Nail the ToneRed Hot Chili Peppers

Otherside

Red Hot Chili Peppers · Californication · 1999

The main riff is a 1955 Gretsch White Falcon straight into a blackface Fender Showman head pushing a Marshall 4x12 — Frusciante's documented clean rig for this track. Aim for a loud, headroom-rich clean with a bright single-coil attack and just a hint of breakup on hard picking, no reverb and effectively no effects. Save the dirt for the breakdown, where a humbucker into a cranked Marshall takes over.

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 studio Gretsch was strung with heavy flat-ish gauges (around .012–.054) in this period, which is part of why the clean arpeggios sound so thick and tight.

Part: Riff

Guitar

  • Gretsch White Falcon (1955) · DeArmond DynaSonic single-coils · bridge pickup
  • Gibson SG Custom (1961) · PAF humbuckers · bridge pickup

Amp

Fender Showman (blackface head, Marshall 4x12 cab)

GAIN
4.0
BASS
4.0
MID
5.5
TREBLE
6.0

Frusciante told Guitar Player (UK, Sept 1999) that Otherside was a '55 Gretsch White Falcon through the Showman into a Marshall 4x12; he chose the Showman for clean parts because the Marshalls weren't clean enough. Knob values are inferred — the blackface Showman head has no presence and no reverb, and its vibrato channel is Volume/Treble/Middle/Bass, so 'gain' here is the channel volume set just short of breakup. Ground Guitar dates the same Falcon to 1957; Frusciante himself said '55.

Amp

Marshall JCM800

GAIN
8.0
BASS
5.0
MID
6.0
TREBLE
6.5
PRESENCE
6.0

Only for the distorted breakdown/bridge section, played on the '61 SG Custom — Frusciante described it as a cranked JCM 800, 'a humbucker into a Marshall.' Not needed for the main clean riff.

Pedals

  • Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble · chorus / signal splitter · Used in the Californication sessions mainly as a splitter feeding two amps rather than for audible chorus; no chorus is documented specifically on Otherside, so keep it off or barely on.

Tone character

clean with slight breakup · bright hollowbody chime · tight low end · open, dry arpeggios · big-amp headroom

easy

The Am–F–C–G main figure is open-position chord shapes picked as a steady arpeggio, so the work is in even picking and letting notes ring rather than in any stretch or 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