Cliff Burton's Gear

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In this photo of Metallica playing at The Stone, their first concert with Cliff Burton you can see 3 pedals on the floor: BOSS CS-1, Morley PWF and an MXR Stereo Chorus, which can be heard when he performs Anesthesia at The Stone https://youtu.be/YCGM4ttgl2k around minute 1:17 In addition to the fact that in this interview he mentions that he had a chorus but it was stolen https://youtu.be/Dxaut6XsM_E

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In this user-uploaded photo, Cliff Burton is seen holding a 1970s Fender Telecaster. The guitar features a white body, a rosewood neck, and a black or maroon pickguard. While this appears to be a borrowed instrument, as there are no other records of Burton with it, the photo provides a rare glimpse of him with this classic model.

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In this photo, Cliff Burton can be seen playing a Steinway & Sons upright Piano.

Although Burton never played Piano in the studio with Metallica or Trauma, choosing to focus more on Bass-playing exclusivly, Burton was however introduced to Piano by his father Ray at a young age (possibly accounting for a fair amount of his Classical influinces). There are also a number of pictures though (such as this one), where Burton can be seen playing the Piano recreationally.

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According to The Metallica Black Box Museum: Orion - A Tribute to Cliff Burton on Metallica.com, Cliff Burton owned a Fernandes Stratocaster, as listed in the exhibit. You can see it in this photo.

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In this photo of Cliff Burton we can see a 1979 Ampeg SVT Head

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According to Mixdown Magazine, Cliff Burton used the Alembic Spoiler Series II.

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In the video titled "Metallica - For Whom the Bell Tolls (Live) [Cliff 'Em All]," Cliff Burton is seen playing the Aria SB-1000 Bass in black and gold. This bass was used by Burton throughout the recording of the albums "Ride the Lightning" and "Master of Puppets," and was integral to his distinctive sound, including the high-pitched notes featured in songs like "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "Orion." The video, recorded live on August 31, 1985, at Day on the Green in Oakland, CA, is provided by Metallica on their official YouTube channel.

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Cliff is shown with his FX pedals located just behind him. On the pedal board, we can see a rectangular module holding multiple switches in the far left corner of the board which closley resembles the profile of the Ibanez PC40 footswitch. This is also the same controller that was made for the Ibanez HD1500 to control multiple FXs such as the harmonics and delay systems directly from the board including a bypass feature. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1kwgxHO_Tc - The time stamp 3:38 shows that the PC40 is noted within this video about cliff burtons bass rig. This footswitcher was definetly used live, and possibly used in the studio.

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This is a community-built gear list for Cliff Burton.

  • Find relevant music gear like Bass Guitars, Amplifiers, Effects Pedals, and other instruments and add it to Cliff Burton.
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