Peace Sells guitar tone

The rig Megadeth 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. Jackson King V

   1

   source

   guitar
2. Marshall JCM800 2203

   2

   amp

   amp
3. Marshall 1960 4x12 (Celestion Greenback)

   3

   cab

   cab
4. Shure SM57

   4

   mic

   mic

Why we think this is right

Dave Mustaine's mid-1980s rhythm sound is documented as a Jackson King V into a cranked Marshall JCM800 2203 with a Greenback-loaded 1960 4x12, close-miked with an SM57. No Boss SD-1 is included: a tightening boost in front of a JCM800 is era-typical practice but nothing ties one to this record, and the amplifier on its own accounts for what is heard. One thing worth saying plainly for anyone chasing this sound: the famous opening riff everybody hums is David Ellefson's bass, not a guitar, and the guitars do not enter until after it. Correction made this pass. The solo on 'Peace Sells' is not Mustaine's. Chris Poland was Megadeth's lead guitarist for this album and played the solos on it, which is consistently reported and is the one thing about the lead that is actually established. What is NOT established is any gear or setting he changed for it: accounts of his 1986 rig disagree even on the guitar - a modified Stratocaster in some tellings, a B.C. Rich in others - and the only point they agree on is that he too was into a JCM800. No boost, no second head, no channel switch and no pickup change is documented for the solo. The record previously shipped it as a second scene separated from the rhythm by preamp gain 7.5 against 8.0 and master 6.0 against 6.5. Half a notch on a 0-10 dial is not a tone; it is a scene the player has to read, choose and switch to for nothing audible, and it is exactly the fabricated differentiation this catalogue is supposed to avoid. Inventing Poland a boost to keep the two scenes apart would have been worse than merging them, so they are merged and the reason is written here rather than hidden.

Sources

• Dave Mustaine rig-history features (Ground Guitar)
• Jackson and Mustaine signature-model history
• Chris Poland lead-guitar credits and rig accounts for the Peace Sells era
• Peace Sells... but Who's Buying? (1986) album credits

More example tones

• In My Darkest HourMegadeth
• OneMetallica
• BatteryMetallica
• Sad But TrueMetallica
• Summer of '69Bryan Adams
• Sweet Child O' MineGuns N' Roses