That Lady

What is the That Lady guitar tone?

The That Lady guitar tone is a phase-shifted fuzz lead over a funky, wah-accented rhythm, heard on The Isley Brothers' 1970s funk rock recording. It is a distorted solo tone, and The Isley Brothers reportedly tracked it with a black 1971 Fender Stratocaster with a rosewood fretboard, which Ernie Isley bought new at Manny's in New York on Christmas Eve with a blank check from his brother Ronald, played on the neck pickup for the fuzz lead and the bridge pickup for the rhythm track, into a Fender Twin Reverb, which Isley later named as his amp on the song, in Guitar World's account; the phased fuzz came from an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff and a Maestro phase shifter, both mentioned in a September 1981 Guitar Player feature on him, and Guitar World points out that the long-repeated story of a Roland Jet Phaser cannot be right, since Roland did not introduce it until 1975; his clean rhythm part has percussive Cry Baby wah accents, a technique he learned from Charles Pitts, who played the wah part on Theme from Shaft; the Isley Brothers reworked their 1964 vocal single Who's That Lady? as a funk rock track at the Record Plant in Los Angeles in 1973, while Stevie Wonder was recording Innervisions in another studio there, for the album 3 + 3; the single spent three weeks at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, reached number 2 on the R&B chart and number 14 in the UK, and was certified gold in October 1973. Here the lead is a fuzz pedal and a slow phaser into a clean, bright Twin, so the swirl and the sustain come from the pedals while the amp stays clean.

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.

Published settings

What amp settings did Ernie Isley use on That Lady?

Volume 5, treble 7, middle 6 and bass 3 with the bright switch on and the reverb, speed and intensity at 0, on input 1 of the vibrato channel of a Fender Twin Reverb from around 1970 to 1973; a Ram's Head Big Muff Pi at volume 7, tone 8 and sustain 6, a Maestro PS-1A on its slow setting and a Cry Baby wah; and the Strat's neck pickup for the fuzz lead and bridge pickup for the rhythm, with volume 10, neck tone 8 and middle tone 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 Ernie Isley's guitar tone on That Lady

What gear did The Isley Brothers use on That Lady?

A black 1971 Fender Stratocaster with a rosewood fretboard, which Ernie Isley bought new at Manny's in New York on Christmas Eve with a blank check from his brother Ronald, played on the neck pickup for the fuzz lead and the bridge pickup for the rhythm track, into a Fender Twin Reverb, which Isley later named as his amp on the song, in Guitar World's account; the phased fuzz came from an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff and a Maestro phase shifter, both mentioned in a September 1981 Guitar Player feature on him, and Guitar World points out that the long-repeated story of a Roland Jet Phaser cannot be right, since Roland did not introduce it until 1975; his clean rhythm part has percussive Cry Baby wah accents, a technique he learned from Charles Pitts, who played the wah part on Theme from Shaft; the Isley Brothers reworked their 1964 vocal single Who's That Lady? as a funk rock track at the Record Plant in Los Angeles in 1973, while Stevie Wonder was recording Innervisions in another studio there, for the album 3 + 3; the single spent three weeks at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, reached number 2 on the R&B chart and number 14 in the UK, and was certified gold in October 1973.

Sources: Guitar World: the secrets behind Ernie Isley's guitar tone on That Lady, Wikipedia: That Lady (song)

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.