Say It Ain't So
A loud, heavy chorus after hammered intro chords.
What is the Say It Ain't So guitar tone?
The Say It Ain't So guitar tone is a loud, heavy chorus after hammered intro chords, heard on Weezer's 1990s power pop recording. It is a distorted riff tone, and Weezer reportedly tracked it with Rivers Cuomo's Blue Album rig: P-90 Gibsons lent by producer Ric Ocasek, a Les Paul Junior and a Les Paul Special, through a Mesa/Boogie Mark I into a tall Marshall cabinet, often at unusually low volumes, with no pedals, since Cuomo says the album's only guitar effect is some delay on Only In Dreams; Ocasek convinced the band to move from the neck pickup to the bridge for a brighter sound, the Blue Strat Cuomo was rarely seen without while the song was a radio and MTV hit is not the guitar on the record, and Guitar.com says it is unclear which borrowed guitar is on which part; the band banned reverb, insisted on all downstrokes and treated the guitars and bass as one ten-string instrument playing in unison; Cuomo says the song began as 'The Classic Rock Song', just strumming without the ska beats, and that the chordal hammering of the intro came from Jimi Hendrix's Axis: Bold as Love; it was recorded at Electric Lady in New York in 1993 and came out on 15 May 1995 as the album's third single, reaching the top 10 of the Modern Rock chart. Power pop puts loud, mid-forward guitar chords under a sung melody, so the midrange and how tightly the parts are played matter more than the amount of gain.
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.
Say It Ain't So 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, moved there from the neck for the album.
- Gain 6
- Bass 5
- Middle 6
- Treble 6
- Presence 5
- Reverb 1
- Signal chain
- Straight into the amp, no pedals
- The control that matters most
- Downstrokes and punch. The band played every part with downstrokes and the guitars and bass in unison as one instrument, so keep the bass at or below halfway, the mids up and the gain where a chord stays tight, and double the heavy part if you are recording.
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, moved there from the neck for the album
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 Say It Ain't So 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 Weezer use on Say It Ain't So?
Rivers Cuomo's Blue Album rig: P-90 Gibsons lent by producer Ric Ocasek, a Les Paul Junior and a Les Paul Special, through a Mesa/Boogie Mark I into a tall Marshall cabinet, often at unusually low volumes, with no pedals, since Cuomo says the album's only guitar effect is some delay on Only In Dreams; Ocasek convinced the band to move from the neck pickup to the bridge for a brighter sound, the Blue Strat Cuomo was rarely seen without while the song was a radio and MTV hit is not the guitar on the record, and Guitar.com says it is unclear which borrowed guitar is on which part; the band banned reverb, insisted on all downstrokes and treated the guitars and bass as one ten-string instrument playing in unison; Cuomo says the song began as 'The Classic Rock Song', just strumming without the ska beats, and that the chordal hammering of the intro came from Jimi Hendrix's Axis: Bold as Love; it was recorded at Electric Lady in New York in 1993 and came out on 15 May 1995 as the album's third single, reaching the top 10 of the Modern Rock chart.
Sources: Guitar.com: the gear Rivers Cuomo used on Weezer's Blue Album, MusicRadar: Rivers Cuomo on how Ric Ocasek changed his Blue Album guitar tone, Wikipedia: Say It Ain't So, Wikipedia: Weezer (Blue 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 Say It Ain't So tone on your own amp?
Tell us your guitar, amp, and pedals
AI researches the original tone of Say It Ain't So
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Say It Ain't So tone questions
What amp settings do you need for Say It Ain't So?
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 6, Bass 5, Middle 6, Treble 6, Presence 5, Reverb 1, with the bridge pickup, moved there from the neck for the album. 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 loud, heavy chorus after hammered intro chords from different positions.
What amp did Rivers Cuomo use on Say It Ain't So?
Amp: Mesa/Boogie Mark I into a Marshall cab (album rig). Guitar: Ric Ocasek's Les Paul Junior and Special (album rig). Sources: Guitar.com, MusicRadar and Wikipedia.
What were Rivers Cuomo's amp settings on Say It Ain't So?
None of the sources cited on this page gives Rivers Cuomo's full amp settings on Say It Ain't So. 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 Rivers Cuomo's tone on Say It Ain't So?
Downstrokes and punch. The band played every part with downstrokes and the guitars and bass in unison as one instrument, so keep the bass at or below halfway, the mids up and the gain where a chord stays tight, and double the heavy part if you are recording. Play it with the bridge pickup, moved there from the neck for the album.
Can you get the Say It Ain't So 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.
