Heartbreaker guitar tone

The rig Led Zeppelin used

Researched from interviews, production write-ups and gear histories — not guessed.

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.

1. 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard

   1

   the guitar on both the riff and the solo

   guitar
2. Marshall Super Lead 100

   2

   the amplifier for the whole song

   amp
3. Marshall 1960 4x12 with pre-Rola Celestion G12M speakers

   3

   the speaker voice

   cab
4. Close dynamic microphone on the cabinet

   4

   close capture

   mic

Why we think this is right

One prior claim is rejected here and it is worth being explicit about, because it would have shipped as a second amplifier that does not exist. The prior research mapped the isolated solo to a 'Supro combo (small, overdriven midrange - solo overdub)'. There is no evidence for a Supro on this track. The Supro belongs to the documented story of the first Led Zeppelin album, and by the second album Page had moved to the Les Paul and the Marshall Super Lead, which is what every account of these sessions describes. The claim is recorded and rejected, not quietly deleted. What is true, and is a better explanation of why the solo sounds different, is that the solo was recorded at a different time and in a different room from the rest of the song and edited into the master. That is documented, and it accounts for the change in ambience and level without inventing a second amplifier. It is written into the solo scene. The rest of the prior chain is confirmed: the 1959 Les Paul, the Super Lead run flat out, greenback-loaded 4x12s. The one block held down is the microphone, which is nowhere credited; it is certainly there, the specific model is not established, and the confidence says so rather than borrowing certainty from the blocks around it.

Sources

• Led Zeppelin II (1969) recording history: the solo section of this song was recorded at a different studio from the surrounding track and edited into the master
• Documentation of Page's switch to the 1959 Les Paul Standard, acquired from Joe Walsh, as his main instrument from 1969
• Reported use of a Marshall Super Lead-family head for the Led Zeppelin II sessions
• The recording itself, for the unaccompanied solo break and the absence of any pedal in the guitar sound

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