Tone library / Metallica / Seek and destroy

Seek and destroy amp settings — Kustom Kla40

The Metallica guitar tone for “Seek and destroy”, dialed in for a Kustom Kla40 with a Fender Player Stratocaster. Studio version, Kill 'Em All (1983)

Original rig

Modified Marshall head (hot-rodded JMP/2203-style), 1981 Gibson Flying V with bridge humbucker

Tight, scooped thrash rhythm with aggressive palm-muted chug, biting treble, percussive attack

Amp settings — Kustom Kla40

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	3
Bass	4
Mid	5
Treble	4
Presence	0
Reverb	0
Master	6

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Guitar

PICKUPbridge TONE10 VOLUME10

Signal chain

01Boss DS-1

DS-1 is your primary gain source; amp stays clean to avoid mud

Tone 6 · Level 7 · Dist 8

Why these settings

The Kustom KLA40 is a solid-state practice amp with limited gain on tap and no channel switching—it cannot produce Marshall-style saturation alone. Your DS-1 becomes the entire distortion stage; amp gain stays at 3 to keep it clean and let the pedal define the tone. The original used scooped mids (mid ~2.5), but your Strat's single-coil bridge pickup is already thin and bright compared to Hetfield's Flying V humbucker—mid pushed to 5 compensates for missing low-mid body, and treble dropped to 4 prevents ice-pick harshness the DS-1 can introduce on single coils.

PRO TIPPalm mute hard and close to the bridge with downstrokes only on the main riff—Hetfield's early tone relied heavily on percussive right-hand technique to get that machine-gun chug, which matters more than any knob when you're working with single coils into a practice amp.

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These settings are for a Kustom Kla40. ToneAdapt matches any song to whatever amp, guitar and pedals you own — first match is free.

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Song, artist and gear names are used to identify the tone being matched; ToneAdapt is not affiliated with or endorsed by the artists or manufacturers mentioned. Settings are AI-generated starting points — trust your ears.