Break Stuff

What is the Break Stuff guitar tone?

The Break Stuff guitar tone is a pounding seven-string nu metal riff, heard on Limp Bizkit's 1990s rap metal recording. It is a distorted riff tone, and Limp Bizkit reportedly tracked it with an Ibanez seven-string, since Significant Other was Wes Borland's first attempt at using a seven-string guitar, which Wikipedia says was inspired by Korn, and he was endorsed by Ibanez and owned several rare models to record the album, among them the RG7 CST, played through the Mesa/Boogie Dual and Triple Rectifier amps that he used for Limp Bizkit's first three albums, though no source read here places a particular guitar or amp on this song; Wikipedia also says he used Ibanez seven-strings exclusively from 1997 until 1999, toured the album with two custom Ibanez RG seven-strings wired with two volume and two tone knobs, and in the late 1990s played them like a six-string, tuning the highest string to C# as well while keeping C# standard tuning down to the seventh string, and he has called the Dual Rectifier that Three Dollar Bill, Y'all was recorded on his first touring head; the band chose producer Terry Date for his work with Pantera, White Zombie and Deftones, and Borland said Date does not get overly involved at the music end of things but fools with sound and sonically makes everything perfect, getting sounds that translate really well on tape; his playing of the time, Wikipedia says, made use of octave shapes and choppy eighth-note rhythms, sometimes with his left hand muting the strings for a percussive sound, and the band were opposed to solos on the album; it was released in 1999 as the album's fourth and final single, alongside N 2 Gether Now, its video won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Rock Video in 2000, and in 2022 Louder Sound and Kerrang each named it Limp Bizkit's greatest song. Here the riff is a seven-string through a high-gain Mesa/Boogie Rectifier, his amps of the era, played in choppy, muted bursts, so the weight comes from the low strings and the amp rather than from pedals.

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.

What gear did Limp Bizkit use on Break Stuff?

An Ibanez seven-string, since Significant Other was Wes Borland's first attempt at using a seven-string guitar, which Wikipedia says was inspired by Korn, and he was endorsed by Ibanez and owned several rare models to record the album, among them the RG7 CST, played through the Mesa/Boogie Dual and Triple Rectifier amps that he used for Limp Bizkit's first three albums, though no source read here places a particular guitar or amp on this song; Wikipedia also says he used Ibanez seven-strings exclusively from 1997 until 1999, toured the album with two custom Ibanez RG seven-strings wired with two volume and two tone knobs, and in the late 1990s played them like a six-string, tuning the highest string to C# as well while keeping C# standard tuning down to the seventh string, and he has called the Dual Rectifier that Three Dollar Bill, Y'all was recorded on his first touring head; the band chose producer Terry Date for his work with Pantera, White Zombie and Deftones, and Borland said Date does not get overly involved at the music end of things but fools with sound and sonically makes everything perfect, getting sounds that translate really well on tape; his playing of the time, Wikipedia says, made use of octave shapes and choppy eighth-note rhythms, sometimes with his left hand muting the strings for a percussive sound, and the band were opposed to solos on the album; it was released in 1999 as the album's fourth and final single, alongside N 2 Gether Now, its video won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Rock Video in 2000, and in 2022 Louder Sound and Kerrang each named it Limp Bizkit's greatest song.

Sources: Wikipedia: Significant Other (album), Wikipedia: Wes Borland, Guitar World: Wes Borland's gear sale, with the Mesa/Boogie head from Three Dollar Bill, Y'all, Wikipedia: Break Stuff

Tonelify's tone matcher 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.