Metallica frontman James Hetfield recently spoke to our friends at Guitar Player magazine about his mammoth guitar sound on the band’s latest effort “Death Magnetic”, citing how his Krank Krankenstein played it’s role in his overall tone. This spurred many e-mails to us here at Krank about how exactly it was used! So for all you tone chasers 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 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.
“Death Magnetic” is a return to the ultra heavy and speedy guitar work Metallica was known for on it’s early albums. Hetfield was first turned onto the Krankenstein head and cab from Christian Olbers of Fear Factory and can be seen in many of the band’s website video clips taken from their San Francisco headquarters as well as the recording of the record in LA.
For more info on James check out his artist profile:
www.krankamps.com/artists/james-hetfield-71
Krank’s VP Kris Cremain and artists relations director Chris Catero caught up with the band at a warm up show in Tucson, AZ before the start of the world tour in support of Death Magnetic.
KRANK GEAR USED: Rev+, Rev Cab, Krankenstein+, Krankenstein Cab, Nineteen80, Nineteen80 Cab, Krankenstein Jr.
Baptized by the music of AC/DC, Van...
FIRST POST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BITCHES!!!!!!!!!!!
Thats it? Thats your post..”first post, bitches”?
You chump..
I thought Death Magnetic was kinda missing something… like, maybe the 80s? Anyways, I like the tone on the non-clipped version of the album.
Death Magnetic was nothing close to Metallica’s first 4 albums. It was better than their last 2 albums (that I refused to buy) but that isn’t saying much.
I think that everyone should shut their mouths…first off, if it wasn’t for metallica none of you would be here listening to metal, and second you are all just jealous that your panzy riffs never got you anywhere and that James Hetfield could write a guitar riff thats heard around the world in 20 mins. You need to stop living vicariously through your internet and get out there and practice apparently. Learn a thing or two from the Puppet Masters, really the bottom line is, stop whining that they make millions and you don’t, and they didn’t even have to sell out. I give you credit for speaking your mind but if I were your brain I would have put a restraining order you already for abuse of dumb information. Metallica and Hetfield will forever be house hold names and the rulers of the metal world along side with Black Sabbath…so next time you forget to shut your mouth, just try and comfort yourselves that you can cry next to your crappy in home ’studio’ wishing that you could write your Master of Puppets. Good Day
hmmmm…well, u got it half right, the Black Sabbath part anyway…without them Metallica (and alot of other bands) wouldn`t exist…