Nail the ToneLit

My Own Worst Enemy

Lit · A Place in the Sun · 1999

The riff is a bridge humbucker into a cranked small Marshall — Popoff has said he left his Lace Sensor-loaded live Strats and Teles at home for the A Place in the Sun sessions and cut with Les Pauls plus a Fender-loaned Strat fitted with a Seymour Duncan Trembucker. Set a JMP or JCM800-style amp around 7 on preamp gain with mids up and just a touch of presence: enough crunch for the chords to bite, but clear enough that the hammer-on speaks. Track it twice, hard left and right, and skip the effects.

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

Tuning

Standard tuning, no capo

Record sits at concert pitch in E, so the riff is E5–B5–A5 with the little hammer-on on the B string; the widely posted capo-2 D–A–G arrangement lands in the same keys if you prefer open shapes.

Part: Riff

Guitar

  • Gibson Les Paul · humbucker · bridge pickup
  • Fender Stratocaster (Seymour Duncan Trembucker) · Seymour Duncan Trembucker · bridge pickup

Amp

Marshall JMP 50-watt head

GAIN
7.0
BASS
5.0
MID
6.0
TREBLE
6.5
PRESENCE
5.0

Popoff has described his studio setup as a Morley A/B/Y into two Marshall heads (a JMP 50-watt plus a second JMP, with an early-'70s Super Bass blended on some tracks) through Carvin Legacy cabs loaded with 25-watt Celestion greenbacks; that quote describes the 2004 self-titled sessions, and he later said his setup barely changed in 25 years, so treat the JMP as period-consistent rather than track-confirmed. He also names Marshall JCM800 heads among his prized amps.

Pedals

  • Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive · overdrive/boost · Level 8, Tone 5, Drive 2 — used as a tightening boost; documented on his board, not confirmed on this track
  • MXR Phase 90 · phaser · Off for the main riff; on his board through this era
  • DigiTech Whammy · pitch shifter · Off for the main riff

Tone character

tight bridge-humbucker crunch · forward mids · bright picking attack · moderate gain, not scooped · double-tracked rhythm · effectively dry

easy

Three power chords in a steady eighth-note downstroke pattern with a quick B-string hammer-on in the figure; the challenge is keeping the strum tight and even at 104 bpm.

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