Nail the ToneJudas Priest

Painkiller

Judas Priest · Painkiller · 1990

The Painkiller riff is a cranked EL34 Marshall stack fed by high-output active pickups in the bridge position — lots of gain, but with the bass pulled back and the mids pushed so the fast palm mutes stay tight instead of turning to mush. Both guitarists doubled the riff and producer Chris Tsangarides recorded each side with his "vortex" trick, a close mic panned against a distant room mic, which is the width you hear. Set your gain high, bass low, mids up, and add a second hard-panned track before you reach for any pedals.

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 riff is double-tracked by both guitarists and spread hard left/right, so a single guitar will never sound as wide as the record.

Part: Riff

Guitar

  • Hamer Phantom GT · EMG 81 (active) · bridge pickup
  • Hamer Custom Flying V · EMG active humbucker · bridge pickup

Amp

Marshall JCM800 2203

GAIN
8.0
BASS
4.0
MID
6.5
TREBLE
7.0
PRESENCE
6.0

K.K. Downing said the band simply brought their regular rigs to Miraval, and JCM800 heads into Marshall 4x12s were the Priest standard in this period; accounts disagree on which JCM800, with photo-based sources identifying four-input 1959 Mk II Super Leads rather than the master-volume 2203.

Amp

Marshall JCM800 1959 Mk II Super Lead

BASS
4.0
MID
7.0
TREBLE
7.0
PRESENCE
5.0

No gain control on this head — run Volume I at 9-10 (channels jumpered) for the same amount of dirt. Tsangarides tracked both players with his "vortex" pairing: close mic panned to one side, distant room mic panned to the other, which is where the album's width and movement come from.

Pedals

  • Yamaha SPX90 · rack pitch shifter / harmonizer · Favorite session preset was roughly 6 cents down left, 6 cents up right; engineer Attie Bauw documents this on the vocal, and Tipton is long associated with SPX90 pitch shift on guitar. No dirt pedal is documented on the riff — the gain is active pickups into a cranked Marshall.

Tone character

tight high-gain crunch · forward mids · bright pick attack · controlled, non-boomy low end · wide double-tracked stereo

hard

Sustained fast picking around 200 bpm with tight palm mutes and quick position shifts across the low strings — the endurance and the picking-hand consistency are the hard parts, not the notes.

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