Behind the Wall of Sleep
A raw, live-sounding riff with a boosted, low-gain bite.
What is the Behind the Wall of Sleep guitar tone?
The Behind the Wall of Sleep guitar tone is a raw, live-sounding riff with a boosted, low-gain bite, heard on Black Sabbath's 1970s heavy metal recording. It is a distorted riff tone, and Black Sabbath reportedly tracked it with Tony Iommi's rig for the first Black Sabbath album, which Guitar.com gives as a Laney LA100 BL, an amp Laney's Simon Fraser-Clark describes as single-channel, with very little gain and four EL34s, pushed by a modified Dallas Rangemaster that Iommi says boosted the input and gave the Laney the overdrive amps of the day did not have; Laney concluded in the early 1990s that the mod had turned the treble booster into a full-range boost; some claim a 50-watt Marshall, but Iommi says he had moved from Marshall to Laney by the first album; he began the album on a white Fender Stratocaster until a faulty pickup made him finish on a Gibson SG he had bought as a backup and never really played, and which songs went down on which guitar is not documented; apart from the two songs cut earlier at Trident, the band recorded the album at Regent Sounds Studio on Denmark Street in one 12-hour session on 17 November 1969, playing their live set with Ozzy Osbourne singing at the same time from a separate booth, and apart from the sound effects at the start of the opening track and the double-tracked solos on N.I.B. and Sleeping Village there were virtually no overdubs; the title refers to H. P. Lovecraft's story Beyond the Wall of Sleep, and the album came out on 13 February 1970 and reached number eight in the UK. The bite in this kind of heavy metal comes from a boost or drive pedal pushing a loud amp, so the tone is thick but never smooth, with the mids left in.
You do not need that exact gear to land in the same place. What carries this sound is the gain structure, the EQ curve, the pickup choice and the order of the effects, and all four can be rebuilt on equipment that costs a fraction of the original. The numbers change from amp to amp, because a high-gain head and a small practice amp reach the same voicing from different knob positions. That translation is what Tonelify works out for the rig you actually own.
Behind the Wall of Sleep amp settings: a starting point
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 7, Bass 6, Middle 6, Treble 6, Presence 5, Reverb 1, with the neck (rhythm) pickup for the chords, per a 1974 interview.
- Gain 7
- Bass 6
- Middle 6
- Treble 6
- Presence 5
- Reverb 1
- Signal chain
- Modded Dallas Rangemaster boost → Laney LA100 BL, very little gain
- The control that matters most
- The boost, not the gain knob. Iommi's amp on the first album had very little gain of its own, and he says the drive came from his modified Rangemaster, so set a loud, low-gain amp with the mids in and put a boost or drive pedal in front for the bite. The band played the album live in a day with virtually no overdubs, so a single guitar part played hard is close to what the record has.
These positions are free and they are a starting point. A Katana, a Spark and a valve head reach this voicing from different knob positions, so Tonelify rewrites every value above for the amp and guitar you own. Your first match is free with an account, and needs no card.
Adapt these to my amp- Pickup
- Neck (rhythm) pickup for the chords, per a 1974 interview
These are positions on a generic five-knob amp with gain, bass, middle, treble and presence, each running 0 to 10. They are a starting point, not the settings used on the record, and they will not transfer unchanged to an amp with a different gain structure or EQ voicing. If you tell Tonelify which amp you own, it rewrites every value above for the controls that amp actually has.
Does the Behind the Wall of Sleep tone sound off on your amp?
Pick what you hear. You get the knobs to turn from the starting point above, and how far.
Published settings
What amp settings did Tony Iommi use?
Volume, presence, middle and treble on 10 and no bass at all, with the guitar's volume on full, the toggle in the rhythm position for chords and in the treble position for solos. That is how a 1974 Guitar Player interview describes his Laney, and it says he used the same settings in the studio through one 100-watt Laney stack. The article explains the wide-open amp as a way round the different grounding in American venues, which left his Laneys performing below par. The interview came four years after the first Black Sabbath album, so read these as his settings of that era rather than a note from the session.
Source: Guitar Player: Tony Iommi's 1974 interview on the SG and Laney amps
What gear did Black Sabbath use on Behind the Wall of Sleep?
