James Hetfield's (possibly custom) Duncans?

[STLMTLHD79]

I was always under the impression that James Explorer had the stock Dirty Fingers pickups in it during those years of use. The Electra V has had a ton of different pickup configurations. I know that the Custom Shop does have a Hetfield pickup, but i wonder what guitar James used it in?

 

[Masta' C]

I know that the Custom Shop does have a Hetfield pickup, but i wonder what guitar James used it in?

Posts go back to 2004 suggesting this, but I haven't seen anything from SD or any Custom Shop pickups "in the wild" made to "Hetfield" specs.

Early posts did suggest it was a "set" based on the Allan Holdsworth models with double-screw bobbins, but again...no real proof and it's likely the same details were just being regurgitated, which happens a lot in the "world of tone".

Someone should reach out to MJ to confirm and report back

 

[Juanhanglo]

Oh, absolutely. Voicing, fingerings, and positions are important. I generally replicate what's in the tab if I trust it, but sometimes I have to make a change because my ears tell me a different story or my fingers are uncomfortable with the way a riff is played, or both.

And there are certainly guitar tones on iconic records, but I don't find all of them worth emulating. The tone on Rust In Peace? Yes, please, and I will adjust gain structure and EQ on my amp until it's there. The tone on And Justice For All? Love it on the recording, would never want to have that tone myself. I'm a mid-forward guy, so the whole '80s thrash scoop your mids craze isn't for me, much as I love a lot of that music.

Agreed on tones at least being somewhat close. RIP doesnt sound right if your sound isnt Marshall based or esque.

I guess the idea is that I wont ever chase EVH's tone with a 9k pickup, a variac, a plexi, an mxr phaser, etc.
not getting there 100% is ok with this guy.

Mids forward you say? To that, I raise my glass! I even go so far as to strategically cut bass to enhance them.

 

[AdrianSD]

Agreed on tones at least being somewhat close. RIP doesnt sound right if your sound isnt Marshall based or esque.

Wasn't RIP recorded dry or something like that? In my humble opinion Pantera from Vulgar Display of Power onwards sounds better with a mid forward tone played rather than listened to. So do some of Dream Theatre riffs from Awake - the ones I can actually pretend I'm playing close enough. Not only that, but I can get in the ballpark with stock JB, Distortion or Custom. The trick is that there is no trick or shortcut, you need to put the hours in to practise. Tone chasing is overrated.

 

[AdrianSD]

I love the percussive nature and attack of the sound on AJFA, but playing it is horrible. Love the expressive mids on Rust in Peace, but it's a muddy, undefined mess playing it with that tone. EVH tone on the early albums is so good, it works for those types of playing with an amp that does what he did on 10, but go to 11. Punch, bite, defined, vocal. Alice in Chains got to tones that worked really well across the board.

My DSL40CR is a pretty stiff sounding amp, a bit scooped compared to other Marshall's and ultra 1 with gain on 6-7 boosted can give me very realistic AJFA tones. If I think about it I can probably cop '80s and '90 heavy / thrash / Seattle with the DSL and an SD1 or OD9 as clean boost.

 

[l0rdhumungus]

There was a magazine article, possibly japanese interviewing James around MOP era. He said he used a Seymour Duncan Mag (different from the stag mag presumably) If you look at the SD mail order catalog from that time. There is a "Mag" humbucker. Maybe this was some kind of precusor to the Stag Mag, if you think about it, that bitey, single coil esque top end attack of a stag mag might actually fit the tone.

sevenstring.org has a whole thread about this same thing and has pictures of the article.

 

[l0rdhumungus]

James Hetfield using Duncan Invaders on the first 3 Metallica Albums...I don't buy it

Disclaimer: I know I'm nerding out and obsessing about shit that doesn't matter here, and I know that Metallica's tone has very little to do with pickups and has more to do with speakers, mic placement and the weird pre and post EQing they do in the studio so yeah tone is in the fingers blah...

sevenstring.org

 

[uOpt]

No way a Stag Mag or similar pickup is at work there. The polepiece magnets would sound massively different.

 

[weepingminotaur]

Agreed on tones at least being somewhat close. RIP doesnt sound right if your sound isnt Marshall based or esque.

I guess the idea is that I wont ever chase EVH's tone with a 9k pickup, a variac, a plexi, an mxr phaser, etc.
not getting there 100% is ok with this guy.

Mids forward you say? To that, I raise my glass! I even go so far as to strategically cut bass to enhance them.

I use a modelling amp (Boss Katana) so I'm never going to be all the way there on this tone or that tone. But I can get in the ballpark. Lambchopper on Youtube has a great series of metal tone presets for the Katana, so I've used those as the base for my own tweaking. Ultimately, I like a crunchy, mid-forward metal tone with enough articulation for dat chug life, with a touch of reverb. I'll dial in different metal tones mostly based on tuning -- my preset for E standard isn't the same as for D standard, etc.

 

[l0rdhumungus]

No way a Stag Mag or similar pickup is at work there. The polepiece magnets would sound massively different.

If you look at the pictures, the Mag has all flat slugs. Not like the Stag Mag. Also both those interviews are of James himself stating that he used the Mag. Maybe the mag has nothing to do with the Stag Mag. I have no idea.

 

[jeremy]

similar pup but flat poles and a5 rods

 

[STLMTLHD79]

"The Mag" is the predecessor to the "Stag Mag". Basically a JB wind with flat A5 slugs (no bar magnet). I actually have one of these that i had MJ repair a few years ago. Now i really want to put it in the bridge of something and see what happens. Time to enter the rabbit hole!