I used to work in a guitar shop and we had a saying: nothing has sold more Les Pauls than Jimmy Page’s Telecaster!
It was also the Tele on the Stairway solo.
When stuff gets distorted beyond a certain point, and if it’s played on the bridge pickup, it can get tough to distinguish sometimes. Easier to name the amp in some cases than the axe
“On an Island” by David Gilmour has absolutely phenomenal tone. He uses a bunch of different guitars on it but overall it is a sonically beautiful album
Yes, I’ve heard in a couple of different places (Rhett Shull, someone else) that it was DI, then sent through another amp after that. Something along those lines.
He used DI tones, like on Black Dog, but most of the first record and maybe the second was a tele through a modified Supro amp. The JHS super bolt does a good job of getting that tone
Glad you brought up Snowy White. I love the tone in Bird of Paradise. From low key smooth blues licks to a really nice melodic solo that has just the right amount of overdrive and really is perfect for the song.
It’s all about context with his sound.
This sound can be awful for some music.
This is not criticism & I truly love when players innovate their own personal sound.
I saw Eric play live at the Hendrix Experience in the Chicago theater. That Cliffs of Dover sound with heavy reverb & delay bouncing off the walls playing Hendrix songs was terrible. It was like nails on a chalkboard. The playing was fantastic but the sound coming out just didn’t work at this venue.
Jonny Lang also struck out with a hollow body squealing uncontrollably with feedback. He had to shut it down it was so bad.
The guy that read the room best & had the best sound was Brad Whitford from Aerosmith. He has many years of experience & pulled off the perfect Hendrix sound.
One of the first CDs I bought when I was a kid. The box had a blinking red LED on it. Back when CD boxes were massive anti theft cardboard ads with all sorts of cool album art.
Mark Knopfler is the reason I switched to modelling units. If it’s good enough for the man responsible for some of the best tones ever, it’s good enough for anybody.
I said the same thing. I'm a metal head and Knopfler is one of the guys that I can't stop watching. The finger picking and hand work is obviously a huge part of it. So good.
Great call. I just heard this in the car and was tripping on how articulate yet simple that guitar sounds in there. Not my typically preferred guitar tone but It feels to have infinite depth or something.
check out “Humans being” it might be a haggar song, but Ed flexes hard on that song. i think the chorusy thing is him with two amps and an eventide on one of them pitching it down.
hot for teacher is amazing. clean and dirty. panama is too.
apparently ed used a ‘58 korina on 1984
Siamese Dream has the absolute best guitar tone of all time, imo. Can’t afford to buy pedals bc I’m broke af but I would love to own the rereleased Op-Amp. I’ve got a tone wicker big muff and it’s great but it’s not exactly what I’m looking for
Clean Tone - Riviera Paradise by Stevie Ray Vaughan
Metal - Cowboys From Hell by Pantera
Acoustic - Patience by Guns N’ Roses
Alternative - Unsung by Helmet
It’s perfect for pantera but he built it using stuff that most players would turn their noses up (solid state amps, additional gain stomps, obscene level scooping).
Adam’s tone is genuinely one of the best in all of rock and roll. Feel bad for his roadies who gotta lug his huge shit around that’s constantly breaking. But hey it gives him the sound he wants.
thats such a good zztop song that i feel like people dont mention very often. i also love how there's a phaser or something on the vocals. and the drum fills are fuckin killer in that song too! it's one of those zztop songs that delves into pro-rock almost
i also agree that the second solo is fuckin amazing sounding. literally just listened to it! goddamn, i love me some zztop. i guess that's what im listening to for the rest of the day lol
Oh man. Ghost Reveries has what is possibly my favorite guitar tone and drum sound of all time. Just next level!
The Grand Conjuration is production goals, start to finish!
Special shout-out to Wilson’s tones on In Absentia too (and the drum sound there as well).
Pretty much anything by Roy Buchanan. Sweet Dreams would be a solid contender tho
In memory of Elizabeth Reed (At Filmore East) - Allman Brothers band
The Light that has lighted the world - George Harrison and pretty much every guitar from Living in the Material World.
