Tone recipes from
the songs you love.

The definitive Texas blues shuffle tone. SRV's tone on Pride and Joy is built on an incredibly simple signal chain: a Stratocaster with absurdly heavy strings, a Tube Screamer used as a clean boost, and a cranked Fender Vibroverb. The magic is in the player's hands and the amp being pushed hard. The Tube Screamer is not set for distortion; it's adding mids and pushing the amp's front end into breakup.

Arguably the most famous guitar solo tone ever recorded. Gilmour's tone on the second solo of Comfortably Numb is built on a Big Muff Pi fuzz into a cranked Hiwatt, with delay adding depth and sustain. The Hiwatt provides clean headroom while the Big Muff does the heavy lifting for gain and sustain. The result is a singing, vocal-like lead tone that sustains endlessly.

The ultimate wah-fuzz guitar tone. Hendrix's Voodoo Child (Slight Return) opens with one of the most recognizable wah licks ever recorded. The tone is built on a Cry Baby wah into a germanium Fuzz Face, slamming a cranked Marshall Plexi. The wah isn't just an effect here; it's an integral part of the voice of the guitar, used as a tonal filter that shapes every note. The Fuzz Face provides thick, singing sustain that cleans up dynamically when Hendrix rolls back his guitar volume.

The tone that defined a generation. Cobain's approach to guitar tone was anti-perfectionist: a cheap offset guitar, a Boss DS-1 cranked for maximum aggression, and a Small Clone chorus adding an underwater shimmer. The genius of Teen Spirit is the quiet-verse/loud-chorus dynamic. The verses are clean with chorus; the choruses slam the DS-1 for a wall of scooped, angry distortion. The mid-scooped character is key to the grunge sound: heavy lows, biting highs, and a hollow midrange.

One of the most beautiful clean guitar tones in rock. The intro to Under the Bridge is Frusciante alone, playing delicate chord voicings on the neck pickup of a 1962 Stratocaster through a clean Marshall with a touch of chorus. The tone is warm, round, and shimmering, with the CE-1 chorus adding subtle movement that keeps the sound alive and breathing. The neck pickup is essential: it provides the full, rounded character that makes this tone so inviting. The Marshall is run clean at low volume, a departure from the typical cranked Marshall approach.

One of the most recognizable guitar intros ever written. Slash's tone on Appetite for Destruction is the textbook Les Paul through a cranked Marshall JCM800 sound: thick, warm humbuckers pushing a hot British amp into singing, vocal-like overdrive. The JCM800 is doing most of the work here, with its aggressive midrange and natural compression when pushed hard. A touch of reverb from the studio and Slash's fluid vibrato complete the picture.