Zakk Wylde vs Kirk Hammett — High-Gain Guitar Comparison
Both Zakk Wylde and Kirk Hammett use EMG 81 active humbuckers in signature guitars. Both rely on Dunlop wah pedals. Both produce arena-scale high-gain lead guitar. The comparison reveals how the same pickup choice produces strikingly different tonal results depending on the amp, settings, and playing approach.
Guitar Comparison
| Zakk Wylde | Kirk Hammett | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary guitar | Gibson Les Paul Custom / Epiphone Wylde Audio | ESP KH series / ESP James Hetfield collab |
| Body | Mahogany + maple (Les Paul) | Mahogany (ESP) |
| Scale length | 24.75" (Les Paul) | 25.5" (ESP) |
| Pickup bridge | EMG 81 | EMG 81 |
| Notable visual | Bullseye or Camo finish | Metallica graphics |
Amp Comparison
| Zakk Wylde | Kirk Hammett | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary amp | Marshall JCM800 | Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier |
| Character | British mid-forward | American high-gain |
| Tone character | Aggressive, cutting mids | Dense, scooped |
| Mid setting | 6–7 (present mids) | 4 (scooped) |
The EMG 81 in Different Amps
This is the crucial demonstration: the same pickup (EMG 81) sounds distinctly different in different amp contexts.
EMG 81 → Marshall JCM800 (Wylde):
- The JCM800's midrange character combines with the EMG's extended high response
- Result: cutting, aggressive lead tone with strong mid-presence
- Good for blues-rock influenced lead lines that need to cut through the mix melodically
EMG 81 → Mesa Dual Rectifier (Hammett):
- The Rectifier's American character + EMG 81's tight low end
- Result: scooped, dense, heavy — each palm mute is percussive and thick
- Suits Metallica's rhythm-forward approach where lead guitar is a separate mode from rhythm
Pedal Comparison
Zakk Wylde:
- MXR ZW-44 Berzerker overdrive (boost before Marshall — increases gain above JCM800's natural level)
- Dunlop wah (ZW-45 or standard GCB95)
- Very minimal otherwise
Kirk Hammett:
- Dunlop KH95 Wah (always first in chain)
- Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor
- MXR 10-Band Graphic EQ in effects loop (lead boost)
Wylde boosts the amp input for more saturation; Hammett gates the amp's noise and boosts in the effects loop for lead volume increase.
Technique Comparison
Zakk Wylde:
- Blues-rock foundation (studied with Ozzy, absorbed Clapton/Page influences)
- Pinch harmonics extensively — signature "squeal" is a Wylde trademark
- Wide, expressive vibrato from string bending
- Pentatonic blues-rock with metal context
Kirk Hammett:
- Blues foundation (studied with Satriani)
- Wah pedal as constant lead companion
- Legato runs integrated with pentatonic phrases
- More scale-oriented lead construction
Vibrato Comparison
Wylde's vibrato is wide, operatic, and immediately recognisable — large pitch oscillation with strong hand pressure. The vibrato is central to his lead identity.
Hammett's vibrato is less wide, more controlled, often accompanied by wah filtering to provide pitch-adjacent expression rather than pure vibrato.
Recreating Each Tone on a Budget
A Wylde-adjacent rig: A Les Paul-style guitar with an EMG 81 or similarly active, high-output bridge humbucker into a British-voiced high-gain amp — the mid-forward character of a JCM800-style circuit is doing real work here, not just the pickup. An overdrive pedal used purely as a clean boost into the amp's front end (not for its own distortion character) reproduces the ZW-44's role reasonably well.
A Hammett-adjacent rig: The same EMG 81 pickup choice, but into an American-voiced high-gain amp with a scooped mid setting — a Mesa/Boogie-style Rectifier or similar. A noise gate/suppressor pedal is worth prioritizing at this gain level; Hammett's rhythm-forward context depends on silence between palm mutes being genuinely quiet, not just the lead tone sounding good.
