No. 0801994·grunge·4 blocks
Black Hole Sun
The warbling, underwater verse of Superunknown's biggest single — and the surprise is who played it. Chris Cornell tracked the rhythm on a Gretsch Duo Jet through a real Leslie 16 rotary cabinet driven by a Marshall; Kim Thayil handled the leads. The off-kilter shimmer is the spinning rotor plus a tape-speed trick that nudged the whole song ~3/4 semitone sharp of drop D. The album's heavier tones blend a Marshall and a Mesa Dual Rectifier.
SuperunknownSignal path · input → output · 7 blocksLive values · Neural DSP Quad Cortex
Guitar
Gretsch G6128T Duo Jet (1989)
Pickups
HH
Tuning
bridge
Strings
Drop D (recorded sharp)
Vintage Comp
Brit 1959 SLP
4x12 Greenback
Rotary Speaker
Room
Graphic EQ
Vintage Comp
← Studio compression
Threshold
-34dB
Ratio
3:1
Attack
10s
Release
220s
Mix
0.6
Level
0dB
Brit 1959 SLP
← Marshall JMP 50W (drives the Leslie)
Gain
4
Bass
5
Mid
6
Treble
6
Presence
5.5
Master
6
Sag
5
4x12 Greenback
← Marshall 1960 4x12 (Greenback)
LowCut90Hz
HighCut8500Hz
Level
0dB
Rotary Speaker
← Leslie Model 16, fast rotor
Rate
0.7Hz
Depth
0.8
Mix
0.9
Room
← Bad Animals room (interpretive)
Decay
0.4s
Predelay
20ms
Mix
0.1
Level
0
Graphic EQ
← Global voicing EQ
1kHz
1
Level
0
Engineer's note
File 080
The warbling, underwater verse of Superunknown's biggest single — and the surprise is who played it. Chris Cornell tracked the rhythm on a Gretsch Duo Jet through a real Leslie 16 rotary cabinet driven by a Marshall; Kim Thayil handled the leads. The off-kilter shimmer is the spinning rotor plus a tape-speed trick that nudged the whole song ~3/4 semitone sharp of drop D. The album's heavier tones blend a Marshall and a Mesa Dual Rectifier.
— Kim Thayil
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