Kirk Hammett has played a huge amount of electric guitars over the course of his career, from uber-expensive vintage Gibsons and Peter Green’s iconic Greeny Les Paul (which he now owns), all the way to his Fernandes Strat-a-like and the Fender Acoustasonic.
Indeed, his personal collection of guitars spans well over the 100 mark (a count in 2017 put it around 150), but as the Metallica guitarist explains in a new interview with Guitar World, he's not interested in playing a PRS guitar.
Over the years, Hammett has used Gibsons, ESPs, Jacksons, Ibanez guitars and more, but never has he warmed to any of Paul Reed Smith's builds, despite the fact they've been adored by the likes of Mark Tremonti, John Mayer, and Orianthi.
“I don't think they're aggressive-sounding,” he tells Guitar World matter of factly when asked why he's never been spotted playing a PRS. “There's a part of me that always wants to scream out. My whole life there's been this inner anger or frustration, I don't know what it is. And it sounds crazy, but that's just how I play my guitar.
“I need the aggression right there at my fingertips,” he continues. “I've never been able to coax a sound that had the right kind of attack or bite out of a PRS.”
There’s another aspect to this, too: “They're basically Les Paul copies, let's be frank,” Hammett suggests. “It's a Les Paul style guitar and I already have amazing Les Pauls. So I will stick with those.”
For a guitarist who owns such a spellbinding Les Paul in Greeny – and many more mouth-watering Gibsons to boot – he simply has no need for a PRS in his life.
Of course, it should be pointed out that Hammett is an official Gibson artist, and has a number of signature Gibson guitars to his name. In fact, he recently worked with Gibson to produce The Collection: Kirk Hammett – a premium coffee table book that charts his guitar catalog.
Not only that, PRS has many other non-Les Paul-style builds on its books, such as the Custom 24 and Santana, to name but a few, that are very much their own builds.
Nevertheless, Hammett's personal style is clearly incompatible with PRS guitars: “I just feel they don't have the right kind of bite," he goes on.
“I will walk into a guitar store and I'll see all these amazing PRS models with crazy finishes with all these dragons and birds and whatnot. They look amazing but they just don't tick that aggression factor that I need.”
Hammett has doubled down on his Gibson love affair in recent years, with a Murphy Lab-aged recreation of his 1979 Flying V arriving in 2023. An “artfully aged” Gibson Custom Shop take on his blacked-out 1989 Les Paul Custom followed in January last year.
Keep your eyes peeled on GuitarWorld.com for the full interview with Kirk Hammett, in which the Metallica man also recalls the time he let Jack White play Greeny live.
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