The Pretender
The Pretender detonates from a tense, palm-muted verse into one of the biggest choruses Foo Fighters ever cut — a wall of high-gain distortion built on Dave Grohl's Gibson Trini Lopez semi-hollow through a Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier. The bright, woody semi-hollow into the Recto's modern high-gain channel is the band's signature combination, double-tracked hard left and right with Chris Shiflett's Telecaster Deluxe filling out the rhythm.
What we checked
Computed by a program, on this recipe, every time this page is built. How this works
Preset files — 1 of 3 complete
- Helix builds complete — every block in the recipe is in the file
- Quad Cortex 5 blocks replaced with a stand-in model
Which ones
Replaced with a stand-in: Gate, LA Compressor, Recto, 4x12 Recto V30, Room. These load cleanly but are not the model named above — the file will sound wrong here until we map them. Set these blocks by hand.
- Katana 1 block missing from the file; 4 blocks replaced with a stand-in model
Which ones
Not in the file: Reverb. The recipe calls for this block, but we have no verified model ID for it on this platform, so the preset is written without it. Add it by hand using the settings above.
Replaced with a stand-in: Brown, Tight Boost, Delay, Reverb. These load cleanly but are not the model named above — the file will sound wrong here until we map them. Set these blocks by hand.
What we didn't check
- Nobody played this through a real amp. There is no human listening test behind any number on this page.
- The settings are reasoned from the sources below, not measured off the record.
- No audio has been rendered for this recipe yet, so you cannot hear it before you load it.
- 3 platforms on this page (TONEX, Kemper, Fractal) get a model pointer, not a preset file — nothing was built or checked for them.
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