1: The Frayed Ends of a Toggle Switch 2: Nothing Else Fucking Works 3: The Guitar that Failed 4: The Unforgiven Guitar Tech 5: Disposable ESP's 6: For Whom the Toggle Trolls 7: Master of Technical Problems 8: Sad But Toggled
3 great things about this; 1) They are really playing the song during live shows.. 2) James goes on and plays the song without any mistakes 3) He makes it up really good at the end so noone could make fun of it.. :)
Distortion seems to fade away Drifting further, every day Getting lost within itself Distortion matters, nothing else I have lost the will to play No distortion left today There is nothing more for me Only clean to set me free Sound is not what it used to be Missing noise inside of me Grunge loss, this can't be real I cannot stand this clean I feel Clean tone is filling me To the point of humility Phaser effect, taking dawn I was me, but now distortion's gone No one but me Can save my sound But it's too late Now I can't think Think why I should even try Distortion seems as though It never existed Clean greets me warm Now I will just say goodbye Bye...
***** I don't even think it was his mistake - looked to me that the pickup switch had gotten short - he just switched it to neck, then back to initial and it was fixed. maybe his mistake is he might had hit it pretty hard before that?
+Jay Semiz It was definitely a problem with the 3-way toggle switch on James' guitar. I have a Schecter with his EMG pickups in it, and occasionally, I get a half-distorted sound like what happened in this video because my selector switch didn't fully switch.
He didn’t ‘fail to switch guitar sound’, the toggle switch lost contact. Notice that it was in the down position, he switched it up and down again and that ‘refreshed’ the signal. Happened to me countless times.
At least he didn’t purposely set himself on fire while playing fight fire with Fire incredibly drunk at a bar. Story of the first time my band played a venue. They didn’t want me to ever come in there again.
He didn't fail in anyway, If your a guitarist you know what happened, and for people who think his guitar switches his amps channels its not, his tech back stage switches from clean to dirty and vies versa, the reason he uses the pickup selector when chaining from clean to dirty and vies versa is because on the clean tone the neck pickup sounds better and for the dirty tone he uses the bridge pickup. (I USE THE SAME) and what happened in this "fail" is that when he switched pickups the pickup selector shit itself (don't know exactly how this happens but its common enough) and when this happens the output of the guitar lowers quite dramatically and because James Uses real amps (tube amps) when there is less input going into the amp the amp doesn't breakup as much causing a crunch like tone. As you can see by James's reaction to not hearing his heavy tone he pulled the switch up and then back down again and then it worked. So James Did not Fail in this video his guitar did. And also I'm not pissed by people saying that he failed, My Guitars Sometimes do this and its really frustrating and you look like a idiot. Thumbs up this comment if your a guitarist and actually know what happened here so people who don't play guitar can see that James is still a boss and it was his guitars fault.
you're* Why is it so hard for people these days to differentiate the two? Also, people who beg for likes are just as bad as people with terrible grammar.
Eric Lopez First: He rolls up his knob at the start of the video. Second: He likely has a volume and a tone, so no individual volumes for each pickup. Third: They use totally different amp rigs for clean and crunch, he wouldn't need to use a volume control to get clean on the neck. Fourth: He toggles from bridge to neck back to bridge, so he couldn't be on the wrong one anyway. Fifth: If it was really set to clean, it would be their sound tech back stage who was supposed to change it.
Yep, I have two guitars, and they both do this from time to time. One thing I'm wonder is, both my guitars have 3-way selectors (as does Hetfield in this video), but my buddy has a Strat (5-way) and he claims this has never happened to him. Is this problem related to the 3-way selector somehow, or is just too small a sample size, and everyone has to deal with this regardless?
+GenXRanter A thousand times this. Listening to metal live is often a little flawed and that's just human nature to not be on par all the time. And a solid proof that they are actually up there playing real music for real. I remember seing Chris Broderick in Megadeth trip on a wire on stage, landing on his ass and he kept playing although with some mistakes here and there due to the fall and getting back in it. Dave was trying hard not to laugh and you could hear the clucking in his lyrics the next 10-15 seconds after. But Chris managed to get up again and played on, WHILE getting up (using just core muscles and legs to get up), was pretty darn professional and impressive.
Rachel Adams I mean the riff itself having a higher tone. I don't mean Iommi's sound specifically. Even though that's what I said, but December 9th is a long time ago.
James' guitar is has an EMG 60/81 pickup setup where the 81 is a higher output pickup. There is no pedal involved, the higher output pickup drives the amp more which makes it distorted. The pickup switch failed to engage when he was switching from the neck (emg 60) to the bridge (emg 81) pickup.
The difference in output between the 81 and 60 is NOT that significant at all. The switch was faulty and the output was cut. But you're right, there was no distortion pedal.
Nothing you see in this video is a result of James forgetting something or messing up. And I am pretty certain that neither James or Kirk switch any of their effects themselves excluding wah, their techs do it.
Hell No All he did was switch back and forth between pickups.... Obviously the sound tech made a mistake, which is OK. Either way, somebody made a mistake somewhere.
