Kirk Hammett

Kirk Hammett

Kirk Lee Hammett (born on November 18, 1962) is the lead guitarist in the band Metallica and has been a member of the band since 1983. Respected among his peers for his guitar style, in 2003 he was ranked 11th in the Rolling Stone's The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.

Biography

Early life

Born in San Francisco to a Filipino mother and an Irish Merchant Marine father, he later attended De Anza High School in El Sobrante, California when his family moved to the East Bay where he met Les Claypool from Primus. As a child and teenager, he showed great interest in his older brother Rick's extensive collection of guitars, Rickenbacker Basses and hard rock records, including material by Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Status Quo, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and UFO. One of his biggest influences was Jimi Hendrix, and Hammett was quoted as saying he wanted to be Jimi. He has also performed parts of Hendrix's songs during his guitar solos. He took up the guitar for the first time at the age of fifteen, beginning with a Montgomery Ward catalog special and little more than a shoebox with a four inch speaker for an amplifier. After picking up a 1978 Fender Stratocaster, Hammett attempted to customize his sound with various guitar parts, eventually falling for a 1974 Gibson Flying V. He also took a job at Burger King to raise money for a Marshall amplifier.

Pre-Metallica

Hammett's musical interests eventually drew him into the fledgling thrash metal genre. In 1980, he formed the group Exodus with vocalist Paul Baloff, guitarist Gary Holt, bassist Geoff Andrews, and drummer Tom Hunting. He played on Exodus' 1982 Demo. Exodus was a crucial early player in the Bay Area thrash movement.

Metallica

Hammett was invited to join Metallica following the dismissal of the band's original lead guitarist Dave Mustaine for his known abusive & violent behavior in 1983. This was prior to the release of Kill 'Em All. At the time Hammett was taking private guitar lessons from the now-famous Joe Satriani. In 2002, he became the first inductee into Guitar World magazine's "Hall of Fame". He has recorded and toured with Metallica for 25 years.

Though he is primarily Metallica's lead guitarist, Hammett has written and contributed riffs for Metallica songs since the mid-1980s (particularly in the 1990s during the Load era). One of these riffs, used in "Enter Sandman", was written in a hotel room at 3:00 am, and became one of Metallica's most popular songs. It was the first track and first single on Metallica's self-titled "Black Album" and was ranked 399th on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. Also the riff for "Creeping Death" was originally an Exodus riff that Kirk took with him to Metallica. Kirk has often been criticised for his extensive use of the wah-wah pedal in his solos, but he insists, "The wah-wah is an extension of my personality". He also once said, "They'll have to cut off my leg if they want me to stop using the wah-wah pedal." He sometimes adds harmonies to his solos, as seen on "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)", "Disposable Heroes" and "The Thing That Should Not Be". Kirk wanted to have guitar solos on Metallica's 2003 album, St. Anger, but drummer Lars Ulrich and producer Bob Rock thought that the solos did not sound right in the songs. He later himself admitted, "We tried to put in solos but they sounded like an afterthought so we left them out".

Personal life

Kirk Hammett has been married twice. His first marriage to ex-wife Rebecca ended in 1990, during the recording of the Black Album, which consumed the band members' lives for almost an entire year. He now resides in San Francisco with Lani, his second wife, whom he married in 1998. On September 29th, 2006, Kirk and Lani had a son, named Angel Ray Keala Hammett. And he is going to sue Wikipedia for having an article on him. Bad Wikipedia, Bad.

Other appearances

In 2006, Hammett voiced himself on The Simpsons ("The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer"). He also provided various voices on the Adult Swim show Metalocalypse, including a two fingered fan ("The Curse of Dethklok"), The Queen of Denmark ("Happy Dethday"), and a Finnish barkeep ("Dethtroll").

plays guitar on the song Trinity by Santana on the album "All That I Am" 2005

Equipment

At Mid-January 2007, ESP Guitar Company has announced the release of a 20 piece Limited KH-20 Guitar, to celebrate 20 years of relationship with Kirk Hammett (based upon the KH-2 guitar with some modification). There will only be 40 guitars made and the price has been set at $9,999.

In September of 2007, Randall Amplifiers announced a partnership with Hammett to design a line of signature amps, heads, combos and preamp modules.

