Nail the ToneRage Against the Machine

Bulls on Parade

Rage Against the Machine · Evil Empire · 1996

Morello cut the whole song, solo included, on his "Arm the Homeless" parts guitar through his 50-watt Marshall JCM800 2205 and Peavey 4x12 — the same rig he's used on every record. The main riff is the bridge pickup into the boost channel with bass and mids dimed and treble a little below max, which is why it reads as thick and mid-forward instead of fizzy. Tune down a half step, keep the muting tight, and use the wah as a fixed filter for the verse riff rather than sweeping it constantly.

Where these numbers come from: the player said these settings themselves

Tuning

Eb standard (down a half step)

Morello and Commerford tracked it a half step down, putting the main riff's root on F; the reunion-era live versions are played in standard tuning (a half step higher), so the record and the live clips won't match.

Part: Riff

Guitar

  • "Arm the Homeless" custom S-style · EMG 85 (bridge), EMG H (neck) · bridge pickup

Amp

Marshall JCM800 2205 (50-watt head)

GAIN
9.0
BASS
10.0
MID
10.0
TREBLE
7.0
PRESENCE
7.0
REVERB
7.0

Morello uses only the boost channel and has kept the same marked knob positions since 1988, into a 1987 Peavey 4x12 with Celestion G12K-85s; a widely circulated close-up reading of the amp gives presence near 1, treble 6 and reverb 0, and the record itself is bone dry, so pull the reverb down if it sounds washy.

Pedals

  • Dunlop Cry Baby wah · wah · Rocked for the "wacka-wacka" figure after the intro; cocked toward the treble side for the verse riff, and heel-down/full-off for the white-noise scratching in the solo.
  • DOD FX40B Equalizer · EQ / boost · Sliders flat, level slider up as a volume boost for the solo.
  • DigiTech WH-1 Whammy · pitch shifter · In his rig at the time; some transcribers credit it in the solo, but Morello's own account of that part names the cocked wah plus the pickup toggle, not the Whammy.

Tone character

dimed bass and mids · tight palm-muted crunch · cutting midrange bite · dry, almost no ambience · high-output active punch

easy

Two-finger power chords and single-note figures, but the 16th-note syncopation has to sit dead on the groove with tight palm muting, and the wah rocking after the intro adds a foot-and-hand coordination job.

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Sources