6,400hz must be at 0db levels. Now this is the best part! At the 200hz slider, slide it up to 1db, so as the 6,400hz slider. On the 400hz slider, slide it down to -1db. For the 1,600hz, slide it down to -2db. And lastly, slide 800hz down to -3db. You will hear result how the shape of your tone remarkably sounded like Metallica's tone. But again, you will still need the help of your high gain distortion if you wanted to do this.

RECORDING SOFTWARE or DIGITAL AUDIO WORKSTATION The wonders of digital technology. If you have a Recording Software or Digital Audio Workstation in your computer, then you won't be having a problem of copying Metallica's tone. Either way, it already have everything you need for you to imitate the tone of Metallica. By downloading the right VST plug-ins, VIOLA! Instant Metallica Tone.

The best way to get that Metallica tone is by simply downloading this Guitar Amp Simulators:

• Native Instrument's Guitar Rig http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/products/guitar/guitar-rig-4-pro
• LePou Amp Sims http://lepouplugins.blogspot.com/
• Peavey ReValveR http://www.peavey.com/products/revalver/index.cfm
• IK Multimedia Amplitube http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/amplitube4/
• Waves GTR3 http://www.wavesgtr.com/html/product_gtr3.html
• Line6 POD Farm http://uk.line6.com/podfarm/index.html
• Overloud TH3 http://www.overloud.com/en/products-1/th3.html

In this section you can do it all by yourself and there's no any explaining for me to do. Just do everything what I have told you that you have read on my blog and you are all set to go! Got it? GOOD...

So that's all the basic needs you need to copy Metallica's Tone. I hope I have satisfied on what you're looking for. Thanks for reading and don't forget to leave a comment or share this blog of mine with others. Rock on Good People! God bless you all!