Sweetness
Jimmy Eat World · Bleed American · 2001
The rhythm tone on "Sweetness" is a tight mid-gain crunch — bright, punchy, and much less saturated than it sounds, with the size coming from double-tracking and hard panning rather than gain. Set a Marshall-voiced amp around 6 to 7 on gain with the mids up and the bass pulled back so the palm mutes stay tight instead of boomy. Track the part twice and pan it left and right; a single track will sound thin next to the record.
Where these numbers come from: worked out from the documented rig and the sound of the record
Tuning
Standard tuning, no capo
The record sits at standard pitch; the main riff is played on the lower strings around open-position E/A shapes, with layered doubles panned hard left and right.
Guitar
- Fender Telecaster · single-coil · bridge pickup
- Gibson Les Paul · humbuckers · bridge pickup
Amp
Marshall JCM800 2203
Jim Adkins and Tom Linton were documented around the Bleed American period using Fender Telecasters and Gibson Les Pauls into Marshall and Mesa/Boogie heads; the specific head on this take is not confirmed in a primary source, so treat the model as the band's period rig rather than a session credit.
Amp
Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier
Used as the second, thicker layer in the doubled rhythm stack; producer Mark Trombino's records from this era rely on multiple amps blended rather than one big channel, and the wide chorus tone is a stereo pair, not a single amp.
Pedals
- Ibanez Tube Screamer · overdrive · Drive ~9 o'clock, Tone ~12, Level ~2 o'clock — used to tighten and push the amp, not to create the distortion
- Boss DS-1 / distortion box · distortion · Light setting for the octave-lead layer over the chorus; not on the main rhythm track
Tone character
tight palm-muted crunch · forward upper mids · bright pick attack · wide doubled stereo · controlled, not saturated
The riff is a repeating open-position figure with steady eighth-note downstrokes and palm muting — the challenge is keeping the mute consistent and the picking hand even for the whole song, 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.
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