FatlessMidget I was just about to say this. You are completely right, sir. You can tell because he switches from bridge to neck back to bridge and it kicks back in from him screwing with it like that.
At least he was a good sport about it... he could have screamed "FUCK THIS!", threw the guitar, and stormed off stage to assault one of his techs like some other people might have done.
Now I understood what happened: his bridge knob didn’t switch all the way and that was the only pickup he had with full on volume, the neck pickup volume must have been almost shut, but not completely. I was there that day, best Metallica concert I’ve ever been to and this moment was hilarious.
When I first saw this clip years ago I didn't understand it at all because i didn't know shit about guitar...Now I can say that you are pretty 100 percent right. James adjusted his bridge volume but forgot to switch to his bridge pickup and that's what caused it to sound so thin.
H0E0M0G14 Wrong dumbass. That would only be true if he was sweep picking or something and it sounded like crap. Without the distortion he was playing fine, it just didn't sound right for the song.
I think Lars did that to help James ... If you watch the full clip of this song , you'll see that , for absolutely no reason , James switched the sound ... short term memory loss or not , the rest of the Metallica band was prepared for such shit , and they handled it like pros ... Metallica for the win !
I think he turned it to clean sound to reduse backround noise? Doesn´t matter, he switched it back and handled it like a pro. Bad cable might also be the case, been there myself. Bout´ Lars? I love Lars, don´t normally "judge" him by his playing or skills, but in this case I couldn´t help myself XD
He didn't forget to switch his guitar. It's a faulty pickup selector switch. Had it on my guitar too. It reduces volume a lot, so it sounds like there's no distortion.
Duarte Santos I had this problem on an Epiphone guitar. We replaced the switch but the problem came back. Eventually the dealer changed the switch for a Gibson switch, which has a different design, and I haven't had a problem since. So swap out your switches for Gibson switches. You may need to do some work to fit them it, but it'll be worth it.
That is not from the switch. or James, or the guitar. It's his technician's fault, that's a clean amp sound, not a neck pickup. Watch a gear rundown for James Hetfield to check out that his tech is supposed to switch from clean to dirty. Get your shit right!
When I saw Metallica in Seattle in 2003, James played two extra bars in one of the songs where the rest of the band was silent. Everyone caught it, and laughed a bit! Oh well! People make mistakes and it adds a lil something to remember about the show! Good times!
Every guitarist knows the feeling when you hit a maj7 and you realise a moment too late that you forgot to switch off your distortion after the last chorus.
The Kenny Lawrence Explorers are his only guitars that have kill switches on, he accidentally flips the kill switch here. He uses the neck pick up for cleans, it's actually his roadie Chad who activates his clean/distortion back stage.
465marko I think it was a faulty switch. Or his Bridge pickup may be going out. Either way, DeadSpace was right. When you play a riff made for distortion on a clean tone, It wont sound that good. Its kind of like playing Master Of Puppets on a clean channel. Or St. Anger.
In a way, I agree with marko. They have a crappy tone. But they are pretty good players. If they had never used ESP, They would have been alright. They should have stuck with Gibson.
465marko That's like saying "if Mendelssohn didn't have violins it'd sound like shit." Yes it would, because it was designed to be played with violins! If something was made to be played with distortion is should be played with distortion!
Nickuncle The best songs will sound great no matter what instrument they're played on. Shit songs/riffs rely on effects to sound good. That's not even my point - all I said was that it was funny how pathetic it sounded as soon as the volume/distortion cut out. Everyone has different taste, I don't care if people think it sounds awesome; I just don't.
I don't think he forgot or messed up. I think shit happens and there's a lose wire or bad connection internally. This happens all the time especially during the hot summer nights under hot bright stage lights.
Everyone is saying the tech made an error.. that's not true. It was a minor equipment failure. When James moved the toggle switch to the bottom position initially, the sound didn't change. He just did it a second time which then sent the trigger to his off-stage pedalboard which then switched the sound. For whatever reason the first toggle didn't work. MIDI isn't perfect.
It wasn't his or the guitar's fail, guys! James has his own guitar technician, who switches his sound from clean to dirty. It was his fault, and James thought it was the switch in his guitar, but the tech managed to get it right at the end. That kind of sound isn't from the switch, that's CLEARLY a clean amp sound, the guitar has no fall in this. Peace out! :)
its actually not James, nor the technicians fault, it was the guitar's fault. What actually happened was there was some dirt or something in his pickup selector, and when he tried to go to flick the switch, the electric contacts were inhibited by the dirt, mucking up the sound, it was fixed when he jiggled it back and forth.
Even though it was never an issue, at least we know for a fact these guys dont pretend to play over a recording. When pop singers have the wrong song play live and it fucks up their fake act it is just shameful.
