Nail the ToneGary Clark Jr.

Bright Lights

Gary Clark Jr. · The Bright Lights EP (also on Blak and Blu, 2012) · 2011

The Bright Lights riff is a cherry-red Epiphone Casino with stock P-90s into a Fender Vibro-King set just past its breakup point, with an octave fuzz doing most of the dirty work. Keep the amp mostly clean and let the Fulltone Octafuzz (pushed by a Tube Screamer) supply the ragged, upper-octave grind — mids forward, bass reined in so the hollowbody doesn't turn boomy. Play it with hard downstrokes and short, muted notes; the fuzz makes the staccato sound huge.

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

Tuning

Standard tuning, no capo

The riff sits in A minor at concert pitch, played around the 5th fret as Am7/A7sus4 double-stops — no capo and no detuning on the record.

Part: Riff

Guitar

  • Epiphone Casino · Stock P-90s · neck pickup (or both on)

Amp

Fender Vibro-King

GAIN
4.0
BASS
5.0
MID
6.5
TREBLE
6.0
REVERB
3.0

Clark told MusicRadar the Vibro-King with a Casino "breaks up really nice" around volume three or four, which is where the gain figure comes from; the Vibro-King has no presence control, and reverb here is the Mix knob (Dwell ~4). This title track was cut with producer Rob Cavallo, who kept a full studio amp collection on hand, so a studio amp other than Clark's own Vibro-King is possible — no source names the amp on this specific track.

Pedals

  • Fulltone Octafuzz OF-1 · octave fuzz · Volume to match bypass, Fuzz around 2 o'clock; the octave-up voice is what gives the riff its ragged upper edge
  • Ibanez Tube Screamer · overdrive · Drive 9 o'clock, Tone noon, Level up — used as a mid-pushing boost, his "go-to pedal" in this period
  • Analog Man Astro Tone · fuzz · Fuzz low, volume unity — on his board by the Blak and Blu sessions and a documented part of the fuzz stack he used for these songs

Tone character

thick octave fuzz · woody P-90 attack · forward mids · moderate tube breakup · light spring reverb

easy

All downstrokes on a two-finger Am7 shape at the 5th fret with a hammer-on to the sus4, alternating between the low root and the top notes — the challenge is the staccato muting and laid-back feel, not the fretting.

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

Sources