Nail the ToneMetallica

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Metallica · Ride the Lightning · 1984

Hammett cut all three solos on his black 1979 Gibson Flying V, on the neck pickup, with a Dunlop Cry Baby parked all the way in the 'up' position as a fixed filter — that combination is why this lead sounds rounder and darker than the rest of Ride the Lightning. Behind it is a Marshall 2203 pushed by an Ibanez TS-9, so the dirt is tube crunch with an overdrive on top, not modern high gain. Chase sustain and a strong midrange rather than more gain; the first solo is doubled, the middle one is not.

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

Tuning

Standard tuning, no capo

Standard tuning, but the record sits slightly off A440, so you may have to nudge all six strings to play along with it; the clean intro is Hetfield on acoustic with Hammett's clean lead over it.

Part: Solo

Guitar

  • Gibson Flying V (1979, black) · stock Gibson humbuckers · neck pickup

Amp

Marshall JMP/JCM800 2203

GAIN
8.0
BASS
4.0
MID
7.0
TREBLE
6.0
PRESENCE
5.0

The 2203 (100W head into 4x12) is the documented Ride the Lightning session amp — Hetfield bought his in Copenhagen after his Jose-modded 1959 was stolen, and Kirk tracked through a Marshall too; Hank Shermann of Mercyful Fate claims his 100W Marshall was the head that got used. A common forum claim that Kirk used a Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+ here is off by a year — the Boogies arrived after this album, from Master of Puppets on.

Pedals

  • Dunlop Cry Baby wah (GCB-95) · wah · Held still, treadle all the way in the 'up' position as a fixed filter — Hammett's own description of how he warmed up the lead tone
  • Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer · overdrive · Level high, drive around 5-7, tone around 6; used as a boost to push the Marshall and help leads cut
  • TC Electronic Dual Parametric Equalizer · EQ · Mid boost for lead cut; reported as part of the album's lead chain rather than confirmed by the band

Tone character

warm neck-pickup lead · cocked wah filter · thick sustaining midrange · moderate saturation, not fizzy · doubled harmony leads

hard

The middle solo is slow and exposed, so every wide bend and vibrato has to land in tune, while the outro solo runs fast repeating pentatonic pull-off sextuplets over the G-A-B progression at tempo.

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.

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Sources