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The Latest Breaking News from Kirk Hammett

“Developed with Kirk Hammett’s guidance and built from specifications taken directly from the actual PAF humbuckers on that world-renowned guitar”: Gibson unveils the $449 Custom Shop humbucker set that will make your Les Paul sound like ‘Greeny’

Limited to 100 units worldwide, exclusive to Gibson, these are aged by the Murphy Lab to look just like the real thing

MusicRadar

"Not that Kirk doesn't get enough solos, but Cliff took his solo, which I think is just so cool": Robert Trujillo on the time Metallica mixed up their solos

He says Orion is “the closest thing to the spirit of Cliff Burton”

MusicRadar

“That whole thing of doing the trades with other players is a really nice thing”: Vernon Reid says he hopes he and Jack White have started a trend for pro guitarists swapping signature models

It all started with a chance meeting at the airport but now the Living Colour guitarist says he's already lined up more high-profile trades

MusicRadar

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“Every song we came up with was like the greatest thing. Every time we’d write another it was like, ‘Oh my god’”: Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax and more remember how thrash metal took over the world 40 years ago

1986 was the year where thrash metal broke through. We got the genre’s leading bands to look back on those whirlwind 12 months.

Metal Hammer

“I wouldn’t say I’m an alcoholic – but then, you know, alcoholics say they’re not alcoholics”: The chaotic and confusing story of Metallica’s abandoned album

In 2001, Metallica hired an old army barracks in California to try and record album eight. The songs were scrapped when James Hetfield entered rehab, but many fans still want to hear them finished.

Metal Hammer

“For James Hetfield fans, this guitar is a no-brainer”: Epiphone Explorer 80s EMG review

Epiphone's latest Explorer delivers the ultimate unofficial tribute for Metallica fans

Guitar World

“Whether it’s mounted on your pedalboard or standing at the heart of your shrine, this pedal is a torch held high for rock ’n’ roll”: Jim Dunlop drops an Iron Maiden Killers edition of its Cry Baby wah

Emblazoned with the album’s unmistakable art, the pedal celebrates the band’s gritty beginnings

Guitar World

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"It did surprise us. People started calling us sell-outs." How Metallica wrote the metal power ballad that saved Miley Cyrus - and that Elton John called 'one of the best songs ever written'

James Hetfield wasn't sure about letting his Metallica bandmates hear Nothing Else Matters. Thank goodness he did

Metal Hammer

“Kirk Hammett’s in front of me with a guitar trying to teach me stuff. They’re like, ‘Get your stuff. You’re flying on the private jet with us’”: Daron Malakian on the time he saved a Metallica gig – and ended up filling in for an injured James Hetfield

Malakian stepped up to sub for Hetfield at the last minute while on tour – and stuck around until he was fully recovered

Guitar World

"I'll never forget it. It still brings goosebumps." System Of A Down's Daron Malakian on being asked to fill in for injured James Hetfield on Metallica's Summer Sanitarium tour in 2000

System Of A Down had yet to make their breakthrough – but guitarist Malakian was thrust onto the stage with metal royalty

Metal Hammer

“The first thing I said to him was, ‘You bought Greeny.’ He goes, ‘Yeah, I’ve got it. You want to play it?’” Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith had a chance encounter with Kirk Hammett – and ended up babysitting his iconic Les Paul

The fabled Gibson has been making plenty of big-name players weak at the knees recently

Guitar World

“I was trying to write something heavier than the bands I was listening to, and that felt like the first time that I’d done it”: How Metallica broke the thrash metal mould with biblical barnstormer Creeping Death

Pinching a riff from Kirk Hammett’s former band and inspired by a Charlton Heston film, Metallica reached a new level with their 1984 single

Metal Hammer

“The teacher would say, ‘OK, get out your health books,’ and I would have to leave. My parents told me a little speech to say about our religion and why, and I didn’t believe it”: How Metallica turned childhood trauma into a decades-spanning trilogy

Inspired by James Hetfield’s isolated upbringing (and a little bit of Chris Isaak), Metallica made an honest, inverted ballad and kicked off a 27-year-long series

Metal Hammer

Kirk Hammett's guitar far exceeds selling expectations

A guitar Kirk Hammett played during Black Sabbath‘s final gig has sold for a staggering $76,800 - more than 12 times the predicted sale price.

