Kirk Hammett’s favorite guitar changed metal FOREVER

What happens when a young guitarist finds the sound he’s been chasing? For Kirk Hammett, it started with a Gibson Flying V™.

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▶ Shop the Gibson Kirk Hammett collection HERE: https://bit.ly/4kReO1c
▶ Shop Epiphone Kirk Hammett Flying V guitars HERE: https://bit.ly/4kOC681
▶ Watch the full Kirk Hammett Icons episode here: https://youtu.be/bPy8YyUgxyA

In this exclusive ICONS clip on Gibson TV, Metallica’s Kirk Hammett tells the story of how he found the guitar sound he’d always been looking for. The Kirk Hammett guitar sound we all know and love is easily humbuckers and Marshall™ stacks. But did you know it all started because he was frustrated with the thin tone of his first guitar which happened to be a single coil? Listen as Kirk talks about how he traded up to a Gibson 1979 Flying V and finally unlocked the fullness, aggression, and clarity he’d been looking for in his guitar sound. That guitar didn’t just change his tone, it gave him an identity and paved the way to Kirk becoming synonymous with the Gibson Flying V guitar!

Kirk shares how the sound of humbuckers drew him into heavier music, sparking an obsession with bands like UFO, Motörhead, the Scorpions, and the raw power of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Inspired by their sound, he began evolving his own style of guitar playing which came through in the bands he was playing with that mixed heavier guitars, harder-hitting drums, and an unmistakable intensity in his playing.

Little did he know he was becoming a major player and an innovator in a scene that would become known as the San Francisco thrash metal scene.

Together with a group of like-minded musicians, Kirk turned that inspiration into a movement which changed the face of music. Fueled by record store import sections, Rampage Radio, and Metal Mondays at the Old Waldorf, Kirk and his band, Exodus helped form the foundation of what would become the San Francisco thrash metal scene. That tone, attitude, and energy would later define Metallica and ignite a global metal revolution with his Gibson Flying V in hand.

???? Related Videos To Watch Next:

▶ Watch The Collection with Kirk Hammett: https://youtu.be/NR5kZ4U3p58
▶ Watch the full Kirk Hammett Icons episode here: https://youtu.be/bPy8YyUgxyA
▶ Bob Rock talks about recording Metallica and other artists: https://youtu.be/jMHHMb2cmuk

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