Nail the ToneThe Rolling Stones

Gimme Shelter

The Rolling Stones · Let It Bleed · 1969

Keith Richards cut the riff on a borrowed Australian Maton EG240 Supreme hollowbody, in open E tuning, plugged into a Triumph Silicon 100 whose built-in tremolo gives the intro its wobble. The amp sits just past clean — bright, wiry, and breaking up when he digs in — with the tremolo doing all the atmosphere work. The neck reportedly came off the Maton on the last chord of the take, and they kept it.

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

Tuning

Open E (E B E G# B E)

The song sits in C# minor, so the open-E barre shapes land at the 9th (C#m), 7th (B) and 5th (A) frets; three strings get tuned up, so use lighter gauges or tune the whole thing down to open D and capo 2 to spare the guitar.

Part: Riff

Guitar

  • Maton EG240 Supreme · two single-coils · bridge pickup

Amp

Triumph Silicon 100

GAIN
6.5
BASS
4.0
TREBLE
7.0

Published accounts say the band tracked through battered Triumph amps and that Keith got the intro's shimmer from this solid-state head's built-in tremolo; its tone stack is basic, so mid is listed as null. Glyn Johns reportedly disliked the amp.

Amp

Blackface-style tube combo with tremolo (modern stand-in)

GAIN
4.0
BASS
4.0
MID
6.0
TREBLE
7.0
REVERB
2.0

If you don't own a Triumph, a Deluxe Reverb-type combo just past clean gets you there: edge-of-breakup, forward mids, treble up for the chime, only a hint of reverb so the tremolo stays the effect you hear.

Pedals

  • Amp-built-in tremolo (Triumph Silicon 100) · tremolo · Moderate depth and a medium-slow rate — roughly noon on both depth and speed on a modern tremolo; the pulse should breathe under the chords, not chop them
  • Low-gain overdrive (modern substitute) · overdrive · Gain very low, level near unity — only to add grit if your amp stays too clean

Tone character

swampy tremolo pulse · edge-of-breakup crunch · bright hollowbody jangle · thin, wiry top end · loose, dragging strum

medium

The shapes are easy one-finger barres in open E, but the intro's pick-and-fingers arpeggio into a loose strum needs a relaxed right hand, and getting three strings tuned up to pitch and staying in tune is half the battle.

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