Nail the ToneCage the Elephant

Ain't No Rest for the Wicked

Cage the Elephant · Cage the Elephant · 2008

The hook is Lincoln Parish playing slide in standard tuning on the band's Jay Joyce–produced 2008 debut — that much comes from Parish himself, but no source pins down the specific guitar and amp used at the session. His documented gear from that period is a Goldtop Les Paul into a Budda Superdrive, with Joyce's studio amps also in the room, so treat the rig here as period-accurate rather than session-confirmed. Aim for a bright bridge-pickup sound just into breakup, mids up, with a short reverb; live the part is played on a hollowbody for a honkier voice.

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

Tuning

Standard tuning, no capo

Lincoln Parish played the hook with a slide in standard tuning (he has said he moved the slide from his little finger to his ring finger for it); a second, non-slide guitar strums the same G–Bb–C–F changes underneath.

Part: Riff

Guitar

  • Gibson Les Paul Standard Goldtop · humbuckers · bridge pickup
  • Hollowbody electric (Gretsch-style) · bridge pickup

Amp

Budda Superdrive Series II

GAIN
4.5
BASS
4.0
MID
6.0
TREBLE
6.5
REVERB
3.0

No source names the amp on this session; the Budda Superdrive is documented as Parish's amp during his years in the band and Premier Guitar notes his successor kept it "in tradition." Producer Jay Joyce's own amps were also in play — for the following album Guitar World lists Parish through an Orange, a blackface Bassman head, and Joyce's Plexi Marshall.

Amp

Fender Bassman-style blackface head

GAIN
6.0
BASS
3.5
MID
6.5
TREBLE
6.0
PRESENCE
4.0

Substitute path if you don't have a Budda: a loud, barely-dirty American voicing gets the honky slide bite. Volume near 6 on a Bassman-type circuit is where the crunch on the record lives.

Pedals

  • Fulltone Full-Drive 2 · overdrive · Low gain (about 9 o'clock), volume up — a near-clean boost pushing the amp, not a distortion. Documented in Parish's live rig of the era, not confirmed on the session.
  • Spring/plate reverb (studio) · reverb · Short and bright, roughly 15–20% wet — the slide line sits slightly wet, the rhythm guitar stays dry and close.

Tone character

honky slide bite · edge-of-breakup crunch · forward mids · short bright reverb · dry compressed rhythm guitar

medium

The notes are simple, but slide intonation over the 12th fret plus muting behind the slide to kill string noise is what makes or breaks it — played fretted with palm mutes instead, it drops to about a 2.

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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