After the neck of his Electra Flying V snapped in 1984, James Hetfield began using several different guitars, eventually settling on a white 1984 Gibson Explorer as his main instrument. In 1986, he carved the words “So What” into the body with a knife, making it visually distinctive.
However, for the first two years, this guitar looked identical to another white Explorer he owned, as the “So What” marking hadn’t appeared yet. This makes it difficult to differentiate the two in footage from that period.
Specs, Usage
James’ Explorer is a model commonly referred to as “Explorer 83”, and it features a cream-white finish – originally clean, but faded to yellow over the years. What separates this model from what would be considered a standard Explorer is the fact that it has a different control layout and no pickguard.
This guitar was originally equipped with Gibson Dirty Fingers pickups (496R/500T ), but sometime in the late 80s – presumably around 1987 when Kirk Hammett switched to EMGs as well – James took the pickups out and replaced them with the EMG 81/60 set.
Knowing that, and the fact that this was James’ favorite guitar at the time, the album “Ride the Lightning” (1984) was largely recorded using this particular guitar equipped with the stock Gibson pickups. EMGs didn’t come into play until the “EP: Garage Days Re-revisited” (1987) and “…And Justice for All” (1988).
Lastly, as was the case with his Electra Flying V, James fully restored this and played it on “Death Magnetic” in 2008.
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He didn’t use So What on Ride The Lightning, the Explorer wasn’t actually in production until September of 84.
Their call 84 explorers not 83. And dirty fingers are not 496r, 500t. You can tell by the ajustable slugs on both bobbins on the dirty fingers
So there are some mistakes here. First, So What was not a sticker, James carved it out with a knife. Second the So What was never equipped with any EMGs. Third and last, this guitar was traded by James with some guy after the Damaged Justice tour. He bought it back from him before the recording of 72 Seasons
Sorry I was wrong about the EMGs. He did use them in 87 but he brought the dirty fingers back in 88
Alright, should be fixed now. Thanks
Edit: the Dirty Fingers were back in as early as 1988? Not when the gutiar was restored in 2008?
Here is a picture of it from 1988/89. And like I said, he got it back right before 72 Seasons, so it wasn’t restored in 2008
He traded it to Phil Dirt one of Jason Newsted’s friends here in Phoenix for a rifle or shotgun (i forget which). Phil had it for years and would show it off once in while. I actually got to play it. At first we thought he was full of crap,but he had the pictures to back up his story. Phil reached out to someone in the Metallica circle to sell it back for an insane amount and supposedly James told him to shove it up his ass. Not sure about the later deal how James finally got it back. Many of my friends and myself tried to buy it for years. He even was offered a new Cadillac and always refused.