Green Day is one of those bands with an iconic sound. Even people who aren’t really into rock music probably know what a Green Day song sounds like.
From Boulevard Of Broken Dreams to Jesus of Suburbia, Green Day has written some classic rock anthems. Not only do they have very recognizable songs, but also a very recognizable sound.
American Idiot came out when I’d just started high school. I remember a guitar player a few years older than me showing me the album on the school’s stereo and being blown away by the steady, uncompromising power chords erupting from the speakers.
The man behind this sound is their frontman and guitarist, Billie Joe Armstrong. His sound has changed very little over the band’s long career. It is still as raw and impactful as it was on the band’s debut album.
His sound is also a very distinctly clean and clear tone without overpowering distortion. Because of these factors, his guitar tone is a really good one to want to emulate. It’s a very useful drive tone: plenty of attitude and punch, with all the clarity you need to really make rhythms stand out.
How does Billie Joe achieve this fantastic rock tone? Well, it might be a bit easier than you think. The answer, like the band, lies in bare-bones punk rock aesthetics.
Table of Contents
Billie Joe’s Guitars
First things first: to me, it’s best to start with the right guitar. Billie Joe’s guitar tone is pure classic rock: a bridge humbucker turned up to 10.
Even though he has used many different guitars throughout his career, like many other rock guitarists, Armstrong mainly plays Fender and Gibson models.
Stratocaster
Nicknamed ‘Blue’, Billie Joe often plays a Fernandes. This was his first guitar. It’s a Japanese Stratocaster copy.
Fernandes guitars are a bit hard to find these days. Luckily, at the bottom end, you can use just about any Squier Strat you want, like the cheapest Debut-series Strat, a Yamaha Pacifica or an Affinity for a bit more punch. They’ll get you pretty close tone wise, especially if it’s got a bridge humbucker.
If you have the budget for a higher-quality instrument with better overall finish, the Squier Classic Vibe HSS Strat won’t be a bad option. Or, you can just get something like the HSS version of the Squier Sonic Strat, and upgrade (mod) it according to your needs.
If you’re like me and prefer to spend hours before finalizing on something, you can refer to this article of mine on affordable Strat-style guitars.
Early in the ’90s, Billie Joe replaced the thinner single coil of his Strat with a Seymour Duncan SH4. A Stratocaster on its own isn’t enough for me to get into Green Day territory: this is the pickup that gets the job done.
Les Paul Jr
The guitar I always associate with Green Day is a Les Paul Junior.
I recently got to play a friend’s Custom 1957 Les Paul Junior, and it gets eerily close to the Green Day sound despite its vintage-voiced pickup. The ’50s style model, in my opinion, would be perfect since he prefers ’50s Les Paul Jr’s.
That said, it’s totally understandable if you’re not open to the idea of shelling out 4 grand on a Gibson.
There’s a great non-custom-shop model Junior and, helpfully, an excellent Epiphone Junior, too. I would recommend swapping out the stock Epiphone P90 for something clearer and crisper. The Seymour Duncan Silencer or a Gibson P90 is an easy and inexpensive upgrade.
Billie Joe’s Amps
Billie Joe’s amp settings are straightforward, but his amp setup is a bit more complex. He uses a combination of amp heads, cabinets, preamps, controllers, and switches.
Note that these are some expensive high-end equipment that he uses for live settings. There’s no need for you to spend anywhere near as much when you’re just attempting to clone his tone for solo practice or for small gigs.
Billie Joe’s favorite amp is a 1959 Plexi. Fortunately for those of us who don’t have the budget or the need for a 100-watt Marshall amp, Marshall’s excellent 20-watt SV20 or its combo cousin is, for all intents and purposes, an exact, if lower-powered, replica.
For bedroom practice, you can spend just around $100 for a capable digital amp like the Boss Katana Mini, and still get the typical crunchy Green Day tone!
Finally, if you want to get even closer to his sound (that is, his exact tone), here is his actual amp setup.
An old-school Marshall is really the only amp I’ve ever needed to get in the ballpark of the Green Day tone. If a Marshall isn’t an option, the UAFX Lion (set to “Lead”) is probably the best Marshall pedal amp on the market today.
Amp Heads
Armstrong uses two Marshall 1959SLP Super Lead 100-watt Tube Heads as his amp heads – a pink one named ‘Pete’ and a silver one named ‘Meat’. These have been his go-to heads since the early ’90s, but might be hard to find new these days.
Preamp
He also has a Custom Audio Electronics 3+ SE tube preamp that he uses for clean parts (hard to find these days).
Cabinets
Billie Joe sticks with the tried and true Marshall for his cabinets. Specifically, two Marshall 1960B cabinets are used to run the amp heads and preamp through.
More important than the type of cabinet is the choice of speaker: any cab with Celestion V30 speakers will do.
Controllers and Switchers
To make switching between the heads and preamp easier, an RJM iS-8 is used. Eight guitar inputs get split between the CAE 3+ SE and the Marshall heads.
An RJM RG-16 switcher and MasterMind MIDI controller are also connected to the amp heads. Armstrong uses the MasterMind to switch between his four presets.
I will concede here that this is only really necessary for bigger shows that demand multiple tonal switches. Covering Green Day songs for fun or in a local band does not require any of these switches or presets.
