Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett has been the butt of an infinite amount of jokes about the amount of wah pedal he uses. Clearly it's worked out for him and has been incorporated into his own personal brand of identity, but yeah – dude uses a shit ton of wah pedal.
So what made him want to buy one? Naturally you might assume Jimi Hendrix (like K.K. Downing) was the influence, but Hammett tells Metal Hammer it was actually the song "Warriors" from Thin Lizzy's Jailbreak album. Because Thin Lizzy hasn't leveraged enough influence on the world of metal, apparently.
"To me, the wah-wah is a lot like the human voice.
"It isn't so much about the 'wah-wah sound,' it's being able to manipulate the tone however I feel it in that moment. It actually creates a better connection to the deeper part of me.
"And Hendrix wasn't actually the first person I heard use a wah-wah pedal – that was Brian Robertson from Thin Lizzy! The first time I became aware of it was the song 'Warriors' on [1976's] 'Jailbreak.'
"He comes in with this totally wah-ed out two-three notes, and I said to my friend, 'What is that?!' He said, 'That's a wah-wah pedal.' 'Wow, fantastic!' I made a mental note of that…"
The real question is if Hammett will use wah pedal all over his eventual solo album. Now go get inspired to buy a wah pedal and start a band called something not Metallica-related.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEdYHwA6z0k][/youtube]
