don't feed the bears
New member
Re: Metallica gear from AJFA
my friend got a VHS copy from a penpal in Denmark that's got a lot of bootleg Metallica studio sh#t on it, including a LOT of stuff from the AJFA recording sessions. I know most of you won't believe this, but all the guitars and bass were recorded DIRECT, no mic'd cabs. Hetfield and Hammett used their usual Boogie Mk IIC+, modded Marshall Plexi heads, and various rackmount preamps (I recognized an ADA MP-1 and Boogie Quad), but through direct-boxes, tube mic preamp/compressor units, then straight into the board. Jason used rackmounted Ampeg and Ashley bass preamps, no big heads or bass cabs. all direct.
on the vid, Hetfield and producer Rasmussen and some engineer talked back and forth about getting away from the big slick guitar wide-open sound of Ride and Master, and getting the tightest and "cleanest" and focused crunch and lead tone that they could, and going direct was the option they chose. I never saw Hammett in any of these discussions, but he complained alot after doing take after take of his solo for Blackened that his tone sounded too tiny and compressed.
personally, I can't stand the sound of this album. the guitars sound too focused like a laser beam and are as dry as sandpaper, the electric bass is non-existant, and the drums are wayyyy too loud (like Slayer's South of Heaven). this is a tight and punchy album, however, and sounds good through a good car audio system with subs
also, a funny thing on this video.....Lars had some "help" when laying down the drum tracks for AJFA. his drum tech wore dishwashing gloves and did a lot cymbal chokes for Lars on some of the songs, especially Dyer's Eve. :laugh2:
my friend got a VHS copy from a penpal in Denmark that's got a lot of bootleg Metallica studio sh#t on it, including a LOT of stuff from the AJFA recording sessions. I know most of you won't believe this, but all the guitars and bass were recorded DIRECT, no mic'd cabs. Hetfield and Hammett used their usual Boogie Mk IIC+, modded Marshall Plexi heads, and various rackmount preamps (I recognized an ADA MP-1 and Boogie Quad), but through direct-boxes, tube mic preamp/compressor units, then straight into the board. Jason used rackmounted Ampeg and Ashley bass preamps, no big heads or bass cabs. all direct.
on the vid, Hetfield and producer Rasmussen and some engineer talked back and forth about getting away from the big slick guitar wide-open sound of Ride and Master, and getting the tightest and "cleanest" and focused crunch and lead tone that they could, and going direct was the option they chose. I never saw Hammett in any of these discussions, but he complained alot after doing take after take of his solo for Blackened that his tone sounded too tiny and compressed.
personally, I can't stand the sound of this album. the guitars sound too focused like a laser beam and are as dry as sandpaper, the electric bass is non-existant, and the drums are wayyyy too loud (like Slayer's South of Heaven). this is a tight and punchy album, however, and sounds good through a good car audio system with subs
also, a funny thing on this video.....Lars had some "help" when laying down the drum tracks for AJFA. his drum tech wore dishwashing gloves and did a lot cymbal chokes for Lars on some of the songs, especially Dyer's Eve. :laugh2:
fftopic: but did you get that from the metallica forum?
