Nail the ToneLed Zeppelin

Stairway to Heaven

Led Zeppelin · Led Zeppelin IV (untitled) · 1971

The rhythm part is layered, not amplified: a Harmony Sovereign acoustic carries the intro, then two electric 12-strings — a Fender Electric XII and Page's older Vox Phantom XII — take the middle and fanfare sections, panned one left and one right. Reports say the 12-strings went straight into the desk, so the sound is clean and direct with almost no amp color. On one guitar and one amp, aim for a clean, bright, mid-flat tone with the bass trimmed, and save any real dirt for the solo.

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

Tuning

Standard tuning, no capo

Standard tuning throughout; the intro is fingerpicked on a steel-string acoustic, and the middle and fanfare sections are two electric 12-strings double-tracked and panned hard left and right, so one guitar covering both parts is always a reduction of the record.

Part: Rhythm

Guitar

  • Harmony Sovereign H1260 · none (acoustic, miked) · n/a
  • Fender Electric XII · split single-coils · both pickups, tone rolled back slightly
  • Vox Phantom XII · single-coils · neck/middle for chime

Amp

Supro Coronado 1690T

GAIN
3.0
TREBLE
5.0

Page's studio amp of this period and the confirmed amp for the solo; several accounts say the 12-strings were plugged straight into the desk rather than amped, so treat this as the period-correct amp for the rhythm part rather than a documented one. The Coronado has only Volume and Tone per channel — 'gain' here is the Volume knob and 'treble' is the single Tone control.

Amp

Blackface-style clean tube combo (substitute)

GAIN
3.0
BASS
4.0
MID
5.0
TREBLE
6.5
REVERB
2.5

Practical modern stand-in for the direct-to-desk 12-string sound: clean headroom, bright top, mids left flat, bass pulled back so the twelve strings don't turn boomy, and just enough reverb to give the arpeggios air.

Tone character

chiming 12-string jangle · clean with barely-there breakup · bright top, flat mids · airy fingerpicked acoustic · wide double-tracked stereo

medium

The fingerpicked intro needs an independent thumb holding the descending bass line under the arpeggios, and the fanfare section shifts its accents onto the upbeats while the chords change on the eighth note.

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