Hetfield rocking the VH4

[Wizard of Ozz]

Went to see Metallica last night in Sunrise, FL. James, Kirk, Lars, and Rob all put on a great show. Lots of pyro with 20 foot flames you could feel the heat from 10 rows back. Killer show & excellent performance. Set list included:

Cyanide
The Day that Never Comes
All Nightmare Long
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Nothing Else Matters
Harvester of Sorrow
Enter the Sandman
One
Master of Puppets
No Leaf Clover
Seek and Destroy (Closer)

I wish they played a bunch of others, but they covered a lot of material. The show was only 2 hours long, but I could've gone for another 2 hours easy. The 3 songs they did off of Death Magnetic sounded waaaaayyyy better live. Much clearer, tighter, and thrashier sounding. Just proves whoever recorded/mastered DM needs their hearing checked.

I got a good, close look at James' rig which consisted of:
2 Diezel VH4 heads (only used 1, other was a backup. He only used Channel 3 the entire night).
4 Mesa Triaxis Preamps
2 Mesa 2-90 Poweramps
2 POD XT Pro rack units for fx (yup, 2 POD XT Pro rack units for fx?!?!)
Mesa 4X12 cabs
Guitars included various Gibson V's, ESP Truckster and Iron Cross Sig, KL Explorer Deer Skull, ESP White Explorer, Gibson Black Explorer, and what look to be a customized black Gibson LP Studio used on Cyanide and All Nightmare Long.

I only got a quick look at Kirk's Rig which had:
2 of his Randall Sig modular heads (couldn't see which modules)
2 Triaxis Preamps
1 Mesa 2-90 Poweramp
Guitars included Jackson RR1, Black Gibson LP Custom, Red Gibson V, ESP M-IIs (Ouija, Mummy, Signature Black, and a new one with blue surfboard paintjob).

Here are some pics:

 

[Wizard of Ozz]

 

[stefvorcide]

\m/

 

[steve_k]

Cool venue.....saw them in August in the UK.

Steve

 

[VoodooChild24]

 

[dean_fry]

aaaah great!!!

 

[Ventura]

Hey DeanFry... Lemme guess, Tool fan?? What year is that LPC in your avatar?

Peace,
V.

PS - wicked shots of Metallica guys - thanks for that!!!!

 

[sean106ESP]

Did someone say Iron Cross sig?

Moar pix and no I did not pay anywhere near 10K for it.
http://www.seanydiesel.com/ESP-IC.htm



The gold frets make it play like a dream and it has that JH-2, JH-3 clean and crunch tone.

 

[steve_k]

Someone did say Iron Cross.....

Here's my 1974 Les Paul Custom Iron Cross. James' is actually a 73.

Steve

 

[sean106ESP]

Someone did say Iron Cross.....

Here's my 1974 Les Paul Custom Iron Cross. James' is actually a 73.

Steve

Nice man I liked those replica's made on EBAY they did a great job. How does it sound and play? Sweet

 

[eh-D]

Did someone say Iron Cross sig?

Moar pix and no I did not pay anywhere near 10K for it.
http://www.seanydiesel.com/ESP-IC.htm



The gold frets make it play like a dream and it has that JH-2, JH-3 clean and crunch tone.

I wish you'd post up a vid somewhere like you used to. I checked out an IC at my local store but they wouldn't budge on the $10K price tag

 

[sean106ESP]

Did someone say Iron Cross sig?

Moar pix and no I did not pay anywhere near 10K for it.
http://www.seanydiesel.com/ESP-IC.htm



The gold frets make it play like a dream and it has that JH-2, JH-3 clean and crunch tone.

I wish you'd post up a vid somewhere like you used to. I checked out an IC at my local store but they wouldn't budge on the $10K price tag

Yeah sorry about that. I knida got bored with doing vids of gear and also am so busy now I don't really have the time. Sorry man.

 

[VoodooChild24]

Did someone say Iron Cross for a fraction of the cost?

 

[steve_k]

Did someone say Iron Cross for a fraction of the cost?

I did.........for about half. Just the cost of the 74 LPC is worth more than the IC relic job. Plus, its just cool as shit too and with the Tone Pro's and EMG set up, it plays very, very well anyway. Andy does nice work.

Drink to fraction of a cost

Steve

 

[sean106ESP]

Nice replica. I was gonna do the same thing. But I dunno it I would say a fraction of a cost as old LPC's are expensive, plust the EMG upgrade, tone pros etc. Mine around mid 5K. But well worth it as it is best sounding and playing ESP they ever made IMO. Aside from the KH-20. That thing was sick. Those mega hard gold covered frets make it play like a dream, perfect weight and sounds a tad better than the Jh-2 and Jh-3 I used to have in both the clean and crunch dept. The cleans just sing. With the VH4 and a simple Boss super chorus, this thing sounds almost like Het's JC-120 clean tone.

 

[VoodooChild24]

Sean, we miss your vids. You need to do some clips/vids again. That IC and VH4 should be a good starting point.

 

[sean106ESP]

Sean, we miss your vids. You need to do some clips/vids again. That IC and VH4 should be a good starting point.

Thanks man, but ever since I started my band last summer and changed careers. I just have no time. The only time I had was to record our first demo last winter at home and produce it. I do sometime miss making them. But I think back how much of a pain in the arse it was syncing the audio and video. Plus how much time it would take. I would make a vid of it showing all the details, but would be the point if there was no sound.

Here are some shit clips of it at the rehearsal space. I use a Zoom h4 and 2 shure sm57's to mic the room. So of course the quality is not good. i just record our jams to analyze what we need to change or get better at. So these clips are me using a JC-120 and I A/B it with a Marshal JCM 900. That is what they have in the rooms. So I always get to the studio early, and made these quick clips as I knew I would have no time to make some home clips with the VH4 (My VH4S and other Diezel cab stays at my vocalist house for shows as he has an SUV and I don't )

They are not metal by any means as what I write for my band is kinda more like pop rock.

 

[dean_fry]

Hey DeanFry... Lemme guess, Tool fan?? What year is that LPC in your avatar?

Peace,
V.

Hey V.,

actually I wanted one since I saw Joey Z from Life of Agony with one, I didn't know Tool back then )
well it's a "new model" from 2007 which had the same price as the normal LPCs
but weighed more with its 5,5 kilos so I went for it!


Cheers,
Anju

 

[BJLB]

Do I understand this properly that James instead of Roland JC120 Top uses a Pod XT per Rack?

 

[sean106ESP]

Scottph would no more. But I think his clean tone is the JC-120 head and mixed with a modded Triaxis clean. But IMO no JC-120 I ever played had the slightly more chorusy tone he get's. I think some more chorus is added there. I have been trying to figure that out for a while down. I tried to add a touch of flange and it did get close, but maybe the POD Pro FX are added to give more to the chorusy tone. JMO