Everything you've heard about the "How Soon Is Now?" guitar tone is wrong... or is it?
The Smiths classic features a ghostly slide lick and rich, tremolo-drenched chords. How'd they do it? Guitarist Johnny Marr and producer John Porter have different recollections. So in our video above, we take their different stories, try them out ourselves, and see how close we can get to the original sound.
What you'll definitely need if you want to recreate the rhythm guitar as faithfully as you can is one Epiphone Casino, a Roland JC-120, a reamper (we used a Radial EXTC-Stereo Effects Reamper , and at least some manner of Fender Twin Reverb—plus a noise gate and some other studio tools.
For the slide part, you'll want a Tele, a slide of course, and some manner of harmonizer (we used a Boss Poly Shifter XS-1).
Watch all previous Potent Pairings episodes here to learn more about how your favorite guitarists crafted their sounds—or find recent highlights below.