Why Metallica Stopped Using Amps Live, According to James Hetfield’s Guitar Tech

Here's why Metallica stopped using guitar amps live, according to James Hetfield's guitar tech.

Metallica fans may or may not have even noticed that the rockers don't have a bunch of amps lined up behind them onstage, but the change happened in 2013 after they played a particular show with conditions that didn't allow certain kinds of speakers.

Why Did Metallica Stop Using Amps When They Perform?

In an issue of Guitar World [via Guitar.com], Hetfield's guitar tech Chad Zaemisch recalled that the band had to innovate how they were going to play their concert in Antarctica in 2013. The solution was to use guitar amp modelers, which are digital devices that essentially recreate the sound of amps and speakers electronically.

“For environmental reasons, [Antarctica] didn’t want any noise pollution," Zaemisch explained. "We had a lot of help right off the bat. Matt Picone from Fractal came and got all our sounds started. It was definitely a learning curve for us and the band, but once we got through that, everybody started to look at how convenient it was.”

Hetfield, in particular, saw the advantages of using the devices and now Metallica utilize them for convenience when arranging their stage setups.

“The people in set design realized that if we don’t have this wall of speakers anymore, we have all of these other things available to us," the tech continued.

“Everybody’s all about content these days and not a lot of people want to watch a band stand in front of their amp line with nothing else going on. Now we can use large video screens. It opens up a lot more opportunities to do different things."

The circular "Snakepit" stage they've been playing on throughout their M72 World Tour would look quite different if there were walls of amps perched up on it.

What Are the Benefits of Modeling Amps?

As noted by Fender, there are several benefits to using modeling amps. For starters, they're lightweight, which makes them much more portable and practical when playing shows and traveling often.

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They're also reliable. Tube amps have glass and other fragile components inside of them that are prone to breaking or wearing out overtime. And lastly, amp modelers are versatile and can connect to the internet to receive hardware updates, allow musicians to save curated presets and experiment with different effects.