Just
An angular, overdriven Telecaster sound with a hard pick attack.
What is the Just guitar tone?
The Just guitar tone is an angular, overdriven Telecaster sound with a hard pick attack, heard on Radiohead's 1990s alt rock recording. It is a distorted riff tone, and Radiohead reportedly tracked it with Jonny Greenwood's main guitar of the band's first two albums, a sunburst Fender Telecaster Plus with Lace Sensor pickups and a kill switch, with his distortion from a Marshall ShredMaster pedal into a Fender Eighty-Five solid-state amp, the amp Ground Guitar says he used exclusively from the early days until he added a tube amp for clean sounds; on the solo he uses a DigiTech Whammy to pitch-shift the guitar into a high, piercing register; neither account places the amp and pedal on this song in particular; Greenwood wrote much of the song, and Thom Yorke says he was trying to get as many chords as he could into one song; Greenwood's angular riff came from John McGeoch's playing on Magazine's Shot by Both Sides, and his runs follow octatonic scales across four octaves; the song opens on a strummed guitar, it was the first song Radiohead finished for The Bends, at RAK Studios with John Leckie, after earlier versions about seven minutes long, and it came out as a single on 21 August 1995, reaching number 19 in the UK. Here the drive came from a distortion pedal into a clean solid-state amp, so a pedal with plenty of gain in front of a clean channel gets closer than a driven amp, and the solo's high notes need a pitch shifter.
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.
Just amp settings: a starting point
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 3, Bass 5, Middle 5, Treble 6, Presence 5, Reverb 3, with the bridge pickup.
- Gain 3
- Bass 5
- Middle 5
- Treble 6
- Presence 5
- Reverb 3
- Signal chain
- Marshall ShredMaster distortion → DigiTech Whammy on the solo
- The control that matters most
- The distortion pedal and the pick attack. Greenwood's drive came from a ShredMaster pedal into a solid-state Fender, not from a cranked tube amp, so set a clean amp and let a distortion pedal with plenty of gain do the work, then pick the runs hard and evenly. The solo's piercing high notes are a Whammy pitch shift, which no amp setting gives you.
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
- 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.
What gear did Radiohead use on Just?
Jonny Greenwood's main guitar of the band's first two albums, a sunburst Fender Telecaster Plus with Lace Sensor pickups and a kill switch, with his distortion from a Marshall ShredMaster pedal into a Fender Eighty-Five solid-state amp, the amp Ground Guitar says he used exclusively from the early days until he added a tube amp for clean sounds; on the solo he uses a DigiTech Whammy to pitch-shift the guitar into a high, piercing register; neither account places the amp and pedal on this song in particular; Greenwood wrote much of the song, and Thom Yorke says he was trying to get as many chords as he could into one song; Greenwood's angular riff came from John McGeoch's playing on Magazine's Shot by Both Sides, and his runs follow octatonic scales across four octaves; the song opens on a strummed guitar, it was the first song Radiohead finished for The Bends, at RAK Studios with John Leckie, after earlier versions about seven minutes long, and it came out as a single on 21 August 1995, reaching number 19 in the UK.
Sources: Wikipedia: Just (song), Ground Guitar: Jonny Greenwood's guitars and gear
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 Just tone on your own amp?
Tell us your guitar, amp, and pedals
AI researches the original tone of Just
Get exact knob settings adapted to your rig
Just tone questions
What amp settings do you need for Just?
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 3, Bass 5, Middle 5, Treble 6, Presence 5, Reverb 3, 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 angular, overdriven Telecaster sound with a hard pick attack from different positions.
What is the most important control for the Just tone?
The distortion pedal and the pick attack. Greenwood's drive came from a ShredMaster pedal into a solid-state Fender, not from a cranked tube amp, so set a clean amp and let a distortion pedal with plenty of gain do the work, then pick the runs hard and evenly. The solo's piercing high notes are a Whammy pitch shift, which no amp setting gives you.
Can you get the Just tone without the original gear?
Yes. The original was tracked with Jonny Greenwood's main guitar of the band's first two albums, a sunburst Fender Telecaster Plus with Lace Sensor pickups and a kill switch, with his distortion from a Marshall ShredMaster pedal into a Fender Eighty-Five solid-state amp, the amp Ground Guitar says he used exclusively from the early days until he added a tube amp for clean sounds; on the solo he uses a DigiTech Whammy to pitch-shift the guitar into a high, piercing register; neither account places the amp and pedal on this song in particular; Greenwood wrote much of the song, and Thom Yorke says he was trying to get as many chords as he could into one song; Greenwood's angular riff came from John McGeoch's playing on Magazine's Shot by Both Sides, and his runs follow octatonic scales across four octaves; the song opens on a strummed guitar, it was the first song Radiohead finished for The Bends, at RAK Studios with John Leckie, after earlier versions about seven minutes long, and it came out as a single on 21 August 1995, reaching number 19 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 Just a rhythm or a lead tone?
It is a riff part with a distorted character, from Radiohead's 1990s alt rock 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.
