Riff Tone

Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

Metallica

Guitarmetal1980s

Original Gear

GuitarESP MX220 (custom Explorer-style, likely 1984-1986 model)

AmpMesa/Boogie Mark IIC+ head into Marshall 1960B 4x12 cabinet

PickupsEMG 81 (bridge, active humbucker)

Amp Settings

gain7.5

bass6

mid4

treble7.5

reverb2

presence6

Effects & Signal Chain

No effects used for this tone

Notes

Studio recording, 1985-1986. Used for rhythm/riff sections on 'Welcome Home (Sanitarium)' on Master of Puppets. No evidence of additional pedals for rhythm tone; effects loop used for rack EQ and compression. Settings estimated based on era, genre, and amp model. No evidence of live/touring substitutions for this part.

Tone Character(10)

tight and percussivescooped midsaggressive palm mutinghigh-gain saturationarticulate attackcontrolled low endclear note separationslightly reverberant spacemetallic edgestudio rhythm guitar sound

Difficulty

The riff requires tight palm muting, precise alternate picking, and maintaining clarity under high gain, making it moderately challenging for intermediate players.

Sources

Metallica – Master of Puppets (Remastered) - Gear & Equipment Used on the Album | Equipboard What Marshall amps? - Ultimate Guitar Metallica's James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett reveal the guitar secrets behind 16 of the band's best songs | Guitar World IS there anyway to get Welcome Home sanitarium clean tone on ...

This tone has been researched 9 times by the community

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