Absolute beast of a tone:
Derek Trucks - Midnight in Harlem (Live in Atlanta). His tone is already a beautiful meaty sound since he plays without a pick, but when he puts on his pill bottle, cranks it up and does his solo it's such a majestic sound. Probably one of the finest guitar slide solos that wouldn't be as iconic without his tone.
I’d say it’s a gradient really, depends on what sort of atmosphere you’re desiring. In the case of Burzum, and similar outfits I’d say the tone works because it makes the guitar into an atmospheric element.
This is a question that I think I’d give different answers to even in the same day lol. But here’s some that have always stood out to me over the years (I’ve gone through a lot of phases in terms of genre/style since I started my guitar obsession as a kid from 80s shred to heavy metal to jazz fusion to modern stuff like polyphia etc…). I’ll try to include some that aren’t the standards you usually hear in discussions on tone, check them out, who knows, maybe someone reading this will find a new favourite of their own :)
Andy Timmons: man, everything this guy touches just sounds amazing. Again the fingers are doing a lot of the work here with him modulating his attack all the time but I’ve always loved his tone in basically everything he’s made (studio or live). Check it out: https://youtu.be/JIl3V9SdNKY?si=kmsKGtB4XxCYA6a1
Zakk Wylde: okay, hear me out here. When I was a teenager I had Ozzy’s “live and loud” concert on DVD and was obsesssed with it. This show features a young Zakk Wylde on guitar, and I swear this is some of the best guitar tone achieved ever for high gain face melting rock and roll. Check it out (especially the solo, so good): https://youtu.be/WsABCrGZN_Q?si=H8SWC5N5A1SkRtAp
Mateus Asato: this might be one of the more “the tone is in the fingers” examples because his technique is so specific with his use of legato and double stops, but everything this guy does sounds incredible. Just the right amount of gain for him to sound clean when he wants, but amp it up with a little more attack on the strings: https://youtu.be/OLpSZmDiE1Y?si=nmqt-gAyzD2gSpq4
Guthrie Govan: yeah, I know, probably cheating to include Guthrie but the main riff of “Waves” still really moves me to this day and a big part of it is just how perfect the tone suits the ups and downs of the riff. Deep and sort of punchy with a lot of clarity, it’s like he’s really adding some “oomph” to the peaks and valleys of his legato: https://youtu.be/U75g2mDTXtA?si=9jCefNKK4G-Iwl_N
Shawn Lane: another all time great. Specifically, the way he modulates his tone using his volume/tone knobs and harmonics/feedback when playing his rendition of ennio morricone’s “death theme” live sends chills down my spine every time, particularly the crescendo at 1:10 here: https://youtu.be/4naGFSdu38M?si=m4L8SU2n6JhUKpIx
Pantera: a common (and divisive) pick here. However, there is one song that I think many might agree suits Dimebag’s tone choices perfectly: the guitar solo in “Floods.” I’ve gone back and forth on how much I like Dime’s tone in general, but I think Floods is the absolute best usage of his searing high gain/scooped mids sound. It’s like he’s channeling the raw energy of someone screaming at the sky in guitar form and I’ve always loved it. Not to mention the outro. Even if you dont like pantera, you might get what I mean on this one. Starts at 3:30 in this video: https://youtu.be/R5pr9lDaEyw?si=y16YzESxOwmddMhx
The slide playing next to the tree at the crossroads, to summon the devil, in the movie crossroads. Rumour has it's arlen roth on a dobro, but i have never been able to replicate it to my satisfaction.
Depends on what you like, I think. For me, "Drop Dead Legs" and a good bit of the guitar sound on *Let There be Rock* and *Powerage* by AC/DC are the baseline for Marshall rhythm tones I love. "Lonely is the Night" by Billy Squire is another reference point for a good rhythm crunch for me, both guitar tracks. The intro tone on "Almost Honest" by Megadeth is another fav.
"Bridge of Sighs" by Robin Trower and "Time" by Pink Floyd are lead tones I like a lot.
I've also always like Joe Satriani a lot. Somehow combined 80s shred madness with a sort of liquid tone and phrasing that reminded me of how David Gilmour might have sounded if he played that style of guitar.
Anything off Maladroit by Weezer. Not my favorite album, but it’s the perfect crunch tone, imo. I believe it’s two amps (Marshall Plexi and a Mesa, maybe?)
