James Hetfield has a long-standing signature guitar collaboration with ESP, made his bones playing a white Flying V knock-off, and is one of the world’s most high-profile proponents of the Gibson Explorer. But among the Metallica frontman’s arsenal of electric guitars are a handful of custom builds by a Californian luthier by the name of Ken Lawrence.
Lawrence is not your typical guitar builder. In fact, he was not really a guitar builder. At least, that was not his specialty. Bass guitars were his thing. So how did he end up making some of Hetfield’s most-famous six-strings – including an Explorer-style electric named Carl that was put together using the floorboards of Metallica’s old garage?
