Would?
A heavy, half-step-down riff under Cantrell's verses and Staley's chorus.
What is the Would? guitar tone?
The Would? guitar tone is a heavy, half-step-down riff under Cantrell's verses and Staley's chorus, heard on Alice in Chains' 1990s grunge recording. It is a distorted riff tone, and Alice in Chains reportedly tracked it with the 1984 G&L Rampage that Jerry Cantrell told MoPOP has been on everything he has ever recorded, pretty much, on 98.9 percent of every song, as Guitar.com quotes him, a guitar he got from a store in Dallas where he worked in 1985, which would have come stock with a single pickup and a Kahler tremolo, the tremolo later countersunk into the body; no source read here names the amp, because the song was recorded before the Dirt sessions: Rick Parashar produced, engineered and mixed it for the soundtrack of Cameron Crowe's film Singles, and Cantrell recalled that the session meant for recording that one song turned into demos of about ten, including everything on the Sap EP and Rooster, with Sap recorded with Parashar at London Bridge Studio in 1991; MusicRadar's lesson on the album says Cantrell always tunes half a step down, with only Them Bones and Dam That River in a drop tuning; Cantrell wrote it as a tribute to his friend Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone, who died in 1990, and said it was also directed towards people who pass judgments, and he sings the verses while Layne Staley sings the chorus; Columbia sent it to US radio on 8 June 1992, it is the final track on Dirt, and its video, co-directed by Crowe, won Best Video from a Film at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards. The point here is a raw, barely controlled tone, so cleaning it up too much moves it away from the record rather than towards it.
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.
Would? amp settings: a starting point
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 6, Bass 6, Middle 4, Treble 6, Presence 5, Reverb 2, with the bridge pickup.
- Gain 6
- Bass 6
- Middle 4
- Treble 6
- Presence 5
- Reverb 2
- Signal chain
- None documented for this session
- The control that matters most
- The tuning and a raw edge. MusicRadar says Cantrell always tunes half a step down, so do the same, and keep a thick, raw drive with the mids in rather than a polished one, so the riff stays heavy under both voices.
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 Would? 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 Alice in Chains use on Would?
The 1984 G&L Rampage that Jerry Cantrell told MoPOP has been on everything he has ever recorded, pretty much, on 98.9 percent of every song, as Guitar.com quotes him, a guitar he got from a store in Dallas where he worked in 1985, which would have come stock with a single pickup and a Kahler tremolo, the tremolo later countersunk into the body; no source read here names the amp, because the song was recorded before the Dirt sessions: Rick Parashar produced, engineered and mixed it for the soundtrack of Cameron Crowe's film Singles, and Cantrell recalled that the session meant for recording that one song turned into demos of about ten, including everything on the Sap EP and Rooster, with Sap recorded with Parashar at London Bridge Studio in 1991; MusicRadar's lesson on the album says Cantrell always tunes half a step down, with only Them Bones and Dam That River in a drop tuning; Cantrell wrote it as a tribute to his friend Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone, who died in 1990, and said it was also directed towards people who pass judgments, and he sings the verses while Layne Staley sings the chorus; Columbia sent it to US radio on 8 June 1992, it is the final track on Dirt, and its video, co-directed by Crowe, won Best Video from a Film at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards.
Sources: Guitar.com: the gear Jerry Cantrell used on Dirt, MusicRadar: learn every song on Alice in Chains' Dirt, Wikipedia: Would?, Wikipedia: Sap (EP), Wikipedia: Dirt (Alice in Chains 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 Would? tone on your own amp?
Tell us your guitar, amp, and pedals
AI researches the original tone of Would?
Get exact knob settings adapted to your rig
Would? tone questions
What amp settings do you need for Would?
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 6, Bass 6, Middle 4, Treble 6, Presence 5, Reverb 2, 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 heavy, half-step-down riff under Cantrell's verses and Staley's chorus from different positions.
What amp did Jerry Cantrell use on Would?
Amp: Not documented for this session. Guitar: 1984 G&L Rampage, the guitar Cantrell says is on almost everything he recorded. Sources: Guitar.com, MusicRadar and Wikipedia.
What were Jerry Cantrell's amp settings on Would?
None of the sources cited on this page gives Jerry Cantrell's full amp settings on Would? 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 Jerry Cantrell's tone on Would?
The tuning and a raw edge. MusicRadar says Cantrell always tunes half a step down, so do the same, and keep a thick, raw drive with the mids in rather than a polished one, so the riff stays heavy under both voices. Play it with the bridge pickup.
What tuning is Would? in?
Half a step down: Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb, low string to high, according to MusicRadar.
Source: MusicRadar: learn every song on Alice in Chains' Dirt
Can you get the Would? 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.
