Getting the Riff Right
The opening riff of Master of Puppets is E minor pentatonic, played primarily on the G and B strings with heavy palm muting. Tuning is standard E A D G B E. You're looking at three-note picking patterns at roughly 212 BPM, which means your fretting hand needs to stay locked down while your picking hand oscillates between full notes and aggressive muted chugs. The tempo won't forgive sloppy alternate picking. I spent about six months trying to nail the verse chugging pattern properly. The issue wasn't speed initially—it was getting the muting consistent enough that the muted E strings sounded tight instead of muddy. What finally worked was reducing the palm mute pressure on the lower strings while increasing it slightly on the higher strings. That gave the D and A string chugs a distinct percussive quality without killing the sustain on the melodic notes.
Metallica Master Of Puppets Tab
Here's the main riff breakdown in standard notation: e|----------------------------------| B|-----2-0-2------------------------|
G|---2------2-0-2-------------------| D|-0-----------0-2-0--------------|-- A|-------------------0-2-0-2-0----|--
Get the Full Details
E|-------------------------------0-| The pattern repeats with slight variation on the turnaround. The transition from the D string note back to the low E is where most people lose time. Practice that shift slowly with a metronome before attempting the full speed. It took me about three weeks of daily practice at 60 BPM to get the transition clean enough to build up speed from there.
Common Problems and Fixes
One issue that catches a lot of players off guard is the tempo increase during the chorus. The song shifts from 212 BPM to roughly 224 BPM for the "Puppets, puppets" section. If you practice the verse at exactly 212, your fingers will lock up trying to match the faster section on performance day. I got around this by always practicing at 220 BPM minimum, even during verse runs. It feels uncomfortable at first but makes the actual song tempo feel slower by comparison. Another thing nobody talks about: the tonal difference between the studio recording and what you hear live. The studio version uses a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier with a Shure SM57 on the speaker cabinet, mic'd slightly off-center. That gives the tone its signature tight low end. If you're trying to reproduce that sound and your amp sounds flubby instead of punchy, check your EQ settings. The mids need to be boosted around 800 Hz, and the presence should sit around 3-4 kHz for that cutting clarity.
What This Tab Won't Tell You
Most tab sites get the notes right but miss the nuance. The palm muting technique is not uniform throughout the riff. The first bar uses a lighter touch compared to the second bar, which is where the chugging gets more aggressive. This dynamic shift is what gives the riff its driving feel, and it's why simply playing the notes at constant volume sounds flat. The tremolo picking in the solo section is another area where tabs fall short. Kirk Hammett uses a combination of aggressive pick attack and a slight vibrato technique that varies between notes. A tab will show you the notes, but you'll need to listen to the original recording repeatedly to understand the articulation between each note. I recommend slowing the track down to 50% speed using software like Amazing Slow Downer or a free alternative like Audacity, then looping just the sections you're struggling with. For the full arrangement, including the bridge and final chorus, the tab gets progressively less reliable. The solo section alone has multiple layers of harmonization that simple tabs often reduce to a single line. If you want the complete transcription, I'd recommend checking out a dedicated guitar transcription service or a professional book publication, as free tab sites tend to have errors in the faster passages.
