Nail the ToneThe Beatles

Come Together

The Beatles · Abbey Road · 1969

The main riff is Lennon's stripped natural Epiphone Casino on the neck P-90 with the guitar's tone knob backed off, into a silverface Fender Twin Reverb set loud enough to just fur up on the attack. No pedals: the grit comes from a hollowbody hitting a big Fender clean channel, plus the EMI TG12345 console's channel compression. Keep treble low and mids up, and mute with the picking hand so each note stops short like the record.

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

Tuning

Standard tuning, no capo

The record sits at concert pitch in D, so standard tuning with no capo — the riff lives in open/2nd position D blues shapes.

Part: Riff

Guitar

  • Epiphone Casino E-230TD · P-90 · neck pickup, tone rolled back to ~6-7
  • Gibson Les Paul Standard "Lucy" · PAF humbuckers · bridge pickup (Harrison's coda solo, not the main riff)

Amp

Fender Twin Reverb (silverface)

GAIN
5.0
BASS
5.0
MID
6.5
TREBLE
4.0

Volume is the drive control here; Lennon ran his Casino into the Normal channel during the Get Back sessions, which has no reverb — if you use the Vibrato channel keep reverb at 1-2. Geoff Emerick could not recall the specific backline, so the Twin is attributed from the band's 1969 rig rather than session documentation; a competing account claims the riff guitar was plugged straight into the EMI desk for its clipped edge, a story usually told about "Revolution."

Tone character

dark woody clean · rolled-off treble · forward mids · light tube breakup · hollowbody thump

easy

A short D blues lick in first position that repeats — the work is all in the swung, palm-muted timing and locking with the bass line, not in the notes.

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