The Guitar Plugged · Guitarist Index
Kirk Hammett
Metallica
1980–present
Metal · Rock · Blues
Thrash's most recognisable lead voice — wah, minor pentatonics and horror-movie melody.
Main guitar
ESP KH-2 'Mummy' / the 1959 Les Paul 'Greeny'
Signature sound
Wah-soaked high gain with heavy delay and a fast, nervy vibrato
Era
1980–present
Influence
84 / 100
Genre
Metal / Rock / Blues
Why they matter
Thrash's most recognisable lead voice — wah, minor pentatonics and horror-movie melody.
Hammett studied with Joe Satriani and brought a genuine melodic sensibility into thrash at a point when most lead playing in the genre was chromatic noise. The solos on Master of Puppets and Ride the Lightning are constructed melodies with recognisable shapes, which is why people can sing them.
The wah pedal is inseparable from his identity — often left half-cocked for a fixed midrange peak rather than swept — and combined with fast vibrato it makes his phrases immediately identifiable inside a Metallica arrangement.
He now owns 'Greeny', the 1959 Les Paul previously played by Peter Green and Gary Moore, and has used it extensively on recent records.
The sound
Wah-soaked high gain with heavy delay and a fast, nervy vibrato
Master of Puppets (solo)
Wah half-cocked with long delay — the midrange spike lets the lead cut through a very dense mix.
Fade to Black
Sustaining, melodic lead with a wide, slow vibrato that sounds nothing like the rest of the album.
One
Fast wah-swept runs over machine-gun rhythm; the pedal is doing rhythmic work, not just tonal.
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Style & technique
How you recognise the playing
Wah-driven phrasing
Fixed or swept wah shaping almost every lead, giving a vocal midrange emphasis.
Minor pentatonic melody
Blues-derived phrasing adapted to minor-key thrash harmony.
Fast, tight vibrato
A nervous, quick vibrato that keeps notes alive over dense rhythm tracks.
Horror-film chromaticism
Diminished and chromatic passing tones borrowed from film scores he loves.
The rig
Instruments, amplification and effects
- ESP KH-2
- 1959 Les Paul 'Greeny'
- ESP KH Ouija
- Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+
- Randall KH signature
- Marshall JVM
- Dunlop KH95 Cry Baby
- Ibanez Tube Screamer
- Boss delay
- EMG 81 / KH Bone Breaker
- Original PAFs in Greeny
Essential listening
Where to start
- 011984
Fade to Black
Metallica · Ride the Lightning
- 021986
Master of Puppets
Metallica · Master of Puppets
- 031988
One
Metallica · ...And Justice for All
- 041991
Enter Sandman
Metallica · Metallica
Career landmarks
The moments that mattered
Ride the Lightning solos
Melodic thrash lead playing at a time when the genre had little use for melody.
Custodian of 'Greeny'
He now plays the most storied Les Paul in blues-rock history.
The legacy
Lineage
Influenced by
Influenced
A generation of thrash lead players
Adjacent players
More from the archive
The player who turned amplifier noise into a musical language.
The virtuoso who rewrote the vocabulary of rock guitar.
Session-hardened producer who built rock guitar as an architecture, not a solo.
The player who translated Chicago blues into British rock volume.
The restless technician who kept reinventing what an electric guitar could be.
The master of the long note — space, sustain and perfect note choice.