Nail the TonePearl Jam

Even Flow

Pearl Jam · Ten · 1991

The main riff is Stone Gossard's, played on a Les Paul bridge humbucker in open D through a cranked Marshall, with a Fender blended in for body — a moderate, mid-heavy crunch rather than a wall of distortion. Set gain just past halfway so palm mutes stay tight and the open strings still ring, and leave the low end conservative so the riff doesn't get boomy. Tuning matters more than any knob here: in standard tuning the shapes will not line up.

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

Tuning

Open D (D A D F# A D)

Gossard's riff is in open D while McCready's parts are in standard tuning; the album track also sits slightly sharp of concert pitch, so playing along means tuning up to the record.

Part: Riff

Guitar

  • Gibson Les Paul (sunburst, Mother Love Bone-era) · Humbucker · bridge pickup
  • Gibson Les Paul Custom (cherry sunburst) · Humbucker (Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro per 1992 profile) · bridge pickup

Amp

Marshall JCM800 2203 head + 1960 4x12

GAIN
6.5
BASS
4.0
MID
6.5
TREBLE
6.5
PRESENCE
5.0

Marshall head plus a Fender 4x10 blended with an Ernie Ball volume/pan was Gossard's documented early-Pearl Jam setup; a widely repeated online rig page instead credits a 1968 Marshall JMP 50 plexi, but that account belongs to the later Riot Act sessions, not Ten.

Amp

Fender Bassman (4x10)

GAIN
5.0
BASS
4.0
MID
6.0
TREBLE
6.0
PRESENCE
4.0

Engineer Dave Hillis described guitars on Ten being captured as a blend — a Sennheiser 421 on the Marshall plus an SM57 running through a 1959 Bassman, both printed to tape through Neve channels; use it as a second, cleaner layer under the Marshall crunch.

Pedals

  • Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer · overdrive · Drive 3, Tone 6, Level 7 — pushing an already crunchy Marshall; reported for the era rather than confirmed for the session
  • Ernie Ball Volume/Pan · volume/amp blender · Used to pan between the Marshall and the Fender rather than as an effect

Tone character

mid-forward Marshall crunch · tight palm-muted attack · dry with light room · humbucker thickness, not fuzz · open-string ring under riff

medium

The notes are simple but the open-D riff lives on the low strings with heavy syncopation, raked mutes, slides and hammer-ons, so keeping it funky and clean at tempo is the real work.

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