No. 0371993·alternative·3 blocks
Creep
Creep's dynamic shift from delicate clean arpeggios to crushing distorted chords is one of the most dramatic in rock. Greenwood's Telecaster Plus runs through a Fender Eighty Five amp for the clean verses. Before each chorus, he smashes the strings with a Marshall Shredmaster engaged, creating that iconic crunching noise that signals the heavy section. The contrast between whisper-quiet cleans and massive distortion defines the song.
Pablo HoneySignal path · input → output · 7 blocksLive values · Fractal Axe-Fx
Guitar
Fender Telecaster Plus
Pickups
SS
Tuning
neck
Strings
standard
Studio Comp
Rat Distortion
Deluxe Verb
1x12 Deluxe
Spring Reverb
Filter Tilt
Studio Comp
← Studio compressor
Threshold
-34dB
Ratio
2:1
Attack
38s
Release
200s
Mix
0.5
Level
0dB
Rat Distortion
← Marshall Shredmaster
Gain
9
Tone
6
Level
8
Deluxe Verb
← Fender Eighty Five (clean)
Drive
3
Bass
5
Mid
5
Treble
6
Presence
5
MV
6
1x12 Deluxe
← Fender 1x12
LowCut80Hz
HighCut8500Hz
Level
0dB
Spring Reverb
← Studio room/spring
Mix
0.2
Decay
1s
Predelay
20ms
Filter Tilt
← Tilt EQ (global brightness)
Tilt
0.5
CenterFreq
1000Hz
Level
0
Engineer's note
File 037
Creep's dynamic shift from delicate clean arpeggios to crushing distorted chords is one of the most dramatic in rock. Greenwood's Telecaster Plus runs through a Fender Eighty Five amp for the clean verses. Before each chorus, he smashes the strings with a Marshall Shredmaster engaged, creating that iconic crunching noise that signals the heavy section. The contrast between whisper-quiet cleans and massive distortion defines the song.
— Jonny Greenwood
Sources · Verified by
Field notes for this tone
All field notes →Marshall Shredmaster vs. ProCo RAT: Can You Fake the Creep Tone?
The Marshall Shredmaster is discontinued and expensive. Here's how the ProCo RAT, Boss DS-1, and Big Muff Pi stack up as substitutes for Jonny Greenwood's Radiohead Creep distortion.
Radiohead
Radiohead Creep guitar tone settings: the clean verse setup, the RAT-driven chorus crunch, and how to execute Jonny Greenwood's intentional string-scrape transition.
Marshall Shredmaster Clone Options: Aion FX Solstice, Five Cats Shredder, and What's Actually Different
Marshall Shredmaster clones and alternatives compared: the Aion FX Solstice PCB, Five Cats Pedals Shredder, Truetone Jekyll & Hyde Hyde side, and how close each gets to the discontinued original.
