Better Together
Jack Johnson · In Between Dreams · 2005
"Better Together" is a straight acoustic track cut live-feeling in Jack Johnson's Mango Tree garage studio in Hawaii with Mario Caldato Jr. producing and Robert Carranza engineering — a flattop close-mic'd with a small-diaphragm condenser, no amp and essentially no effects. Johnson's studio acoustic in this period was his old Gibson J-45, with a Cole Clark Fat Lady turning up on some tracks; the sound is dry, mid-forward and percussive, with his thumb-and-fingers palm mute working like a snare. To copy it, skip the gain entirely, dial mids up, shave a touch of boom out of the bass, and keep reverb to a suggestion of room.
Where these numbers come from: worked out from the documented rig and the sound of the record
Tuning
Standard tuning, no capo
Recorded in F major with barre shapes (F, F/E, Dm, C, Bb, Gm, plus a B-to-Bb slide in the chorus); if barres are a problem, capo 3 with D-shape chords or capo 5 with C shapes lands in the same key.
Guitar
- Gibson J-45 (Johnson's vintage example) · none used — mic'd with a small-diaphragm condenser
- Cole Clark Fat Lady 2 · Cole Clark 3-way system (bridge piezo + internal mic) · favor the mic element over the piezo
Amp
Clean acoustic combo or acoustic DI/preamp channel
There is no guitar amp on the record — the acoustic was cut with a condenser mic in Johnson's Mango Tree garage studio, so these numbers are a starting point for anyone plugging in: no dirt, a little low-mid trim to keep the palm-muted thumb tight, and just a hint of room.
Amp
Fender Twin Reverb
Documented as Johnson's live acoustic amplification — he splits the Cole Clark to a DI and a Twin — not as the session chain for this track; volume kept low so the amp stays completely clean.
Pedals
- Studio compression (console/outboard) · compressor · gentle: slow attack, roughly 2–3 dB of gain reduction to even out the strum
Tone character
dry woody acoustic · forward mids · tight controlled low end · percussive muted strum · completely clean, no dirt · close-mic'd, small room
Every chord in the verse and chorus is a barre shape moved around the neck, and the groove depends on a steady palm-muted, thumb-driven 16th strum with muted ghost strokes landing on the backbeat.
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 gearSources
No published source — the settings below are estimated by ear.