Nail the ToneFoo Fighters

Times Like These

Foo Fighters · One by One · 2002

The rhythm part is Grohl's 1967 Gibson Trini Lopez — the guitar he says is on every Foo Fighters record — into a cranked Vox AC30 for the jangly verse hook, with a hotter humbucker-and-Mesa layer stacked underneath for the chorus. Keep the amp just past breakup rather than dialing in heavy gain: the verses want clean chime with bite, and the chorus gets its size from doubled tracks and pick attack, not from more dirt. Cut treble slightly on the AC30 and leave the Mesa's mids near the middle so the D-C-G/B chorus stays punchy instead of scooped.

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

Tuning

Standard tuning, no capo

Standard tuning at concert pitch; the signature hook is a two-note figure sitting over ringing open A and D strings in 7/4, and the chorus is doubled an octave up by a second guitar.

Part: Rhythm

Guitar

  • Gibson Trini Lopez Standard (1967) · Gibson humbuckers · neck/both for the clean hook, bridge for the driven chorus
  • Gibson Explorer · humbuckers · bridge pickup

Amp

Vox AC30 Top Boost

GAIN
7.0
BASS
4.5
TREBLE
6.5
REVERB
1.5

Grohl has called the AC30 plus the Trini Lopez his basic studio combination and prefers pushing the amp instead of a distortion pedal; set Cut around 3 so the jangle stays but the top isn't shrill. Track-specific settings are not documented.

Amp

Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier

GAIN
6.0
BASS
4.5
MID
5.5
TREBLE
6.0
PRESENCE
5.5

Used through this era for the heavy, layered rhythm tracks while the AC30 covered cleans, per gear histories of the band; no source confirms it on this specific song, and Grohl had said in 1999 he was deliberately steering away from the Rectifier sound, so an AC30 pushed hard is a credible alternative for the whole part.

Pedals

  • Boss DD-3 Digital Delay · delay · Short slap on the clean hook: time ~350 ms, one or two repeats, level low
  • MXR Phase 90 · phaser · Slow, subtle — speed about 9 o'clock, used only to loosen the clean parts

Tone character

chimey clean verses · thick humbucker chorus crunch · forward mids · moderate tube breakup · ringing open-string drone

easy

Open-position D, Am, C and Em shapes with a steady eighth-note strum, but the hook lives in 7/4 and you have to keep the two-note double-stop clean while the open strings drone underneath.

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