lead guitar from “i bet you look good...” by arctic monkeys | ToneDB
i bet you look good...
arctic monkeys
lead guitar
From The Benchv2.0
SOURCES 3 · DOCUMENTED 3 · REPORTED 3 · INFERRED 1 · VERIFIED SEP 2026
Tone Profile
A wiry, mid-forward single-coil tone with a fizzy distortion-pedal edge, played hard and fast with almost no sustain and no effects beyond the drive. Two guitars scrapping in the same range, cut live and left rough.
Gear
- Fender Stratocasterinstrument
- Reverb$880Sweetwater
- Vox AC30amp
- ReverbSweetwater
- ProCo RAT 2processing
- Reverb$97Sweetwater
- Fender Telecasterguitar
- ReverbSweetwater
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The Story
The album version of I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor was cut at Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire in the first days of a 15-day session, after earlier attempts at 2fly Studios in Sheffield; the song was recorded three times with different producers before Jim Abbiss's take was chosen. Abbiss ran the band live in the room with the amps in a booth, through an Amek 2500 desk into Pro Tools, with hardly an overdub, aiming to get as near to a gig as possible without being messy; only Turner's lead vocal was done separately, and it was mixed on an EMI TG1. Turner sang and played guitar alongside Jamie Cook, with Andy Nicholson on bass and Matt Helders on drums. Turner played a high-strapped Fender Stratocaster in the video and toured the album with two ProCo RAT 2 pedals and a Boss TU-2. No source names the studio amps or Cook's guitar; a Fender Telecaster for Cook and the band's own combos with the RAT doing the drive is likely, and unconfirmed. The single came out on 17 October 2005 and went straight to number one in the UK.
Production Credits
Producer: Jim Abbiss
Engineer: Jim Abbiss
Recorded at: Chapel Studios, Lincolnshire
Signal Chain
Instrument: Fender Stratocaster
Amp: Vox AC30
Processing: ProCo RAT 2
Recreation Tips
- Use a single-coil guitar, bridge pickup, and keep the tone control wide open; the sound is thin and sharp on purpose.
- Get the drive from a distortion pedal in the ProCo RAT 2 family into a clean-ish amp rather than from the amp; set the pedal's filter fairly bright.
- Play with a hard downstroke attack and mute between hits; the parts are rhythmic stabs, not chords that ring.
- Record both guitars at once in the same room if you can, one per side, and do not double them; the roughness is the sound.
- Skip reverb and delay entirely; if the mix feels dry, that is correct.
- Push the guitars into the mids and let the bass hold the low end; the record has no low end in the guitars.
Original Gear
- Fender Stratocaster(guitar)
- Fender Telecaster(guitar)
- ProCo RAT 2(pedal)
- Vox AC30(amp)
Substitutions & Recommendations
Alternative to: Fender Stratocaster
Single coils with the right wiry bridge sound at a starter price.
ReverbSweetwaterAlternative to: ProCo RAT 2
Still made and still cheap; the same pedal.
ReverbSweetwaterAlternative to: Vox AC30
The smaller sibling gets the chime and takes a RAT well at lower volume.
ReverbSweetwaterAlternative to: Vox AC30
A clean pedal platform that stays sharp when a distortion pedal hits it.
ReverbSweetwaterSources
- Classic Tracks: Arctic Monkeys I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor, Sound On Sound (Jim Abbiss)
“Hardly an overdub on it...meant to be as live-ish as possible and as near as we could get to a gig without being messy.”
- I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, Wikipedia
“The track was recorded during sessions at 2fly Studios in Sheffield and Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire.”
- Gear Rundown: Alex Turner, Mixdown
“Turner appeared to play an extremely modest pedalboard onstage, using two ProCo RAT 2 Distortion pedals and a BOSS TU-2 tuner to their maximum effect.”
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