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Top 10 Guitar Tones Ever Recorded

April 26, 2008 | in Music | 4 Comments

The quintessential rock instrument, the guitar is capable of making an extraordinary range of colors, textures and tones. Here's our 10 favorites.

Listen to the songs discussed via the fancy and convenient Amazon Widget to the right →

#10 Handsome — Thrown Away

Guitarist

Peter Mengede/Tom Capone

Album

Handsome

The opening riff is what it sounds like to be attacked by a shark. Ripping, flesh-tearing, bone-crunching, chromatic chords playing at odd angles with the drummer. An excellent opening to a song, and an excellent opening to our list.

#9 Led Zeppelin — Four Sticks

Guitarist

Jimmy Page

Album

Led Zeppelin IV

An unexpected choice from the Led Zeppelin vault maybe, but I've always loved how ancient this sounds. Jimmy Page's layers of guitars are most satisfying when they're not perfectly in sync, showing natural human error that you just don't see anymore in modern digital recording. Instead of synthetic studio polish, Page was the master of adding patina.

#8 The Smiths — This Charming Man

Guitarist

Johnny Marr

Album

The Smiths

In bright contrast with the guttural tones on this list is Johnny Marr's rollicking This Charming Man, a brilliant symphony of 35 different guitars stitched into a beautiful cohesive whole. Jangles, crazy tunings and weird phrasing all meld into a pop aural masterpiece—an amazing studio guitar achievement.

#7 Led Zeppelin — Whole Lotta Love

Guitarist

Jimmy Page

Album

Led Zeppelin II

A more obvious Zeppelin choice and perennial crowd favorite. Forget about the main riff, the theramin, the slide or any of the other guitars in there, it's the solo that drives me nuts about this song. Always has. That brilliant, brittle, screaming dry note he's able to coax out in the bends is absolutely amazing and—for me—inimitable.

#6 Sonic Youth — Candle

Guitarist

Thurston Moore/Lee Ranaldo

Album

Daydream Nation

You can lose yourself in a Sonic Youth album. Where to start? I chose Candle from their critically acclaimed Daydream Nation. Again, layers upon layers of guitar, unique tunings, unique playing methods. The harmonic agreement and disagreement is really what gets me, and how it builds tension and resolution in the song. Crazy, beautiful stuff.

#5 Six Finger Satellite — Dark Companion

Guitarist

John McLean

Album

Severe Exposure

Pure, raw energy is expressed in this 1:40 gem by Providence, RI noisemeisters Six Finger Satellite. The guitar is a titanium chainsaw tearing through chords, leaving the listener wonder "what the hell have I gotten myself into?!?". I can't understand the lyrics, but I can't help but believe the Dark Companion is something truly sinister...

#4 Metallica — Master of Puppets

Guitarist

James Hetfield

Album

Master of Puppets

Tell me you don't remember the first time you heard the opening riff to this song. You know exactly where you were. You were in your buddy's pickup, underage, drinking ill-begotten beer from a can, possibly hating your parents...

No? Okay, well you still probably remember the first time you heard it. This is the guitar riff of the mid-eighties—the Stairway to Heaven of my generation. In the world of heavy guitar, it is a thing of brutal, aggressive beauty.

#3 Queens of the Stone Age — Tangled Up In Plaid

Guitarist

Josh Homme

Album

Lullabies To Paralyze

Raw, raw, raw rock guitar tone in the chorus. It sounds like a pure tube amp, boiling hot and turned up as high as it will possibly go. Beautiful.

#2 AC/DC — Whole Lotta Rosie

Guitarist

Malcolm/Angus Young

Album

Let There Be Rock

Yeah, you're never going to get through one of these Top 10 lists without seeing the Young brothers. Sorry, that's just how it is. They're the quintessential rhythm/lead duo, and that's what rock guitar sounds like.

Now Angus, he normally gets the props. He's got the schoolboy outfit, he does the dance-around thing, he rides the singer's shoulders; he's got vibrato that most players would give their left one for. But me, I think the magic is all Malcolm, and I believe it's his contribution that truly makes their sound. Angus' SG + Marshall combination is pure gold, but Malcolm's Gretsch + Marshall is where the grit and the guts are.

#1 Shudder to Think — Chakka

Guitarist

Craig Wedren/Nathan Larson

Album

Pony Express Record

Never before and not since have I heard such a perfect marriage of cacophonous chords and guitar distortion. There's a maniacal genius behind this whole album—brooding tones, odd metered rhythms, disjointed yet profound lyrics—that comes to a head during Chakka, the 9th song of this brilliant album. Chords collide, space insists on breath, all hell breaks loose.

Caution: this album is not for everyone. But for those who it appeals to, the feeling runs deep. It's funny, whenever I meet a fellow Shudder to Think fan it's almost like meeting an old friend. There's an immediate understanding about something inexplicable.

Postscript

"Why wasn't X or Y or Z mentioned???" If you have suggestions, that's what comments are for! Please leave your thoughts below.

Something that occurred to me looking over this list is how dated it was. You can probably guess which year I graduated high school by reading these selections. At some point I'll probably churn out or update this list with newer entries. What about the opening notes to Pinback's Non-Photo Blue? The octave pedal drive of CkY's Flesh Into Gear? There'll be more to come.

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