Yellow
Coldplay
A big, gritty strum in B over a slow, steady groove, with clean, ringing fills between the vocal lines.
What is the Yellow guitar tone?
The Yellow guitar tone is a big, gritty strum in B over a slow, steady groove, with clean, ringing fills between the vocal lines, heard on Coldplay's 2000s alt rock recording. It is a distorted riff tone, and Coldplay reportedly tracked it with Jonny Buckland's semi-hollow Fender Classic Series '72 Telecaster Thinline, by Guitar Player's account, through two Fender Twin Reverbs that producer Ken Nelson split his sound between: Buckland's delays went into one, a WEM Copicat among them, and the other stayed completely dry, both were miked on every take and balanced in the mix, and the reverb was added afterwards rather than coming from the amps; Nelson says Buckland keeps the amp fairly clean and uses a little ProCo Rat very subtly to add grit; the band recorded the basic track live and Buckland overdubbed his guitars afterwards, after two or three attempts at finding a tempo with the right groove, and Nelson brought in Pro Tools to get the feel before putting the takes down to two-inch tape; Nelson says they started recording it in the project studio upstairs at Parr Street in Liverpool, where most of Parachutes was made, after Chris Martin wrote it at Rockfield in Wales on an acoustic guitar in the tuning he had used for Shiver, when Nelson pointed the band at the stars outside the studio; it came out as a single on 26 June 2000 and reached number four in the UK. The sound depends on compression and pick attack more than on gain, so a lightly driven amp with the tone rolled back gets closer than a high-gain setting.
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.
Yellow amp settings: a starting point
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 3, Bass 5, Middle 5, Treble 6, Presence 5, Reverb 3, with the bridge pickup.
- Gain 3
- Bass 5
- Middle 5
- Treble 6
- Presence 5
- Reverb 3
- Signal chain
- ProCo Rat, set for a little grit → Delays, a WEM Copicat among them, into one Fender Twin Reverb → A second Twin Reverb left dry, blended with the first → Digital reverb added in the mix
- The control that matters most
- A little grit, not gain. Nelson says Buckland keeps the amp fairly clean and adds only a touch of grit from a Rat, so set the amp just past clean with the pedal low and let the big chords ring. The space comes from his delays on one amp blended with a dry amp, then reverb in the mix, so keep the delays a step behind the dry sound rather than drowning it.
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. Your first match is free with an account, and needs no card.
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.
What gear did Coldplay use on Yellow?
Jonny Buckland's semi-hollow Fender Classic Series '72 Telecaster Thinline, by Guitar Player's account, through two Fender Twin Reverbs that producer Ken Nelson split his sound between: Buckland's delays went into one, a WEM Copicat among them, and the other stayed completely dry, both were miked on every take and balanced in the mix, and the reverb was added afterwards rather than coming from the amps; Nelson says Buckland keeps the amp fairly clean and uses a little ProCo Rat very subtly to add grit; the band recorded the basic track live and Buckland overdubbed his guitars afterwards, after two or three attempts at finding a tempo with the right groove, and Nelson brought in Pro Tools to get the feel before putting the takes down to two-inch tape; Nelson says they started recording it in the project studio upstairs at Parr Street in Liverpool, where most of Parachutes was made, after Chris Martin wrote it at Rockfield in Wales on an acoustic guitar in the tuning he had used for Shiver, when Nelson pointed the band at the stars outside the studio; it came out as a single on 26 June 2000 and reached number four in the UK.
Sources: Sound On Sound: Ken Nelson on recording Coldplay's Parachutes, MusicRadar: the circumstances that led to Coldplay's Yellow, Wikipedia: Yellow (Coldplay song)
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.
How do you get the Yellow tone on your own amp?
Tell us your guitar, amp, and pedals
AI researches the original tone of Yellow
Get exact knob settings adapted to your rig
Yellow tone questions
What amp settings do you need for Yellow?
On a generic five-knob amp, start at Gain 3, Bass 5, Middle 5, Treble 6, Presence 5, Reverb 3, 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 big, gritty strum in B over a slow, steady groove, with clean, ringing fills between the vocal lines from different positions.
What is the most important control for the Yellow tone?
A little grit, not gain. Nelson says Buckland keeps the amp fairly clean and adds only a touch of grit from a Rat, so set the amp just past clean with the pedal low and let the big chords ring. The space comes from his delays on one amp blended with a dry amp, then reverb in the mix, so keep the delays a step behind the dry sound rather than drowning it.
Can you get the Yellow tone without the original gear?
Yes. The original was tracked with Jonny Buckland's semi-hollow Fender Classic Series '72 Telecaster Thinline, by Guitar Player's account, through two Fender Twin Reverbs that producer Ken Nelson split his sound between: Buckland's delays went into one, a WEM Copicat among them, and the other stayed completely dry, both were miked on every take and balanced in the mix, and the reverb was added afterwards rather than coming from the amps; Nelson says Buckland keeps the amp fairly clean and uses a little ProCo Rat very subtly to add grit; the band recorded the basic track live and Buckland overdubbed his guitars afterwards, after two or three attempts at finding a tempo with the right groove, and Nelson brought in Pro Tools to get the feel before putting the takes down to two-inch tape; Nelson says they started recording it in the project studio upstairs at Parr Street in Liverpool, where most of Parachutes was made, after Chris Martin wrote it at Rockfield in Wales on an acoustic guitar in the tuning he had used for Shiver, when Nelson pointed the band at the stars outside the studio; it came out as a single on 26 June 2000 and reached number four in the UK, 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.
Is Yellow a rhythm or a lead tone?
It is a riff part with a distorted character, from Coldplay's 2000s alt rock catalogue.
Does Tonelify cost anything to try?
Your first match for your own gear is free with an account, and needs no card. After that both plans start with a 7-day free trial: 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.
