Black
Pearl Jam · Ten · 1991
The rhythm part on "Black" is a two-layer job: a nearly clean, lightly chorused arpeggio for the verses and a fatter, mid-forward crunch when the chorus lands. Stone Gossard's Ten-era rig was Gibson humbuckers into Marshall-style tube amps, with clean layers tracked on lower-gain combos at London Bridge Studios, so set gain low enough that individual notes stay distinct and push the mids rather than the treble. Keep reverb modest and let the amp, not a pedal, supply the little bit of dirt in the chorus.
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 intro/verse figure is built on open-position D–C–G–like shapes with ringing open strings, and there are two layered electrics plus acoustic-style clean textures on the record.
Guitar
- Gibson Les Paul · humbuckers · neck pickup for clean verses, bridge for chorus
- Fender Telecaster · single-coils · neck pickup
Amp
Marshall JCM800-style tube head with 4x12
Stone Gossard's documented early-'90s rig centered on Les Pauls into Marshall heads, but no interview pins the exact amp used on this specific take; another account of the Ten sessions describes small combos and multiple layered amps chosen by producer Rick Parashar and engineer Dave Hillis, so treat the model as period rig rather than confirmed.
Amp
Fender-style blackface tube combo
Used here as the clean layer for the arpeggiated verse figure — the record's verse guitar is barely broken up with a soft, slightly reverbed edge, which is easier to reach on a clean-headroom combo than on a cranked Marshall.
Pedals
- Boss CE-2 / chorus · chorus · Rate ~9 o'clock, Depth ~10 o'clock — very subtle, only on the clean verse layer
- Plate/hall reverb (studio) · reverb · Short-to-medium decay, low mix; much of Ten's ambience came from the studio and mix rather than pedals
Tone character
clean with light breakup · warm rounded lows · moderate mids · soft ambient reverb · thickens to crunch in chorus
The verse part is a slow, repeating arpeggio pattern over open-position chords where the challenge is keeping the picking even and letting the open strings ring without buzzing; the chorus adds simple strummed power/barre shapes.
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