Well, after finally scoring myself an MCII and playing it mixed with a VH4, (and actually finally hearing a Wizard in person), it was a revelation to me to hear how much the Wizard tone is on the HWSD album [IMHO], and I'm sure and big part of many Hetfield recordings since Load days. I hooked them up and got a nice blended tone, then started playing some of the HWSD riffs when it really hit me. Just using a regular '58 RI Les Paul, no high output pickups.
Seems like the Crunch, tightness and clarity part of his tone feels to me mainly to be the Wizard, the bottom and deep low end feels more like the VH4 doing that portion. I'm sure the IIC+ is in the mix too. The MCII and the IIC+ don't actually feel worlds apart to me, maybe its just the way I set my amps by habit and my ears.