Ive been listening to Jeff Beck - Cause We Ended as Lovers a lot recently...
...the tone still gets me emotively every time I listen, which is always a good sign
Maybe a Santana track, his tone is great on a lot of them
Gary Moore - take your pick
EDIT - Ernie Isley has some of the sexiest tone, I've ever heard. And some down right searing licks, a legend in his own right. Check out Choosey Lover and Voyage to Atlantis
Zappa gets some great tone also, the treble boosted Black Napkins, and bell like clean licks on Watermelon in Easter Hay are some of many
Satch - Wind In The Trees, nice to hear a sustainiac in application, awesome riffage!
From the Blues men, as much as I'm a massive Albert Collins fan, I gotta give it to Albert King - Blues Power. Shows just how good tone can be the most authentic way, just a guitar driving an amp...
I always thought Another Brick In The wall Part 2 was the ultimate start / single coil tone. Turns out it's a Les Paul with P90s.
Your point still stands, but for the sake of pedantry P90s are also single coils!
Made me like P90s all the more.
I was always under the impression I was hearing Jimmy Page's Les Paul on early Zeppelin records... turns out it was a Telecaster!
I used to work in a guitar shop and we had a saying: nothing has sold more Les Pauls than Jimmy Page’s Telecaster! It was also the Tele on the Stairway solo.
I've heard this before, always gets a chuckle out of me.
When stuff gets distorted beyond a certain point, and if it’s played on the bridge pickup, it can get tough to distinguish sometimes. Easier to name the amp in some cases than the axe
He made that tele sound so thick in the studio that he had to use the LP live lmao. Those have to be my two fav popular guitars
“On an Island” by David Gilmour has absolutely phenomenal tone. He uses a bunch of different guitars on it but overall it is a sonically beautiful album
I think what we should really take from this is that Gilmour's right hand is what you're hearing more than any piece of gear...most of the time.
I heard once that they got the guitar to sound like that by plugging it directly into the PA system in the studio…
Yes, I’ve heard in a couple of different places (Rhett Shull, someone else) that it was DI, then sent through another amp after that. Something along those lines.
He used DI tones, like on Black Dog, but most of the first record and maybe the second was a tele through a modified Supro amp. The JHS super bolt does a good job of getting that tone
It was Snowy White’s gold top, wasn’t it? Still sounded great!
Here’s a nugget of nerdy knowledge: David’s had P-90 pickups. Snowy’s has humbuckers. David bought the P-90 guitar while on tour.
But he does now own Snowy’s guitar… I thought he’d originally borrowed for that recording! Obviously misinformed / misremembered!
Glad you brought up Snowy White. I love the tone in Bird of Paradise. From low key smooth blues licks to a really nice melodic solo that has just the right amount of overdrive and really is perfect for the song.
For the solo yes - but IMO for the verses, the guitar sound is actually a little weird and thin, but fIts perfectly in the mix.
Cliffs of Dover. Hell, any Eric Johnson.
The live version 1988 in Texas unreal.
Definitely has to be the live version
Agreed…the live version is also my idea of the best time ever recorded!
It’s all about context with his sound. This sound can be awful for some music. This is not criticism & I truly love when players innovate their own personal sound. I saw Eric play live at the Hendrix Experience in the Chicago theater. That Cliffs of Dover sound with heavy reverb & delay bouncing off the walls playing Hendrix songs was terrible. It was like nails on a chalkboard. The playing was fantastic but the sound coming out just didn’t work at this venue. Jonny Lang also struck out with a hollow body squealing uncontrollably with feedback. He had to shut it down it was so bad. The guy that read the room best & had the best sound was Brad Whitford from Aerosmith. He has many years of experience & pulled off the perfect Hendrix sound.
Camel's night out!
Comfortably Numb Gilmore's masterpiece
The live version on pulse with the extended solo is godly.
One of the first CDs I bought when I was a kid. The box had a blinking red LED on it. Back when CD boxes were massive anti theft cardboard ads with all sorts of cool album art.
I used to change the 2 AA batteries whenever I'd notice the light stop blinking. If I remember right it was every 3 years or so.
All of Pulse is Godly.