^that's only true if you are running into a distorted or 'overdrive' channel, where you can back off on the volume to clean it up (but if it's really distorted like a Bogner Uberschall, it's still going to be distorted at a low volume, just weak). The volume pot on a guitar isn't a distortion control. Switching between clean and distortion on guitar is easy, it's normally done on the amp (look at most amps, they have clean and overdriven/distorted channels), or through footswitches attached to the amps. Otherwise, it can be done with a distortion or overdrive pedal. The distortion is only going to be louder if it's volume is up higher than the clean sound, it isn't inherently louder. If you've got a clean amp, but want to cover the heavier tones, just get yourself a decent overdrive and a decent distortion (they do different things but can be used together, it's like tone-stacking). If you are on a budget, the Boss Metal Zone is pretty versatile, buy it used, Boss stuff lasts forever. Also, you need a guitar with humbuckers (two pickups right next to eachother) to play this, single coils are too thin. Happy tone hunting!
by switching pickups also it looks like that's what he was doing My guitar has the same problem some times you got to hit the switch a few times to get it to work
It was a bad contact when he switched to the bridge pickup. He uses the neck pickup for cleans, and bridge for distortion. He was probably on the neck pickup, and when he flipped down, it was a dirty contact, and killed the signal from the pickups. But, due to the nature of pickups, the magnets still pull, and there is an extremely weak signal still being sent, which was why there was a 'clean' tone coming out.
It was a bad contact when he switched to the bridge pickup. He uses the neck pickup for cleans, and bridge for distortion. He was probably on the neck pickup, and when he flipped down, it was a dirty contact, and killed the signal from the pickups. But, due to the nature of pickups, the magnets still pull, and there is an extremely weak signal still being sent, which was why there was a 'clean' tone coming out. Try taking a pickup out of a multiple pickup guitar, and switch to only that pickup. You still hear a weak signal from the other pickups because you can't completely isolate the pickup's signal from the others.
+joshAKAtheman If you have a guitar, you should try to switch between the elements you use by putting the "stick" (nearby your volume button) down, you will notice the difference ;)
joshAKAtheman You're right, the distortion is of course set by the amplifier, but (at least with my guitar) it supports the distortion a bit. But that can be different at any guitar of course!
That's why I tell my guitar students, don't be afraid to mess up. People in some of the biggest bands in the world mess up in front of over100,000 people. You learn when you mess up. And your alone in your bedroom. So not a big deal
*it’s late at night. James’ Guitar tech is sitting peacefully in his hotel room sipping a cup of coffee reading a book. He hears a strange sound, but deems it wind and continues. All of a sudden, a deep baritone voice goes from behind him “so.”, he thrusts around in shock, falling of his chair, dropping his book and spilling his coffee. As he lies on the floor, in terror, and burnt by the hot coffee. He struggles to get as far away from the mysterious figure, and tries to scream out for help, starting with a faint “heeelp”. However the shadow man is one step ahead, and clicks on the light on the far side of the room, exposing his tied up wife and children, as the man speaks out “I wouldn’t if I were you”. As the guitar tech is mumbling with fear, the intruder steps towards him, kicks him on his back, plants one of his feet firmly on him and asks “what happened at the show this evening?” Confused, the guitar tech responds “what?” The now even moreso aggravated assailant gets in his face and repeats “I asked, what happened at the show this evening? You know damn well what I’m talking about.” The guitar tech goed “James?” The ever more hostile growing man proceeds to beat on him viscously, dragging him to the other side of the room, where his wife and kids are still tied up. Grabbing him by his hair, forcing his eyes open, to look into his youngest daughter’s eyes and says “promise her. That that will never happen again.” Nervous and riddled with horror, the guitar tech responds “w…. What?”. On the verge of further violence, the trespasser states angrily “you promise her, that it will never happen again, or one of you shall be no longer. As she’s walking home from school. At the playground with her friends. Out at night to some club. And then all of a sudden there’s a knock at the door, a police offer is there to inform you that she’s missing. And the body will never be found. I can promise you that” bursting out in tears, the guitar tech looks his daughter in the eyes and screams “I PROMISE IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN” dropping his head onto the floor, James, the man who had been terrorizing this man’s life all along, stands up utters the last words before leaving “good” as he approaches the curtain, he disappears subtly behind them. As the guitar tech slowly gets up, not to untie his family, but first runs over to the window to check wether he is really gone, looks behind them, opens the window and checks outside, but James has disappeared into the night. Finally being able to free his family. Warned, knows to never let something like that happen ever again.*
Hetfield: Do you feel what i feel?
Guitar: No.
Santlago Gv jjaahjaajjaj lmao
u wot m8?
He shouted yeah like that would fix it lol
@@ryanford5387 Well it did, after he yelled "YEAH" he did the switch again and the guitar realized "ohh shit I should switch"
@@ryanford5387 that's commitment 😄🤘
At least he can laugh it off! Axl would have cancelled the tour
axl would cancel the band...
Axl would cancel the world
Axl would cancel cancelling.
Dalek I cant top that one lol
Axl cancelled life, have you seen his recent pictures?! mad on burgers man.
The Distorsion That Never Comes :)
I'll pay that one lol
Hahaha
reiner bergkamen And justice for all! lol
+reiner bergkamen the clean sound that should not be
stonethecrow80 Sad But True LOL
Distortion seems, as though it never existeeed ah!
Lol
My switch is worn, now I will just say goodbye-eeaye...goodbyeeeeuh!
Uuu Yeeeeaahhh....
bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha nice!
