James Hetfield's Mark II C+ "Crunch Berries"

[boola]

Here it is folks, James Hetfield's Holy Grail Mesa Boogie "Crunch Berries":

And a few other Mesa heads and his rack from 1993:

In the first picture, doesn't it say Gain Boost over the master vol1 pot? Also in the rack, 1 amp seems to say Pull Deep, the other Gain Boost.

Does this mean that he was using a 2C?

 

[zodiac272]

I really doubt it. he probably had an early original IIC+. probably even customized by mike b. the faceplate is one of the least useful determining factors.

scott

 

[Fastforded]

Here it is folks, James Hetfield's Holy Grail Mesa Boogie "Crunch Berries":

And a few other Mesa heads and his rack from 1993:

What happened? We lost the pics.

 

[JimAnsell]

google image search turns up a few pics of standing in front of c+'s with settings clearly in view

just for what its worth, regarding the whole c+ metallica tone thing, I've been a metallica super fan from 91 to now. I was a tape trader for years and had a collection of almost 500 metallica bootlegs at one point. Its been beaten into my brain what metallicas tone sounds like through all sorts of different venues soundboards and audience tape recorders.

i've tried some of the "puppets" settings with my c+ 105/DGR 15" and gibson stock v recently, and i've found that if you follow those settings, and play the songs with the same accents and tonal inflections an old school metallica fan should have in his fingers, you can really get close enough to the point where your imagination kind of has to take you the rest of the way. you gotta figure they had micheal wagners expertise, the rare trident board pre amps, and various other studio tactics in between. If you've ever been in a band and heard "your tone" in the control room, and then heard it through a nice board, and onto tape, you'll know...
My point is, don't get too obsessed with sounded "just like" anything . If you have a c+, every control on that amp is so sensitive, that you can really sound like anything if you know what you're doing.

 

[Fastforded]

google image search turns up a few pics of standing in front of c+'s with settings clearly in view

just for what its worth, regarding the whole c+ metallica tone thing, I've been a metallica super fan from 91 to now. I was a tape trader for years and had a collection of almost 500 metallica bootlegs at one point. Its been beaten into my brain what metallicas tone sounds like through all sorts of different venues soundboards and audience tape recorders.

i've tried some of the "puppets" settings with my c+ 105/DGR 15" and gibson stock v recently, and i've found that if you follow those settings, and play the songs with the same accents and tonal inflections an old school metallica fan should have in his fingers, you can really get close enough to the point where your imagination kind of has to take you the rest of the way. you gotta figure they had micheal wagners expertise, the rare trident board pre amps, and various other studio tactics in between. If you've ever been in a band and heard "your tone" in the control room, and then heard it through a nice board, and onto tape, you'll know...
My point is, don't get too obsessed with sounded "just like" anything . If you have a c+, every control on that amp is so sensitive, that you can really sound like anything if you know what you're doing.

Absolutely true. Nice that's a lot of tapes... Reminds me of the dead...

No mark 2c. Mark 3 and try and find my own tone close to that...

Thanks for the info

 

[themisfit138]

I put a PQ-4 in the loop of the Blue stripe. I am **** close to the Garage Days tone. I love the tones I get with the III and the PQ-4.

 

[Fastforded]

I put a PQ-4 in the loop of the Blue stripe. I am **** close to the Garage Days tone. I love the tones I get with the III and the PQ-4.

No built in EQ?

 

[themisfit138]

I put a PQ-4 in the loop of the Blue stripe. I am **** close to the Garage Days tone. I love the tones I get with the III and the PQ-4.

No built in EQ?

All my amps have the GEQ, I am using the "M" pattern. I have a good tone with just the amp and the PQ-4 just enhances what the amp is doing.

 

[akamouzis]

do you find the EQ brings out more attack? kind of jumping out of the speakers rather than sounding like its got a blanket over the cab? sorry its the best analogy i can come up with.
what other effects does it have on the sound? very curious, if thats my missing link.

 

[themisfit138]

do you find the EQ brings out more attack? kind of jumping out of the speakers rather than sounding like its got a blanket over the cab? sorry its the best analogy i can come up with.
what other effects does it have on the sound? very curious, if thats my missing link.

That is what I was thinking also. The EQ really opens up the amp. I think the PQ-4 adds a little attack and saturation also.

 

[GuitarPlayer]

F*** Metallica! She should've used stupid solid state amps. They're the reason mark IIc+ amps are so expensive. Well and Dream theater too

 

[ryjan]

Lighten up, Francis.

 

[GuitarPlayer]

do you find the EQ brings out more attack? kind of jumping out of the speakers rather than sounding like its got a blanket over the cab? sorry its the best analogy i can come up with.
what other effects does it have on the sound? very curious, if thats my missing link.

That is what I was thinking also. The EQ really opens up the amp. I think the PQ-4 adds a little attack and saturation also.

I can dial killswitch engage tones with the mid pulled and no eq on the c++ but it needs to be 6l6 and el34 full power master past 2 lead past 3

 

[tony777]

I can dial my own tone on my C+ and couldn't care less what anyone else dial in. :lol:

 

[Markedman]

I can dial my own tone on my C+ and couldn't care less what anyone else dial in. :lol:

I know how to get a great tone from almost any amp. Back in eighties, I played in a Metallica tribute band and when the other guitar player moved away we never got a second fiddle. Once, only once after that did anyone ever come up to the band suggesting we get another guitar player. I played through various Marshalls with stomp pedals and we rocked. To this day I change the settings in the first few moments at practice or sound check, sometimes radically, wondering how I played the amp with the settings it had. I recently got a new Les Paul when I'm used to strats so when I plugged that thing in I was like, "whoa nelly" and quickly grabbed at knobs because I had held up practice making some minor adjustments to the guitar. Two minutes into practice, all was fine. But, yeah, I rarely sit down and try to get a close carbon copy of someone else's tone.