Nail the ToneLynyrd Skynyrd

Sweet Home Alabama

Lynyrd Skynyrd · Second Helping · 1974

The main riff is a mid-'70s Fender Stratocaster in the bridge-and-middle position, played nearly clean — King said the guitar's weak pickups wouldn't break up even flat out, which is exactly why the lick sounds so clear. Set a loud, clean tube platform with a touch of dirt only on the hardest picking, keep bass slightly back so the open strings don't get boomy, and add a hair of reverb. No pedals: engineer Rodney Mills describes just amp, one mic, and Marshall-driven rhythm overdubs behind it.

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

Tuning

Standard tuning, no capo

Standard tuning; the riff lives in open position around D–C–G and uses the open D, G and B strings, so it doesn't move with a capo.

Part: Riff

Guitar

  • Fender Stratocaster (1972/'73) · stock single-coils (King called them weak) · bridge + middle (position 2)
  • Gibson Les Paul · humbuckers · bridge pickup

Amp

Fender Twin Reverb

GAIN
6.0
BASS
4.0
MID
6.0
TREBLE
6.0
REVERB
2.0

Engineer Rodney Mills says King cut the signature lick through a Fender Twin set up beside the control room, one Neumann U87 close in with the mic padded down because the rhythm part wasn't loud; he says the amp was pushed nearly wide open for the solo. King himself remembered a 50-watt Marshall borrowed from Allen Collins, so the amp is genuinely contested — the Volume here is a riff-level compromise, not the solo setting.

Amp

Marshall 50-watt head

GAIN
9.0
BASS
6.0
MID
7.0
TREBLE
7.0
PRESENCE
6.0

Ed King's own account: a '72 Strat into a 50-watt Marshall "turned all the way up," and because the pickups were so weak it still barely broke up — which is why the part sounds clean. One secondhand telling has him naming a Marshall Super Lead instead.

Amp

Marshall head (overdubbed rhythm guitars)

GAIN
6.0
BASS
5.0
MID
6.0
TREBLE
6.0
PRESENCE
6.0

Rossington and Collins each overdubbed rhythm guitar through Marshalls after the King/Wilkeson/Burns basic track, which is why the record sounds fatter than one guitar; light crunch under King's clean lick.

Tone character

clean with edge of breakup · single-coil quack, position 2 · bright top, snappy attack · light spring reverb · open-string chime

easy

Open-position D, C and G shapes with hammer-ons and pull-offs on the top strings — the work is keeping the picked double stops clean and the pull-offs exactly in time rather than any stretch or speed.

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