James Hetfield’s guitarist explains the effects of adopting the amp model on Metallica, making fans admire!

The Guitar Tech for James Hetfield Describes the Impact Amp Modelers Had on Metallica: “They Paid for Themselves”

“All of a suԀԀen, these things that the band might only be able to do in the recording studio were now possible outside of the recording studio.”

Longtime guitar tech for James Hetfield, Chad Zaemisch, discussed Metallica’s switch from tube to digital amplifiers and the many quality-of-life gains that resulted from the change.

Recent years have seen a shift in the “real amps vs. modelers” controversy, with more and more venerable and well-respected acts—like Iron Maiden and Megadeth—coming out in favor of digital amps. Metallica has been employing digital amplifiers for some time now, but with the commencement of their most recent “M72” tour in support of their new album, the fact that the largest metal band in the world has abandoned tube amps has come back into focus.

In a recent interview with Guitar World, Zameisch discusses how using modelers to support Metallica’s “Freeze ‘Em All” Antarctica performance opened up a whole new realm of possibilities:

“SuԀԀenly, the band could do things outside of the recording studio that they may have only been able to do in the studio. When anything is tuned down, an analog amp reacts differently, but the Axe-Fx can handle whatever information it receives far more effectively. It’s crаzy.”

“I used to need two enormous racks. Both a primary and a backup head were required. James only uses two amp sounds, so I needed a second rack with the other components and heads—the Diezel heads that we used to use. I also had a tiny rack with a [Roland] JC-120 head and clean sound. There was a ton of equipment.”

Digital amplifiers “paid for themselves” the first time Metallica had to send them abroad, presumably because the transition made touring logistics that much more efficient.

A difficult choice

considerably while the advantages were clear, the band knew that going all digital with their amplifiers may cause some fan suspicion since back then, digital skepticism was considerably more common than it is now:

“We were confronted with [questions] after Antarctica. Will we use the Axe-Fx to go in a different direction or revert to the previous state of affairs?”

“There wasn’t really another band that we could mention and sаy, ‘Well, Sabbath uses it, or the Scorpions use it.'” I must give it to James. With wisdom, he said, “Let’s give it a try.” Perhaps we should be the ones to welcome it. The trip has been interesting.”

Replicating the commanding sound and visual effect of a large stack of Marshall amps on stage presented another challenge:

James wants to stand in front of cabinets and feel his trousers tremble, just like everyone else. On the stage, there are [eight] hotspots: four for James and four for Kirk. The standard voice monitors have 10-inch cones within, while the hotspots feature 12-inch cones. Just a little bit extra chunk is why we like the larger ones. James is aware that he should visit a hotspot if he needs any input or a little sustenance. I meаn, who among us who plays the guitar wants to go without having that ability?

Since the PA was eventually going to be where it was played, we sort of wаnted to be able to hear what it would sound like as a 4×12 as well. Thus, we connected a pair of these Meyer monitors directly to the Axe-Fx’s output and obtained all of our sounds in that manner.”

‘Eureka!’ moment for James and Kirk

Kirk Hammett, the lead guitarist for Metallica, waxed poetic last August about the wonderful outcome of the modification and recalled the moment he and James understood the possibilities of amp modelers:

“We combined the sounds from two or three separate amplifiers to create the overall sound, which we then modeled using the Fractal. And it was incredible as my Fractal had a sound that was comparable to a studio. It’s challenging to achieve that. Particularly when mixing together 50 amps to produce a single sound. Driving isn’t the place to do that. But suԀԀenly, we could do it using Fractal, so we did. Then James and I knew right away that this was what we had been searching for the whole time.”