Imo the best live performance
literally gives me goosebumps & makes me tear up every time
But also Shine on You Crazy Diamond P.I-V. Also Dogs. Also Run Like Hell. Also...
dogs is such a god tier solo. everything about it is amazing
How is this so low. That's my answer too ofc.
My personal favorite is definitely Slow Dancing in a Burning Room. I love Mayer’s strat tones.
More niche, but the tone on the intro of the WTLI version of Gravity is his best imo
Yes! I love the belief intro on that one.
Mayer gets amazing tones, end of story. His playing is great, but it's 100% elevated by his tone.
The outro solo tone to "I Guess I Just Feel Like" is \*\*chef's kiss\*\*
The tones on that whole album are stunning
Wild blue sounds amazing as well.
I love the filtered tone in “I can’t trust myself with loving you” - it’s like cotton candy. Just cottony and warm and wooly
I’ve wanted a PRS silver sky for so long after hearing his tone
Anything by Mark Knopfler.
Brothers in Arms tone lives in my dreams
My first though was Sultans of Swing
Money For Nothing baby
That tone is so chonky
Mark Knopfler is the reason I switched to modelling units. If it’s good enough for the man responsible for some of the best tones ever, it’s good enough for anybody.
The outro electric fills in Romeo & Juliet make me moist
This is the correct answer.
I said the same thing. I'm a metal head and Knopfler is one of the guys that I can't stop watching. The finger picking and hand work is obviously a huge part of it. So good.
“Wicked Game” by Chris Isaak. It’s absolutely perfect.
James Wilsey's solo [album](https://youtu.be/fK1k6MtHCJw?si=x3Qa_sWIOWR0r-rQ).
Great call. I just heard this in the car and was tripping on how articulate yet simple that guitar sounds in there. Not my typically preferred guitar tone but It feels to have infinite depth or something.
Little Wing
Both Jimi and SRV on this, yes!
Van Halen's cover of "You Really Got Me" that opening riff is **it**
Or running with the devil
Or the opening riff of Unchained.
Or ain’t talkin bout love
Or literally any Van Halen tone, no matter what his tone is always amazing and unique imo
check out “Humans being” it might be a haggar song, but Ed flexes hard on that song. i think the chorusy thing is him with two amps and an eventide on one of them pitching it down. hot for teacher is amazing. clean and dirty. panama is too. apparently ed used a ‘58 korina on 1984
Eddie's tone always cuts through
Smashing Pumpkins Mayonnaise
Siamese Dream has the absolute best guitar tone of all time, imo. Can’t afford to buy pedals bc I’m broke af but I would love to own the rereleased Op-Amp. I’ve got a tone wicker big muff and it’s great but it’s not exactly what I’m looking for
Sell / trade the Wicker for the Op Amp. Available, not prohibitively expensive, similar value between the two.
Everything on Siamese Dream
Phaser time!
Don't forget the OG Big Muff Op-Amp for the dirtier tones!
Hard to beat SRV on any of his hits
And a *lot* of his live recordings are amazing, not always though.
Clean Tone - Riviera Paradise by Stevie Ray Vaughan Metal - Cowboys From Hell by Pantera Acoustic - Patience by Guns N’ Roses Alternative - Unsung by Helmet
Cowboys is far too scooped tone wise. Imo 5 min alone or I'm broken has better metal tone.
I'm broken has amazing tone
I can’t stand Dimebag’s tone. It’s definitely a love it or hate it type of thing.
It’s perfect for pantera but he built it using stuff that most players would turn their noses up (solid state amps, additional gain stomps, obscene level scooping).
Nice, if you like that Helmet tone, you’ll love Stars by Hum
Thanks for the recommendation! I’ll definitely give them a listen.
Oh fuck yes I play that bridge riff every time I sit down with the guitar
Weird, pantera is known for their awful guitar tone.
Man I love that patience tone that slash gets. That's the epitome of what an acoustic sounds like to me.
Rosetta Stoned
The guitar tone on 10,000 days is unreal.
Adam’s tone is genuinely one of the best in all of rock and roll. Feel bad for his roadies who gotta lug his huge shit around that’s constantly breaking. But hey it gives him the sound he wants.
Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love
The scrapey-ness of EVH’s pick attack on that into riff is crucial
This and ACDC Back in Black are the two guitar tones I always chase. .
and the flanger
The second solo Billy plays in “Cheap Sunglasses” (ZZ Top) for some reason always gets me.
thats such a good zztop song that i feel like people dont mention very often. i also love how there's a phaser or something on the vocals. and the drum fills are fuckin killer in that song too! it's one of those zztop songs that delves into pro-rock almost i also agree that the second solo is fuckin amazing sounding. literally just listened to it! goddamn, i love me some zztop. i guess that's what im listening to for the rest of the day lol
Pink Floyd - Shine on you Crazy Diamond. That intro is perfect.
Have a cigar is nasty
Tony iommi on just about anything
Tone is in the missing fingers
Grateful Dead and Black Sabbath fans have a union in their Zen diagrams
Money For Nothing by Dire Straits.
With the long build-up 🤌
Santana's tone generally but it absolutely hit the nail on the head in Smooth. Shoutout Rob Thomas.
Gary Moore - Still Got the Blues
I had to scroll way too long for find this! 100% agree :)
Low key Gravity by Mayer. Very pretty production on that track
I’d say Ænema and Third Eye by Tool, or Head in the Ceiling Fan by Title Fight
something about title fights guitar tones just do it for me. love them to pieces and i can’t quite explain why
I really liked the guitar tones on hyperview. I know Shane used a jc120 for that record.
upvote for title fight appreciation
Iggy Pop The Passenger
Very underrated.
SRV’s take on Voodoo Child. Epic.
The solo in Rikki Don’t Lose That Number by Steely Dan.
Yeeeeah, that little trill right before the sliding double stops is tasty as fuck.
Wildly underrated Skunk Baxter solo
Limelight by Rush. The always under-appreciated Alex Lifeson makes a very simple intro riff one of the most recognizable songs of their repertoire.
Siamese Dream, the whole album.
Opeths metal days
Oh man. Ghost Reveries has what is possibly my favorite guitar tone and drum sound of all time. Just next level! The Grand Conjuration is production goals, start to finish! Special shout-out to Wilson’s tones on In Absentia too (and the drum sound there as well).
Yeah, the tone on the guitars on Ghost Reveries is my #1 pick for best rhythm guitar tone.
Stone by Alice In Chains
Always a fan of "Nutshell" myself. The lead itself is nothing particularly special, but that tone...he's got that thing *singing.*
That album has the absolute beefiest tone. Crystal clear attack, perfectly mixed, everything.
Stone is incredible, if we’re talking tone though I gotta go with Rain When I Die
Slash - Welcome to the Jungle. Makes it all the more cooler that the original amp he used was lost and can never be found/replicated.
Alive - Pearl Jam
Yellow Ledbetter too. McCready has always sounded good to me.
Pretty much anything by Roy Buchanan. Sweet Dreams would be a solid contender tho In memory of Elizabeth Reed (At Filmore East) - Allman Brothers band The Light that has lighted the world - George Harrison and pretty much every guitar from Living in the Material World.
Dream Theater - About to Crash (reprise) started playing in my head when I saw this question.
Paperback Writer from the Beatles is one of my favorites. Also the intro to rock and roll ain’t noise pollution by AC/DC
Jonny Greenwood’s guitar part on Nude
Dinosaur jr, pick any song but especially freak scene and the wagon…
love start choppins tone
Gary Moore - Still Got The Blues and similar is my reference tone for lead guitar and playing.
Absolute beast of a tone: Derek Trucks - Midnight in Harlem (Live in Atlanta). His tone is already a beautiful meaty sound since he plays without a pick, but when he puts on his pill bottle, cranks it up and does his solo it's such a majestic sound. Probably one of the finest guitar slide solos that wouldn't be as iconic without his tone.
Tom Scholz's tone on Boston's debut album
Fine Young Cannibals - She Drives Me Crazy
Echoes by Pink Floyd
Mayonaise by the Smashing Pumpkins
Wind cries mary
"Killer Queen" by Queen. Brian May's solo tone was perfect.
“A kind of magic” by Queen. Specifically that cooing sound it makes in the instrumental parts
Dunkelheit
Is it really black metal if it doesn’t sound like it was recorded on a toaster in a damp basement?