The clean greets me warm, now I will just say goodbye
1: The Frayed Ends of a Toggle Switch
2: Nothing Else Fucking Works
3: The Guitar that Failed
4: The Unforgiven Guitar Tech
5: Disposable ESP's
6: For Whom the Toggle Trolls
7: Master of Technical Problems
8: Sad But Toggled
Extra: The Thing That Should Not Happen
To work is to break
Pasama sa screenshot
6:"for whom the toggle trolls" Lmao
King Failing
3 great things about this;
1) They are really playing the song during live shows..
2) James goes on and plays the song without any mistakes
3) He makes it up really good at the end so noone could make fun of it.. :)
Shallex because of people that think they fake and lip sync
That's a silly thing to say. No one ever says "at least they're actually playing live" when Lars fucks up. He's given us plenty of proof, eh?
@Shallex Most modern musicians (pop, rap, country, and some rock) don't truly play live.
@@SC4211 James is a brain fart, Lars is lack of practice. But he has gotten so much more in sync.
No band fakes playing...singing yes in pop and mumble rap not in rock bands
James: *fails to switch guitar sound
Also James: So heavy!
Lars: *fails to do a ba-dum tss... 0:39
Classic Lars :P
Lars... worst drummer, but in a good way
@@callmestubz I know, but he had to do that..
@@nehemiahzo_ lol what good way is there to be a bad drummer? personally i dont think he is terrible, but definitely not the best
I don't think Lars knows how to do that
Distortion seems to fade away
Drifting further, every day
Getting lost within itself
Distortion matters, nothing else
I have lost the will to play
No distortion left today
There is nothing more for me
Only clean to set me free
Sound is not what it used to be
Missing noise inside of me
Grunge loss, this can't be real
I cannot stand this clean I feel
Clean tone is filling me
To the point of humility
Phaser effect, taking dawn
I was me, but now distortion's gone
No one but me
Can save my sound
But it's too late
Now I can't think
Think why I should even try
Distortion seems as though
It never existed
Clean greets me warm
Now I will just say goodbye
Bye...
sigh... lot of free time eh?
Haha you really made me laugh
@@rip2889it probably took him 20 minutes to come up with that
Handled it like a pro though
***** I don't even think it was his mistake - looked to me that the pickup switch had gotten short - he just switched it to neck, then back to initial and it was fixed. maybe his mistake is he might had hit it pretty hard before that?
TURNED IT INTO SABBATH
Fail to Black!
lol
Volkan Çolak aga seni nerde buldum 😂😂
Volkan Çolak good one
Fade to Clean 😅
As
It was a technicality issue with the guitar, not James forgetting to switch channels, plus their techs do that anyway.
+Jay Semiz It was definitely a problem with the 3-way toggle switch on James' guitar. I have a Schecter with his EMG pickups in it, and occasionally, I get a half-distorted sound like what happened in this video because my selector switch didn't fully switch.
+Andrew Salazar it's a problem with most soldered guitars, my Jackson with passives has the same issue, I assume it's just a bad solder
Give this man an Oscar. Only one that got it right.
100% correct it happened on one of my guitars. makes a tinny sound.
Andrew Salazar really? I have an explorer with emgs and sometimes a pickup just sounds kinda hollow and others it's nice and full, is that the issue?
James now: Laughs it off
James 20 years ago: Spits on Lars and blames Jason
Drinks beer, pukes on audience with Lars spitting his beer more pathetically over James head.
Try 30 years ago. Time flies.
@@Banana_Split_Cream_Buns Sorry, it's closer to 40 years. Ride The Lightning was in '84.
James 40 years ago: Punches Dave
The God that Failed
Exactly
Radames Vaz the thing that should not be.
The distortion that failed
Radames Vaz the switch that failed
the clean sound that should not be
"DO YOU FEEL WHAT I FEEL?!"
Ton dan dan daaan.Ton dan dan da daaan.Ton ton ton.dadada dadada dadada dadada da
"Oh shit."
"Yeeeeah."*switch*
whats this metalica song name???? rock
whats this metalica song name???? rock
Venyige Adam fade to black
"Yeeeeeah..."
Closed captions for Metallica are brought to you by 張卉榛
He didn’t ‘fail to switch guitar sound’, the toggle switch lost contact.
Notice that it was in the down position, he switched it up and down again and that ‘refreshed’ the signal.
Happened to me countless times.
He just invented a new genre: Light metal!
I can’t believe it’s not metal
Soft metal? Aluminium?
Nah that just sounds like grunge
Brass metal
Its called Rock...
At least he didn't catch fire...
Hehehe...I see what you did there
This adds itself to one of the many reasons I'm going to Hell
I’m starting to see a pattern here...
At least he didn’t purposely set himself on fire while playing fight fire with Fire incredibly drunk at a bar. Story of the first time my band played a venue. They didn’t want me to ever come in there again.
Ouch.
In Soviet Russia, distortion switches you!
😂😂
ahhh those "Russia" jokes, always get me
Совершенно верно
finalinfinitefinal in soviet Russia guitar plays you
In soviet Russia guitar pick drops you
at least its real, switching pickups, preamps etc can go wrong sometimes ,
Uh you don't get distortion by switching pickups.
