Now that Hetfield is with Fortin, what'll happen to his Vh4?

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Joeytpg

Joeytpg

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with the announcement that James is working with Fortin/Randall on a new amp, what you think will be the future of Diezel amps in James' rig? do you guys have any idea ? have you heard something? will he blend the Fortin/VH4 or is the VH4 being replaced by the Fortins to blend with the long time Triaxis setup?

:confused:
 
Same thing that happened to his Mesa's and his Roland... I'm sure they will likely still see use.

Infact, is there anything in stone yet about this? Last I'd heard they were still working on a prototype to have him try.
 
oh, I have no idea if it's set in stone...... I don't mean to start a rumor.

So lets clarify: In case he does get a Randall/Fortin Sig amp......

btw I'm talking about the live rig of course, because in the studio those guys use everything.
 
Not sure that it really matters. His tone on the newer records doesn't compare with the older Mesa recorded records. :aww:
 
Badronald":3r1cdx1p said:
Not sure that it really matters. His tone on the newer records doesn't compare with the older Mesa recorded records. :aww:
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I am definitely a Hetfield fanboy but yea, I don't know what's going on with that. His live tone is really blah. Amazes me though. I couldn't dial in a bad tone with the VH4, his emg het set sounds fantastic, really don't understand how he has the live tone he has :dunno:

Maybe fortin will do some good for him :thumbsup:
 
One thing I have noticed in recent years is that the recordings of the live shows do NOT do justice at all. Standing there, his tone is incredible. The most recent change has been his clean tone though. In prior years, he was switching in and out the roland jc120H with a pod pro. These days, the JC120H is pretty much long gone and he uses the pod X3 pro in it's place. IMO his clean tone sounds a little weird now. It got a lot thinner, even though he is still using the Triaxis to fill out the clean and thicken it up (without changing his settings used for this either).

I'm sure the Fortin/Randall ideas will try and accommodate James' wishes. While it would be cool to see something that gets his clean and crunch tones....well, who knows.

But for many many years, James' main crunch tone has been a combo of the C+ tone and a more modern heavy amp. During the 90s it was a Triaxis using a Recto sound. Once he got the VH4, he no longer used the Triaxis Recto mode.

I don't see him ditching the C+ tone. It's simply THE core of his sound. That sound we all hear in our heads. Could totally see the new Fortin Randall replacing the VH4 though.
 
From what I understand Mike took his notes from meeting James and whatever comes will be what James has asked for :)

No doubt 6l6 flavored, mids, etc......................................
 
Has he ever done a full blown endorsement deal for an amp?

I know he has the ESP thing going on (which doesn't keep him from playing others live when he wants to), but I don't think he's ever had an amp thing.

You have to imagine that he's been approached about it. I would assume just about any amp maker would kill for his endorsement. Perhaps he's avoided that because he doesn't want to be committed to one amp?

I'm sure Fortin will give him something awesome, but I have my doubts that it will become an exclusive thing.
 
That's always been my thought too, that he doesn't wanna just stamp his name on anything and call it good. Obviously he doesn't need the money, haha. So you know if he does start working with a company it's because he truly loves it and believes in it being an excellent piece of gear.Very excited!!
 
I too find James' tone nowadays sounds a bit weak on recordings....live it sounds really good (I've been to 6 shows between 2008 - 2009). Although I must say, he's got a bit more mids than I'd use for his style of playing. I know the VH4 is a mid heavy amp, but still.......it's like there's an outboard EQ (FOH maybe?) that's bumping the upper mids a little bit. That used to be Kirk's land so that his solo's would cut more, and james provided the scooped tones.

but yeah....I find the live recorded version is a bit mid heavy for my taste. The VH4 is an amazing amp, as a matter of fact, his Tuning Room tone (only a VH4) sounds better to me than the live tone.

A couple of examples:

Live Tone:

Starts around the 2:12 mark




Tuning Room:

 
Either way that is cool for our Brother Fortin. Congrats! :rock:
 
So much of what you hear live is ISO'd, processed and passed to the FOH arrays anyway.
 
