Nail the ToneAerosmith

Dream On

Aerosmith · Aerosmith · 1973

On the original 1972 Intermedia Sound session the band tracked live with almost no effects, and Joe Perry has said the amp on the first album was an Ampeg V-4. Steven Tyler transposed his piano part to two guitars — Perry covering the right-hand voicings and Brad Whitford the left-hand part — with Perry on a then-new Stratocaster and Whitford on his 1968 Les Paul Goldtop with P-90s. Set a mid-gain amp bright and just at breakup, keep it dry, and use the guitar's volume knob to clean up the verse picking and let the choruses bite.

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

Tuning

Standard tuning, no capo

Record sits in F minor at concert pitch in standard tuning; the verse figure is a set of Fm/C-type voicings around the 5th fret over a repeating C, and some lesson versions tune down a half step to play the same shapes as F#m one fret higher.

Part: Rhythm

Guitar

  • Fender Stratocaster (early '70s) · Fender single-coils · middle/neck pickup for the picked verse figure
  • 1968 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop · P-90s · neck pickup, tone rolled back slightly

Amp

Ampeg V-4 (100W head)

GAIN
6.0
BASS
4.5
MID
6.0
TREBLE
7.0
REVERB
1.5

Perry told Guitar World "For the first Aerosmith album [1973's Aerosmith], I used an Ampeg V4"; the V-4 has Volume 1/Volume 2, Treble, Midrange, Bass and Reverb and no presence, so the gain number is the channel volume set just at breakup so the guitar's own volume knob cleans up the verses. A long-time Boston eyewitness account on TDPRI instead has Whitford on the V4 head with a Sound City 4x12 and Perry through a Marshall stack, so which player had the Ampeg is argued over.

Tone character

bright, trebly near-clean · edge-of-breakup crunch · very dry, little reverb · P-90 fatness underneath · two guitars split left and right

medium

The verse figure is a chain of stretched Fm/C voicings picked hybrid-style against a repeating C drone, so the stretch and keeping the picking even are the work; the chorus and outro power chords are easy by comparison.

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Sources