Nail the ToneMy Chemical Romance

I'm Not Okay (I Promise)

My Chemical Romance · Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge · 2004

The main riff is a bridge-humbucker Les Paul into a cranked Marshall — mid-forward, tight, and doubled hard left and right rather than heavily distorted. Set the gain around 6 and leave the mids up; if it sounds thin or fizzy you have too much gain and not enough midrange. No pedals are needed for this riff: the dirt is the amp, and the size comes from double-tracking the same part.

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

Tuning

Standard tuning, no capo

The record is standard tuning in D major (D–Bm–Em/G–A shapes); note that since the 2019 reunion the band plays it a half step down live, so live videos and "2019 tuning" tabs will not match the album.

Part: Riff

Guitar

  • Gibson Les Paul Standard · Seymour Duncan JB (SH-4) · bridge pickup
  • Epiphone Elitist Les Paul Custom ("Pansy") · Epiphone humbuckers · bridge pickup

Amp

Marshall JCM2000 TSL100

GAIN
6.0
BASS
4.0
MID
6.5
TREBLE
6.5
PRESENCE
5.0
REVERB
0.0

The TSL100 was Toro's head through the Three Cheers period and is seen in Life on the Murder Scene studio footage; use the lead/crunch channel into a 4x12. Another account of the album's guitar sound points at the studio itself — engineer Mike Plotnikoff tracked Benson's records with his own amp collection (Marshall, Vox AC30, Bogner, modded 5150) stacked in pairs, so the printed tone is likely more than one amp, not just the band's touring head.

Tone character

tight British crunch · forward mids · bridge humbucker bite · layered rhythm wall · crisp palm mutes

easy

Easy open-position power chord and barre shapes, but the riff runs in steady eighth-note downstrokes near 176 BPM, so the picking hand has to keep up without the palm mutes going sloppy.

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