@@bt3743 You do if you have a bad switch or connection lol
@@bt3743 Yes you do, stop playing a Spider III and try out a real amp.
It’s actually the volume rolled down on the guitar
Totally agree
He didn't fail in anyway, If your a guitarist you know what happened, and for people who think his guitar switches his amps channels its not, his tech back stage switches from clean to dirty and vies versa, the reason he uses the pickup selector when chaining from clean to dirty and vies versa is because on the clean tone the neck pickup sounds better and for the dirty tone he uses the bridge pickup. (I USE THE SAME) and what happened in this "fail" is that when he switched pickups the pickup selector shit itself (don't know exactly how this happens but its common enough) and when this happens the output of the guitar lowers quite dramatically and because James Uses real amps (tube amps) when there is less input going into the amp the amp doesn't breakup as much causing a crunch like tone. As you can see by James's reaction to not hearing his heavy tone he pulled the switch up and then back down again and then it worked. So James Did not Fail in this video his guitar did.
And also I'm not pissed by people saying that he failed, My Guitars Sometimes do this and its really frustrating and you look like a idiot.
Thumbs up this comment if your a guitarist and actually know what happened here so people who don't play guitar can see that James is still a boss and it was his guitars fault.
That. OR he had one pickup volume rolled down for CLEAN. And the other was turned up for the crunch.
you're*
Why is it so hard for people these days to differentiate the two? Also, people who beg for likes are just as bad as people with terrible grammar.
Eric Lopez Except he switches to neck back to bridge. He doesn't actually change pickups, he moves the switch but puts it back to where it was
Eric Lopez First: He rolls up his knob at the start of the video.
Second: He likely has a volume and a tone, so no individual volumes for each pickup.
Third: They use totally different amp rigs for clean and crunch, he wouldn't need to use a volume control to get clean on the neck.
Fourth: He toggles from bridge to neck back to bridge, so he couldn't be on the wrong one anyway.
Fifth: If it was really set to clean, it would be their sound tech back stage who was supposed to change it.
Yep, I have two guitars, and they both do this from time to time. One thing I'm wonder is, both my guitars have 3-way selectors (as does Hetfield in this video), but my buddy has a Strat (5-way) and he claims this has never happened to him. Is this problem related to the 3-way selector somehow, or is just too small a sample size, and everyone has to deal with this regardless?
So they actually play live and occasional mistakes happen. Can't be said for a lot of the newer "musicians" out there today.
That's because most of the popular contemporary artists don't even play live at all, they mime!
It was not a mistake, the pickup switch had a bad connection.
*****
Dream Theater is good. I have a had time believing they've never made a single mistake on stage in the history of ever though, but whatever.
+André Oliveira guitar technician could be fired by that mistake
+GenXRanter A thousand times this. Listening to metal live is often a little flawed and that's just human nature to not be on par all the time. And a solid proof that they are actually up there playing real music for real. I remember seing Chris Broderick in Megadeth trip on a wire on stage, landing on his ass and he kept playing although with some mistakes here and there due to the fall and getting back in it. Dave was trying hard not to laugh and you could hear the clucking in his lyrics the next 10-15 seconds after. But Chris managed to get up again and played on, WHILE getting up (using just core muscles and legs to get up), was pretty darn professional and impressive.
Guitar: "I don't feel like doing distortion today."
James: "Yeah!"
Guitar: "Oh shit, gotta switch now!"
Goes to show they play live for real. Anything goes.
Everyone subscribe to this guy. He's an amazing guitar teacher !
Hey it's this guy! Dude, you helped me play so much metal on guitar. Everybody check out his channel
Yooo my guitar sensei !
@@BadMamuJamu95 He died. RIP.
Josh Hunter noo man no fuck, you serious?
he didnt fail to switch the sound the sound failed to switch him
...And contact cleaner for all.
This really makes you realize that heavy metal never would have existed without distortion.
I mean it's literally it's most outstanding characteristic lmao
"It's usually heavier."
HAHA
Now that I hear a non-heavy intro to this song, I wanna hear the *ENTIRE SONG* without distortion. I wonder how it would sound as a calm song.
There are acoustic versions of the song if you wanna hear it
0:12 James expression is like his youngself
Sounds like a 60s era metal song. Like Black Sabbath material.
Rachel Adams
I mean the riff itself having a higher tone. I don't mean Iommi's sound specifically. Even though that's what I said, but December 9th is a long time ago.
stinkydo0d Iommi*
Nunyo Biznes Oops. I fixed it. lol
+stinkydo0d Actually that riff sounds like Sabbath song named National Acrobat
James' guitar is has an EMG 60/81 pickup setup where the 81 is a higher output pickup. There is no pedal involved, the higher output pickup drives the amp more which makes it distorted. The pickup switch failed to engage when he was switching from the neck (emg 60) to the bridge (emg 81) pickup.
The difference in output between the 81 and 60 is NOT that significant at all. The switch was faulty and the output was cut. But you're right, there was no distortion pedal.