Yeah I would say it's more of a FOH + the actual recording/mixing which makes it sound different. Cuz when you are there and hear it, it's THE tone. Just crushing. His settings really don't change unless it's for a specific effect or part of a song too, so that's a constant night after night, going into the iso cabs.
 
This is very true. I've been to two Metallica shows recently and thought his tone was great. Thought maybe it was just the fact that I was there (the energy and adrenaline). I mean in the mix he sounds good in the live recordings, it is when he plays an opening by himself, something like that-just seems so thin.
 
I've been listening to Metallica since 1985 and basically learned rhythm guitar in high school by playing along to James. One thing I've noticed since about the "Load" period, is that his galloping rhythm sound is not as defined as it used to be and I don't think it is necessarily due to just amp tone. To my ears, it almost sounds like he uses his pick differently than years ago. Instead of having a pick style like on something like "The Four Horsemen" where you could hear everything really clear, and the pick sounded like it was hitting the string dead-on, it is like he turned his pick sideways and some of the definition went away. It is like a slight scraping. I noticed it on "Death Magnetic" with some of the faster songs. Years ago on the faster stuff, his pick attack was what really stuck out. I'm sure some of it is the type of amps he is using as well though. Maybe he hit the strings harder in the past because he had to make up for lower gain on his Marshalls.
 
For me metallica tone will always be found in a MESA boogie. As cool as the Randall amps are, and the Diezel and the Fortin might be very cool, but for me, Get a dual Rec or a Trem O Verb and have at it.

To me, its less about the EMG's and more about pick attack / vibe and the amp.
 
Metallica hasn't had good recorded tone since Garage Days Inc (1998) IMO.

No matter what the main amp is on the next recording, Rick Rubin and his great hack of an engineer, Greg Fiddleman are slated to produce/mix/master the next album. That is guaranteed to sound like shit, obscuring any potential good amp tone to be had.
 
thegame":qtqlcy1m said:
Metallica hasn't had good recorded tone since Garage Days Inc (1998) IMO.

No matter what the main amp is on the next recording, Rick Rubin and his great hack of an engineer, Greg Fiddleman are slated to produce/mix/master the next album. That is guaranteed to sound like shit, obscuring any potential good amp tone to be had.
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Speaking of Rick Rubin, It's amazing how a guy with such a tin ear has had such a succesful career. He has always been and always will be one of my least favorite people in the biz. I wont even give him the credit of producer since the guy is a hack in my eyes. These day You have kids in their early teens producing better sounding albums out of their homes then any of Rick's work.
All IMHO of course :rock:
 
Gainfreak":1wes0dic said:
thegame":1wes0dic said:
Metallica hasn't had good recorded tone since Garage Days Inc (1998) IMO.

No matter what the main amp is on the next recording, Rick Rubin and his great hack of an engineer, Greg Fiddleman are slated to produce/mix/master the next album. That is guaranteed to sound like shit, obscuring any potential good amp tone to be had.
Click to expand...

Speaking of Rick Rubin, It's amazing how a guy with such a tin ear has had such a succesful career. He has always been and always will be one of my least favorite people in the biz. I wont even give him the credit of producer since the guy is a hack in my eyes. These day You have kids in their early teens producing better sounding albums out of their homes then any of Rick's work.
All IMHO of course :rock:
Click to expand...
I know what you're saying, but he seems to have a talent for finding the right people to actually do the production work that he gets credit for. Some of my favorite sounding albums were "produced" by Rick:
The Cult - Electric
Mick Jagger - Wandering Spirit
Trouble - Manic Frustration
And a bunch of other stuff by Tom Petty, Danzig, Johnny Cash, Black Crowes, The Four Horsemen, etc
 
thegame":ufzgikzz said:
Metallica hasn't had good recorded tone since Garage Days Inc (1998) IMO.

No matter what the main amp is on the next recording, Rick Rubin and his great hack of an engineer, Greg Fiddleman are slated to produce/mix/master the next album. That is guaranteed to sound like shit, obscuring any potential good amp tone to be had.
Click to expand...

Hopefully after the trainwreck of production on Death Magnetic, the Metallica guys will be more hands-on with the end production to get the sound where it should be.
 
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