The Number of the Beast guitar tone
Iron Maiden · Dave Murray & Adrian Smith
The Number of the Beast (1982)
high-gain galloping metal rhythm + lead
The rig Iron Maiden used
Researched from interviews, production write-ups and gear histories — not guessed.
Guitar
Fender Stratocaster (modified, DiMarzio Super Distortion humbuckers - Murray); Ibanez Destroyer II (Smith)
Amplifier
Marshall JMP 2203 (100W master volume) and Marshall JMP 2204 (50W master volume)
Cabinet
Marshall 1960A 4x12 (Celestion G12-65)
Microphone
Shure SM57
Signal chain
The order the original sound was built in. The exact settings get dialled for your own amp or modeller when you generate the tone.
Get this tone on your rig
Pick your amp or modeller and we’ll build The Number of the Beast for it — with a preset file you can load, not a list of knob positions.
Why we think this is right
The Number of the Beast was cut at Battery Studios, London, with Martin Birch producing. The canonical Maiden voice is a humbucker-modified Fender Stratocaster - Dave Murray's black Strat with DiMarzio Super Distortion - into cranked Marshall master-volume heads and Celestion 4x12s. Two changes to the stored record: Adrian Smith's red Ibanez Destroyer II is added as a real block, because he played it through this album and the title track's first solo is his, and a second Marshall (the 50W JMP 2204) is added, because a two-guitarist band consolidated onto one amp block leaves the mapper unable to build the second guitar. In 1982 Marshall's master-volume heads still carried the JMP badge, so JMP 2203/2204 is the era-correct naming rather than JCM800. An MXR Distortion+ is added strictly as a lead boost - there is no distortion pedal on the gallop, which is pure cranked amp - and the evidence for it is gear-database level rather than an interview, so it sits at low confidence. The stored record's unnamed 'tape/space echo' is resolved to a Roland RE-201 and a studio plate is added for the solos; both are period inferences carrying honest confidence. There is no wah, no chorus, no phaser and no octave anywhere on this song.
Sources
- Guitar World / Guitar Player interviews with Dave Murray and Adrian Smith
- Martin Popoff - 'Iron Maiden: Album by Album'
- Premier Guitar rig features - Iron Maiden
- Fender - Dave Murray artist feature (modified Stratocaster, DiMarzio Super Distortion)
- Equipboard - Adrian Smith and Dave Murray gear pages