lead guitar from “icky thump” by the white stripes | ToneDB
icky thump
the white stripes
lead guitar
Tone Profile
A raw and aggressive fuzz tone, characterized by its thick, distorted sound and gritty texture. It's the kind of tone that punches through a mix with authority.
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The Story
Jack White's lead guitar tone on "Icky Thump" was created using a Gretsch Rancher Falcon hollow-body guitar fed through an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi fuzz pedal into a vintage Sears Silvertone 1485 amplifier. The track was recorded at Blackbird Studio in Nashville with Joe Chiccarelli engineering. The combination of the hollow-body guitar's natural resonance and the Big Muff's thick fuzz creates the song's signature aggressive, gritty lead tone.
Production Credits
Producer: Jack White
Engineer: Joe Chiccarelli
Recorded at: Blackbird Studio (Nashville, TN)
Signal Chain
Instrument: Gretsch Rancher FalconShop on Reverb
Amp: Sears Silvertone 1485Shop on Reverb
Processing: Electro-Harmonix Big Muff PiShop on Reverb
Recreation Tips
- Start with a hollow-body guitar, as this is crucial to the tone. A semi-hollow can work as well.
- Use an EHX Big Muff Pi to get a similar fuzz sound. Adjust the tone and sustain knobs to taste.
- A vintage tube amp like a Silvertone or a similar low-wattage amp will help capture the original tone. Experiment with different amp settings and speaker combinations to dial in the sound.
- If you don't have access to a vintage amp, try using an amp modeling plugin or pedal to emulate the sound of a Silvertone or other similar amp.
Original Gear
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Substitutions & Recommendations
Alternative to: Gretsch Rancher Falcon
Budget hollow-body with similar P90-style pickups that provides the essential hollow-body resonance and bite needed for this fuzz tone
Alternative to: Gretsch Rancher Falcon
Modern Gretsch hollow-body that captures the original's tonal character with Filter'Tron pickups and similar construction
Alternative to: Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi
The exact same fuzz pedal used on the original recording, still manufactured today with the same thick, sustaining fuzz character
Alternative to: Sears Silvertone 1485
Low-wattage tube amp that captures the raw, vintage character of the original Silvertone with similar breakup and compression
Alternative to: Sears Silvertone 1485
Plugin that models vintage amp saturation and tape compression, helping recreate the raw recorded character of the Silvertone
Frequently Asked Questions
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