Nail the ToneSteve Miller Band

The Joker

Steve Miller Band · The Joker · 1973

The rhythm bed of "The Joker" is Miller's Guild 12-string acoustic tuned down a whole step and played in G shapes, cut in one quick pass at Capitol Studio B and printed through the studio's Les Paul echo chamber. There's no amp and no dirt on that part — the sound is a big, slightly slack 12-string strummed lightly, with the chamber giving it depth. The famous slide and wolf whistle are a separate overdub: the upside-down lefty Strat into a wah, a Leslie and an overdrive box, into his brother's hot-rodded '59 tweed Bassman.

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

Tuning

D standard (down a whole step: D G C F A D)

Miller played the rhythm on a 12-string in G-position shapes with the whole tuning down a whole step, so G–C–D shapes sound as F–Bb–C; published transcriptions also hear a second acoustic in standard tuning with a capo at the 1st fret doubling it, and the slide overdub in open D (D A D F# A D).

Part: Rhythm

Guitar

  • Guild 12-string acoustic
  • Fender Stratocaster (left-handed, strung upside-down) · single-coils

Amp

Fender Bassman (1959 tweed, Dan Healy-modified)

GAIN
5.0
BASS
5.0
MID
6.0
TREBLE
6.0
PRESENCE
4.0

Miller's own account of the session puts the Strat slide overdub through wah, a Leslie and an overdrive box into this '59 Bassman; the rhythm 12-string itself was simply miked and sent to Capitol's Les Paul echo chamber, so no amp was involved in the rhythm track.

Amp

Fender Twin Reverb (clean substitute for electric players)

GAIN
3.0
BASS
5.0
MID
6.0
TREBLE
6.0
PRESENCE
5.0
REVERB
2.0

Not on the record — a stand-in if you're playing the rhythm part on an electric or an acoustic-electric, aiming for a soft, uncompressed clean with no breakup.

Pedals

  • Wah-wah pedal (model unspecified) · wah · Slow, restrained sweeps on the slide overdub and the wolf whistle; not used on the rhythm track
  • Manny's overdrive/fuzz box · overdrive/fuzz · Light grit only — Miller has called it both an overdrive pedal and a fuzztone box in different tellings
  • Leslie rotating speaker cabinet · rotary speaker · Slow (chorus) setting on the slide part
  • Capitol Studios echo chamber (Les Paul's chamber) · studio echo/reverb · Short, wet-ish ambience on the 12-string and the slide

Tone character

warm 12-string chime · no dirt on rhythm · loose, laid-back 16ths · soft pick attack · roomy chamber echo

easy

Open G–C–D shapes with a laid-back 16th-note strum and a couple of bass-note walk-ups; the work is in keeping the strum light and even, and in retuning a whole step down so it lands in the record's key.

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