Hysteria guitar tone

The rig Muse 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. Manson MB-1 (custom, built-in Z.Vex Fuzz Factory)

   1

   guitar
2. Z.Vex Fuzz Factory (on-board)

   2

   drive
3. DigiTech Whammy IV

   3

   pitch
4. Diezel VH4 (Channel 3)

   4

   amp
5. V30-loaded 4x12 (Soldano/Diezel)

   5

   cab
6. Shure SM57 (close)

   6

   mic

Why we think this is right

The stored record was right about the guitar, the fuzz, the amp and the cab, and all of that is restated here unchanged. What it was missing was the pitch shifter - while simultaneously asserting it in prose: the curated section mapping already read 'Diezel VH4 high-gain with whammy/fuzz' for the solo, so the data contradicted itself and the writer had nothing to build the solo from. Added as a DigiTech Whammy IV (the generation in production and on his board in 2003) with real settings - 1 OCT UP, +12 semitones at full toe, 100% wet - bound engaged in the solo and explicitly bypassed in the intro and the verse/chorus so nothing runs an octave shifter under the main riff. Confidence is held in the high 60s: the Whammy on the Absolution-era board is well documented and the octave-up solo peaks are audible, but the exact treadle choreography is not published, so the pedal position is given as an inference and labelled as one.

Sources

• Premier Guitar / MuseWiki / Equipboard rig documentation for the Absolution era: Manson custom with on-board Z.Vex Fuzz Factory into a Diezel VH4 through V30 4x12s.
• Matt Bellamy pedalboard documentation showing the DigiTech Whammy as a standing board fixture from Origin of Symmetry onward.
• The song's own stored section->amp mapping, which already named 'whammy/fuzz' on the solo without a corresponding block.

More example tones

• MK UltraMuse
• Plug In BabyMuse
• OneMetallica
• BatteryMetallica
• Sad But TrueMetallica
• Summer of '69Bryan Adams