I remember very clearly hearing Reise Reise (2004) for the first time. The brutal guitar riffs, Till Lindemann’s aggressive vocals, and the perfectly crafted songs made me an instant fan. Later, I heard Sehnsucht (1997) and I was even more into them, following live performance after live performance.
Today, four studio albums later, the band still sounds menacing, tight, and heavy without losing a pinch of its fierce sound and aesthetics. Of course, I’m still a fan.
Being a fan and a guitar player often means playing their songs jumping around in socks and underwear in my studio. For that, I had to dial some of their tones using my heaviest equipment. Since I got pretty close, I decided to share what I’ve learned in my past decade and a half as a Rammstein fan with you.
So, here’s a detailed list of the guitars, amps, and pedals these German metal Gods used to rise to fame and how to set them to sound like them. It’s time to chug the night away, so zip up that leather jacket, it’s metal time!
Table of Contents
Rammstein Guitars
Rammstein’s guitar duties are shared by two players: Richard Van Kruspe and Paul Landers. They have a very different taste in guitars, guitar tone, and their approach to gear. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself here. Let’s start with Richard’s and Paul’s guitars.
Richard is an ESP Guitars fan. In this video, he comments how, after growing up in Eastern Germany, the moment he could buy an electric guitar became a pivotal time in his life.
That meaningful instrument was, for him, an ESP electric guitar with dual humbuckers.
Nowadays, he plays his ESP signature guitars, a Les Paul-shaped one (RZK-II) and a kind of Mosrite-shaped one (RZK-I). These come equipped with Fishman Fluence ceramic humbucker pickups in the case of the RZK-II and EMG-81 active pickups (with a cool red cover) for the RZK-I.
Both guitars come equipped with an original double-locking Floyd Rose tremolo system.
These guitars come with a hefty price tag attached. A cheaper alternative for the RZK-II is the ESP LTD EC-1000FR or an even more affordable ESP LTD Eclipse EC-256 (sans the Floyd Rose).
Paul Landers, on the other hand, is a Gibson fan. He had his Gibson Les Paul signature released about ten years ago but has since been discontinued. In this video, he speaks about what minimalism means for him as a player and how aesthetics is the main thing about a guitar from his perspective.
As a minimalist (we’ll see this again in amps and pedals), Paul wants a guitar that can do one thing easily and do it perfectly well. He only relies on a volume knob and the bridge pickup, which has to be a really high-gain one.
In his signature guitar, he went for the EMG 81 and 60 which give him that extra touch of bass he needs for Rammstein’s signature chugging, palm-muted riffs. Contrary to Richard, Paul doesn’t have a floating tremolo system on his guitar, but a regular tune-o-matic bridge with a stop tailpiece.
His signature guitar is a strange case of a 50s neck on a heavy metal guitar, but this riffmeister knows what he’s doing. That extra beefiness of the neck can really be felt. The best choice for a big budget is a Gibson Les Paul Standard ’50s in black to which you can add a Zakk Wylde EMG pickup set.
For a more affordable option, you can go for an Epiphone Les Paul Prophecy with Fishman Fluence pickups. Finally, the most affordable option is an Epiphone Les Paul Studio.
Rammstein Amps
Richard is a Mesa Boogie Rectifier guy. He’s used dual and triple rectifiers throughout his career. That’s the core of his sound. These are very loud 150-watt heads that can be truly enjoyed when you’re bringing fire and mayhem to arenas around the globe.
For home enjoyment and small gigs, the next best thing is Mesa’s Mini Rectifier.
If that feels like a big price tag still, you can go for the brutally high-gain Blackstar HT-20.
This is the section where the minimalist approach of Paul Landers can really be seen. He calls himself the no-amp guy because he never really liked them. In his mind, they always added edge or noise to the signal that he didn’t want to. You can hear the man himself say nasty things about amps in this video.
In that video, you will also see him talking about his version of Tech21’s FlyRig, the PL1. This pedal (and amp) features three channels (clean, dirt, and boost) and a delay with tap tempo along with vibrato. Plus, it features an XLR out to go directly into the PA and a headphone output for late-night ideas.
In case you want to know more about the PL1 and how it came to be Paul’s number-one platform, here’s an extensive interview about it with all the details.
Although that’s his current main FX and amp, he used to play only with the SansAmp GT2.
Rammstein Effects Pedals
In terms of effects pedals, these guitar players only use a couple of things here and there to embellish songs, but rely mainly on their distortion. In the case of Richard, it comes from either a Kemper Profiler emulating the Mesa Rectifiers or from those heads. In the case of Paul, it comes from the PL1.
Here’s an old video showing Richard’s setup and all you can see in terms of pedals is, to begin with, a chorus (a weird Carl Martin XII), which can be replaced by an inexpensive Boss CE-5. He also packs TC Electronic delay and compressor units. These are discontinued and can be replaced by a Flashback delay pedal and an MXR Dyna Comp.
In the case of Paul, you can use his signature PL1 or Ritchie Kotzen’s RK5 or a SansAmp GT2 with the same Flashback delay pedal and the Boss Ce-5.
Some Famous Rammstein Amp Settings & Records
Rammstein is a heavy band that relies on a heavily distorted sound. As they were starting out, in the highest point of Nü Metal, they were a part of that thick sound with all frequencies present, giving body and edge to the sound.
During Reise Reise, they went through a scooped phase with heavy bass and treble and fewer mids. As their career moved forward, mids made a stellar comeback and the gain moderated a bit, especially in their last album.
Sehnsucht
- Bass – 7
- Middle – 6
- Treble – 8
- Presence – 6
- Gain – 7
- Volume – 8
Reise, Reise
- Bass – 8
- Middle – 4
- Treble – 7
- Presence – 4
- Gain – 8
- Volume – 8
Liebe ist für alle da
- Bass – 8
- Middle – 7
- Treble – 8
- Presence – 6
- Gain – 7
- Volume – 8
Zeit
- Bass – 5
- Middle – 6
- Treble – 8
- Presence – 4
- Gain – 6
- Volume – 8
The Bottom End
Rammstein’s main asset is not the guitar sound being super heavy, but the capability of making the ground tremble under our feet. Arguably, that’s in the heavy chugging from Paul and Richard’s impeccable palm-muting technique.
Finally, let me tell you that few other bands have taken live performances further than Rammstein has. Their live shows involve fire, explosions, costumes, and so much more to make every bit of every song an exhilarating experience. If you have the chance, please, go see them live.
Happy (heavy and distorted) playing!
