Metallica Gifts for Guitarists
Published on 10 October 2024
Does the guitar fan in your life love a bit of Metallica? There’s every chance, because the Bay area thrashers are pretty much the biggest metal band on the planet. Even those who don’t traditionally mosh as a daily ritual still like the ‘Tallica, as their accessible songwriting skills have brought them a much wider audience than typical metal bands.
Metallica are also huge to guitar fans because James Hetfield is objectively the best rhythm guitarist in the world, and Kirk Hammett has penned some of the coolest solos in rock. Guitar fans of all stripes have lots of love for these two, and that’s why I’ve put together this gift list today for you.
If you’re on the hunt for a gift idea, and the prospective giftee is daft about Metallica, then I have what you need: a list of goodies that goes from just over a tenner to…significantly more than a tenner. Have a look at what’s here, make your selections and score highly with your beloved metallifan!
The Gifts at a Glance
Kirk Hammett Epiphone Flying V
Metallica Guitar Picks
Let’s start with an essential choice: guitar picks! Every player needs them, and Metallica have you pretty well served here, with loads of choice. Made by Dunlop (easily the biggest pick company in the world), these picks are available in a number of variations for each of Metallica’s guitarists.
James Hetfeld has Black Fang and White Fang styles, available in both packs and pick tins, as well as a ‘Papa Het’ pick tin. Hetfield seems to favour a few different pick gauges (or at least has a selection available) between 0.73mm and 1.14mm, so there’s a good choice to be had!
As for Kirk, he has a pick tin available with his signature monster/horror graphics (the picks themselves are 0.88mm Tortex) and also a special neon green Jazz III pick, available in packs of 6. This is what he actually favours on stage, which eagle-eyed fans will know from seeing them sticking out of microphone stands, so there’s maybe some brownie points involved in going for these!
Kirk Hammett Overdrive Pedal
Kirk has a couple of pedals on release, and I’ll check them all out with you today! First up is a suitably horror-themed overdrive pedal. The KHDK Electronics Ghoul JR is a versatile overdrive with a cool ‘Balls to the Wall’ mode (it makes the sound nastier, basically) and the pedal itself is actually hand-painted in San Francisco by Tim Lehi, a well-known tattoo artist! A pretty cool gift for sure, and one with a story behind it.
Kirk Hammett Wah-wah Pedals
If there’s one thing that Kirk Hammett loves more than old horror movies, it’s wah pedals. He’s had a slew of signature models over the years, and currently, we stock two lovely examples.
The Dunlop Kirk Hammet KH95X is a sparkly purple number with a ‘skull guitar’ image on the rubber foot grip. Sonically, it’s pretty ‘there’ with a really dramatic sweep of tone, so any players using this will be able to turn heads for sure!
The other one is the Dunlop KH95 and is, if anything, even more creepy than the other one! Metallic lime green and a full-on skeletal foot make up the decorations here, and it’s worth mentioning that this green colour and the other purple one are both matching up with some of Kirk’s signature ESP/LTD guitars, more of which soon!
Gibson Greeny Pickups
The ‘Greeny’ guitar is a bit of a legendary instrument, and recounting its story is perhaps more than this guide has space for, but in summary: Greeny is a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard that has a famous ‘out of phase’ sound and was owned in the past by Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green (hence the name) before Gary Moore had it. The current owner is Kirk Hammett, and there are now reproductions of that famous guitar available (see below).
This, though, is a set of the pickups from that guitar. These are full-on American made Gibson Greeny pickups, made in the same vintage manner, using the same magnets and windings, and have the all-important reverse magnetic polarity to ensure that everyone can have that famous ‘Greeny’ sound.
These will fit unto pretty much any guitar that has humbucker pickups, so no alterations will have to be made to fit them and start using them!
Kirk Hammett Epiphone Flying V
Now, Metallica’s guitarists use a lot of different guitar models and have endorsements with more than one company. Because of this, I’ll streamline the process into a few choice selections that cover most of the ground.
