Would?
Alice in Chains · Dirt (also on the Singles soundtrack) · 1992
"Would?" comes from the Dirt sessions, where Dave Jerden split Cantrell's guitar to three amps — one voiced for lows, one for mids, one for highs — and doubled each side for six rhythm tracks. Cantrell's own account names a Bogner-modified Marshall as his main Dirt amp, with a black Gibson Les Paul cited for this track and his Seymour Duncan JB-loaded G&L Rampage as the album's other main guitar. On one amp, aim for saturated bridge-humbucker crunch with the mids left in, tuned a half step down.
Where these numbers come from: worked out from the documented rig and the sound of the record
Tuning
Eb standard (down a half step)
The opening figure is Mike Starr's bass; the guitar riff enters over it and on the record is layered across several amp tracks panned left and right.
Guitar
- Gibson Les Paul Custom (black) · stock humbucker · bridge pickup
- G&L Rampage "Blue Dress" · Seymour Duncan JB · bridge pickup
Amp
Marshall JCM800 (Bogner-modified)
Cantrell told Guitar World he used a Reinhold Bogner-modified Marshall "exclusively" on Facelift and Dirt; band accounts also place a black Les Paul and an old high-gain amp he bought at seventeen on "Would?" specifically. Keep mids up — his core tone is mid-forward, not scooped.
Amp
Bogner Fish preamp + VHT power amp
Dave Jerden says this fed a Marshall cab with Vox Bulldog speakers as the dedicated "low" layer, miked with a Shure SM57; Cantrell's own 1993 Guitar World account instead credits a prototype Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier for the low tracks, so the two primary accounts disagree on the bottom-end amp.
Amp
Rockman (Pocket Amp / X100)
Jerden took the Rockman direct as the "high" layer in distortion mode — it has no EQ or gain knobs; blend it low under the main amp for the fizzy top edge. A Bogner Ecstasy covered the midrange layer in his account.
Pedals
- Dunlop Cry Baby Wah · wah · A fixture of Cantrell's Dirt-era rig, but not used on the "Would?" main riff — the riff is guitar straight into amps.
Tone character
thick mid-forward crunch · tight controlled low end · layered multi-amp wall · fizzy top-end edge · articulate under heavy gain
Two-finger power chords with slides and a steady palm-muted eighth-note feel at a slow tempo; the challenge is locking the muted picking hand to the drums and keeping the chord slides clean.
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