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Guitar World
Guitar World
Entertainment
Jacob Paul Nielsen

“He took a bass to Jason Newsted. James kept flipping it back and forth, studying it… Then he asked if we could meet”: How Ken Lawrence came to build some of James Hetfield’s most iconic guitars – including one using wood from Metallica’s former home

James Hetfield with Kenneth Lawrence guitar.

Even though he's best known for crafting James Hetfield’s most striking and creative axes, Kenneth Lawrence doesn’t play guitar. He’s a bassist.

As most bassists do, at age 14, he picked up the bass because his group of friends started a band and they didn’t know anyone that played it. Turns out, the bass was the right choice for Lawrence.

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