If you were old enough to watch TV in the early ‘90s I’m sure you had your head blown away like we all did watching the video for Soundgarden’s mega-hit “Black Hole Sun”. It was a psychedelic approach that looked like the offspring of David Lynch and one of the best Grunge songs of all time.
Time has gone by for all of us, but Soundgarden’s tone remains up there with the most iconic in music’s history. Many of us have tried to nail those thick, distorted guitar lines and pristine clean arpeggios for more than a decade.
This is what I found out about it in the past years. Read along and “Follow me, into the desert, as thirsty as you are!”
Table of Contents
Kim Thayil and Chris Cornell Guitars
Kim Thayil plays the lead guitar in Soundgarden but Chris Cornell, besides adding his stellar vocals to every song, also plays the guitar. They have very different tastes when it comes to instruments. Plus, they need many guitars on the road because the band uses many alternative tunings live.
Kim Thayil Guitars
Let’s get started with Kim’s axes to keep Grunge royalty at its all-time high.
Kim is a Guild guy. Yes, they’re not the most common to see on stage, but the brand has been around since the early ‘50s. Kim’s favorite is Guild’s take on an SG, called the S-100. Although the riffmaster plays a ‘90s reissue live, the brand has issued a signature edition recently. That is the closest you can get to Kim’s sound.
If you can’t get one of those, a regular Gibson SG Standard will do the trick too. If that’s too much of a hefty price tag for your budget, you can get an Epiphone SG Custom or an Epiphone Special Satin.
Kim’s second guitar is a little harder to get, it’s a Guild S-300, an all-mahogany, dual-humbucker beast with an ebony fretboard ready to cut through the mix. That’s a ‘70s exclusive that Guild is no longer manufacturing, but you can replace it with an ESP LTD EC-1000T CTM. If that’s too much for your budget, an Epiphone Les Paul Custom can do the trick as well.
Finally, Kim also plays a regular ‘90s Gibson Firebird. Gibson has discontinued the “Standard” version of the guitar, but you can get it in all its Custom Shop glory. Otherwise, Epiphone’s version is also a great option.
Chris Cornell Guitars
Just like Kim is a Guild guy, Chris was a Gibson dude. Yes, the man with the stellar voice used to play his signature ES-335 with a Bigsby tremolo, finished in Army Green, and with Lollartron pickups. That guitar has been discontinued, but you can have a similar bigger-than-life semi-hollow sound with Gibson’s new ES-335 or the Epiphone version.
Other than that, the late Chris Cornell also rocked a Gibson Custom 1960, which you could replace with the more affordable Gibson Les Paul Standard ’60s or an even more affordable Epiphone Les Paul Standard ’60s.
In the same vein of single-cut guitars, Chris also played ‘90s reissues of Gretsch Duo Jets with Bigsby. If these Japanese-made amazing guitars are a little too much for your budget, you can get the Electromatic or Streamliner versions too.
Kim Thayil and Chris Cornell Effects Pedals
Soundgarden isn’t really an effects-driven band. On the contrary, both guitar players experiment more with swapping instruments and playing alternate tunings than they do with adding effects to the signal.
Kim Thayil Effects Pedals
Kim plays live through the following effects:
- EHX Micro Pog – Songs like “Halfway There” wouldn’t be the same without this pedal. For a cheaper alternative, the Sub n Up is another great option.
- CAE Line Driver – This is Kim’s always-on pedal to drive the amps harder and get natural overdriven tones.
- CAE Boost/Overdrive – To drive the amps a little harder and add some grit to the signal, this boost/overdrive pedal is exactly what Kim needs.
- H&K Rotosphere – This very unique pedal was discontinued long ago but has the fast setting Kim uses exclusively for “Black Hole Sun”. You can use a Boss CE-5
- Ibanez Chorus – For other chorus parts, Kim uses this old Ibanez chorus pedal. The good news is that the brand reissued it in a mini, super affordable format.
- Boss DD-5 – Boss has discontinued this pedal, instead, you can get the Boss DD-8. Beware not to get the DD-3 since Kim utilizes it for the “Reverse” setting only and the DD-3 doesn’t have it.
