Los Angeles
X
A punchy, biting wall of power chords from a guitar plugged straight into a cranked amp.
What is the Los Angeles guitar tone?
The Los Angeles guitar tone is a punchy, biting wall of power chords from a guitar plugged straight into a cranked amp, heard on X's 1980s punk rock recording. It is a distorted riff tone, and X reportedly tracked it with a 1955 Gretsch 6129 Silver Jet on its bridge pickup, plugged straight into a Traynor YBA-1 Bass Master head from the late 1960s or early 1970s and a custom 4x10 cabinet of Billy Zoom's with Jensen C10N speakers, in Guitar World's account; Zoom's stage amps, a brownface Fender Custom he hot-rodded himself and later a hot-rodded Quad Reverb, were far too loud for the studio, so on X's first albums he borrowed the Traynor from bassist John Doe; its circuit is based on the tweed Fender 5F6A Bassman, also the basis of the Marshall JTM45, and Guitar World credits its Hammond transformers and 6CA7 valves with tight bottom-end crunch, smoothly compressed mids and crisp treble; he ran the controls on the guitar and the amp all the way up and let the guitar's aged DeArmond single coils grind, and he is one of the few Gretsch players to prefer them to Filter'tron humbuckers; Zoom ran an amp repair shop in Hollywood before joining X and still builds amps; Los Angeles is the title track of X's debut album, produced by former Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek and released by Slash Records on 26 April 1980, and the song is on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. Here the crunch is a vintage single-coil guitar plugged straight into a Bassman-style head with every control up, so the punch comes from the amp rather than from a pedal.
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.
Los Angeles amp settings: a starting point
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 6, Bass 5, Middle 6, Treble 6, Presence 5, Reverb 1, with the bridge pickup.
- Gain 6
- Bass 5
- Middle 6
- Treble 6
- Presence 5
- Reverb 1
- Signal chain
- Straight into the amp, everything on full
- The control that matters most
- Everything up, nothing in between. Zoom plugged straight into a Bassman-style head with all the controls on full, so use a tweed or plexi style amp turned up, no pedals and the bridge pickup, and let the amp's compression hold the power chords together.
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 Los Angeles 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 Billy Zoom use on Los Angeles?
Volume I, treble, bass, low and high all on 10, on the top input I of a Traynor YBA-1 Bass Master from the late 1960s or early 1970s into a custom 4x10 cabinet with Jensen C10N speakers, and the Silver Jet's bridge pickup with its master volume, master tone and bridge volume 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 Billy Zoom's guitar tone on Los Angeles
What gear did X use on Los Angeles?
A 1955 Gretsch 6129 Silver Jet on its bridge pickup, plugged straight into a Traynor YBA-1 Bass Master head from the late 1960s or early 1970s and a custom 4x10 cabinet of Billy Zoom's with Jensen C10N speakers, in Guitar World's account; Zoom's stage amps, a brownface Fender Custom he hot-rodded himself and later a hot-rodded Quad Reverb, were far too loud for the studio, so on X's first albums he borrowed the Traynor from bassist John Doe; its circuit is based on the tweed Fender 5F6A Bassman, also the basis of the Marshall JTM45, and Guitar World credits its Hammond transformers and 6CA7 valves with tight bottom-end crunch, smoothly compressed mids and crisp treble; he ran the controls on the guitar and the amp all the way up and let the guitar's aged DeArmond single coils grind, and he is one of the few Gretsch players to prefer them to Filter'tron humbuckers; Zoom ran an amp repair shop in Hollywood before joining X and still builds amps; Los Angeles is the title track of X's debut album, produced by former Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek and released by Slash Records on 26 April 1980, and the song is on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.
Sources: Guitar World: the secrets behind Billy Zoom's guitar tone on Los Angeles, Wikipedia: Los Angeles (X album)
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 Los Angeles tone on your own amp?
Tell us your guitar, amp, and pedals
AI researches the original tone of Los Angeles
Get exact knob settings adapted to your rig
Los Angeles tone questions
What amp settings do you need for Los Angeles?
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 6, Bass 5, Middle 6, Treble 6, Presence 5, Reverb 1, 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 punchy, biting wall of power chords from a guitar plugged straight into a cranked amp from different positions.
What amp did Billy Zoom use on Los Angeles?
Amp: Traynor YBA-1 Bass Master head, borrowed from John Doe. Guitar: 1955 Gretsch 6129 Silver Jet. Sources: Guitar World and Wikipedia.
How do you get Billy Zoom's tone on Los Angeles?
Everything up, nothing in between. Zoom plugged straight into a Bassman-style head with all the controls on full, so use a tweed or plexi style amp turned up, no pedals and the bridge pickup, and let the amp's compression hold the power chords together. Play it with the bridge pickup.
What tuning is Los Angeles in?
Standard tuning: E A D G B E, low string to high, according to Guitar World.
Source: Guitar World: the secrets behind Billy Zoom's guitar tone on Los Angeles
Can you get the Los Angeles 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.
