Riff Tone

Phantom Lord

Metallica

Guitarmetal1980s

Original Gear

Guitar1984 Gibson Flying V

AmpMarshall JCM800 2203 head into Marshall 4x12 cabinet

PickupsStock Gibson humbuckers (likely Dirty Fingers or similar high-output passive humbuckers)

Amp Settings

gain8

bass7

mid2.5

treble8.5

reverb0

presence6.5

Effects & Signal Chain

No effects used for this tone

Notes

Studio recording, 1983. Kill 'Em All album session. No evidence of pedal use for rhythm/riff section; distortion from amp. No evidence of EMG pickups or Mesa amps for this era. Settings and gear are for the studio recording, not live.

Tone Character(10)

tight and percussivescooped midsaggressive palm mutingrazor-sharp treblefocused low enddry and immediatehigh-gain saturationarticulate attackminimal ambiencefast, staccato response

Difficulty

The riff requires fast, tight alternate picking and palm muting at high speed, demanding precision and stamina typical of early thrash metal rhythm guitar.

Sources

Metallica Amp Settings - forum topic | Ultimate Guitar What guitar (and setup) is James using here? I've been trying to ...Metallica were way better when they used Marshall amplification

This tone has been researched 3 times by the community

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