Nail the ToneBoston

More Than a Feeling

Boston · Boston · 1976

The riff everyone knows is not an electric at all — it's a cheap Yamaha 12-string acoustic (borrowed from singer Brad Delp) tracked in Tom Scholz's basement studio through an Electro-Voice dynamic mic and compressed hard on the way in. The electric layers around it are his stripped '68 Les Paul Goldtop with a DiMarzio Super Distortion in the bridge, into a 100-watt Marshall head cranked flat out and tamed by his prototype Power Soak, with an EQ, a parked wah and an Echoplex in front to push the input. For the riff itself, skip the amp settings and go acoustic: bright, close-miked, a little compression, no dirt.

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

Tuning

Standard tuning, no capo

The signature riff is a 12-string acoustic part in standard tuning (open D/Dsus4/G-shape arpeggios); on a 6-string it works fine but loses the octave chime, and the electric layers behind it were tracked separately on a Les Paul.

Part: Riff

Guitar

  • Yamaha 12-string acoustic (department-store model)
  • 1968 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop (stripped to natural) · DiMarzio Super Distortion (bridge) / P-90 (neck) · bridge pickup

Amp

Marshall Super Lead 100 head + 4x12

GAIN
10.0
BASS
5.0
MID
7.0
TREBLE
6.0
PRESENCE
5.0

The Super Lead has no gain or reverb control — 'gain' here is the Normal channel Volume run wide open into Scholz's prototype Power Soak attenuator, close-miked at low room volume with an Electro-Voice RE16. The 12-string riff itself was miked straight to tape with no amp; the Marshall carries the electric layers and choruses.

Amp

Ampeg V4

GAIN
7.0
BASS
5.0
MID
6.0
TREBLE
6.0
PRESENCE
4.0

MusicRadar lists an Ampeg V4 among the amps used on the debut alongside the Marshall, but no source pins it to this specific track; treat it as an alternate for the electric parts.

Pedals

  • Scholz Power Soak (prototype) · power attenuator · Amp flat out, output attenuated to bedroom level
  • MXR graphic EQ · EQ / front-end boost · Mids and upper mids pushed to slam the amp input
  • Dunlop Cry Baby wah · wah (used as fixed filter) · Parked mid-sweep, in front of the EQ
  • Maestro Echoplex EP-3 · tape delay · Short repeats, low mix; also used as a preamp boost
  • Scholz homemade chorus (cigar-box prototype) · chorus · Slow rate, shallow depth on clean layers

Tone character

ringing 12-string chime · bright, compressed acoustic · clean layered shimmer · forward mids on electrics · smooth saturated sustain

easy

Open-position D, Dsus4 and G shapes with a steady arpeggiated picking pattern — the challenge is keeping the notes ringing evenly and changing shapes without a gap, not the fretting.

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