No. 1021958·rock-and-roll·4 blocks

Johnny B. Goode

The double-stop intro that launched a thousand bands — the founding statement of rock 'n' roll lead guitar. Cut at Chess Studios in Chicago in January 1958, Chuck Berry's tone is a thinline Gibson ES-350T strung with flatwounds, driven into a cranked Fender tweed combo at the edge of breakup. There are no pedals; the space and slap come entirely from Chess's basement echo chamber. Standard tuning, played in B♭ — the bite is in the flatwound 'twop' and the right-hand attack.

Chuck Berry Is on Top coverChuck Berry Is on Top
Settings for
Signal path · input → output · 6 blocksLive values · Neural DSP Quad Cortex
Guitar
Gibson ES-350T (1957)
Pickups
HH
Tuning
bridge
Strings
standard
Studio Comp
Tweed Bass
4x10 Tweed
Chamber Reverb
Tilt EQ
Studio Comp
← Studio level control
Dynamics
Threshold
-30dB
Ratio
2.5:1
Attack
8s
Release
200s
Mix
60
Level
0dB
Tweed Bass
← Fender tweed combo (cranked)
Amp
Gain
5.5
Bass
5
Mid
6
Treble
6.5
Presence
5.5
Master
6
Sag
6
4x10 Tweed
← Tweed combo speaker
Cab
LowCut80Hz
HighCut8000Hz
Level
0dB
Chamber Reverb
← Chess basement echo chamber
Delay
Decay
0.8s
Predelay
15ms
Mix
16
Level
0
Tilt EQ
← Tilt EQ (global brightness)
EQ
Tilt
5.5
CenterFreq
1000Hz
Level
0

Engineer's note

File 102
The double-stop intro that launched a thousand bands — the founding statement of rock 'n' roll lead guitar. Cut at Chess Studios in Chicago in January 1958, Chuck Berry's tone is a thinline Gibson ES-350T strung with flatwounds, driven into a cranked Fender tweed combo at the edge of breakup. There are no pedals; the space and slap come entirely from Chess's basement echo chamber. Standard tuning, played in B♭ — the bite is in the flatwound 'twop' and the right-hand attack.
Chuck Berry

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