Nail the ToneBob Marley and the Wailers

Is This Love

Bob Marley and the Wailers · Kaya · 1978

The rhythm bed is two layers: Bob Marley's clean electric skank chopping the offbeats, plus a Guild F112 12-string acoustic strum that auction documentation places specifically on this track. Set a Fender Twin-style clean with the bass pulled way back, mids up and treble just short of brittle, then cut every chord short with the fretting hand so the chop is more percussion than chord. No dirt, almost no reverb, and let the bass and organ own everything below 200 Hz.

Where these numbers come from: worked out from the documented rig and the sound of the record

Tuning

Standard tuning, no capo

The record sits in A major / F# minor at standard pitch; a Guild F112 12-string acoustic doubles the strummed rhythm alongside the clean electric offbeat skank, so consider tracking both parts if you're layering.

Part: Rhythm

Guitar

  • Guild F112 12-string acoustic
  • Gibson Les Paul Special · P-90 · bridge pickup
  • Fender Stratocaster · single-coil · middle

Amp

Fender Twin Reverb (silverface)

GAIN
3.5
BASS
3.0
MID
6.0
TREBLE
6.0
REVERB
2.0

Junior Marvin says the band worked primarily through Fender Twin Reverbs in this era with a Les Paul and a Strat, and the Exodus/Kaya sessions ran a Strat into two Twins; the amp is period-documented rather than confirmed for this specific track. A second account (Guitar World's reggae amp feature) has Marvin also using a Roland JC-120, which would give the same glassy clean chop from a solid-state front end.

Pedals

  • Thomas Organ Cry Baby wah (Roger Mayer-modified) · wah · Parked or slowly rocked on the lead and riff overdubs; leave it out of the plain offbeat skank
  • Electro-Harmonix Dr. Q · envelope filter · Documented on the Exodus/Kaya session chain for color parts, not for the basic chop

Tone character

clean, no dirt · tight staccato chop · scooped lows · forward mids · 12-string acoustic shimmer

easy

The chords are simple barre and open shapes (F#m, D, A, C#m, E), but the whole part lives on tightly muted staccato upstrokes landing exactly on the offbeats, so timing and instant hand mute are the real work.

Want this on your own amp?

These are the record's settings. Tell us what you play through and we'll translate every knob to the amp you actually own — free.

Adapt it to my gear

Sources