Riff Tone

Stairway to Heaven

Led Zeppelin

Guitarrock1970s

Original Gear

Guitar1959 Fender Telecaster (painted 'Dragon' finish, rosewood neck)

AmpSupro Coronado 1690T (12-inch Oxford speaker, Pulsonic cone, cold-biased)

PickupsFender single-coil (stock Telecaster bridge pickup)

Amp Settings

gain4

bass6

mid7

treble7

reverb2

presence5

Effects & Signal Chain

No effects used for this tone

Notes

Studio recording, 1970-1971. Used for the main riff and rhythm sections of 'Stairway to Heaven'. No pedals or effects used in the riff section; all tone comes from guitar and amp. Confirmed by multiple sources that the Telecaster and Supro were used for the rhythm/riff, not the solo. Pickup selector set to bridge. No evidence of pedals or amp effects for the riff section.

Tone Character(10)

bright and articulatechimey highsslightly gritty edge-of-breakuptight and percussive attackopen and airydynamic and touch-sensitiveclear note separationminimal compressionclassic British-American hybrid amp toneno pedal coloration

Difficulty

The riff requires intermediate-level fingerpicking and hybrid picking, clean chord transitions, and dynamic control to achieve the iconic articulation and clarity.

Sources

The secrets behind Jimmy Page's guitar tone on Led Zeppelin's ...Jimmy Page's guitar gear: everything you need to nail the Led ...

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