Nail the ToneParamore

Misery Business

Paramore · Riot! · 2007

The riff is a bridge-humbucker guitar into a cranked British head — Josh Farro's documented rig in this period was a Marshall JCM2000 DSL with a 4x12, plus a Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier — recorded at House of Loud with David Bendeth producing and Dan Korneff engineering. Set moderate gain with the mids up rather than scooped; the size on the record comes from double-tracking two different rigs, not from piling on dirt. Nothing sits between guitar and amp on the riff, so get the tightness from your picking hand and from the half-step-down drop tuning.

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

Tuning

Drop C# (Db Ab Db Gb Bb Eb)

It's drop D taken down a half step; the intro riff itself sits on the middle strings, so Eb standard works if you only want the riff, but the verse/chorus power chords use the dropped low string.

Part: Riff

Guitar

  • Fender Telecaster Deluxe (custom) · Seymour Duncan humbucker (bridge), Phat Cat (neck) · bridge pickup
  • Gibson Les Paul Classic · humbuckers · bridge pickup

Amp

Marshall JCM2000 DSL 100 + 1960A 4x12

GAIN
6.0
BASS
4.5
MID
6.5
TREBLE
6.5
PRESENCE
5.0

Farro's documented Riot!-era head; keep the Ultra Gain channel at moderate gain — producer David Bendeth has said he avoids too much gain on heavy guitars, and the record's crunch is tighter than it is saturated. One tone site instead names an Orange Rockerverb 100 as the Riot!-era amp, which no primary source supports.

Amp

Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier

GAIN
5.5
BASS
3.0
MID
5.5
TREBLE
6.5
PRESENCE
5.0

Also part of Farro's rig in this period and a good choice for the doubled track; Bendeth/engineer Dan Korneff tracked doubles with a different guitar or amp than the first pass, so the wide riff sound is two different rigs stacked, mic'd with an SM57 on the cone and a Royer 122 at the edge.

Tone character

tight British crunch · forward mids · moderate gain, not scooped · bright pick attack · doubled and wide

easy

Steady palm-muted eighths at 173 bpm with a syncopated single-note figure that shifts positions quickly — the challenge is keeping the mute tight and the slides in time, not the fretting hand.

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