Nail the ToneThe Black Keys

Lonely Boy

The Black Keys · El Camino · 2011

Auerbach cut this at his own Easy Eye Sound on a 1954 Fender Stratocaster, and the riff itself came out of plugging in a pitch-shift pedal he'd never used before — a Boss Super Shifter dropping the note an octave. The dirt is not a distortion box: it's small vintage amps pushed hard, a 1x10 Magnatone plus an Ampeg combo whose JBL D-130 he had partially blown, and you can hear that speaker rattle in the first seconds of the track. Note that a Vintage Guitar interview from the same period has him naming a 1958 Strat on El Camino, so the exact Strat is arguable even though he says '54 for this song.

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

Tuning

Standard tuning, no capo

The octave drop at the end of each riff phrase is a pitch-shift pedal set an octave down, not a whammy bar — a Strat trem bar can fake it but won't reach a full octave.

Part: Riff

Guitar

  • 1954 Fender Stratocaster · original 1954 single-coils · bridge pickup (by ear; not documented)

Amp

Ampeg combo with JBL D-130 speaker ("Ampeg V-92")

GAIN
8.0
BASS
4.0
MID
7.0
TREBLE
6.5
REVERB
0.0

Auerbach told Guitar World his core El Camino tone came from a Magnatone and "an Ampeg V-92 with a JBL D-130 speaker," and that he blew that speaker — the rattle is audible at the start of "Lonely Boy." Volume high enough for constant power-amp breakup is the whole trick; knob positions are inferred from the record.

Amp

Magnatone 1x10 combo

GAIN
9.0
TREBLE
6.0

guitar.com's album feature describes El Camino as built around a small 1x10 Magnatone driven to its limit alongside the Ampeg; these small Magnatones have only volume and tone, so bass, mid, presence and reverb are null.

Pedals

  • Boss PS-5 Super Shifter · pitch shifter · Pitch Shifter mode, 1 octave down, 100% effect, swept with the pedal/expression on the last note of each riff phrase
  • Shin-ei Companion Fuzz · fuzz · Documented as his favorite fuzz in this period but not confirmed on this track; if you use one, keep fuzz moderate, level up, and add mids back after it

Tone character

cranked small-amp breakup · forward mids · blown speaker rattle · punchy and compressed · gated, splatty fuzz edge

easy

Low-string E riff in one hand position with tight palm muting; the only real hurdle is timing the octave dive so it lands and returns to pitch before the next note.

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