- Boss NS-2 – Playing with so many gain stages, a noise suppressor is paramount to keep it all silent.
- Boss TU-3 – This is the most important pedal on any guitarist’s board.
- T-Rex Tap Tone – Since the Tap Tone has been discontinued, the next best thing is the T-Rex Replica
- CAE Wah – Wah choices are as personal as overdrive choices. This is Kim’s wah choice, but you can replace it with your favorite one.
Chris Cornell Effects Pedals
These are the effects Chris Cornell used to play live:
- Deluxe Memory Man – The quintessential analog delay + chorus pedal that made The Edge and many more very famous is not easy to replicate. If you can’t find one in your area, you can use a Carbon Copy and a Boss CE-5
- T-Rex Reptile – This is an analog delay with a tap tempo. It has been discontinued by T-Rex, but you can use a Carbon Copy Deluxe
- No Drive-o-Matic (2) – If you don’t know this company, I highly recommend you check them out; they have a rare collection of very cool one-offs and weirdos. It can be replaced by a good old Ibanez TS-9 or a Behringer TO800. You should keep the gain knob at 0 and add volume and sustain only.
- Menatone King of the Britains – This pedal is the classic Plexi-in-a-box with more tweaking options. You could use an Xotic SL-Drive
Kim Thayil and Chris Cornell Amplifiers
Kim Thayil Amplifiers
Kim is a Mesa Boogie man. He plays through two very different Mesa models, a Trem-o-Verb and an Electra Dyne head. The Electra Dyne, long discontinued by Mesa, is kind of a weird amp for the brand with three channels and a single set of controls for them.
That amp is dialed in to be strong on the lows and the highs. Besides the EQ, it’s dialed in with plenty of gain and compression.
The other amp, the Trem-o-Verb is a 2×12 combo and has a strong bump in the midrange, thus, it compensates for the lack of them on the Electra Dyne head. Moreover, since both amps have plenty of gain and compression and are connected to 4×12 Mesa Boogie cabs loaded with Vintage 30s, this is a rig that can bring down a wall.
To replicate it on a budget, you’d need a Mesa Boogie Mini Rectifier or a Blackstar HT20RH MKII and connect them to any 2×12 or 4×12 cab.
Chris Cornell Amplifiers
Chris Cornell used boutique amplifiers to get his sound. To begin with, the heart of his rig was a Divided by 13 FTR 37. This is a two-channel amp with a mid-boost that Chris used always on. You could get close to it with something like a Vox AC30 or a Vox AC15C1.
He also used a couple of 15-watt Savage amps. These were the Rohr 15 model with a 2×10 speaker configuration. Those are very hard to find and quite expensive as well, you could replace them with a Fender Princeton or a more affordable Fender Pro Jr.
Some Relevant Settings
Kim’s amp 1
- Gain – 8
- Volume – 2
- Treble – 5
- Mid – 5
- Bass – 4
- Presence – 5
Kim’s amp 2
- Gain – 7
- Volume – 2
- Treble – 6
- Mid – 5
- Bass – 5
- Presence – 6
Chris’s amp 1
- Gain – 6
- Volume – 2
- Treble – 7
- Bass – 3
- Presence – 3
Chris’s amp 2
- Gain – 8
- Volume – 4
- Treble – 4
- Mid – 5
- Bass – 4
- Presence – 5
That’s what you would call Soundgarden’s main tone modified by the different guitars.
If you want to nail the “Black Hole Sun” amp settings, you need to lower the amp’s gain to 3 (or wherever it cleans up) and use the chorus pedal in a fast setting to achieve that particular tone.
Then, when the song goes into the distorted part, you can use an overdrive or distortion pedal making sure the gain knob is quite cranked.
The Bottom End
Chris Cornell, one of grunge’s (and rock’s) most unique and gifted voices left us on May 18th, 2017. Although the man is gone, the band, the songs, the tone, and the legend are still alive and will continue to live forever.
Follow my guide above and pay your homage to this great rocker whose legacy lives through his songs.
Happy (grunge) playing!
