I Miss You
blink-182 · blink-182 (untitled) · 2003
The rhythm part on "I Miss You" is not an amp tone at all — it's a miked steel-string acoustic sitting in an almost entirely acoustic arrangement of upright bass, cello, piano and a brushed drum loop, cut at the Rubin's House with Jerry Finn. Play it clean with no drive: octave shapes on the low strings in B major, picked evenly, with the darkness coming from the mix reverb rather than from gear. If you're amplifying it, keep the bass down and let the mids and treble carry the pick attack.
Where these numbers come from: worked out from the documented rig and the sound of the record
Tuning
Standard tuning, no capo
Standard tuning, no capo on the record — the part sits in B major on octave/power-chord shapes around frets 4–9 with the middle string left open or muted; most lessons teach an easier capo 2 version using A, Amaj7, F#m and E shapes, which lands in the same key.
Guitar
- Steel-string acoustic guitar (model undocumented)
Amp
Clean tube combo (Fender Twin Reverb-style)
There is no amp on the record — the track was cut with miked/DI acoustic instruments, and DeLonge described it as roughly 70 tracks of organic instruments with "none of them plugged-in." These settings are a substitute rig for playing it live through an acoustic-electric or a clean electric: volume low, bass pulled back so the low B doesn't boom, mids and treble up for pick definition.
Pedals
- Plate/room reverb (mix effect, not a pedal) · reverb · Short decay, low mix — the record's ambience comes from the mix (Tom Lord-Alge), not from a pedal
- Studio compressor (mix effect, not a pedal) · compression · Light, slow attack — evens the plucked eighths without killing attack
Tone character
woody steel-string acoustic · clean, no dirt · bright pick attack · midrange focus · roomy, dark reverb
Steady eighth-note picking on two-note octave shapes that shift up and down the low strings, with the unused middle string muted or left open — easy shapes, but the timing and even dynamics are what make it sound right.
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