Metallica speakers

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firmani99

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I'm sure it's been discussed to death but does anyone know what speakers metallica used on their various albums?
 
Bringing out the dead here... Sorry.

It depends on the album, but I believe that Marshall Vintages (vintage 30's out of the Marshall 1960AV & BV cabs) are pretty much the go-to speaker for Hetfield's rhythm since AJFA.
 
According to Monty Jay they used G12-65's until TBA when they switched to mainly Vintage 30's in Mesa Standard cabs.
 
MontyJay did state that about G12-65 speakers for their early albums, but I have never seen any actual evidence that suggests this is the case, especially for Master of Puppets. Flemming Rasmussen's notes only ever mention "300 watt kabinets". Also, the pic of James in his Mr. Bubbles shirt posing with a white Jackson King V in Sweet Silence Studios shows C+ amps sitting on top cabs that look like Marshall 1960 cabinets, not the Marshall cabs that came with G12-65s. This makes me think that Metallica recorded with G12T-75 speakers for MOP.

As for TBA, James's heavy rhythm tones were most definitely recorded with Marshall 1960BV cabs loaded with "Marshall Vintage" speakers. He only used Mesa Halfback cabs for his cleans. This is from an interview with Hetfield that is posted on the MontyJay site. You can also see Marshall cabs sitting inside the "tent of doom" in "A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica Video". I'm not sure if Mesa was even using V30s yet in 1990, were they?
 
Audiokill said:
MontyJay did state that about G12-65 speakers for their early albums, but I have never seen any actual evidence that suggests this is the case, especially for Master of Puppets. Flemming Rasmussen's notes only ever mention "300 watt kabinets". Also, the pic of James in his Mr. Bubbles shirt posing with a white Jackson King V in Sweet Silence Studios shows C+ amps sitting on top cabs that look like Marshall 1960 cabinets, not the Marshall cabs that came with G12-65s. This makes me think that Metallica recorded with G12T-75 speakers for MOP.

Check out the thread right below this one. :wink: "Deciphering Flemming's notes".
 
Well there you go. So then where did this consensus of Metallica using G12-65s come from? Are people (including MontyJay) just parroting unfounded info? It had to come from somewhere. Maybe they used them for Kill em All or RTL. Any evidence on the matter, like pics or interview quotes, that is submitted here will be much appreciated.
 
Audiokill said:
Well there you go. So then where did this consensus of Metallica using G12-65s come from? Are people (including MontyJay) just parroting unfounded info? It had to come from somewhere. Maybe they used them for Kill em All or RTL. Any evidence on the matter, like pics or interview quotes, that is submitted here will be much appreciated.
If I remember (and I usually don't :) ) James said they used "65 watt" speakers in an interview around the time TBA was released. That's where the G12T-65 story comes from.
Either way, unless you are trying to recreate the recording studio from MOP sessions I'd not worry too much about speakers. :lol:
Playing technique and eq is 98% of it anyway.
 
Audiokill said:
Well there you go. So then where did this consensus of Metallica using G12-65s come from? Are people (including MontyJay) just parroting unfounded info? It had to come from somewhere. Maybe they used them for Kill em All or RTL. Any evidence on the matter, like pics or interview quotes, that is submitted here will be much appreciated.

Can't say for Monty but I also assumed it was 65's cause from reading around G12-65's seemed to be stock speakers in a Jcm800 cab around the time. I've found since then that that's incorrect and there were quite a few different speakers available stock at the time. G12-65, G12-80, G12-100, G12-80, G12T75. The T75's though are the only ones that are 300watts. As far as I remember that's my reasoning.

Monty's a cool guy but I never really followed his site.
 
ryjan said:
If I remember (and I usually don't :) ) James said they used "65 watt" speakers in an interview around the time TBA was released. That's where the G12T-65 story comes from.
Either way, unless you are trying to recreate the recording studio from MOP sessions I'd not worry too much about speakers. :lol:
Playing technique and eq is 98% of it anyway.

