Numbers match the 0 to 10 scale printed on the amp in Amp Designer.
Values as GarageBand shows them when you adjust each control on the pedal.
The real rig behind this tone
Everything on the card above is our own GarageBand recreation, not a set of documented studio settings. Here is what is actually known about how the original was recorded, and how confident we are in each part of it.
James Hetfield has named the Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus as his long standing choice for clean sounds, and tone references commonly associate it with this song's clean parts. We could not find a primary session source naming the amp, guitar or effects used on this specific passage, so treat the JC-120 as plausible rather than confirmed.
Album era photographs and gear research place Hetfield on ESP MX series Explorer style guitars with active EMG pickups. Which exact model, and which pickup position, was used for the clean intro is not established.
A clean sound with a light modulation shimmer. The JC-120 has its own built in chorus, which is part of why that amp is associated with sounds of this kind.
The clean intro is double tracked, and listening closely we are fairly sure an acoustic guitar is also playing the same intro figure underneath the electric parts. That is our ear, not a documented session detail.
Engineer Randy Staub has described tracking the rhythm guitars through a large array of cabinets, roughly nine to eleven of them, with microphones set at varying distances. The extra distant mics were there to capture the low string resonance Hetfield wanted. This is a documented account of the sessions.
Producer Bob Rock has said the SSL mix bus compression was applied to drums and bass but deliberately kept off the guitars, so they held their weight. Useful context for why the guitars sit the way they do on the record.
What is not documented
- Which amplifier actually recorded the clean intro. The JC-120 association is plausible, not sourced to this session.
- The guitar and pickup position used on the clean passage.
- Whether chorus came from the amp, a pedal, or the desk, and at what settings.
- Any amp knob positions. None of the numbers on this card come from the session.
Playing it
The intro wants articulation more than warmth. Let the notes ring into one another without drowning them in reverb, keep the picking attack light and even, and leave enough space between notes that the figure stays recognisable.
Start on the neck humbucker. If the notes come out too rounded, try the bridge pickup with the guitar's tone control backed off slightly, which on some instruments lands closer than the neck position does.
One thing worth being clear about: the Silver Panel Combo is a model of an American valve combo, not of the solid state Roland JC-120. We chose it for its clean headroom and percussive attack, which Apple's own description highlights. The chorus is doing the work of suggesting the JC-120 character.
- The notes sound dull or too rounded
- Move to the bridge pickup and roll the guitar tone control back a little, rather than reaching for Treble on the amp.
- The chorus is distracting
- Reduce the depth first. Only change the amp EQ if reducing depth does not settle it.
- The figure turns into mush
- Too much reverb. Bring it back toward 1 and let the guitar's own sustain carry the notes.
- It sounds thin on its own
- Clean parts often do in isolation. Check it against the record before adding Bass.
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