A Day in the Life
Simple Plan (title not found in their catalog)
I could not verify that Simple Plan ever released a song called "A Day in the Life" — it is not on any of their studio albums, singles, or B-sides that I could find, and searches for it return The Beatles' 1967 track instead. Because there is no confirmed recording, there is no session gear to report, so the guitar, amp, and knob settings above are a generic 2000s pop-punk rhythm setup and should be treated as estimated, not documented. If you can tell me the correct title — or confirm you meant The Beatles' "A Day in the Life" — I can research the actual session rig, which for either the Beatles track or a real Simple Plan single is far better documented.
Where these numbers come from: an educated guess from the sound of the record — a good starting point, not the official setting
Tuning
Standard tuning, no capo
No such recording could be verified, so no tuning can be sourced; Simple Plan's catalog is mostly standard tuning with occasional Eb standard, so check the record against standard first. The Beatles' "A Day in the Life" is standard tuning with a capo-free acoustic part.
Guitar
- Les Paul-style solidbody with humbuckers · bridge humbucker · bridge pickup
Amp
High-gain tube head into 4x12 (Rectifier class)
Generic category, not attributed to any specific session: no Simple Plan song called "A Day in the Life" could be found, so these controls are a period-typical 2000s pop-punk rhythm setting. Jeff Stinco is publicly associated with Gibson Les Pauls and Mesa/Boogie Rectifier amps, but that is a career-level lead, not a source for this track.
Amp
Mid-gain tube combo (Vox AC30 / JCM800 class) as layer
Doubling a scooped high-gain track with a mid-forward amp is standard practice on Bob Rock-era pop-punk rhythm beds and gets the chords to cut on small speakers.
Pedals
- Tube Screamer-style overdrive · overdrive/boost · Drive 1-2, Tone 6, Level 7 — used as a tightening boost, not for extra gain
- Noise gate · noise gate · Threshold just above hiss, fast release for clean palm-mute stops
Tone character
tight palm-muted crunch · slightly scooped mids · bright pick attack · dry, no reverb · doubled wide rhythm bed
Whatever the intended track, a pop-punk rhythm part of this type is root-fifth power chords with steady down-picked eighths and palm mutes — the work is in keeping the picking hand even and the mutes clean, not in the shapes.
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 gearSources
No published source — the settings below are estimated by ear.