Rock and Roll 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 the whole track

   guitar
2. Marshall 1959 Super Lead 100

   2

   the amplifier, at full output

   amp
3. Marshall 1960 4x12 with Celestion G12M speakers

   3

   the speaker voice

   cab
4. Close dynamic with a room microphone

   4

   close and distant capture

   mic

Why we think this is right

The prior chain for this song is correct and is confirmed: the 1959 Les Paul, a Super Lead at full output, greenback 4x12s, a close and a distant microphone, and nothing else in the path. No claim needed rejecting. What the record lacked was any structure at all - it carried a single scene called 'Main (cranked)' covering the entire track. Two things are added. First, the song does not begin with a guitar. It begins with an unaccompanied drum figure, and the band arrives after it. That is written as a scene with no guitar in it, so that a player is not handed a guitar tone for bars in which no guitar plays. Second, the solo is separated from the rhythm - but deliberately not by making it louder or dirtier. A Super Lead has one channel, no gain control and no master volume, and there is no pedal on this recording. The solo and the riff are physically the same sound. What is written is what actually differs: the tone control opened up, the playing moved up the neck, and the arrangement thinned out behind it. The only block held below the rest is the microphone. Page's close-plus-distant technique is well documented in general, but no microphone is credited for this session, so the block carries the technique with medium confidence rather than naming models it cannot support.

Sources

• Led Zeppelin IV (1971) recording history: Headley Grange with the Rolling Stones Mobile and Island Studios
• Documentation of Page's 1959 Les Paul Standard and Marshall Super Lead amplification in 1971
• Page's published accounts of his close-plus-distant microphone technique
• The recording itself, for the unaccompanied drum introduction and for the absence of any pedal in the guitar sound

More example tones

• HeartbreakerLed Zeppelin
• Black DogLed Zeppelin
• Immigrant SongLed Zeppelin
• OneMetallica
• BatteryMetallica
• Sad But TrueMetallica