Back in July, Metallica’s Kirk Hammett performed as part of the Wedding Band for a Cosmo Music event in Ontario.
Now, a video has also been released of his appearance on the Canadian music retail giant’s Rockstars in Cars interview series, in which Hammett gets deep about guitar amplifiers past and present.
But the highlight of the interview might just be the guitarist’s somewhat bonkers story about a Dumble he used to own, and that he says “[producer] Bob Rock and I would wonder why this Dumble didn’t sound as kickass as we thought Dumbles should sound.”
Hammett eventually sold the amp for what he deems a “crazy amount of money,” especially given the fact that he wasn’t particularly impressed with its tone.
But here’s where the story takes a turn: As Hammett relates, just a few days before the Cosmo Music interview he “met someone here in Toronto who knows about Dumbles and actually knew about the amp that I had.”
This person told Hammett that the amp once belonged to Youngbloods co-founder Jesse Colin Young, who was driving his truck one day with the Dumble inside and got into an accident.
“So I have a feeling that the amp was damaged just ever so slightly,” Hammett says, “just enough to change the sound.”
The person then revealed to Hammett that the amp’s current owner has it up for sale with an eye-popping asking price of $750,000.
“I said, ‘Goodnight, nice knowing you!’ ” Hammett says with a laugh. “That much money for an amp? No way!”
As a final kicker, it's pointed out that the Dumble's appeal is in part due to the fact that Hammett’s name is emblazoned over the standby switch.
“I’m thinking, still, no 750k,” Hammett replies.
In other amp news, Hammett reveals in the interview that he’s currently using a Randall-Fortin model, built by Mike Fortin, “the amp wizard of the world,” which he blends with a Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier. He then models this sound through a Fractal.
“Once it’s in the Fractal it doesn’t matter where I’m at – rehearsal, stadium, club, my bedroom, backstage, it always sounds the same,” he says.
“That’s the beauty of a Fractal. It’s super consistent.”
Otherwise, in the studio he also breaks out some of his old Marshalls – in particular a modded late '70s/early '80s head – as well as old Voxs and Fenders, including a Princeton that “makes all guitars sound good.”
And if you’re still wondering about that $750,000 Dumble but don’t have that much money to burn? Might we suggest Robben Ford’s 1966 Fender Super Reverb amp, serviced by Alexander Dumble, himself, which is up for sale on Reverb for $15,000 – a relative steal!
