Hotel California
Eagles · Hotel California · 1976
The famous intro isn't an electric riff at all — it's Don Felder's Takamine 12-string acoustic, mic'd up the middle and doubled with its DeArmond pickup run through tape echo and a Leslie for that stereo swirl. Chase the sound with a 12-string (or a chorus-and-slow-rotary treatment on a six-string), capo at 7, and a clean amp with mids up and only a touch of dirt. Save the dimed tweed Deluxe and the Les Paul/Tele pairing for the solos.
Where these numbers come from: worked out from the documented rig and the sound of the record
Tuning
Standard tuning, no capo · Capo at fret 7
The intro/main riff is played in Em-shape voicings with a capo at the 7th fret (sounding in B minor) on a 12-string; the electric parts underneath are played uncapoed in Bm.
Guitar
- Takamine F400S 12-string acoustic · DeArmond soundhole pickup · soundhole (magnetic), blended with mic
- Gibson Les Paul Standard (1959 'Burst') · PAF humbuckers · bridge pickup
- Fender Telecaster · single-coils · bridge pickup
Amp
Orange combo (small, stereo pair)
Szymczyk says the Takamine's pickup fed a pair of small Orange amps mic'd in stereo, blended with a Neumann KM84 on the acoustic; Felder's own account routes that pickup through an Echoplex and a Leslie instead — likely the same signal path described from two ends. Keep it clean with just a hint of hair.
Amp
Fender Tweed Deluxe
Felder has said the electric parts and solos were a dimed tweed Deluxe with the '59 Les Paul, and Walsh's answering lines were the same amp cranked with an old Telecaster; a tweed Deluxe has only Volume and Tone, so the other controls don't exist.
Pedals
- Maestro Echoplex · tape delay · Short slapback-to-medium repeat, low mix — atmosphere, not audible echo
- Leslie rotating speaker cabinet · rotary speaker · Slow (chorale) speed, mic'd in stereo for the left-to-right swirl
Tone character
shimmering 12-string chime · slow rotary swirl · clean with faint breakup · warm midrange body · spacious stereo width
Slow arpeggiated open-position shapes under a 7th-fret capo — the work is clean fingerpicking/pick arpeggios and letting the 12-string ring without muting strings.
Guitar
- Gibson Les Paul Standard (1959 sunburst) · PAF humbuckers · bridge pickup
- Fender Telecaster · single-coils · bridge pickup
Amp
Fender Tweed Deluxe (5E3, narrow panel)
Felder told MusicRadar he used his '59 Les Paul into a mid-'50s narrow-panel Tweed Deluxe, and told Guitar World it was stock and "just kind of cranked up"; the 5E3 has only Volume and Tone, so gain here is the Volume knob and treble is the single Tone control.
Amp
Fender Tweed Champ
Walsh's amp is not confirmed — Felder said he did not know what Walsh played, and secondary accounts split between a small tweed Champ (Roland, Reverb) and a second Tweed Deluxe (widely argued on TDPRI); a tweed Champ has Volume only, hence the null tone controls.
Pedals
- Maestro Echoplex EP-3 · tape echo · Short slapback, low mix — audible as thickening, not as distinct repeats
- MXR Phase 90 · phaser · Slow rate, subtle depth on the Telecaster line — reported, not confirmed
Tone character
moderate tube breakup · singing midrange sustain · humbucker warmth vs Tele bite · compressed small-amp saturation · light slapback echo
Two harmonized lead lines in thirds and sixths with fast picked runs, bends that must land dead in tune against the harmony, and the closing triad arpeggio sequence that has to be picked cleanly at tempo.
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