Tone library / Metallica / The four horsemen

The four horsemen amp settings — Roland Cube 40GX

The Metallica guitar tone for “The four horsemen”, dialed in for a Roland Cube 40GX with a Jackson JS32 Dinky. Studio version, Kill 'Em All (1983) — James Hetfield signature main rhythm tone

Original rig

1980 Gibson Flying V (Seymour Duncan Invader / Gibson humbuckers) into a modded Marshall JMP 2203 100W head (Jose Arredondo mod), Marshall 4x12 with Celestion G12-65 speakers, no pedals, amp-only high-gain crunch

Aggressive, razor-sharp early thrash crunch with prominent upper-mid bite, tight palm-muted low-end chunk, and a bone-dry signal

Amp settings — Roland Cube 40GX

CHANNELLEAD (Stack Classic / Brit Combo / R-Fier) — select 'STACK CLASSIC' voice (or 'METAL STACK')

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	8
Bass	6
Mid	4
Treble	8
Reverb	0
Master	5

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Guitar

PICKUPbridge TONE10 VOLUME10

Why these settings

On the Roland Cube 40GX, select the Lead channel's 'Stack Classic' voice (or 'Metal Stack') to mimic Hetfield's modded Marshall JMP 2203 preamp crunch. The Jackson JS32 ceramic bridge humbucker supplies the high-output bite of Hetfield's Gibson, so scoop the Cube's mid control down to 4 while pushing treble to 8 to achieve the razor-sharp 1983 attack without adding flubby bass. The Cube 40GX has no physical presence control, so top-end sizzle is balanced purely via treble. Clean interlude: switch to the JC Clean channel with guitar volume at 8.

PRO TIPJames Hetfield's signature Kill 'Em All crunch comes entirely from aggressive downpicking right over the bridge pickup with a heavy pick (0.88mm to 1.14mm), locking the palm strictly against the bridge saddles for instantaneous percussive muting.

Get this tone on your amp

These settings are for a Roland Cube 40GX. ToneAdapt matches any song to whatever amp, guitar and pedals you own — first match is free.

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