🎸 Hard Rock · 1970s

Walk This Way (Riff · Distorted) — Guitar Tone

by Aerosmith · riff

The Walk This Way by Aerosmith guitar tone is built on a Cranked vintage Marshall Plexi / Super Lead, dialed in at gain 5/10, bass 4, mid 7.5, treble 6, presence 5.5 (community-researched baseline). Full breakdown below — then adapt every knob to your exact guitar and amp, free.

🎛️ Adapt this tone to YOUR guitar & amp — free →

Amp settings (0–10)

5
GAIN
4
BASS
7.5
MID
6
TREBLE
5.5
PRESENCE
1
REVERB

Community-researched baseline. Your rig is different — GuitarToneAdapt re-dials every knob for your specific guitar, amp and pickups.

Original gear

Amp: Cranked vintage Marshall Plexi / Super Lead (Walk This Way: Ampeg V-2, Mid 8 @ ~800Hz, Bass 3, Treble 6)

Pickups

bridge humbucker / P-90

Effects / signal chain

distortion

Tone character

mid-forward crunch, funky bite, amp breakup, bluesy

Recording context

studio

How it’s played

mid-forward amp-breakup crunch distortion. This shapes how hard the amp is pushed and where the EQ sits for the Walk This Way sound.

What makes the Walk This Way part tricky

funky feel & groove, pocket, bluesy bends. GuitarToneAdapt gets the tone right so you can focus on the playing.

Note: Walk This Way's funky grit is all MIDS — Joe Perry used a Les Paul Junior (P-90) into an Ampeg V-2 with Mid at 8 (~800Hz), Bass low (3), Treble 6. Push the mids, keep bass down, gain modest., Aerosmith's Joe Perry is a Les Paul-into-a-cranked-tube-amp player (vintage Marshall Plexis/Super Leads, Fenders, an Ampeg V-2 on Walk This Way, lately Friedman). His sweet spot is a LOW gain setting (~3-5) with the volume up so the amp breaks up naturally — crunch, not high gain., For Walk This Way specifically he used a Les Paul Junior (single P-90) into an Ampeg V-2 with the MIDS boosted (Mid 8, around 800Hz), Treble 6, Bass low (3) — that mid push is the grit and growl. Across the catalogue: Les Paul, mids up, bass moderate-low, gain modest., Settings are community-researched starting points, not official recall sheets — crank an amp into breakup rather than piling on gain.

Get these exact settings for your rig →
🎧 Can you guess the tone?
Recognise famous songs from just the amp dials — a quick 10-round game. Beat your friends. Play free →
🎸 Which guitar legend is your tone twin? Take the quiz & share your result →

Share this tone

𝕏 PostRedditFacebook

Sources

Free practice tools

🎤 Online guitar tuner →  ·  🎸 Tuning chart →  ·  🎼 Scale finder →  ·  🎚️ Chord transposer & capo →  ·  🥁 Metronome →  ·  🎶 Song chords →  ·  🎧 Guess the Tone game →  ·  🎸 Tone Legend quiz →  ·  📊 Tone data report →

🔥 The most famous guitar tones of all time →  ·  🎯 Easy guitar songs to play (with settings) →

More like this

🎚️ Marshall Plexi settings →  ·  🎛️ best hard rock amp settings →

Related tones

Sweet Emotion — AerosmithDream On — AerosmithBoys Don't Cry — The CureWay Down We Go — KALEOThunderstruck — AC/DCBack in Black — AC/DC
Settings are community-researched estimates, not official. GuitarToneAdapt adapts them to your gear. guitartoneadapt.com