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Metal Hammer

“Our manager basically kicked us out of his house. We were supposed to go to Europe for the first time, and our gear had gotten stolen”: How Metallica turned tragedy into Fade To Black – the acoustic epic that put the elitists in their place

Inspired by the time Metallica’s gear was pinched, Fade To Black threw the metal scene into an uproar – but the band had the last laugh

Guitar World

“It was the perfect guitar for him to pay tribute to Tony”: Kirk Hammett’s guitar auction shatters expectations – with his mystery Back to the Beginning SG fetching $70,000 more than anticipated

Around 150 of Hammett’s guitars were part of Julien’s latest Played, Worn & Torn auction

Guitar World

“I’ve picked up others… they were like a piece of plywood. But not this one”: Gary Moore’s iconic red Stratocaster sells at auction for more than $330,000

This was the Strat that Moore played during his legendary 2004 performance of Red House – when people dared say it was better than Hendrix

Guitar World

“When I finished, I sent Kirk Hammett a picture and said, ‘Do you want to use it?’ He replied in all caps, ‘YES!’” Gibson CEO Cesar Gueikian has spent 4 years learning how to build guitars – and his prized SG was played at metal’s most historic concert

Gueikian has juggled the demands of his CEO role with learning the art of guitar making, and his builds already have some high-profile admirers – including Jason Momoa, Kirk Hammett and Tony Iommi

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Metal Hammer

"I let my father know there were no bad feelings. I sorted out a lot of my anger in his departure." A death, Nirvana, U2 and a crucifixion: the surprising story behind Metallica's most successful single (and no, it isn't Enter Sandman)

With a new look, a new attitude and a dizzying new set of musical influences, Metallica crafted one of their most controversial singles. It was also their best-selling

Guitar World

“I’m nervousof that guitar because it’s so expensive. I can barely look at it”: Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil on how you can shake the Earth with one finger, and why he fell in love with Kirk Hammett’s Greeny – even if he’s still Team Strat

With their 10th album, Futique, Biffy Clyro remind us exactly why they are one of the most important rock bands of the modern age

Metal Hammer

"I went to a party in San Francisco...there were all these freaks shooting up and this girl was real sick." How Metallica wrote their most iconic anthem - and how Stranger Things made it relevant to a whole new generation over three decades later

Metallica's most celebrated song helped define a generation of thrash metal and found new meaning decades later with a certain TV show

Guitar World

“We built 19 different models. He more or less changed what we were doing”: EMG founder on why this Metallica guitarist’s pickup set was the most challenging he’s ever made

The band first started working with the pickup builder before they scored their first record deal

MusicRadar

“I put the headstock on the buffing wheel. It threw it out of my hands. That day I learned how to fix a broken headstock”: Cesar Gueikian on building the SG Kirk Hammett played to honour Black Sabbath and how his designs might shape future Gibson releases

The Gibson CEO on his guitar-making journey, from early missteps to making the SG Hammett rocked at Back To The Beginning, and the Ghost Burst finish that's coming soon to the Gibson lineup

Guitar World

“If that's not done properly, then the guitar won’t be playable”: The hardest part of building a Gibson guitar from scratch, according to CEO Cesar Gueikian

Gueikian has spent around three years learning and building guitars under the CEO Series – and one of his most recent builds was played by Kirk Hammett at Back to the Beginning

MusicRadar

“The guitar I built in Kirk’s hands… paying tribute to Tony, Ozzy and Black Sabbath, it was amazing and strange, humbling and epic”: The unique SG built by Gibson CEO Cesar Gueikian and played by Kirk Hammett at Back to the Beginning heads to auction

Gibson teams up with Julien's Auctions for Gibson Gives fundraiser, with two of Gueikian's custom builds going under the hammer, plus a heap of signed and stage-played electrics

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