Nothing you see in this video is a result of James forgetting something or messing up. And I am pretty certain that neither James or Kirk switch any of their effects themselves excluding wah, their techs do it.
Of course they do! Cause he messed with the switch and then it worked
Hell No
Yes they do. You can watch the link below at 3:45. There is another one for Kirk.
James Hetfield Metallica Gear run
Hell No All he did was switch back and forth between pickups.... Obviously the sound tech made a mistake, which is OK. Either way, somebody made a mistake somewhere.
his guitar pick up wire is loose , mine does the same and i have to switch mine back and forth from time to time
FatlessMidget I was just about to say this. You are completely right, sir. You can tell because he switches from bridge to neck back to bridge and it kicks back in from him screwing with it like that.
Searching, seek and AGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!! Best Metallica fail ever
I like how he still says "Yeahhh!" in the middle of the riff
The best thing on this video is Lars behind at the end
Awful
MINISTRY OF SILLY WALKS!
He's practicing parkour
It was Dave Mustaines sabotage! Jk, I love dave
You are allowed to hate him, he’s a pretty big dick on stage
@@der_jannik_0115 he's an all around ass
pretty skilled tho
At least he was a good sport about it... he could have screamed "FUCK THIS!", threw the guitar, and stormed off stage to assault one of his techs like some other people might have done.
DamageIncM "...like some other people might have done."
DamageIncM I think he is talking about Axl Rose.
rstabler1 Wait what Dave Mustaine ever do?. he's a awesome guy.
DamageIncM Yeah, Lars is the definition of a calm spirit. (sarcasm)
rstabler1 Ahh what a douche.
Now I understood what happened: his bridge knob didn’t switch all the way and that was the only pickup he had with full on volume, the neck pickup volume must have been almost shut, but not completely.
I was there that day, best Metallica concert I’ve ever been to and this moment was hilarious.
When I first saw this clip years ago I didn't understand it at all because i didn't know shit about guitar...Now I can say that you are pretty 100 percent right. James adjusted his bridge volume but forgot to switch to his bridge pickup and that's what caused it to sound so thin.
@@KolaTheBear Faulty switch, plain and simple. A few toggles back and forward sorted it out.
I love how James is almost 60 but still has that teenage/adult personality. Same thing goes to Lars, Kirk
Minus the alcoholism, of course
its a problem with the switch..not james fail...!
You can hear how awful his playing actually is without all the distortion, that is entirely his fault
H0E0M0G14 Wrong dumbass. That would only be true if he was sweep picking or something and it sounded like crap. Without the distortion he was playing fine, it just didn't sound right for the song.
No, not at all. He is about as virtuos as my steamed potato
H0E0M0G14 lmao if you hate James so much then why are you even here?
paul the shyguy 563 that comment is 3 years old. Pretty sure he’s long gone now.
How come nobody notice Lars´fail. He hit the crash minutes before he was supposed to XD
I think Lars did that to help James ... If you watch the full clip of this song , you'll see that , for absolutely no reason , James switched the sound ... short term memory loss or not , the rest of the Metallica band was prepared for such shit , and they handled it like pros ... Metallica for the win !
I think he turned it to clean sound to reduse backround noise? Doesn´t matter, he switched it back and handled it like a pro. Bad cable might also be the case, been there myself. Bout´ Lars? I love Lars, don´t normally "judge" him by his playing or skills, but in this case I couldn´t help myself XD
We just expect it from him at this point
he played it correctly
there’s our little danish friend, lars, for ya
Badass that he played along and didn't get mad about it haha.
He didn't forget to switch his guitar. It's a faulty pickup selector switch. Had it on my guitar too. It reduces volume a lot, so it sounds like there's no distortion.
Saying “do you feel what i feel” and then kicking into Fade to Black is kinda hilarious
LONG LIVE JAMES ❤
has a good sense of humour about it. Shit happens.
0:21 "Yeeaahh!!"
Aha, I love James, Its his sense of humour, He's Like YEAH!!,I like people who can take the piss out of themselves aha
Distortion: "Now I will just say goodbye. Goodbyeeeee"
Classic bad contact on the switch. Guitar needs repair.
Até James errando ele ainda consegue fazer algo bom. Ele é o cara...
Finally! An clip of James failing with his guitar! You guys don't know how much time i was searching for a thing like this...
just shows tha he real he plays for real unlike pop singers
"Guitar Fails To Switch To James's Aweasomeness"
"You get the idea".
"No one but me, can save myself but it's too late" -
This lyric had new meaning to James' situation
Sounds like a shitty contact. I've had these before.
can you tell me how you fixed this, i got this problem in 2 of my 3 way switch guitars, one on the neck pickup and other on the bridge
Duarte Santos I had this problem on an Epiphone guitar. We replaced the switch but the problem came back. Eventually the dealer changed the switch for a Gibson switch, which has a different design, and I haven't had a problem since. So swap out your switches for Gibson switches. You may need to do some work to fit them it, but it'll be worth it.
jformaldehydem switchcraft switches were the ones on the gibsons
That is not from the switch. or James, or the guitar. It's his technician's fault, that's a clean amp sound, not a neck pickup. Watch a gear rundown for James Hetfield to check out that his tech is supposed to switch from clean to dirty. Get your shit right!
jformaldehydem Epiphone is known to have issues like this... had to replace mine as well.
this is real with , not how a pop playbackers
"Its so heavy... Usually its heavier. " I love hetfield... My idol.
