Sharp Dressed Man
A driving, high-output blues riff split between two guitars.
What is the Sharp Dressed Man guitar tone?
The Sharp Dressed Man guitar tone is a driving, high-output blues riff split between two guitars, heard on ZZ Top's 1980s blues rock recording. It is a distorted riff tone, and ZZ Top reportedly tracked it with the custom Dean guitars that Billy Gibbons played on most of Eliminator, two different models in Bonedo's account, each with a single high-output DiMarzio Super Distortion pickup, which Wikipedia says he plugged into a Legend hybrid amplifier miked with an AKG 414B-ULS large-diaphragm condenser, though no source read here places a guitar or an amp on this song alone; Guitar Player says his classic Les Paul and Marshall rig was put to one side for the album, tracked in 1982, in favour of a Dean Z and a Legend 50, which Gibbons describes as a hybrid solid-state and tube amp with a natural wood cabinet, made by a guy in Syracuse, New York, whose sound was ferocious, and he says it was at the behest of Linden Hudson, a former engineer staying with drummer Frank Beard, that the band cranked up and aimed toward a little richer tone; Bonedo describes the Legend as a 50-watt hybrid of a tube preamp and a transistor power amp with a 12-inch Celestion speaker; Wikipedia says the album's rhythm guitars were recorded so loud that Gibbons could not lift his fingers to change chords without feedback, so each chord was played and doubled on a pair of tracks and engineer Terry Manning punched the pairs in and out, which also got rid of the usual squeaks; on the intro, Bonedo says, the rhythm part is split between two guitars, one on low power chords and the other on a blues lick, moving from a C minor pentatonic riff into a 12-bar, blues-like form in C Mixolydian on C, Bb, F and G, and the second guitar sounds a little phasey and broken up; produced by Bill Ham and recorded and mixed by Manning, with Hudson very involved in the early stages, the song runs at 125 beats per minute, near the tempo of 124 that Hudson's research found many hits clustered around, and Manning did virtually all the drums on the album, on an Oberheim DMX; Eliminator came out on 23 March 1983, the song peaked at number eight on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart in July, and Guitar World put its solo at number 43 in its 2009 list of the 50 greatest guitar solos. Here the Eliminator sound is a single high-output humbucker into a hybrid amp cranked for a richer tone, so it sits past the edge of breakup at a medium drive rather than on it, and the second guitar sounds a little phasey and broken 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 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.
Sharp Dressed Man amp settings: a starting point
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 4, Bass 5, Middle 6, Treble 6, Presence 5, Reverb 3, with the single humbucker, the only pickup on his album guitars.
- Gain 4
- Bass 5
- Middle 6
- Treble 6
- Presence 5
- Reverb 3
- Signal chain
- Legend 50 distortion, cranked (album rig)
- The control that matters most
- Medium drive from a hot humbucker. Bonedo suggests a humbucker guitar into an amp with medium distortion, such as a fully cranked Fender Tweed model, so let the pickup's output push the amp rather than piling on gain, and split the intro between two parts, low power chords on one and the blues lick on the other; for the second guitar's phasey, broken-up edge it suggests a subtle fuzz, a treble booster or a light phaser.
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
- Single humbucker, the only pickup on his album guitars
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 Sharp Dressed Man 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 ZZ Top use on Sharp Dressed Man?
The custom Dean guitars that Billy Gibbons played on most of Eliminator, two different models in Bonedo's account, each with a single high-output DiMarzio Super Distortion pickup, which Wikipedia says he plugged into a Legend hybrid amplifier miked with an AKG 414B-ULS large-diaphragm condenser, though no source read here places a guitar or an amp on this song alone; Guitar Player says his classic Les Paul and Marshall rig was put to one side for the album, tracked in 1982, in favour of a Dean Z and a Legend 50, which Gibbons describes as a hybrid solid-state and tube amp with a natural wood cabinet, made by a guy in Syracuse, New York, whose sound was ferocious, and he says it was at the behest of Linden Hudson, a former engineer staying with drummer Frank Beard, that the band cranked up and aimed toward a little richer tone; Bonedo describes the Legend as a 50-watt hybrid of a tube preamp and a transistor power amp with a 12-inch Celestion speaker; Wikipedia says the album's rhythm guitars were recorded so loud that Gibbons could not lift his fingers to change chords without feedback, so each chord was played and doubled on a pair of tracks and engineer Terry Manning punched the pairs in and out, which also got rid of the usual squeaks; on the intro, Bonedo says, the rhythm part is split between two guitars, one on low power chords and the other on a blues lick, moving from a C minor pentatonic riff into a 12-bar, blues-like form in C Mixolydian on C, Bb, F and G, and the second guitar sounds a little phasey and broken up; produced by Bill Ham and recorded and mixed by Manning, with Hudson very involved in the early stages, the song runs at 125 beats per minute, near the tempo of 124 that Hudson's research found many hits clustered around, and Manning did virtually all the drums on the album, on an Oberheim DMX; Eliminator came out on 23 March 1983, the song peaked at number eight on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart in July, and Guitar World put its solo at number 43 in its 2009 list of the 50 greatest guitar solos.
Sources: Wikipedia: Eliminator (album), Guitar Player: Billy Gibbons on the making of Gimme All Your Lovin', Bonedo: Sharp Dressed Man riff workshop (German), Wikipedia: Sharp Dressed Man
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 Sharp Dressed Man tone on your own amp?
Tell us your guitar, amp, and pedals
AI researches the original tone of Sharp Dressed Man
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Sharp Dressed Man tone questions
What amp settings do you need for Sharp Dressed Man?
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 4, Bass 5, Middle 6, Treble 6, Presence 5, Reverb 3, with the single humbucker, the only pickup on his album guitars. 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 driving, high-output blues riff split between two guitars from different positions.
What amp did Billy Gibbons use on Sharp Dressed Man?
Amp: Album rig (a Legend 50 hybrid, cranked for a richer tone). Guitar: Custom Dean guitars, one DiMarzio Super Distortion each (album rig). Sources: Wikipedia, Guitar Player and Bonedo.
What were Billy Gibbons' amp settings on Sharp Dressed Man?
None of the sources cited on this page gives Billy Gibbons' full amp settings on Sharp Dressed Man. 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 Billy Gibbons' tone on Sharp Dressed Man?
Medium drive from a hot humbucker. Bonedo suggests a humbucker guitar into an amp with medium distortion, such as a fully cranked Fender Tweed model, so let the pickup's output push the amp rather than piling on gain, and split the intro between two parts, low power chords on one and the blues lick on the other; for the second guitar's phasey, broken-up edge it suggests a subtle fuzz, a treble booster or a light phaser. Play it with the single humbucker, the only pickup on his album guitars.
Can you get the Sharp Dressed Man 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.
