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Metallica - The Unforgiven - Guitar Cover

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Key A minor
Metallica - The Unforgiven guitar cover video
Kfir Ochaion
Kfir Ochaion Top Contributor
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Classic Rock

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Metallica (Remastered) album cover
Metallica (Remastered)
1991 6:27
Listen on Spotify
Metallica Heavy Metal 1991 A minor
Capo Advisor 0 A minor · Original key

About The Unforgiven

Few Metallica tracks demand as much range from a single guitarist as this one. The song opens with a clean fingerpicked passage in A minor that sets a deceptively gentle tone, and nailing that intro means keeping your picking hand relaxed and your note separation clean. When the distorted rhythm guitar enters, the focus shifts to controlled palm muting and a mid-paced, deliberate feel that rewards players who resist the urge to rush. The lead work later in the song sits in a melodic, expressive style rather than shred territory, so focus on sustain and vibrato rather than speed. If the fingerpicked intro or the lead phrasing is giving you trouble, use the Practice Toolbar to loop those sections slowed down until the muscle memory is solid. Metallica wrote this as a slower, more atmospheric piece than most of their catalog, which means every note you play is exposed, so clean execution matters more here than raw aggression.

  • The clean intro is fingerpicked in A minor, requiring a relaxed right hand and careful separation between the arpeggiated notes.
  • Rhythm guitar relies heavily on controlled palm muting at a deliberate mid-tempo pace, where rushing the feel is the most common mistake.
  • The lead guitar sections prioritize melodic phrasing, sustain, and vibrato over speed, making expressive technique the main challenge to practise.

How to Play The Unforgiven

Tuning: E Standard · Key: A minor · Tempo: 70 BPM · Difficulty: Medium

Loop each section and focus on clean, even timing rather than speed, with the metronome at 70 BPM.

Gibson Les Paul Standard
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Standard

Kirk Hammett's vintage 1959 'Greeny' Les Paul Standard delivers warmer, more dynamic PAF-style tones that contrast his EMG-equipped ESP guitars, adding organic sustain to his lead work. This guitar's traditional construction gives his solos a thicker, less compressed character than his signature models.

Gibson Les Paul Custom
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Custom

While not Hammett's primary choice, the Les Paul Custom shares the Les Paul's warm PAF pickup character and thick body resonance, offering heavier players an alternative to Strat-style designs for achieving Metallica's crushing rhythm tones.

Gibson Explorer
Guitar

Gibson Explorer

James Hetfield's early Gibson Explorer established his signature angular shape and thick body tone, delivering the aggressive midrange attack essential to Metallica's crushing rhythm style before his ESP signature models became his primary tool.

Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier
Amp

Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier

Kirk Hammett's Dual Rectifier heads provide the high-gain, midrange-forward aggression that lets his solos cut through Hetfield's scooped rhythm tone, creating definition and clarity in Metallica's dense wall of distortion.

EMG 81
Pickup

EMG 81

Hetfield's bridge EMG 81 delivers the hot, compressed output with tight low-end that defines Metallica's palm-muted riffs, the ceramic magnet and active preamp cutting through heavy arrangements with focused, aggressive attack.

EMG 60
Pickup

EMG 60

Both guitarists use the neck EMG 60 for warmer, more articulate rhythm tones and smoother lead voicings, balancing the 81's aggression with clearer note definition across Metallica's dense arrangements.

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