Nail the ToneFoo Fighters

The Pretender

Foo Fighters · Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace · 2007

The Pretender's main riff is a semi-hollow Gibson through loud tube amps, not a pedal-driven metal tone: Grohl's Trini Lopez on the bridge pickup, layered with Chris Shiflett's rhythm doubles, into a cranked Vox AC30 and a Mesa Rectifier-style head. Aim for moderate-high gain with mids left up so the open-A pedal note and the chord shapes stay separate, then double the part hard left and right. Rich Costey's mix pushed those guitars further with 1176 compression, which is where a lot of the aggression comes from.

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

Tuning

Standard tuning, no capo

Standard tuning: the main riff pedals on the open A string with moving shapes on the D and G strings, and the record layers a second guitar playing the same figure higher up the neck.

Part: Riff

Guitar

  • Gibson Trini Lopez Standard · Gibson humbuckers · bridge pickup
  • Gibson Les Paul Custom · humbuckers · bridge pickup

Amp

Vox AC30 (Top Boost)

GAIN
8.0
BASS
6.0
TREBLE
6.0
REVERB
0.0

Grohl's documented studio method is a cranked AC30 rather than a distortion pedal; the AC30 has no mid or presence control, and its Cut knob sits around 6-7 to keep the top end from getting brittle.

Amp

Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier

GAIN
7.0
BASS
4.0
MID
6.0
TREBLE
6.0
PRESENCE
6.0

Grohl's period rig paired the AC30 for clean/edge-of-breakup with a Mesa Rectifier-family head for the heavy parts; players argue over which one dominates the album take of this riff, with some hearing a pushed AC30 and others a Rectifier, so the honest answer is a blend of both across the doubled tracks.

Pedals

  • Pro Co Rat · distortion · Used sparingly, only to thicken a doubled rhythm track: distortion around 9 o'clock, filter around 11 o'clock, volume unity
  • Boss DM-2 Analog Delay · analog delay · Short slap for the clean intro and bridge: repeat rate low, echo (repeats) 2, intensity about 25 percent

Tone character

thick midrange crunch · tight palm-muted attack · semi-hollow woody bite · doubled, wide rhythm tracks · controlled gain, chords defined

easy

The riff itself is two-note power-chord shapes over a ringing open A string, but it runs at roughly 170 bpm, so the challenge is keeping the picking hand even and the palm mute tight through the shifts up to the 5th, 7th and 8th frets.

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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.

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Sources