James Hetfield’s Gretsch White Falcon

This guitar made a brief appearance in the “Nothing Else Matters” music video, around the 3:00 mark. It actually belonged to Bob Rock, the album’s producer, rather than James, and he just borrowed it to record some sections of the song.

James playing a Gretsch White Falcon.

According to James himself, he used the White Falcon to record just a small part that came after the first chorus, which is the exact same part we see him play in the video.

I used a Gretsch White Falcon for ‘Nothing Else Matters.’ I love the way the Bigsby tremolo drops. We recorded a descending part with just the reverb sound, no attack-it sounds like an airplane landing.

From the looks of it, this was most likely a 1974/75 model, identical to the one that Billy Duffy of The Cult played. This is based on the layout of the control knobs/switches, the headstock design, and the long tremolo arm.

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