Nail the ToneSlipknot

Duality

Slipknot · Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) · 2004

The main riff is two hard-panned high-gain rhythm tracks in Drop B: Mick Thomson through a VHT Pitbull Ultra Lead into a Carvin 4x12, Jim Root through his one-off modified Bogner Uberschall, both with EMG-style active bridge humbuckers. Aim for less gain than you think you need, mids pushed up, and bass pulled back so the open low B stays tight instead of boomy. The knob values are inferred from Thomson's own description of the change from Iowa ("dropped the gain a bit, added more mids") plus what the record sounds like; the exact session settings were never published.

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

Tuning

Drop B (B F# B E G# C#)

Drop B here is C# standard with the low string dropped to B; both guitarists used heavy sets (roughly .011-.056) to keep the open low B tight.

Part: Riff

Guitar

  • Charvel Custom Shop San Dimas HH · EMG active humbuckers · bridge pickup
  • B.C. Rich Custom Shop (EMG-loaded) · EMG 81 · bridge pickup

Amp

VHT Pitbull Ultra Lead + Carvin 4x12

GAIN
6.5
BASS
4.0
MID
6.5
TREBLE
6.5
PRESENCE
5.5

Mick Thomson's side: he says it was the same VHT he used on Iowa but with the gain dropped and more mids dialed in, and that Vol. 3 was their first Pro Tools record.

Amp

Bogner Uberschall (one-off modded "brown" head)

GAIN
6.0
BASS
5.0
MID
5.5
TREBLE
6.0
PRESENCE
6.0

Jim Root's side: he says Reinhold Bogner brought him this modified Uberschall during the sessions and that it is on about 70 percent of the album.

Amp

Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC

GAIN
6.0
BASS
4.5
MID
5.0
TREBLE
6.5
PRESENCE
5.5

Root says the remaining ~30 percent of the record was a second, "purple mod" Uberschall blended with an old Mesa Mark IIC head; whether that blend is on this particular track is not documented.

Pedals

  • Custom octave fuzz (built by tech Kevin Allen) · octave fuzz · Intro texture only, wide open and nasty; documented in Thomson's live rig for "Duality," not confirmed as the studio unit
  • Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor · noise gate · Threshold just high enough to kill hiss between chugs, decay fast

Tone character

tight high-gain crunch · forward upper mids · controlled low end · percussive palm-mute attack · hard-panned dual rhythm tracks

medium

The intro/chorus riff is mostly open drop-B power chords with a slide up to the 6th fret, but it lives or dies on fast, even palm-muted picking and dead-silent stops at tempo.

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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Sources