Nail the ToneThe Rolling Stones

(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

The Rolling Stones · Out of Our Heads · 1965

The riff is a Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone — Keith Richards names it himself in his book, and he intended it as a placeholder for a horn line. Most accounts, including the Stones' own channels and Andy Babiuk's Rolling Stones Gear, put the riff on his Gibson Firebird VII with the bridge mini-humbucker into a loud, mostly clean Fender amp, with engineer Dave Hassinger shaping the midrange on the console. Set the fuzz's Attack near max and keep the amp clean and midrange-forward; the buzz should sound gated and brassy, not thick or modern.

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

Tuning

Standard tuning, no capo

Standard tuning in E; on the record the fuzz riff is doubled by acoustic rhythm guitar, so a single electric will sound thinner than the mix.

Part: Riff

Guitar

  • Gibson Firebird VII · Gibson mini-humbuckers · bridge pickup

Amp

Fender Showman

GAIN
5.0
BASS
4.0
MID
6.0
TREBLE
6.5

No account documents the amp for this take; Keith's stage and studio amp in 1964-65 was a blackface Fender Showman (Vox AC30s were also in use), so treat the model as period attribution and the knobs as inferred. Engineer Dave Hassinger said he had to work the console EQ hard, scooping some midrange, to make the Maestro cut through — so the amp is a loud, fairly clean platform, not the source of the dirt.

Pedals

  • Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone · fuzz · Attack near maximum, Volume around 7 for a splatty, gated, horn-like buzz

Tone character

gated germanium fuzz · horn-like honk · scooped upper mids · short splatty decay · thin but cutting

easy

A short single-note/two-note riff on the low strings in E; the work is in keeping the eighth-note pulse dead even and letting the fuzz's gated decay breathe instead of rushing the phrase.

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.

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Sources