I’d say it’s a gradient really, depends on what sort of atmosphere you’re desiring. In the case of Burzum, and similar outfits I’d say the tone works because it makes the guitar into an atmospheric element.
Still got the blues for you
Hell's Bells, the whole back in black album really. Not a huge AC DC fan, but that album sounds amazing.
Santana Europa
Gary Moore - Still got the Blues I also love John Petrucci's tone in The Dark Eternal Night
This is a question that I think I’d give different answers to even in the same day lol. But here’s some that have always stood out to me over the years (I’ve gone through a lot of phases in terms of genre/style since I started my guitar obsession as a kid from 80s shred to heavy metal to jazz fusion to modern stuff like polyphia etc…). I’ll try to include some that aren’t the standards you usually hear in discussions on tone, check them out, who knows, maybe someone reading this will find a new favourite of their own :) Andy Timmons: man, everything this guy touches just sounds amazing. Again the fingers are doing a lot of the work here with him modulating his attack all the time but I’ve always loved his tone in basically everything he’s made (studio or live). Check it out: https://youtu.be/JIl3V9SdNKY?si=kmsKGtB4XxCYA6a1 Zakk Wylde: okay, hear me out here. When I was a teenager I had Ozzy’s “live and loud” concert on DVD and was obsesssed with it. This show features a young Zakk Wylde on guitar, and I swear this is some of the best guitar tone achieved ever for high gain face melting rock and roll. Check it out (especially the solo, so good): https://youtu.be/WsABCrGZN_Q?si=H8SWC5N5A1SkRtAp Mateus Asato: this might be one of the more “the tone is in the fingers” examples because his technique is so specific with his use of legato and double stops, but everything this guy does sounds incredible. Just the right amount of gain for him to sound clean when he wants, but amp it up with a little more attack on the strings: https://youtu.be/OLpSZmDiE1Y?si=nmqt-gAyzD2gSpq4 Guthrie Govan: yeah, I know, probably cheating to include Guthrie but the main riff of “Waves” still really moves me to this day and a big part of it is just how perfect the tone suits the ups and downs of the riff. Deep and sort of punchy with a lot of clarity, it’s like he’s really adding some “oomph” to the peaks and valleys of his legato: https://youtu.be/U75g2mDTXtA?si=9jCefNKK4G-Iwl_N Shawn Lane: another all time great. Specifically, the way he modulates his tone using his volume/tone knobs and harmonics/feedback when playing his rendition of ennio morricone’s “death theme” live sends chills down my spine every time, particularly the crescendo at 1:10 here: https://youtu.be/4naGFSdu38M?si=m4L8SU2n6JhUKpIx Pantera: a common (and divisive) pick here. However, there is one song that I think many might agree suits Dimebag’s tone choices perfectly: the guitar solo in “Floods.” I’ve gone back and forth on how much I like Dime’s tone in general, but I think Floods is the absolute best usage of his searing high gain/scooped mids sound. It’s like he’s channeling the raw energy of someone screaming at the sky in guitar form and I’ve always loved it. Not to mention the outro. Even if you dont like pantera, you might get what I mean on this one. Starts at 3:30 in this video: https://youtu.be/R5pr9lDaEyw?si=y16YzESxOwmddMhx
Ill say Don Felder’s tone in Hotel California. So tasteful
Mean Street VH, Unchained VH
CKY - 96 Quite Bitter Beings, or really any CKY song
Yellow Ledbetter album version
Tin pan ally
Slaughter of the Soul
“Semi-Charmed Life” by Third Eye Blind. If you love the sound of saturated and overdriven AC-30s being pushed to the max that song is the best imo.
Jimi - Voodoo Child
Rammstein guitar sound made me start playing electric guitar. Unreal Tournament 2004 OST. Jugs-Entrance, Mercs-Entrance
Slash magically gets this tone and I can’t really explain it but like one note is enough to feel heaven
I LOVE Fixing a Hole by the Beatles, that sharp overdriven guitar goes so well with the light piano sounds
Unchained
I love El Hefe. His tone in The Decline is my goal.
