Kirk’s musical journey began with a guitar that his brother, Rick, had purchased through the Montgomery Ward catalogue. At around age 15, Kirk convinced his brother to part with it, trading his copy of the KISS album Dressed to Kill and $10 to seal the deal.
I had $10 and a Kiss album. He wanted that Kiss album and I said – I’ll trade you this Kiss album and $10 for that Montgomery Ward guitar”.
The Collection: Kirk Hammett of Metallica
Kirk has never specified the exact model, describing it only as a “Montgomery Ward catalogue special.” While people online often speculate it was an Airline (the store’s house brand pictured here), it is not 100% that it was one of the famous “Resoglass” models. Those were the “premium” guitars of the catalog.
Given Kirk’s description of it as a difficult, cheap starter instrument, it was possibly one of the entry-level wooden or plywood models manufactured for the catalogue by companies like Harmony or Teisco.
He famously played the guitar through a homemade amplifier consisting of a 4-inch speaker stuffed into a shoebox. This was likely a common 70s hack where he cannibalized the circuit board from a cheap portable radio and used the shoebox merely as the speaker cabinet.
The guitar reportedly met its end when Kirk and a friend attempted to fuse it with a Les Paul copy to create a DIY double-neck instrument. The experiment failed, leaving the guitars unplayable.
I had this Montgomery Ward guitar, and my friend John Marshall he ahad a cheap Gibson copy, and we had a briliant idea of combining them into trying to make a double neck guitar.
The Collection: Kirk Hammett of Metallica
If you, by any chance, happen to stumble upon photos of young Kirk with this guitar, please be sure to leave a comment below.
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