Tony Iommi's rig for the first Black Sabbath album, which Guitar.com gives as a Laney LA100 BL, an amp Laney's Simon Fraser-Clark describes as single-channel, with very little gain and four EL34s, pushed by a modified Dallas Rangemaster that Iommi says boosted the input and gave the Laney the overdrive amps of the day did not have; Laney concluded in the early 1990s that the mod had turned the treble booster into a full-range boost; some claim a 50-watt Marshall, but Iommi says he had moved from Marshall to Laney by the first album; he began the album on a white Fender Stratocaster until a faulty pickup made him finish on a Gibson SG he had bought as a backup and never really played, and which songs went down on which guitar is not documented; apart from the two songs cut earlier at Trident, the band recorded the album at Regent Sounds Studio on Denmark Street in one 12-hour session on 17 November 1969, playing their live set with Ozzy Osbourne singing at the same time from a separate booth, and apart from the sound effects at the start of the opening track and the double-tracked solos on N.I.B. and Sleeping Village there were virtually no overdubs; the title refers to H. P. Lovecraft's story Beyond the Wall of Sleep, and the album came out on 13 February 1970 and reached number eight in the UK.
Sources: Guitar.com: the gear Tony Iommi used on Black Sabbath's debut album, Wikipedia: Black Sabbath (album), Guitar Player: Tony Iommi's 1974 interview on the SG and Laney amps
Tonelify reads that chain and translates it to the amp and guitar you already own, returning gain, bass, mids, treble and presence values along with a pickup position.
How do you get the Behind the Wall of Sleep tone on your own amp?
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AI researches the original tone of Behind the Wall of Sleep
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Behind the Wall of Sleep tone questions
What amp settings do you need for Behind the Wall of Sleep?
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 7, Bass 6, Middle 6, Treble 6, Presence 5, Reverb 1, with the neck (rhythm) pickup for the chords, per a 1974 interview. These are positions on a generic five-knob amp with gain, bass, middle, treble and presence, each running 0 to 10. They are a starting point, not the settings used on the record, and they will not transfer unchanged to an amp with a different gain structure or EQ voicing. Tonelify rewrites the same values for the specific amp and guitar you own, because a high-gain head and a small solid-state combo reach the same raw, live-sounding riff with a boosted, low-gain bite from different positions.
What is the most important control for the Behind the Wall of Sleep tone?
The boost, not the gain knob. Iommi's amp on the first album had very little gain of its own, and he says the drive came from his modified Rangemaster, so set a loud, low-gain amp with the mids in and put a boost or drive pedal in front for the bite. The band played the album live in a day with virtually no overdubs, so a single guitar part played hard is close to what the record has.
Can you get the Behind the Wall of Sleep tone without the original gear?
Yes. The original was tracked with Tony Iommi's rig for the first Black Sabbath album, which Guitar.com gives as a Laney LA100 BL, an amp Laney's Simon Fraser-Clark describes as single-channel, with very little gain and four EL34s, pushed by a modified Dallas Rangemaster that Iommi says boosted the input and gave the Laney the overdrive amps of the day did not have; Laney concluded in the early 1990s that the mod had turned the treble booster into a full-range boost; some claim a 50-watt Marshall, but Iommi says he had moved from Marshall to Laney by the first album; he began the album on a white Fender Stratocaster until a faulty pickup made him finish on a Gibson SG he had bought as a backup and never really played, and which songs went down on which guitar is not documented; apart from the two songs cut earlier at Trident, the band recorded the album at Regent Sounds Studio on Denmark Street in one 12-hour session on 17 November 1969, playing their live set with Ozzy Osbourne singing at the same time from a separate booth, and apart from the sound effects at the start of the opening track and the double-tracked solos on N.I.B. and Sleeping Village there were virtually no overdubs; the title refers to H. P. Lovecraft's story Beyond the Wall of Sleep, and the album came out on 13 February 1970 and reached number eight in the UK, but the parts that define the sound are the gain structure, the EQ curve, the pickup position and the effects order. Those translate to other equipment, which is what the adaptation step does.
Is Behind the Wall of Sleep a rhythm or a lead tone?
It is a riff part with a distorted character, from Black Sabbath's 1970s heavy metal catalogue.
Does Tonelify cost anything to try?
Your first match for your own gear is free with an account, and needs no card. After that it takes a plan, charged when you subscribe: Stage is $6.99 a month for 20 matches, Headliner is $10.99 a month for unlimited matching within a fair use limit of 150 new matches a day, and yearly billing works out cheaper on both. Reading this page and the rest of the library costs nothing and needs no account.
