Nail the ToneMetallica

Enter Sandman

Metallica · Metallica (The Black Album) · 1991

The main riff is an ESP Explorer-style MX with an EMG 81 in the bridge into a Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC++ Simul-Class, with a Jose-modded Marshall blended in for mids and the whole thing spread across a tented pile of cabinets. Set bass low, treble high, mids around four, and let the graphic EQ do the scoop; keep it bone dry. Most of the weight on the record comes from layered takes and rigid downpicking, not from more gain.

Where these numbers come from: worked out from the documented rig and the sound of the record

Tuning

Standard tuning, no capo

The record is in E standard; the rhythm parts are triple-tracked, and live versions from the 2000s onward are usually a half step down, so don't tune to a concert clip.

Part: Riff

Guitar

  • ESP MX-220 "So Fucking What" · EMG 81 · bridge pickup
  • ESP MX-250 · EMG 81 · bridge pickup

Amp

Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC++ Simul-Class

GAIN
8.0
BASS
2.0
MID
4.0
TREBLE
7.0
PRESENCE
4.0
REVERB
0.0

Hetfield told Guitar World in 1991 he ended up with "the same Mesa/Boogie Simulclass Mark II" he'd used since Puppets; the low bass and high treble plus the built-in 5-band graphic EQ in the classic V/M curve are what produce the scooped voice.

Amp

Marshall (Jose Arredondo-modded)

GAIN
8.0
BASS
4.0
MID
6.0
TREBLE
7.0
PRESENCE
6.0

Bob Rock brought a Jose-modded Marshall in to put mids back into the rhythm tone, and engineer Randy Staub describes a stack of nine to eleven cabinets tented off and blended; accounts differ on whether the Marshall is Rock's amp or the one Hetfield acquired late in the sessions, and Hetfield's own 1991 account credits only the Boogie.

Pedals

  • Aphex EQF-2 (x2) · parametric EQ, amp effects loop · Cut around 1.2 kHz to tighten the rhythm tone
  • Aphex CX-1 · compressor, amp effects loop · Light compression, used for evenness rather than sustain
  • Mesa 5-band graphic EQ (onboard) · graphic EQ · V/M curve: 80 Hz and 2.2k/6.6k up, 750 Hz pulled down

Tone character

scooped low mids · tight palm-muted chug · upper-mid crunch and bite · dry, almost no reverb · layered, wide double-tracking

easy

Two-finger power chords over a strict all-downstroke palm mute at about 123 bpm, where the challenge is keeping the muted eighths even and the E5-to-open-E chug locked to the beat rather than any fast movement.

Want this on your own amp?

These are the record's settings. Tell us what you play through and we'll translate every knob to the amp you actually own — free.

Adapt it to my gear

Sources