It was one of the most diverse amps of the era, although it eventually became really popular among lovers of heavy and tight tones. Aside from having two channels, the amp also had an additional 5-band graphic equalizer for more detailed tone shaping. This particular model served as a blueprint for some of Mesa Boogie’s most advanced amps. Of course, the band kept using it on the “Justice” album, although the resulting tone was different, mostly due to the final mix of the record. Working with producer Flemming Rasmussen, they took time to tweak the tone and perfect it, which is what we can hear on the “Master of Puppets” album. You don’t often see a single piece of gear changing the game for one band’s career, but the pretty tight tone of Mesa Boogie’s Mark IIC+ was so powerful that it helped them create one of the albums that eventually ended up in The Library of Congress. Now, this is where things took a completely different turn for Metallica.

When most people ask what guitar does James Hetfield plays one of his explorer styles guitars, such as this Ken Lawrence model, comes to mind. This was during the band’s “Load” and “Reload” era, which was met with somewhat mixed reactions from the fans but saw James utilize different sounds and techniques compared to the group’s full-on thrash metal period of the 1980s. You can see him using this second one on a lot of Metallica’s live shows, so it has seen a lot of action over the years. He got the second one in the early 2000s, and this instrument features a Bubinga top, as well as some rather stylish fretboard inlays. However, James has at least two of these Explorers. It was initially fitted with EMG 81 and 60 active humbucker pickups, although he later swapped them with his signature EMG-JH humbuckers. The first instrument he built for him was a pretty-looking explorer with a mahogany body, mahogany neck, and a unique-looking headstock. But Hetfield’s cooperation with Ken goes way back to the mid-1990s.