Presets
The four presets are Clean, Mid, Big, and Big Effect. Clean and Mid simply bypass the Marshall heads and only the CAE 3+ SE preamp is used.
Big uses the two Marshall heads and bypasses the CAE 3+ SE. Big Effect is for solo parts and activates a Boss BD-2 Blues Driver pedal.
Billie Joe Armstrong Amp Settings – Green Day Tone!
Green Day’s sound is a fairly standard punk rock one. This makes it really easy to replicate. There isn’t any crazy EQ tweaking or a lot of gain going on. Armstrong’s guitar tech, Hans, has given enough information in rig rundowns about the amp settings.
As long as you have an amp with a decent sounding gain channel, you should be able to get close to his sound quite easily.
On a vintage-style Marshall amp like the SV20, your Green Day amp settings should look like this:
- Bass – 5
- Mid – 10
- Treble – 9
- Volume – edge of break up! (often 7-9)
The amp settings above should cover you for a large number of their well-known hits like Holiday, Wake Me Up When September Ends and 21 Guns.
I tend to start here and tweak according to taste and the demands of the room I’m playing in. Some really need the treble tamed, while others need a warmer sound.
Billie’s own amp lacks a discrete Gain control, so I tend to just turn up the volume until the amp breaks up.
Songs like Basket Case and When I Come Around from ‘Dookie’ and Boulevard of Broken Dreams from ‘American Idiot’ have a slightly crunchier sound. To get a bit more crunch, simply turn up the gain a bit and add some more midrange.
For crunchiest Green Day songs like Brain Stew / Jaded, turn the gain up to 8 or 9. I’d do this with an overdrive pedal, but on more modern Marshall style amps with a gain knob, this can be a useful feature.
If you feel the sound is a bit muddy, simply turn the bass down a bit. You might also need to dial back the gain a bit and increase the volume slightly to balance it out. More treble can help a more distorted sound cut through the mix more audibly, too.
I wouldn’t go any further than about 6 on the gain knob. Armstrong’s sound isn’t that heavy and too much gain will start to distort it too much and you will lose the clarity of his sound.
Billie Joe’s Pedals
Armstrong might not be known for his pedals and effects, but there are a few he uses on various Green Day songs. His pedal selection is also not very exotic and he goes with a few well-known and widely available models.
I mentioned the Boss BD-2 Blues Driver that Armstrong uses for solo parts. The BD-2 is a great pedal that pairs nicely with the Marshall amp heads.
There are a few Green Day songs where Billie Joe uses a tremolo effect. For this effect, he uses a Boss TR-2. The TR-2 is one of Boss’ most famous pedals and it makes sense that he would pair it with the BD-2.
To get a crisper, ‘cleaner’ distortion tone that’s ideal for punk, Billie Joe uses an Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer. This is an excellent pedal to highlight the mids and add some color to your distortion.
Similar to the TS9, the Ibanez TS808 is more of an organic-sounding distortion pedal. The TS808 creates a nice and smooth tone while also boosting the mids. For (a lot) more on Tube Screamers, you can read this editorial piece on our blog.
For the softer clean parts, Armstrong uses an MXR M102 Dyna Comp. This is a great pedal for times when you need more tone control by dialing it back a bit.
Just like the rest of his pedal selection, Armstrong has gone for a workhorse wah pedal. The Dunlop GCB95 Cry Baby is a straightforward wah pedal that adds some great texture and detail when you need it.
For songs like Kill The DJ, Armstrong uses an MXR Carbon Copy Delay. Just like the Dyna Comp, the Carbon Copy is a great-sounding pedal that does exactly what you want it to.
Perhaps most useful for the Green Day tone, however, is MXR’s Dookie Drive, an overdrive pedal designed to emulate the sound of Green Day’s studio album Dookie. Similarly, the FOD Drive offers a very similar driven tone to my ear, at a more competitive price point.
21st Century Technique Breakdown
Billie Joe mostly plays rapidfire power chords. How much technique is there to worry about?
Really, the virtuosity of this style comes from his ability to play consistently with aggressive picking and minimal unwanted noise or changes to pitch.
To accomplish this, I always pick nice and hard near the bridge, but I use as little pressure as I can on the frets. Billie Joe typically plays all six strings, even if he’s only fretting two or three I’ve noticed that Billie Joe often also mutes the strings he isn’t playing with the unused fingers on his fretting hand. This technique helps minimize unwanted noise.
Similarly, he lets his thumb hang over his low E string, Hendrix-style, to add to his bending power and help with power chords.
Palm muting is an important piece of the Green Day tone, particularly when used in conjunction with his high-speed downpicking.
These techniques, as much as the choice of guitar and amp, define Billie’s sound.
In Conclusion
Billie Joe’s guitar tone is actually pretty straightforward. Punk rock music isn’t very complex and the sound shouldn’t be either. The whole DIY style of punk rock means that you should only really need a guitar and an amp.
A Les Paul Junior or humbucker-modded Fender Strat into a Plexi-style Marshall is really all anyone needs to get in the ballpark of Billie Joe’s sound.
Billie Joe Armstrong is a great example of a guitarist that has developed an iconic sound with basically just a guitar and amp. Even when he adds pedals, they are simple and without any thrills.
So, grab your Strat, plug it into a Marshall amp, and start jamming some Green Day!
