Riff Tone

Shape of My Heart

Sting

Guitarother1990s

Original Gear

GuitarRamirez classical nylon-string guitar

AmpNone (recorded direct with microphones, no guitar amp used in studio)

PickupsNone (purely acoustic, no pickups on studio recording)

Amp Settings

gain0

bass5.5

mid6

treble6

reverb3

presence5

Effects & Signal Chain

No effects used for this tone

Notes

Studio recording, 1993. Dominic Miller played a Ramirez classical guitar, fingerstyle, recorded with microphones. No evidence of electric guitar, pickups, or amp in the studio version. Live versions sometimes use piezo-equipped nylon-string guitars into DI or acoustic amps, but the original studio riff is purely acoustic.

Tone Character(10)

warm and intimatesmooth and mellowrich midrangesoft, expressive dynamicsclear note separationnatural acoustic resonancegentle attacklush, fingerpicked articulationno distortion or breakupsubtle room ambience

Difficulty

The riff requires advanced fingerstyle technique, wide left-hand stretches, and subtle dynamic control to achieve the expressive, clean tone of the original recording.

Sources

Sting’s Nylon-String Masterworks | Guitar World Shape Of My Heart Acoustic Tabs by Sting

This tone has been researched 2 times by the community

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