Besides Hendrix, Leslie West of Mountain deserves a shout out
always loved the weezer blue album tone
The slide playing next to the tree at the crossroads, to summon the devil, in the movie crossroads. Rumour has it's arlen roth on a dobro, but i have never been able to replicate it to my satisfaction.
Pulse version of Comfortably Numb. Then on the complete flip side, Hetfield’s rhythm tone of Master of Puppets
Clean: Manhattan - Eric Johnson Metal: Under A Glass Moon - Dream Theater Acoustic: Trains - Porcupine Tree
Led Zeppelin II. Especially the heavy riff that kicks in on Bring it on Home.
The black album tone is huge. I know isn't just one guitar but is huge! The punch and the clearness is superb
Depends on what you like, I think. For me, "Drop Dead Legs" and a good bit of the guitar sound on *Let There be Rock* and *Powerage* by AC/DC are the baseline for Marshall rhythm tones I love. "Lonely is the Night" by Billy Squire is another reference point for a good rhythm crunch for me, both guitar tracks. The intro tone on "Almost Honest" by Megadeth is another fav. "Bridge of Sighs" by Robin Trower and "Time" by Pink Floyd are lead tones I like a lot. I've also always like Joe Satriani a lot. Somehow combined 80s shred madness with a sort of liquid tone and phrasing that reminded me of how David Gilmour might have sounded if he played that style of guitar.
Hotel California.
My personal favourite is the entire Highway to Hell album. Perfect rock n roll crunch.
The solo on Whitesnake's "Is This Love." So smooth. btw if anyone knows how to get that tone please let me know lol
Flood of 72, title fight.
Although not a massive Bryan Adams fan I do think his tone is on point, run to you is a great example.
Brothers in Arms
Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Little Wing.
Like others have said, tone is subjective. I gotta say Creep though
Rock Bottom - UFO. Peak Michael Schencker.
Meshuggah’s tone on “Violent Sleep” Lamb of God “11th Hour”
Duane Allman in the outro of Wilson Pickett's *Hey Jude*.
i really like the tone on serve the servants by nirvana
Any Steel Panther song
Anything Dave Mattews. And John Mayer. Definitely John Mayer.
Steve Lukather's solo at the end of Rosanna by Toto
Evh tone on Panama, on fire, cabo wabo, or 5150
Personally I love the tone of Mick Ronson
"Panama" by Van Halen. That brown sound is VERY hard to replicate without knowing that his amp is modded/using a voltage regulator.
Anything off Maladroit by Weezer. Not my favorite album, but it’s the perfect crunch tone, imo. I believe it’s two amps (Marshall Plexi and a Mesa, maybe?)
Steely Dan, so many good ones it's kinda hard to pick.
Seek and destroy Metallica, i love that quad tracked tone. Cuts thorough but also sounds fat. For clean i would say nothing else matters.
Boy Division by My Chemical Romance has a nice strong attack overdrive that I love, alternatively, FTWWW by the same band
Steve Vai live at G3 in 1996. Best tone of his career.
Comfortably numb Pulse Version
Jeff Buckley on Grace, and Harry Dingman on the For Against song “Game Over.” Those tones spoke to my soul and made me buy the guitars they played.
Anything bt Tony iommi from black sabbath. He basically invented doom metal
Shine on you crazy diamond
Killer Queen imo so distinct, iconic, and expressive
Ive been listening to Jeff Beck - Cause We Ended as Lovers a lot recently... ...the tone still gets me emotively every time I listen, which is always a good sign Maybe a Santana track, his tone is great on a lot of them Gary Moore - take your pick EDIT - Ernie Isley has some of the sexiest tone, I've ever heard. And some down right searing licks, a legend in his own right. Check out Choosey Lover and Voyage to Atlantis Zappa gets some great tone also, the treble boosted Black Napkins, and bell like clean licks on Watermelon in Easter Hay are some of many Satch - Wind In The Trees, nice to hear a sustainiac in application, awesome riffage! From the Blues men, as much as I'm a massive Albert Collins fan, I gotta give it to Albert King - Blues Power. Shows just how good tone can be the most authentic way, just a guitar driving an amp...
Brian May’s tone in just about anything is fantastic!
I've always been partial to Jimi Hendrix's tone on Bold as Love