I’ll start with Epiphone, because they are perhaps the most attainable, cost-wise. Epiphone make affordable replicas of Gibson guitars, and this one is based on Kirk’s 1979 Flying V, the first Gibson he ever owned. Available in an awesome metallic purple finish, the Epiphone Kirk Hammett Flying V has top quality electronics, Gibson USA humbuckers and a rounded ‘C’ neck profile. A relatively subtle logo design on the back on the headstock is your main clue to the instrument’s provenance.
And where else can you get a metallic purple Flying V guitar, anyway?
Epiphone Greeny
Remember I mentioned those pickups from the famous Greeny Les Paul guitar a second ago? Well, you can now buy a number of replicas of that actual guitar from both Epiphone and Gibson. I’ll show you the Epiphone one today, as the price is maybe more attainable AND it actually contains those very same £300 pickups! That’s some good value!
The Epiphone Greeny Les Paul a good, close copy of the original axe, right down to the mismatching control knobs! Guitar fans will notice that this Epiphone actually has the ‘proper’ Gibson headstock shape rather than the normal Epiphone one, so this guitar is even closer to the source than normal. I think it’s a great buy, and it works on a far bigger level than just being Metallica-related (Gary Moore fans, Fleetwood Mac fans and rock fans in general will love this), so it’s a kind of future-proof purchase in that respect!
James Hetfield LTD Guitars
Metallica frontman James Hetfield has rightfully earned a reputation as one of the most significant ‘riff’ players in hard rock. His rhythm work is magnificent but so is his crunchy tone, and lots of fans want the equipment he plays in order to get closer to that sound.
Both James and Kirk are long-term users of ESP guitars, a Japanese company who now have their headquarters in Los Angeles. ESP have a sister company called LTD, and it’s kind of similar to the situation with GIbson and Epiphone: LTD are more affordable replicas of ESP guitars.
This doesn’t mean for a second that they are either cheap or anything less than fully professional instruments, and Hetfield has signed off on a large number of signature guitars over the years. Buying a guitar as a gift is a serious gesture of course, but if you're looking at giving a guitar to a Metallica fan, choosing a James Hetfield model is a pretty guaranteed hit.
But which one? That’s very much up to you, but his most popular shapes are the Vulture (like a chunky Flying V) and the Snakebyte, which is a mean take on the Explorer style.
He’s perhaps best known for the more Explorer-shaped guitars, though, so see what’s available at time of purchase and go with what works for you: they are all equally cool-looking guitars!
Kirk Hammet’s KH Guitars
Kirk’s most famous signature guitar is the ESP KH, and he’s had numerous versions of this made over the years with different horror movie graphic finishes. These have all been available as limited editions over the years, released via both ESP and their LTD imprint. This means that the actual guitars on offer can vary from time to time, but the classic all-black one - the LTD KH602 - is almost always available, and it’s pretty awesome! This guitar sounds huge and has cool details like skull ‘n’ crossbone inlays across the fingerboard. It’s a cool ‘Superstrat’ shape and is perhaps more subtle than some of the other Metallica guitars we’ve seen today, but it’s still ‘Trve Metal’ and has an awesome reverse headstock for added attitude. Every Metallica fan knows this guitar: it’s instantly recognisable.
ESP/LTD offer this model in a more affordable version, too. Click through to the LTD KH-202 for another great Metallica axe!
Metallica Gear
As you may expect, we have a number of top-end Metallica-related guitars available, from the likes of the ESP Japan James Hetfield Snakebyte Camo guitar to the Gibson Kirk Hammett Greeny Les Paul Standard, both of which are higher-priced replicas of the guitars actually used by Hetfield and Hammett on tours.
There are lots more Metalli-guitars available from ESP/LTD, Gibson and Epiphone, but I do realise that you may not necessarily be on here for that size of a gift! I’ve already shown you a good few of these guitars today already, so please give us a shout in store or online if you want to go further down this particular path: every store has at least one Metallica expert who’ll be only too pleased to discuss this subject with you!
I hope you’ve found something on this list today that fits the bill for your gifting! Metallica have an evergreen appeal to hard rockers, so there’s never a ‘wrong’ time to use them as gift inspiration!
We also have a Van Halen gift guide available too, and don’t forget we also sell guitarguitar merch and gift cards, all of which make great gifts too!
Browse our Metallica Selection
