What Is The Best Tonewood For Metal (Metallica)?

LLL

LLL

New member
I want Metallica tone, specifically for the song "Enter Sandman".

What tonewood will get me this metal tone? Agathis? Poplar? Balsawood?

No, I'm not serious, and you can call me Shirley...
 
Re: What Is The Best Tonewood For Metal (Metallica)?

Cigarbox should do you
 
Re: What Is The Best Tonewood For Metal (Metallica)?

There is so little wood in that sound... it's all string attack, active pickups and speakers.
 
Re: What Is The Best Tonewood For Metal (Metallica)?

NE hit the nail on the head pretty well, but one of the key players that many Metallica enthusiasts forget when trying to cop their tone (especially on their later albums) is that the bass is a key player in getting the right vibe. Even with the perfect settings, just a guitar is not going to cut it.

First thing you want to do is get a 1974 Ampeg SVT 300w head. Then you want to set it as follows:

Amp on clean
no drive
bass knob at 12 o' clock
low mid knob at 1 or 2 o' clock
high mid at 12
high at 11

The cabinet is the tricky part. Some people say you can get away with a simple Mesa (or even Marshall) 4×12 cab, some people say that you need any where from one to three auxiliary cabs to really thicken up the sound, but I say it's not only more authentic, but also cheaper and easier if you just take the amplifier out cord and plug it straight into the trash.

Hope this helps.
 
Re: What Is The Best Tonewood For Metal (Metallica)?

Rich Mahogany.


No, seriously.

NegativeEase has a good point, but in the end you'll get better results with something nice and chunky sounding. James was using his EET FUK guitar a lot then which was an ESP explorer copy. I'm guessing it was likely a mahogany body.
 
Re: What Is The Best Tonewood For Metal (Metallica)?

Hey Shirley! :) Just in case you're not Shirley afterall, check out Rick Beato's "What makes this song great" series... He features a couple of 'tallica songs in it and talks about setup they had in the studio. I believe for the Sandman intro he mentions some sort of EMG single coil thing... Oh,and don't forget to hire Bob Rock! :P
 
Re: What Is The Best Tonewood For Metal (Metallica)?

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Re: What Is The Best Tonewood For Metal (Metallica)?

Thanks guys, but it was a joke... there's no such thing as "metal tonewood".

(hence the "No, I'm not serious, and you can call me Shirley..." bit)

OTOH, If there was, I'd go with B2D's "Rich Mahogany". Definitely.
 
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Re: What Is The Best Tonewood For Metal (Metallica)?

Ironwood

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Re: What Is The Best Tonewood For Metal (Metallica)?

Ha. LLL funny.

I even listened to that damn song to make sure I remembered how little guitar sound was in the approach for that record

damn you. I listened to the Black Album for your a** :lmao:
 
Re: What Is The Best Tonewood For Metal (Metallica)?

I think Negative Ease is correct. But for metal, I like an extreme sound so I'd go maple/maple. My buddy Joe is crazy and likes poplar/ebony.
 
Re: What Is The Best Tonewood For Metal (Metallica)?

For metal, I like alder/maple, mahogany/maple, mahogany/mahogany, maple/maple

Just not ash, IMO

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