It sounds better than the original imo, wish there would be a complete version with the distortion added in later
When I saw Metallica in Seattle in 2003, James played two extra bars in one of the songs where the rest of the band was silent. Everyone caught it, and laughed a bit! Oh well! People make mistakes and it adds a lil something to remember about the show! Good times!
I always read the title as James Fades to Black.XD
lol best comment
*awkward crowd silence*
Fair play to him for carrying on and not stopping.. Pro!
Every guitarist knows the feeling when you hit a maj7 and you realise a moment too late that you forgot to switch off your distortion after the last chorus.
At least he didn't get burned by pyrotechnics during fade to black.
This proves that Metallica isn't some kind of god, they're just human beings that make mistakes as well.
Lol they made lulu and st. anger what the fuck are you talking about
Öykü Özer St. Anger was kind of good to me and I'll admit that Lulu wasn't great.
+Öykü Özer What are you fucking talking about man? lulu was their best work. yeah I said it bring on the hate
lol gods? Metallica isnt even the best metal band out there and they've got plenty of crappy songs.
Öykü Özer Lulu was not even Metallica's album.
The Kenny Lawrence Explorers are his only guitars that have kill switches on, he accidentally flips the kill switch here. He uses the neck pick up for cleans, it's actually his roadie Chad who activates his clean/distortion back stage.
Without distortion, Metallica sounds like a junior high school garage band.
It's funny how shit it sounded without the effects he was relying on.
465marko I think it was a faulty switch. Or his Bridge pickup may be going out. Either way, DeadSpace was right. When you play a riff made for distortion on a clean tone, It wont sound that good. Its kind of like playing Master Of Puppets on a clean channel. Or St. Anger.
Jason Brand I know, it's funny how shit it sounds.
In a way, I agree with marko. They have a crappy tone. But they are pretty good players. If they had never used ESP, They would have been alright. They should have stuck with Gibson.
465marko That's like saying "if Mendelssohn didn't have violins it'd sound like shit." Yes it would, because it was designed to be played with violins! If something was made to be played with distortion is should be played with distortion!
Nickuncle The best songs will sound great no matter what instrument they're played on. Shit songs/riffs rely on effects to sound good.
That's not even my point - all I said was that it was funny how pathetic it sounded as soon as the volume/distortion cut out.
Everyone has different taste, I don't care if people think it sounds awesome; I just don't.
handled it like a pro
Guitar: Shits out.
James: YEEEEAAAAAAGGHH!
Handled that like a boss though.
I don't think he forgot or messed up. I think shit happens and there's a lose wire or bad connection internally. This happens all the time especially during the hot summer nights under hot bright stage lights.
Two reasons this is fake:
1: "James" is alt-picking.
2: "James" is strumming.
Everyone is saying the tech made an error.. that's not true. It was a minor equipment failure. When James moved the toggle switch to the bottom position initially, the sound didn't change. He just did it a second time which then sent the trigger to his off-stage pedalboard which then switched the sound. For whatever reason the first toggle didn't work. MIDI isn't perfect.
I dont think its bad at all, I like that soft start and then the heavy shit comes on along with the drums and such.
welp. atleast its real unlike all the other artists who just lip sync to a track of a recording -__-
It wasn't his or the guitar's fail, guys! James has his own guitar technician, who switches his sound from clean to dirty. It was his fault, and James thought it was the switch in his guitar, but the tech managed to get it right at the end. That kind of sound isn't from the switch, that's CLEARLY a clean amp sound, the guitar has no fall in this. Peace out! :)
Absolutely! The Clean sound is very strong in fact so volume is not an issue. The distortion is missing and that would be the techs responsibility.
its actually not James, nor the technicians fault, it was the guitar's fault.
What actually happened was there was some dirt or something in his pickup selector, and when he tried to go to flick the switch, the electric contacts were inhibited by the dirt, mucking up the sound, it was fixed when he jiggled it back and forth.
After all this years and so much ups and downs in my life, found your chanel again \m/ so long brother #Milanica
Even though it was never an issue, at least we know for a fact these guys dont pretend to play over a recording. When pop singers have the wrong song play live and it fucks up their fake act it is just shameful.
Can we also mention the fact, that Lars hits the drums SIGNIFICANTLY too early?
How can you switch clean to distortion on the guitar ?
Probably more of a panic.
BulletFanGirl but will the volume be really quiet ?