Chicago, IL. — September 19, 2007— Randall Amplifiers, a division of US Music Corporation, announced today that they have joined forces with Kirk Hammett of Metallica. Hammett and Randall will be working together to design an extensive line of signature products that emulates the distinctive tones of Metallica’s legendary guitarist.

Guitars

• ESP M-II "Zorlac". This was the starting line for the whole KH series. It features vertical skull & crossbones opposed to the horizontal ones featured on todays KH's, and an upside down Jackson Guitars style headstock which is what Kirk originally intended. However, Jackson Guitars was not thrilled about this, and threatened law suits if this model ever hit stores. So the headstock was changed to a typical ESP but flipped upside down.
• ESP KH-2 (Main touring guitar) Kirk's signature model guitar is based upon the modifications he made to his M-II. (Nicknamed "Skully" because of the skull and crossbone inlays)
• ESP KH-2 M-II - Boris Karloff Mummy I graphic (Kirk's favorite guitar. Kirk owns the rights to the image on it and it will NOT be released by ESP.
• ESP KH-2 M-II - Ouija. This guitar contains 2 spelling errors on it. It sports the words "WILLIAM FUED TALKING BAARD SET" but it in fact should say "WILLIAM FULD TALKING BOARD SET"
• ESP KH-2 M-II - Boris Karloff Mummy II graphic. Same as the Mummy I but with hieroglyph inlays.
• ESP KH-2 M-II "Fuck You" KH-4. It's the same as a typical KH-2, but with a pearloid pickguard, dot inlays, a Roland midi unit (for roland vg8/vg88), and the words "FUCK YOU" written at the 12th fret.
• ESP ESP MII Skully 7 String. Though it belongs to Kirk, James mainly used it in the studio for St. Anger. It doesn't go on tour, rather than stays home with Kirk.
• ESP KH-3 Eclipse - Pushead Spider graphic. It is taken from a classic les paul jr. shape with floyd rose and EMG pickups.
• Gibson Les Paul Custom 1968 also known as "Black Beauty"; Kirk also uses regular Les Pauls at some performances
• Jackson Randy Rhoads Model RR1T custom made from the shop specifically for Kirk. It is usually tuned one step down from standard e, and used for the song "Sad But True".
• ESP KH-1 Flying V
• ESP KH-2 M-II - Skull & Crossbones II
• ESP M-II Red Frankenstein graphic
• ESP M-II Skull & Crossbones I
• ESP WaveCaster Blue- Wave Machine (Only 3 in existence.)
• Fender Stratocaster 1998 - American black and green Stratocaster
• 1974 Gibson Flying V (Used mainly for recording the first four albums. In 1989 he replaced the stock pickups with EMG 81s. Was the third guitar he ever owned.

Kirk Hammett's first guitar was a cheap Montgomery Strat copy. The pickups had gold aluminum foil on them, and there wasn't even a name on the headstock.

Metallica's "St. Anger" DVD rehearsals features a new guitar which has "Invisible Kid" written on it, which he uses in the song "Invisible Kid".

Amplifiers

• Randall RM100KH signature model (modified version of the MTS series RM100)

Cabinets

• RS412KHX
• RS412KH100

Pickups, effects and other equipment

• EMG 81 pickup at bridge and neck positions
• rack-mounted Dunlop Cry Baby with expression pedals (he is also known to use the
• Ibanez Tube Screamer TS-9
• Line 6 MM4 modulation & DL4 delay effect stompboxes
• Lovetone Meatball pedal (used on I Disappear)
• Jim Dunlop Tortex 0.88mm custom picks (green)
• Ernie Ball Power Slinky (.11-.48) strings
• custom Levy's strap
• Radial Tonebone Hot British distortion pedal

Discography

Exodus

• 1982 Demo

Metallica

Main article: Metallica discography

• Kill 'Em All
• Ride the Lightning
• Master of Puppets
• ...And Justice for All
• Metallica
• Load
• ReLoad
• St. Anger
• Metallica's ninth studio album

See also

• ESP Kirk Hammett

External links

• Metallica's Gear
• Encyclopedia Metallica
• USA Today article on the documentary Some Kind of Monster
• Kirk Hammett hooks up with Randall Amplifiers