I Love Rock 'n' Roll
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
A clangorous power-chord crunch from a hot pickup and pure amp drive.
What is the I Love Rock 'n' Roll guitar tone?
The I Love Rock 'n' Roll guitar tone is a clangorous power-chord crunch from a hot pickup and pure amp drive, heard on Joan Jett and the Blackhearts' 1980s hard rock recording. It is a distorted riff tone, and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts reportedly tracked it with a Gibson Melody Maker from around 1965 or 1966 with a Red Rhodes Velvet Hammer 54 ceramic humbucker at the bridge, hot enough to hit the amp's front end hard, into a Music Man 212-HD 130 combo, Leo Fender's post-Fender answer to the Twin Reverb, in Guitar World's account; Joan Jett had played Les Pauls and Melody Makers into a Marshall stack in the Runaways, then swapped the Marshall for the Music Man; its four 6CA7 power valves pushed hard and two Electro-Voice EVM 12L speakers gave a clangorous crunch that stayed tight, and engineer Glen Kolotkin miked it with an Electro-Voice RE20 aimed at the edge of the speaker a few inches from the grille; Alan Merrill and Jake Hooker wrote the song for their band the Arrows, who released it in 1975; Jett first cut it in 1979 with Steve Jones and Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols, then re-recorded it in 1981 with the Blackhearts, produced by Kenny Laguna and Ritchie Cordell; the single came out on 20 January 1982 and topped the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks. This is a mid-forward sound rather than a scooped one, and it usually sits closer to the edge of breakup than to full saturation.
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.
I Love Rock 'n' Roll amp settings: a starting point
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 6, Bass 5, Middle 6, Treble 6, Presence 6, Reverb 2, with the bridge pickup.
- Gain 6
- Bass 5
- Middle 6
- Treble 6
- Presence 6
- Reverb 2
- Signal chain
- Straight into a pushed Music Man combo
- The control that matters most
- The pickup's output and the picking hand. Guitar World puts the crunch in a hot bridge humbucker hitting a loud amp through tight speakers with clean headroom, so turn the amp up with only moderate gain and dig in on the power chords rather than adding distortion.
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 I Love Rock 'n' Roll 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 Joan Jett use on I Love Rock 'n' Roll?
Volume 10, treble 8, middle 7, bass 3 and master volume 3 with the bright and deep switches on, on the left channel of a late-1970s Music Man 212-HD 130 combo with two Electro-Voice EVM 12L speakers, and the Melody Maker's bridge pickup with volume and tone on 10. That is Chris Gill's settings box in Guitar World's feature on the song, which does not say where the numbers came from, so read them as the magazine's reconstruction rather than a note from the session.
Source: Guitar World: the secrets behind Joan Jett's guitar tone on I Love Rock 'N Roll
What gear did Joan Jett and the Blackhearts use on I Love Rock 'n' Roll?
A Gibson Melody Maker from around 1965 or 1966 with a Red Rhodes Velvet Hammer 54 ceramic humbucker at the bridge, hot enough to hit the amp's front end hard, into a Music Man 212-HD 130 combo, Leo Fender's post-Fender answer to the Twin Reverb, in Guitar World's account; Joan Jett had played Les Pauls and Melody Makers into a Marshall stack in the Runaways, then swapped the Marshall for the Music Man; its four 6CA7 power valves pushed hard and two Electro-Voice EVM 12L speakers gave a clangorous crunch that stayed tight, and engineer Glen Kolotkin miked it with an Electro-Voice RE20 aimed at the edge of the speaker a few inches from the grille; Alan Merrill and Jake Hooker wrote the song for their band the Arrows, who released it in 1975; Jett first cut it in 1979 with Steve Jones and Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols, then re-recorded it in 1981 with the Blackhearts, produced by Kenny Laguna and Ritchie Cordell; the single came out on 20 January 1982 and topped the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks.
Sources: Guitar World: the secrets behind Joan Jett's guitar tone on I Love Rock 'N Roll, Wikipedia: I Love Rock 'n' Roll
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 I Love Rock 'n' Roll tone on your own amp?
Tell us your guitar, amp, and pedals
AI researches the original tone of I Love Rock 'n' Roll
Get exact knob settings adapted to your rig
I Love Rock 'n' Roll tone questions
What amp settings do you need for I Love Rock 'n' Roll?
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 6, Bass 5, Middle 6, Treble 6, Presence 6, 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 clangorous power-chord crunch from a hot pickup and pure amp drive from different positions.
What amp did Joan Jett use on I Love Rock 'n' Roll?
Amp: Music Man 212-HD 130 combo. Guitar: Mid-1960s Gibson Melody Maker with a hot humbucker. Sources: Guitar World and Wikipedia.
How do you get Joan Jett's tone on I Love Rock 'n' Roll?
The pickup's output and the picking hand. Guitar World puts the crunch in a hot bridge humbucker hitting a loud amp through tight speakers with clean headroom, so turn the amp up with only moderate gain and dig in on the power chords rather than adding distortion. Play it with the bridge pickup.
What tuning is I Love Rock 'n' Roll in?
Standard tuning: E A D G B E, low string to high, according to Guitar World.
Source: Guitar World: the secrets behind Joan Jett's guitar tone on I Love Rock 'N Roll
Can you get the I Love Rock 'n' Roll 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.
