James Hetfield on strings and tuning stability
Guitarist · Metallicapaid endorser · Reviewed by the Change Your Strings editorial team ·
James Hetfield is documented across four decades of rig rundowns, tour-tech interviews, and gear retrospectives as a Regular Slinky / Power Slinky / Beefy Slinky rotator depending on the tuning and the record. Papa Het's Hardwired Master Core (Ernie Ball, 2022) was the formalisation of that house approach into a single signature set, 11, 14, 18p, 28, 38, 50, designed specifically for his rhythm attack.
Both quotes above come from the 2022 signature-set launch coverage in Guitar World. Hetfield is a paid signature artist with Ernie Ball; that relationship is disclosed alongside each quote.
The pitch-transient observation in the second quote, that lighter strings go sharp under hard attack and then settle, is the technical answer to "can I play metal on thinner strings." You can, if your right-hand attack is lighter than Hetfield's. Most rhythm players' isn't.
Related
- Papa Het's Hardwired Master Core, the signature set.
- How often to change strings, touring-cadence section.
Hetfield at the 2022 launch of Papa Het's Hardwired Master Core, his first-ever signature set with Ernie Ball, a custom .011–.050 configuration (11, 14, 18p, 28, 38, 50) developed with Ernie Ball over a decade.
“It's only taken 40 years for me to have my own strings.”
Hetfield explaining the core design problem behind the Master Cores, his rhythm attack is heavy enough that lighter-gauge strings go momentarily sharp under the pick, then settle, and that transient pitch smear is what a heavier-gauge signature set was built to fix.
“The biggest challenge was tuning. If you got lighter strings, you hit them hard, they're going 'Whoa!' real sharp for a second and then settle back.”