How much wah is too much wah? More importantly, will there ever be enough wah?

Kirk Hammet explained his famous preference for using the wah pedal, adding that he simply doesn’t care what people have to say about it.

Peanut butter and jelly. Mac and cheese. Bonnie and Clyde. Kirk Hammett and the wah pedal. Kirk’s heavy use of the effect over the years has spawned many jokes, and even the Metallica guitarist himself admits to Guitar World he “can’t think of anybody who uses the wah pedal as much as I do.”

Explaining why the wah in particular fits so well as a means of self-expression, Kirk said:

“The wah enables me to mirror the inner voice in my head and in my heart. That’s what I’m hearing. All these manipulated notes and tones, because that’s what the human voice is like.

“We cycle through all these different tones and frequencies when we speak. When I step on that wah pedal and hear that click… well, I’m hearing that clicking in my brain and in my heart at the same time.”

And while some might argue that the Metallica guitarist could give the wah a rest from time to time — Kirk doesn’t really care about such opinions:

“I don’t care what anyone fuckin’ says. If I feel like stepping on the wah pedal, I step on the fuckin’ wah pedal, because it brings me closer to what I’m hearing internally. And that’s the whole point of gear — to help bring the thing you hear internally out into the external world.”

Metallica’s new album “72 Seasons” is out now.