Kirk Hammett

Kirk Hammett has been the lead guitarist of Metallica for more than three decades, and his soloing is one of the most recognizable wah-driven sounds in metal¹². The wah pedal, which uses a shifting band-pass filter with a highly resonant peak to create its vocal, trumpet-mute-like sound, sits at the center of his lead tone³. His wah-soaked playing can be heard across Metallica's catalog, and even more frequently at the band's live shows⁴.

His relationship with the effect goes deeper than most players'. He owns around 200 wah pedals⁴, has signature Cry Baby wahs with Dunlop based on the settings of his own Cry Baby Rack Wah⁵⁶, and co-founded his own pedal company, KHDK Electronics⁷. Yet in a 2023 interview he said his favorite wah of all is not one of his own: it is the Dunlop DB01B Dimebag Cry Baby From Hell⁴.

A wah-driven lead sound

Wah features prominently in Hammett's soloing, and he is open about why he leans on it so hard. Speaking with Rick Beato in an interview published in August 2023, he explained the effect in vocal terms:

His commitment to the effect has some unusual extremes. In an interview at Minnesota radio station 93X on August 20, 2016, hours before Metallica performed at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, he explained how he came to use three wah pedals simultaneously on the song "Hardwired"¹⁰. That same interview captured his frame of mind about the band at the time: "It really feels like we've climbed the summit and reached the peak, and now we can cruise for a while"¹⁰.

His tour rig has not always been built around floor pedals. In January 1997, Germany's Gitarre & Bass displayed Hammett's tour rack, showing a Rocktron unit as the controller, or "brains," of the rig¹¹. The rack approach is also where his signature wah sound lives: Dunlop says the legendary tone he dials in on tour comes from his Cry Baby Rack Wah¹².

The Cry Baby Rack Wah and the signature Cry Babies

Dunlop's Kirk Hammett signature wahs are all tied back to one source: the settings of his own Cry Baby Rack Wah. The original KH95 Kirk Hammett Signature Cry Baby Wah is based on Kirk's Cry Baby Rack Wah settings, with a pronounced midrange wail, an exceptionally even response from heel to toe, and true bypass¹³. Gearnews describes the resulting sound as a mesmerizing midrange wah with a powerful top end, ideal for fast, melodic runs that blend with hard riffs¹⁴.

The KH95 is powered by one 9-volt battery accessed via the bottom of the pedal, or by a 9-volt AC adapter such as the Dunlop ECB003/ECB003E, or a DC Brick power supply¹⁵. Its input impedance is 680 kΩ and its output impedance 4.7 kΩ¹⁵. Operation is the standard Cry Baby approach: run a cable from the guitar to the INSTRUMENT jack, another from the AMPLIFIER jack to the amp, and rock the foot back and forth on the pedal to hear the vocal, expressive tones the Cry Baby is famous for¹⁶. The KH95 carries a skeleton foot graphic and Hammett's signature¹⁷, and lists at $209.99¹⁸.

In March 2022 Hammett announced a second signature Cry Baby with Dunlop, making him the third Dunlop artist to receive a sophomore wah pedal⁸². Guitar World noted he is only the third guitarist ever honored with a second signature Cry Baby, the other two being Jimi Hendrix and Slash¹⁹. A limited number of signed pedals hit on April 1, 2022⁸, a few hand-signed models leaked at the beginning of April, and the pedal moved to general release on May 3, 2022⁴.

The second signature wah is the KH95X Kirk Hammett Collection Cry Baby Wah, a special edition in purple sparkle finish with custom tread, based on Kirk's own Cry Baby Rack Wah settings, delivering a thick top end with full dynamic range, listed at $199.99⁵⁶. Premier Guitar described it as capturing the same sound he used to revolutionize metal solos⁶. Guitar.com noted the purple sparkle finish matches his recognizable Ouija guitar²⁰. There is also a KH95Y Yellow Sparkle Edition, a limited edition version of the Kirk Hammett Cry Baby Wah in a yellow sparkle finish²¹.

Dunlop says Hammett wanted the KH95X to share the look of his purple sparkle Ouija guitar, a connection he described in spiritual terms, feeling the pedal carries the same energy as the instrument⁵.

Dunlop's artist page for Metallica says Hammett uses his signature Jazz III picks and Cry Baby Wah²². But he has been candid that his signature pedals are not actually his go-to wahs⁴, and the reason is a story in itself.

The wah collection and the Dimebag From Hell

Hammett has around 200 wah pedals in all⁴. When Beato pressed him for a favorite, he named one:

That pedal is the DB01B Dimebag Cry Baby From Hell, and in his view it is not a close call:

The Dimebag Cry Baby From Hell is Dunlop's most versatile wah, designed for players who need options on stage, with an extended sweep range, a 6-way frequency selector, a switchable boost, LEDs to indicate wah and boost status, a control to adjust the pedal's toe-down frequency, and an extra output for splitting the signal to a separate FX chain²³. Work on it began around 20 years before its product page was written, when Dimebag Darrell, a long-time user of the customizable Cry Baby 535Q Multi-Wah, wanted even more freedom setting up his rig on stage²³.

Hammett's attachment to it is personal as well as tonal. He was a friend of the late Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell, with lasting feelings toward him and his brother⁴. When Dunlop offered him his own signature wah, he wanted to just copy the Dimebag pedal, but did not, out of respect for Dimebag⁴. The result is that his signature Cry Babies are their own circuits, while the Dimebag From Hell remains the one he reaches for in the studio⁴.

KHDK Electronics, his own pedal company

Beyond wah, Hammett co-founded KHDK Electronics with David Karon²⁴⁷. The company's line includes several of his own signature pedals and pedals designed with other players:

• Ghoul Screamer: Hammett's signature overdrive, the first KHDK pedal reviewed by MusicRadar²⁵
• Ghoul Jr Overdrive: his signature mini overdrive, the company's first mini pedal, launched two years after the company was founded²⁴
• Dark Blood: a high-gain overdrive Hammett named himself, based on a pedal he found and had reverse-engineered, keeping the good bits and upgrading the not-so-good bits²⁶²⁷
• Gary Holt Parametric EQ: a stompbox from the Kirk Hammett-owned company announced in 2019²⁸
• LCFR: a high-gain overdrive/boost from KHDK, the company co-founded by Hammett⁷

The Dark Blood has a direct link to Metallica's recorded output. Hammett has stated he used it on the album Hardwired To Self Destruct²⁷. In KHDK's announcement of the pedal he said the name Dark Blood came to him the moment he plugged it in, and that he knew right away the pedal was going on the new album²⁶.

A limited edition of 100 Anodized Dark Blood pedals, hand-signed by Hammett, was made available through the Guitar Guru Network²⁶. He also says the Dark Blood works great on a clean amp, and when you need to drop in on a gig and carry as little equipment as possible²⁷. Of the smaller Ghoul Jr, he remarked that "Evil things come in small packages"²⁹.

Hammett's gear interests extend beyond KHDK and Dunlop. BOSS notes that he has used V-Guitar to expand his musical range³⁰, and he joined Dunlop's celebration of Randy Rhoads's legacy, reflecting on how discovering Rhoads's work affected him as a guitar player at the start of his journey³¹. In 2022 he also released a solo EP, Portals²⁰.

For a player building a board around his sound, the practical takeaway is straightforward: the wah is the center of it, his Dunlop signature models put his rack settings on the floor, and his own company covers the overdrive side.

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