As Metallica are putting the finishing touches on their long-awaited album, guitarist Kirk Hammeett is busying diversifying. He launched a horror festival a few years ago, and now he's getting into the pedal game, with his KHDK line of guitar pedals.
Kirk seems pretty excited promoting the pedals, and in a recent interview with Music Radar, Kirk said something that is definitely not true:
We’re all very inspired and very, very excited about this. I think it’s the first time you’ll see a pedal company actually being driven by an actual guitar player, like Tom Scholz and Rockman – I really don’t know of any other guitar players out there who are actually making pedals.
It's weird that Kirk would say that, because I would think that all pedal makers have a working knowledge of guitars and likely are players, otherwise, how do they know if their pedals are any good? Perhaps he meant the only pedal company with a super-successful guitar player making pedals? Either way, Kirk doubled down on this statement with a tweet:
https://twitter.com/KirkHammett/status/698152556103495680
The tweet went viral, as MetalSucks points out, and a ton of pedal makers went out of their way to respond to Kirk saying actually, that's not true…
Hi @KirkHammett @MusicRadar I run a pedal company w/ my fam, play music/guitar/bass, & have toured. You're not the 1st or last, but welcome.
— FUZZROCIOUS PEDALS (@fuzzrocious) February 13, 2016
@KirkHammett REALLY? Almost everybody making new and interesting effects today is a musician. Most of us just can't afford full page ads.
— Dwarfcraft Devices (@dwarfcraft) February 13, 2016
@KirkHammett Actual guitarist and actual pedal maker checking in.
— DigiTech (@DigiTech) February 13, 2016
@KirkHammett Nah, yr not the first guitar player making pedals. Kudos for doing something unique like a TS with compression switches!
— Catalinbread (@catalinbread) February 13, 2016
@KirkHammett @MusicRadar strange…I have guitars…I play them. Been in business 17 years…crazy, right? #getoffyourhighhorse
— GreerAmps.com (@GreerAmps) February 13, 2016
@KirkHammett @MusicRadar pic.twitter.com/9CCDas6F8H
— Joshua Koterba (@joshuakoterba) February 14, 2016
@KirkHammett welcome. Many pedal designs come from our experiences as players. Looking forward to yours. pic.twitter.com/2avBGMJPgC
— Caroline Guitar Co. (@CarolineGCo) February 14, 2016
@KirkHammett Hold up. I just saw what the actual pedal from an actual guitarist is. It's actually been done many times. #nothingnew
— Salvage Custom (@salvagecustom) February 13, 2016
https://twitter.com/MilkManMo/status/698608598046248960
Update: Kirk Hammett has since apologized:
No dis to other players who create pedals. I’m just stoked about KHDK and proud to be deeply involved in the creative…
Posted by Kirk Hammett on Tuesday, February 16, 2016
The lesson here? Don't go knocking an entire industry while trying to promote your product. On the plus side, the pedal is getting some great reviews from our sister site, Gear Gods. Here's their video review:
