KRANK GEAR USED: Krankenstein Head, Krankenstein Cab
James Hetfield, the iconic Metallica frontman, is known for his distinct guitar tone and his meticulous detail in how he achieves that tone. The Krankenstein amp found it’s way into his sonic tapestry that is the mighty Metallica sound on Death Magnetic.
James was first turned onto Krank amps thru Christian Olbers of Fear Factory and can be seen in various YouTube videos playing the amp in the studio and for some of the their live gigs. 
James prefers the original configuration of Sovtek 5881’s in the power section of the amp, much in part due to his setup that blends various amps to achieve his sound. He told us at Krank that the Krankenstein sat in the middle of his overall tone, part of the reason he preferred the 5881 tubes over the wider sounding 6550’s that are now stock for the amp.
Metallica will be touring thru 2010 in support of Death Magnetic, check out awesome live show when they play near you!
For more on James check out:
www.metallica.com
www.myspace.com/metallica
MUSIC:
“The Judas Kiss” – Metallica
“Cyanide” – Metallica
“My Apocalypse” – Metallica
VIDEO:
KRANK GEAR USED: Rev+, Rev Cab, Krankenstein+, Krankenstein Cab, Nineteen80, Nineteen80 Cab, Krankenstein Jr.
Baptized by the music of AC/DC, Van...
lookin at hetfield’s rig, it says he uses a dual rectifier, so i tried it out, it just wasnt right, it was too warm for my taste, so i tried the krankenstein, and just got the EXACT tone for any metallica AND dimebag jam. HELL YEAH!!!
thats really good to hear becouse i am tossing up getting a krankenstien or a duel rectifire btw how mutch dose krankenstien+ cost?i really wana know someone that reads this coment plz reply.
Truthfully man I think you will dig the Krankenstein+ way more than a Dual Rectifier in that price range. or even a Rev+ for that matter. The Rev+ is the closer to a Dual Rec in that it’s as crystalline sounding BUT without all the top end scratchiness or sag in the bottom that the Dual Rec tends to have. And the Krankenstein+ has more gain and growl while remaining very clear like the Rev+! Street price on the Rev+ is $1599 and the Krankenstein+ is $1699…
really want to get the Krankenstein+ for heavy sound. I have Rev.Jr full stack and use it with Krankshaft & Maximus Distortus. I’m pretty satisfied with thier overall tone, so definitely want to try out more Krank amps and compare.