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Top 10 Guitar Tones Ever Recorded
in the category: Music
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?
Leave a Comment
Let's keep it polite and on topic.
Brian May. I can see that, although his tone always sounded so…compressed…or something. Like a Satriani predecessor or something. But enough people (whose opinions I respect) love Brian May, so I hear ya.
I’d actually prolly dump Handsome from the list and swap in Prince’s solo from Let’s Go Crazy or the beginning of When Doves Cry. Prince (and *not* 311 or CkY) is the reason I bought an octave pedal.
John | April 28, 2008
Hey there,
Great to see STT getting some much-deserved respect (although I feel there are other songs on PER that have better clean and dirty sounds…Own Me…solo in X-French). Do you know what gear he used for that album? I’m guessing he used Marshalls and Fender tube in a variety of configurations.
(going to the STT reunion at Webster!!)
asdf@asdf.tv | August 25, 2008
No, unfortunately I don’t know what they used to record it. I last saw them at the Empty Bottle when they were touring for the First Love/Last Rites thing, and it seemed to be a mixed bag for their live performance, like you’re saying. So good, tho. So good.
I bought and wanted to love Nathan Larson’s “Mind Science of the Mind”, and it had some OK tracks on it, but… Pony Express was the magic.
John | September 09, 2008
I don’t know who your number one is… so that auto quals me as uncool.
Sonic Youth - w00t!!!
JT | November 18, 2009
vanhalen??????????????
rus rus | November 26, 2009
rus rus—Van Halen is definitely amazing technically, and “the brown tone” is legendary, but I guess he didn’t make the list because his tone isn’t (to me) what makes him great. If the production on the earlier albums was different, maybe I’d think differently, but…
Vin—thanks brother! What are some of your favorites?
John at Hella Sound | December 22, 2009
bullshit list metallica in front of led zeppelin the gods of rock blasphemy
mike | October 28, 2010
Adam jones?!?!?!?!?
Where is he?????
Ken | February 01, 2011
Ooooh I think you have a point with Adam Jones. Ænema is definitely a classic.
John | February 01, 2011
Nice list. Your inclusion of Nathan Larson is right on, sir. One of the underappreciated talents of our time. I feel lucky to have lived close to the band so that I got to see them many many times. He always kept my attention focused. GREAT guitarist, stylist.
Johnny Riggs | February 25, 2011
Hey guys! Nathan formerly of Shudder To Think here, I want to thank you for the props, that’s extremely kind. We did work hard on those records but I just wanted to geek out for a moment re gear on this entire album:
Me: a 1968 Gibson LP Custom, the first “good” guitar I bought as a youngster. The fact that the salesperson tried to sell me a Kramer instead should date that purchase. This guitar straight into a Marshall 100 Watt Super Lead (the model just prior to the JCM 800). I would usually have two cabs running. That is IT.
Craig: A Schecter Tele knock off thru a Mesa Boogie combo amp (don’t remember the model, it had one 12 inch speaker I think)
That is all. The only pedal we both used on the entire album was a Boss Heavy Metal 1 pedal (the first one, it was glitchy and amazing), and that only for noisy accents. When I need to do cleaner tones, I would just roll back the volume on my neck pickup, exactly as I always did live.
Anyways it was that simple. We came from the Dischord records school and just didn’t know there were options. Seems like a good thing that we were kind of clueless.
Thanks again and all best !!
Nathan
Nathan Larson | February 26, 2011
Thanks Nathan! I’m glad you guys didn’t indulge in “options”—what you ended up with was simply amazing. It sounded to me like a similar set-up (but different production) on Mind Science of the Mind, another album I totally dug.
John | February 26, 2011
Thanks man! We did that Mind Science thing super quick, just for fun, exactly the same gear on my end (it was all I had!)....Mary Timony was playing some crazy Paul Reed Smith thing through an old Twin. I think she had a RAT pedal too.
Not a bad list, but I gotta’ say no guitar tone list would be complete without paying due respect to Brian May of Queen. Most notably the tones and tracks on A Night at The Opera and News of the World. It’s like he shrunk the London Philharmonic and put them up for holiday in his guitar.
Kevin Meldorf | April 28, 2008