^that's only true if you are running into a distorted or 'overdrive' channel, where you can back off on the volume to clean it up (but if it's really distorted like a Bogner Uberschall, it's still going to be distorted at a low volume, just weak). The volume pot on a guitar isn't a distortion control. Switching between clean and distortion on guitar is easy, it's normally done on the amp (look at most amps, they have clean and overdriven/distorted channels), or through footswitches attached to the amps. Otherwise, it can be done with a distortion or overdrive pedal. The distortion is only going to be louder if it's volume is up higher than the clean sound, it isn't inherently louder. If you've got a clean amp, but want to cover the heavier tones, just get yourself a decent overdrive and a decent distortion (they do different things but can be used together, it's like tone-stacking). If you are on a budget, the Boss Metal Zone is pretty versatile, buy it used, Boss stuff lasts forever. Also, you need a guitar with humbuckers (two pickups right next to eachother) to play this, single coils are too thin. Happy tone hunting!
by switching pickups also it looks like that's what he was doing My guitar has the same problem some times you got to hit the switch a few times to get it to work
It was a bad contact when he switched to the bridge pickup. He uses the neck pickup for cleans, and bridge for distortion. He was probably on the neck pickup, and when he flipped down, it was a dirty contact, and killed the signal from the pickups. But, due to the nature of pickups, the magnets still pull, and there is an extremely weak signal still being sent, which was why there was a 'clean' tone coming out.
LOL I was in that show ... thanks for upload that... good memories...
...oh lord .... best show of my life! James is a fuc*'n legend!
If this is an actual fail, at least he had fun with it instead of being a cry baby xD
Sounded sorta cool actually.
0:16 that Heavy face
It was a bad contact when he switched to the bridge pickup. He uses the neck pickup for cleans, and bridge for distortion. He was probably on the neck pickup, and when he flipped down, it was a dirty contact, and killed the signal from the pickups. But, due to the nature of pickups, the magnets still pull, and there is an extremely weak signal still being sent, which was why there was a 'clean' tone coming out. Try taking a pickup out of a multiple pickup guitar, and switch to only that pickup. You still hear a weak signal from the other pickups because you can't completely isolate the pickup's signal from the others.
it's so heavy~~
Lol, sounds like something from Reload or St. Anger.
I love the way Kirk rescued James in 0:23 :D
What do you mean?
That’s just his part in the song
It may not have faded to black...but the memory remained.
Looks like a bad pickup switch, not a fail on his part
since when does distortion come from the guitar, i swear its only from a pedal or an amp
You can put it on a distortion channel and turn the volume down on one pickup then have the other at full volume, and switch between them.
+joshAKAtheman If you have a guitar, you should try to switch between the elements you use by putting the "stick" (nearby your volume button) down, you will notice the difference ;)
Jelco Kohlenberg
yes i know about the pickup switcher but it doesnt really distort my guitar when i put it down
joshAKAtheman You're right, the distortion is of course set by the amplifier, but (at least with my guitar) it supports the distortion a bit. But that can be different at any guitar of course!
fail to black
That's why I tell my guitar students, don't be afraid to mess up. People in some of the biggest bands in the world mess up in front of over100,000 people. You learn when you mess up. And your alone in your bedroom. So not a big deal
A great musician will fuck up
....but instead of whining about it, they'll just make a joke out of it.
It's awesome
James: thanks to the lame ass guitar, Im going home
Toures Tiu Na he’s not axl
*Smashes guitar on the stage*
So heavy, usually is more heavier, you gotta idea... Lol
*it’s late at night. James’ Guitar tech is sitting peacefully in his hotel room sipping a cup of coffee reading a book. He hears a strange sound, but deems it wind and continues. All of a sudden, a deep baritone voice goes from behind him “so.”, he thrusts around in shock, falling of his chair, dropping his book and spilling his coffee. As he lies on the floor, in terror, and burnt by the hot coffee. He struggles to get as far away from the mysterious figure, and tries to scream out for help, starting with a faint “heeelp”. However the shadow man is one step ahead, and clicks on the light on the far side of the room, exposing his tied up wife and children, as the man speaks out “I wouldn’t if I were you”. As the guitar tech is mumbling with fear, the intruder steps towards him, kicks him on his back, plants one of his feet firmly on him and asks “what happened at the show this evening?” Confused, the guitar tech responds “what?” The now even moreso aggravated assailant gets in his face and repeats “I asked, what happened at the show this evening? You know damn well what I’m talking about.” The guitar tech goed “James?” The ever more hostile growing man proceeds to beat on him viscously, dragging him to the other side of the room, where his wife and kids are still tied up. Grabbing him by his hair, forcing his eyes open, to look into his youngest daughter’s eyes and says “promise her. That that will never happen again.” Nervous and riddled with horror, the guitar tech responds “w…. What?”. On the verge of further violence, the trespasser states angrily “you promise her, that it will never happen again, or one of you shall be no longer. As she’s walking home from school. At the playground with her friends. Out at night to some club. And then all of a sudden there’s a knock at the door, a police offer is there to inform you that she’s missing. And the body will never be found. I can promise you that” bursting out in tears, the guitar tech looks his daughter in the eyes and screams “I PROMISE IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN” dropping his head onto the floor, James, the man who had been terrorizing this man’s life all along, stands up utters the last words before leaving “good” as he approaches the curtain, he disappears subtly behind them. As the guitar tech slowly gets up, not to untie his family, but first runs over to the window to check wether he is really gone, looks behind them, opens the window and checks outside, but James has disappeared into the night. Finally being able to free his family. Warned, knows to never let something like that happen ever again.*