Breaking the Law
Judas Priest · British Steel · 1980
Set a non-master Marshall's volume near the top and let the power amp do the distorting — this is crunch, not modern high gain, so back the gain off whatever amp you have and push the mids up around 8. Bridge humbucker, moderate bass so the muted low notes stay tight, and effectively no effects: British Steel is a dry, direct record. The police siren later in the song is Downing working the tremolo arm on a Stratocaster, not a synth.
Where these numbers come from: worked out from the documented rig and the sound of the record
Tuning
Standard tuning, no capo
Both guitarists double the riff in unison, hard-panned left and right — one guitar sounds thin on its own, so double-track it if you can.
Guitar
- Gibson Flying V (1967) · Gibson PAF humbuckers · bridge pickup
- Gibson SG Standard · humbuckers · bridge pickup
- Fender Stratocaster
Amp
Marshall JMP 50W head (non-master)
This head has no gain control — the value shown is Volume I on the Normal channel, run near flat out for power-amp breakup, which is how Downing and Tipton got their dirt in this era. Downing's own 1978 Marshall JMP 50W head was sold at the Bonhams auction of his collection.
Amp
Marshall Super Lead 100W (non-master)
Tipton's site states he used regular vintage 50- and 100-watt Marshall heads with no master volume until the JCM800 arrived; his side of the track is the warmer, lower-mid-heavy half of the pair. Stacks were set up in rooms all over Tittenhurst Park rather than in a control-room iso booth.
Pedals
- Rangemaster-style treble boost · treble boost · boost near maximum, into the amp's Normal/Bass input
- MXR Phase 100 · phaser · off for the main riff
Tone character
forward mids · cranked plexi crunch · tight palm-muted low end · bright humbucker bite · dry, almost no effects
A repeated two-bar figure of fifths and single low notes at about 160 bpm — the work is in keeping the palm-muted downstrokes even and the chord stabs cut off cleanly.
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
- K.K. Downing's 1967 Gibson Flying V Sells for Close to $189,000 — Guitar World
- Bonhams: K.K. Downing pedal board, 1970s/80s
- Judas Priest's Glenn Tipton and KK Downing talk British Steel — MusicRadar
- Tipton's gear, quoting glenntipton.co.uk — WoodyTone
- Pete Cornish on the Judas Priest pedalboards — Metropoulos Forum
- Breaking the Law — Wikipedia
- Judas Priest: The making of British Steel — Louder