Star tip of the week: Kirk Hammett on chops (or lack of)

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Another week, another tasty star soundbite from the Guitar Techniques archive. Here Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett talks chops…

"When I'm at home or on vacation my chops go down drastically because I'm enjoying my free time and doing things I don't usually have time to do. So when I'm on tour I find that actually my guitar playing hurts a little bit, and it usually takes three or four days to get my chops back.

"It's strange, you never know how the gig's going to go. Sometimes if I've had a particularly bad day and I go out there thinking I'm going to have a particularly bad gig, I'll have a really great one. If I've had a great day and I've been playing a lot and I feel really confident, it sometimes doesn't come together on stage at all. It's a weird thing."

*Example tract taken from Talking Guitars by David Mead, published by Sanctuary, ISBN: 1-86074-620-9. Price £9.99 (UK), $14.99 (USA).