Nail the ToneKings of Leon

Sex on Fire

Kings of Leon · Only by the Night · 2008

The hook is a bridge-pickup humbucker into a low-wattage vintage combo pushed just into breakup — clean enough to hear every note, dirty enough to bite. Producer Jacquire King put his Selmer Treble-N-Bass Fifty on this track, miked with an SM57 and a U67, and ran two amps per player, so the recorded sound is a blend rather than one box. The enormous synth-like reverb halo around the riff came from an Eventide DSP4000 in the studio, not from an amp knob, so chase that with a big plate or hall on top of a mostly dry, mid-forward crunch.

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

Tuning

Standard tuning, no capo

Standard tuning; the hook sits on the low E and A strings (16-14 slide over an open E, then 12-11 over the 9th fret) while Caleb's second guitar covers the E and C#m chord shapes underneath.

Part: Riff

Guitar

  • Gibson ES-137 · Gibson humbuckers · bridge pickup
  • Epiphone Sheraton (1983) · humbuckers · bridge pickup
  • Gibson Les Paul Custom (1971) · humbuckers · bridge pickup

Amp

Selmer Truvoice Treble-N-Bass Fifty

GAIN
6.0
BASS
4.0
TREBLE
7.0

Producer Jacquire King says his own Selmer is on "Sex on Fire" (Warren Huart interview, 2019); it has volume/bass/treble only, so no mid, presence or reverb knob. King also says the band ran two amps per player on this album, so a second, unnamed amp is blended in.

Amp

Ampeg Reverberocket R-212R

GAIN
5.5
BASS
4.0
TREBLE
6.5
REVERB
3.0

Matthew Followill's amp in the Only by the Night era per his guitar tech and gear guides — that is his live rig rather than a track-confirmed session amp, so treat it as the second voice in the pair; keep the volume where the amp just starts to crunch.

Pedals

  • Eventide DSP4000 · studio reverb/multi-effects · Big synth-like reverb wash on the guitar, added at Blackbird during the transfer to Pro Tools (documented by Jacquire King) — the ambience around the riff, not a floor pedal
  • Line 6 Verbzilla · reverb · Octo mode, mix high — Matthew's signature reverb in this period; not confirmed for this specific take
  • Visual Sound Route 66 · overdrive/compressor · Drive low, level up for a light push — period rig, not track-confirmed

Tone character

edge-of-breakup crunch · glassy top end · forward mids · huge shimmering reverb · tight and articulate

easy

The riff is two-note-per-bar shapes on the low E and A strings with a quick slide down into the repeated notes, so the work is in tight timing and muting the strings you aren't playing rather than in speed.

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