Bullet with Butterfly Wings
A crushing half-step-down riff with a fuzz that blows up at the key change.
What is the Bullet with Butterfly Wings guitar tone?
The Bullet with Butterfly Wings guitar tone is a crushing half-step-down riff with a fuzz that blows up at the key change, heard on The Smashing Pumpkins' 1990s grunge recording. It is a distorted riff tone, and The Smashing Pumpkins reportedly tracked it with a '57 reissue Fender Stratocaster, which Billy Corgan told Guitar World in 1995 he played on a lot of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, as on most of Siamese Dream, out of about 20 electric guitars, while James Iha said they mostly used Strats and Les Pauls; Corgan said the album's basic sound came from a Marshall rack preamp and an Alesis compressor into a Mesa/Boogie head, tweaked to get the most gain out of it, alongside his 1984 Marshall JCM800 'soul head', whose cabinet was on 90 percent of the album's guitar tracks and the head on about 30 percent; on this song he named one pedal: about two and a half minutes in, where the key changes and the guitars come in loud and thick with the speakers sounding distorted, that is a Fender Blender, a fuzz Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine had told him to get; Wikipedia says every guitar on the album was tuned down a half step, that much of the rhythm section was recorded with Flood in a rehearsal space from April 1995 and the guitar overdubs at the Chicago Recording Company, and that the song grew out of a part the band played over and over during the 1993 Siamese Dream sessions; produced by Corgan, Flood and Alan Moulder, it was the album's lead single, the band's first top 40 hit in the US at number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100, and won the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1997. Here the saturation is an amp rig tweaked for as much gain as it gives, with a fuzz added only for the loud section after the key change.
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.
Bullet with Butterfly Wings amp settings: a starting point
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 6, Bass 6, Middle 4, Treble 6, Presence 5, Reverb 2, with the bridge pickup.
- Gain 6
- Bass 6
- Middle 4
- Treble 6
- Presence 5
- Reverb 2
- Signal chain
- Guitars tuned down a half step → Fender Blender fuzz at the key change
- The control that matters most
- The amp's gain, then a fuzz for the big section. Corgan told Guitar World the album's basic sound was the amp rig tweaked for the most gain it would give, with a Fender Blender added for the loud, thick part after the key change, so get the saturation from the amp, tune down a half step, and keep a fuzz for that section.
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. A first plan starts with 7 days free, $0 today.
Adapt these to my amp- Pickup
- Bridge pickup
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 Bullet with Butterfly Wings tone sound off on your amp?
Pick what you hear. You get the knobs to turn from the starting point above, and how far.
What gear did The Smashing Pumpkins use on Bullet with Butterfly Wings?
A '57 reissue Fender Stratocaster, which Billy Corgan told Guitar World in 1995 he played on a lot of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, as on most of Siamese Dream, out of about 20 electric guitars, while James Iha said they mostly used Strats and Les Pauls; Corgan said the album's basic sound came from a Marshall rack preamp and an Alesis compressor into a Mesa/Boogie head, tweaked to get the most gain out of it, alongside his 1984 Marshall JCM800 'soul head', whose cabinet was on 90 percent of the album's guitar tracks and the head on about 30 percent; on this song he named one pedal: about two and a half minutes in, where the key changes and the guitars come in loud and thick with the speakers sounding distorted, that is a Fender Blender, a fuzz Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine had told him to get; Wikipedia says every guitar on the album was tuned down a half step, that much of the rhythm section was recorded with Flood in a rehearsal space from April 1995 and the guitar overdubs at the Chicago Recording Company, and that the song grew out of a part the band played over and over during the 1993 Siamese Dream sessions; produced by Corgan, Flood and Alan Moulder, it was the album's lead single, the band's first top 40 hit in the US at number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100, and won the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1997.
Sources: Guitar World: the Smashing Pumpkins on '80s Marshalls and their essential pedals (1995), Wikipedia: Bullet with Butterfly Wings, Wikipedia: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
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.
How do you get the Bullet with Butterfly Wings tone on your own amp?
Tell us your guitar, amp, and pedals
AI researches the original tone of Bullet with Butterfly Wings
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Bullet with Butterfly Wings tone questions
What amp settings do you need for Bullet with Butterfly Wings?
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 6, Bass 6, Middle 4, Treble 6, Presence 5, Reverb 2, with the bridge pickup. 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 crushing half-step-down riff with a fuzz that blows up at the key change from different positions.
What amp did Billy Corgan use on Bullet with Butterfly Wings?
Amp: Album rig (a Marshall rack preamp and Alesis compressor into a Mesa/Boogie head). Guitar: Fender '57 reissue Stratocaster, among about 20 electrics on the album. Sources: Guitar World and Wikipedia.
What were Billy Corgan's amp settings on Bullet with Butterfly Wings?
None of the sources cited on this page gives Billy Corgan's full amp settings on Bullet with Butterfly Wings. The numbers here are a starting point for that kind of part, not the settings from the session, and Tonelify rewrites them for the amp and guitar you own.
How do you get Billy Corgan's tone on Bullet with Butterfly Wings?
The amp's gain, then a fuzz for the big section. Corgan told Guitar World the album's basic sound was the amp rig tweaked for the most gain it would give, with a Fender Blender added for the loud, thick part after the key change, so get the saturation from the amp, tune down a half step, and keep a fuzz for that section. Play it with the bridge pickup.
What tuning is Bullet with Butterfly Wings in?
Half a step down: Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb, low string to high, according to Wikipedia.
Can you get the Bullet with Butterfly Wings tone without the original gear?
Yes. The parts that define the sound are the gain structure, the EQ curve, the pickup position and the effects order, and those translate to other equipment. Tonelify's adaptation step works them out for the amp and guitar you own.
Does Tonelify cost anything to try?
A match for your own gear takes a plan, and a first plan starts with 7 days free with nothing charged that day: 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.
