No. 0511976·classic-rock·4 blocks
Hotel California
One of the most-studied lead tones in rock. Don Felder cut the famous Hotel California outro solo with his 1959 Les Paul Standard plugged straight into a narrow-panel mid-50s Fender Tweed Deluxe, cranked into edge-of-breakup territory, with a Maestro Echoplex in the loop for the tape-delay swell. Felder and Walsh trade twin-harmony lines, but the lead voice is Felder's PAF-on-Tweed-combo — fat, singing, slightly breaking up at the top of every note.
Hotel CaliforniaSignal path · input → output · 9 blocksLive values · Line 6 Helix
Guitar
Gibson Les Paul Standard (1959 Sunburst)
Pickups
HH
Tuning
bridge
Strings
standard
Volume Pedal
Deluxe Comp
Scream 808
US Deluxe Nrm
1x12 Tweed
Tape Echo
Plate
Tilt
Volume Pedal
← Volume pedal
Pedal
100%
Deluxe Comp
← Light parallel compression
Threshold
-30dB
Ratio
2.5:1
Knee
6dB
Attack
50s
Release
200s
Mix
50
Level
0dB
Scream 808
← Tube Screamer (clean boost alternate)
Drive
1.5
Gain
1.5
Tone
5
Level
7
US Deluxe Nrm
← Fender Tweed Deluxe (narrow panel, ~1955)
Drive
7.5
Bass
4
Mid
5.5
Treble
6
Presence
5
ChVol
5.5
Master
10
Bias
5.5
BiasX
5
Sag
6.5
Hum
5
Ripple
5
1x12 Tweed
← Tweed Deluxe 1x12 with Jensen P12R
LowCut80Hz
HighCut7500Hz
Resonance
0.5
Level
0dB
Pan
0.5
Delay
0
Tape Echo
← Maestro Echoplex EP-3
LowCut200Hz
HighCut5000Hz
Time
310ms
Feedback
20
Mix
18
Level
0
Plate
← Studio plate (Criteria / Record Plant)
LowCut200Hz
HighCut6000Hz
Mix
18
Decay
1.8s
Predelay
30ms
Level
0
Tilt
← Tilt EQ (global brightness)
Tilt
0.5
CenterFreq
1000Hz
Level
0
Engineer's note
File 051
One of the most-studied lead tones in rock. Don Felder cut the famous Hotel California outro solo with his 1959 Les Paul Standard plugged straight into a narrow-panel mid-50s Fender Tweed Deluxe, cranked into edge-of-breakup territory, with a Maestro Echoplex in the loop for the tape-delay swell. Felder and Walsh trade twin-harmony lines, but the lead voice is Felder's PAF-on-Tweed-combo — fat, singing, slightly breaking up at the top of every note.
— Don Felder
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