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Metallica
Wide chorus-kissed clean fingerpicking.
The Nothing Else Matters guitar tone is wide chorus-kissed clean fingerpicking, heard on Metallica's 1990s metal ballad recording. It is a clean riff tone, and Metallica reportedly tracked it with eMG-loaded ESP into a pristine clean channel with wide chorus. Clean tones at this level depend on headroom and modulation width, not on gain, so the amp needs room before it starts to break up.
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 clean channel on a modelling combo 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.
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 1, Bass 5, with the neck or middle position.
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.
EMG-loaded ESP into a pristine clean channel with wide chorus.
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.
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On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 1, Bass 5, with the neck or middle position. 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. The middle, treble, presence and reverb positions for this tone come with a Tonelify plan, along with the same values rewritten for the specific amp and guitar you own, because a high-gain head and a small solid-state combo reach the same wide chorus-kissed clean fingerpicking from different positions.
It is rarely the gain knob. Every style in the library has one control that decides whether the tone lands, and for metal ballad it is named on this page for players on a plan, with a sentence on where to put it and why.
Yes. The original was tracked with eMG-loaded ESP into a pristine clean channel with wide chorus, 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.
It is a riff part with a clean character, from Metallica's 1990s metal ballad catalogue.
Both plans start with a 7-day free trial and nothing is charged until it ends. Stage is metered and Headliner is unlimited, and yearly billing works out cheaper on both; the current prices are on your account page once you have one. Reading this page and the rest of the library costs nothing and needs no account.