I wanna try this song! Do you prefer it alll downpicked? What would be a good tone? I got bass/treble/gain/mid/mid contour

All down strokes, that is the right way, but this gets tiring, you will need to develop stamina, I saw John Petrucci Playing once and he was cheating using alternate. Look at some old Metallica Videos Hetfield is doing downstrokes, the original tempo of the song is 220 bpm and he plays 8th notes all with downstrokes.

As far as the right setting, every amp is different and has a different sound, On mine I set the treble and prescence a little higher than usual to get that razor cutting sound, My practice amp for some reason has a lot of bass frequencies so I leave it at around 3, and still has a lot of low end, I bring the Mid down a lot to get rid of the Nasal sounding. So that is what works for me, Enough bass to make it sound powerful, Boost Treble and Prescence, cut some mids.

Oh by the way, I set the gain to 10!! or its highest value on the amp for this one

ALL DOWNSTROKE, otherwise this song makes no sense (yes Mr Petrucci!). Tone would be bass and treble at 2 oclock and mid at 10 o clock, gain as high as needed to sound like metal and contour half way up.

contour is just on/off

I'm trying to learn the song with downpicking, but I just can't get past 200 BPM. Does it take so much time to get downpicking up to speed, like alternate picking?

I think even more, more stamina is needed. This riff IS KILLING MY THUMB

Im also learning this song atm, going to jam with a couple of friends soon and their all metallica fans so I needed to learn some of their songs. I play it with alternate picking but I admit that it would sound more metal with pure down strokes, but it makes my picking hand way too tired And Mr Petrucci is probably going to kill me if I play it with downstrokes only, please dont hurt me Mr. Petrucci

haha!

I am sure Petrucci could play it all down strokes if he wanted to, but it is intense, I guess he wants to be able to play for the rest of the show, and needs his right arm for his crazy alternate leads.

It is about stamina, I used to play this song in rehearsals with my old band because we loved it. I haven't played in a while so I would probably get tired before getting into the 1st verse. Back when I played I would get tired after the first chorus I would start feeling the pain, but I kept going like there was no tomorrow, I would occasionally cheat with a few alternates, but for a very short time, and I wouldn't let anyone see it.

I totally agree with Jose! If I can add a little thing...try to use a dunlop 0.88 mm...is the one James use!

I think James uses alternate live but on the album he downpicked it. Also for the sound just low on the mids and high on the bass and treble.

I doubt Mr Hetfield could play this with all downstrokes these days.

He's not what he used to be.

Check it out, back in 1989, these were my favorite Metallica days, I was a kid and thought they were gods

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEL6_SuQCu8

I see all downstrokes

0.88?!? That's horrible I use 2 mm and sometimes 3mm

I cheat and use alternate, with a little work it can become almost indistinguishable.

That song should be called Master of Downstrokes.
It's hard and requires alot of practice, but downstrokes is a must.

if you learn to play all downstroke it should increase your alternative picking speed to.

If you wanna learn it all down strokes, put the song on and just hammer it out all downstroke. If you miss notes it doesnt matter, you probably will only hit about 10% of all notes first time through (depending on how experienced you are). Firstly try and learn the phrases, then try linking phrases. each time you play you should be able to hit a few more notes then previous. To master it though, once you've got a grip of song, play with a click, but set the click at like 230Bpm, play through the song, then try at 220Bpm etc. by the time you get to 208BPm (i think master of puppets is 208), it should feel confortable-ish.

It'll take a long time to get it right. Ive been playing it for about 4 years now on and off, and i can do all downstroke except for the phrase after the mad solo, cos he throws in some trills too. but a bit of practice and i'll nail.

Oh, and never think "its too fast for me". if you think that way you'll never do it. you need to break your boundaries.

Good luck

I am trying to play this song and can play it pretty well at 150 bpm with downstroke only bt it i so damn har to play

yep that was their best year I think. They RULED!!!

Awsome video......I just love this song