Why the Same Pickup Sounds So Different Here
This comparison is a genuinely useful case study for a common misconception: that pickup choice is the dominant factor in tone. Both guitarists run the identical EMG 81 in the bridge position, yet the results are unmistakably different players with unmistakably different sounds. The amp's voicing (British mid-forward vs American scooped) and the mid-frequency EQ setting are doing at least as much work as the pickup — arguably more, since the pickup is constant across both. Anyone shopping for an EMG 81 expecting it to sound a specific way should treat this pairing as a reminder that the amp downstream of it matters just as much.
Common Mistakes
Buying an EMG 81 expecting it to sound like either player on its own. As this comparison demonstrates directly, the amp's voicing and mid-EQ setting shape the result as much as the pickup does — the same pickup produces Wylde's cutting mid-forward lead tone and Hammett's scooped rhythm tone depending entirely on what it's plugged into.
Skipping a noise gate when chasing Hammett's rhythm tone. High-gain, scooped-mid tones at Rectifier-style gain levels generate significant noise between notes — without gating, palm-muted rhythm parts lose the percussive tightness that defines the Metallica sound.
Assuming Wylde's pinch harmonics are pickup-dependent. The "squeal" comes from pick-and-thumb attack technique at the string, not any particular pickup — an EMG 81 makes it easier to trigger due to high output, but the technique itself is learnable on any guitar.
Confusing scooped mids with "no mids." Hammett's Mesa Rectifier tone reduces midrange rather than eliminating it — a fully mid-scooped tone with the control near zero tends to sound thin and lost in a mix rather than appropriately heavy.
ToneStakr's Take
If budget allows for only one amp voicing decision, this comparison is the clearest illustration on the site of why "high-gain" isn't a single sound — British mid-forward and American scooped-mid voicings serve genuinely different musical purposes, and neither is objectively correct. Players chasing lead tones that cut through a mix without a lot of additional EQ work should lean toward Wylde's mid-forward approach; players building a rhythm-heavy, palm-mute-driven sound within a full band should lean toward Hammett's scooped approach and budget for a noise gate as a near-mandatory addition, not an optional extra.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do both guitarists really use the exact same pickup?
Yes — both use the EMG 81 in the bridge position as their primary pickup. The dramatically different tonal results come from the amp (British-voiced JCM800 vs American-voiced Mesa Dual Rectifier) and EQ settings downstream, not the pickup itself.
Who has the stronger blues influence?
Wylde — his playing draws heavily on Clapton, Page, and Stevie Ray Vaughan-style blues vocabulary reframed within a metal context. Hammett studied with Joe Satriani and leans toward a more scale-oriented, less overtly blues-rooted lead approach.
What is a pinch harmonic?
A technique where the pick and the thumb make near-simultaneous contact with the string at the point of attack, triggering an upper harmonic overtone. The result is the high-pitched "squeal" Wylde uses extensively as both a melodic accent and a rhythmic device.
Why does Hammett use a wah pedal so consistently, more than most lead players?
It functions almost as a second EQ control during solos — sweeping the wah while soloing lets him shape the tone's midrange presence in real time, which compensates for the otherwise scooped rhythm tone and helps leads cut through without needing a separate amp channel or boost.
Would swapping amps make Wylde sound like Hammett or vice versa?
Not entirely — amp voicing explains a large part of the difference, but technique (Wylde's wide operatic vibrato and pinch-harmonic vocabulary vs Hammett's wah-integrated, more scale-driven phrasing) accounts for the rest. Swapping amps alone would close much of the tonal gap but not the stylistic one.
Is an EMG 81 necessary to get either tone, or would a passive humbucker work?
A high-output passive humbucker gets reasonably close for either target, though EMG's active circuit contributes a tighter low end and lower noise floor that's part of both players' actual recorded tone — it's a meaningful but not strictly mandatory ingredient.