This post contains independently chosen affiliate links. See full affiliate disclosure. The magic of Slash’s iconic guitar tone on Sweet Child O’ Mine isn’t just distortion, it’s the smooth, liquid sustain and the dark, vocal-like resonance of the neck pickup. Slash famously used a hot-rodded Marshall sound that was thick without being fizzy. The Original … Read more
That chugging, “galloping” rhythm in Barracuda is one of the most recognizable guitar moments in classic rock. It isn’t just about the notes—it’s a masterclass in how to use a flanger as a rhythmic instrument. To nail this tone, you need a specific blend of 1970s tube saturation and a modulation sweep that sounds like a jet engine caught in a vacuum.
The riff that launched a thousand stadium anthems is one of the great “sonic illusions” in rock history. While it sounds like a heavy, distorted bass guitar, there isn’t a single bass string on the track. It’s all Jack White, one semi-hollow guitar, and a legendary pitch-shifting trick.
The guitar sound on American Girl is the gold standard for “jangle.” It’s bright, rhythmic, and has a specific “3D” quality that comes from the interplay between Tom Petty’s rhythm and Mike Campbell’s lead. You can recreate it and you don’t need a vintage 1964 Rickenbacker and a wall of Vox amps to get there, you just need the right modern ingredients.
You’d be forgiven for thinking Hazy Shade of Winter was a Bangles original. By the time the 1980s rolled around, most people who knew the original artists well, Simon & Garfunkel, probably thought of it as a deep cut from their Bookends album. It has been released in 1966 as a single, though, and it … Read more
When the Rolling Stones recorded As Tears Go By, as iconic a Stones song as they come, they were actually covering their on song. It was written by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Andrew Loog Oldham in the early 1960s. However, The group was then mainly focused on blue-based music. They wrote the song for Marianne … Read more
She’ll only come out at night…” For decades, we all thought we knew exactly who the “Maneater” was. But years after the song topped the charts, John Oates and Daryl Hall started telling a different story, one involving corporate greed and New York City. Is the song really a social commentary, or is this a … Read more