Not necessarily trying to recreate MOP. Just interested in the topic is all. The thread is titled Metallica Speakers after all.

By the way, here's an interview quote from Guitar Player. Wonder if it's the same one you're thinking;

James Hetfield: "... for the 1991 album, I'm using MESA/Boogie amps, with ADA MP-1 preamp, but Boogie Simul-class II is the main part of the sound. Cabs: Boogie for clean, cutting stuff, Marshalls with 30 watt Celestion Vintage 30s for warmth."

He said Vintage 30's are 30 watts. What a noob :)
 
Audiokill said:
ryjan said:
If I remember (and I usually don't :) ) James said they used "65 watt" speakers in an interview around the time TBA was released. That's where the G12T-65 story comes from.
Either way, unless you are trying to recreate the recording studio from MOP sessions I'd not worry too much about speakers. :lol:
Playing technique and eq is 98% of it anyway.

Not necessarily trying to recreate MOP. Just interested in the topic is all. The thread is titled Metallica Speakers after all.

By the way, here's an interview quote from Guitar Player. Wonder if it's the same one you're thinking;

James Hetfield: "... for the 1991 album, I'm using MESA/Boogie amps, with ADA MP-1 preamp, but Boogie Simul-class II is the main part of the sound. Cabs: Boogie for clean, cutting stuff, Marshalls with 30 watt Celestion Vintage 30s for warmth."

He said Vintage 30's are 30 watts. What a noob :)



Hahaha Noob. That was funny.
 
On this Mesa Boogie web page (Rectifier Cabinets section), we can see this Metallica cab : http://www.mesaboogie.com/media/Guitar%20Cabinets/Rectifier/rectifier_cabinet_main.jpg

Does anybody know what cab it is exactly ?

Thanks.
 
YEs they are currently using straight traditional Mesa cabs. with vintage 30's Not the oversized cabs.
 
firmani99 said:
YEs they are currently using straight traditional Mesa cabs. with vintage 30's Not the oversized cabs.

The traditionnal ones, just like those John Petrucci uses too ?
 
decker said:
firmani99 said:
YEs they are currently using straight traditional Mesa cabs. with vintage 30's Not the oversized cabs.

The traditionnal ones, just like those John Petrucci uses too ?


I don't know which ones petrucci uses but yes the traditional ones.
 
There's lots of misinformation out there. The older albums were G12T-75 loaded Marshall cabs, both on RTL and MoP. By TBA, they were using Marshall 1960BV and mostly with V30s (some older Boogie scattered in) then that transitioned over to Mesa V30 and by the time Load came.
 
Silverwulf said:
There's lots of misinformation out there. The older albums were G12T-75 loaded Marshall cabs, both on RTL and MoP. By TBA, they were using Marshall 1960BV and mostly with V30s (some older Boogie scattered in) then that transitioned over to Mesa V30 and by the time Load came.

I f you don't know, don't speak lol :roll:
 
dafxtone said:
Silverwulf said:
There's lots of misinformation out there. The older albums were G12T-75 loaded Marshall cabs, both on RTL and MoP. By TBA, they were using Marshall 1960BV and mostly with V30s (some older Boogie scattered in) then that transitioned over to Mesa V30 and by the time Load came.

I f you don't know, don't speak lol :roll:

I do know, so I did speak. Carry on... 8)
 
Cool !!!

So tell us how do you know they've played on a G12T75 on RTL/MOP ? Any reliable source ?
 
dafxtone said:
Silverwulf said:
There's lots of misinformation out there. The older albums were G12T-75 loaded Marshall cabs, both on RTL and MoP. By TBA, they were using Marshall 1960BV and mostly with V30s (some older Boogie scattered in) then that transitioned over to Mesa V30 and by the time Load came.

I f you don't know, don't speak lol :roll:

If you know, then please inform us...But your credibility here is null, with 4 posts and all, and aren't showing much respect to someone who's been on this board for many years and has provided countless information and help to others.
 

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