Its quite close, but you sound not so confident, as if you weren't so sure about what you're playing (I also noticed that in your other videos). One key element to Hetfields tone is his very percussive, tight and hard picking (mostly downstrokes). One way to get better at that is to set the gain on the amp very low and get all the distortion by picking really hard. After a while playing like this, you'll notice that (besides having a sore wrist) your picking will be a lot more confident, tight and in-time.
Also your sound is missing James's sharpness. Besides using Emgs (I know you do
) this is achieved by using less gain, fresh strings and hard picking, but also by the Triaxis. Hetfields is modified, but still using a regular Triaxis or the Mark 2c+, 4 or 5 (or the Quad-Preamp or the Axe-Fx 2, but not any Line 6 emulation) will get very close. The Mark series has quite unsaturated distortion compared to most hi-gain amps, which lets a lot of the "fresh-string-edge" through. Also the Eq is sitting before the distorting gain-stages, so cutting the mids and boosting the highs really brings out the string attack.
But you are getting closer every time
I really enjoy watching your Videos and I'd love to play your Explorer, it looks and sounds killer! Also thanks so much for sharing the secrets of James clean tone a few years ago!
