Woman tone

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The "woman tone" is the informal term used by guitarists to refer to Eric Clapton's distinctive mid- to late-1960s electric guitar sound, created using his Gibson SG solidbody guitar (with humbucking pickups) and a Marshall tube (valve) amplifier. It is an overdriven, distorted sound that is articulate yet thick. It is characterized by being quite distorted (or even achieved with a fuzz) but muted, in contrast to the bright and twangy distortion that most guitarists were using at the time. Many players have tried to duplicate it, usually without success, in part because Clapton's playing technique had a lot to do with the tone, and also because it required heavily overdriven tube amps to achieve.

Among the techniques used to replicate Clapton's sound is a technique by which the amplifier's volume is turned up to full, while the guitar's tone knob is turned down to zero or one. [1]

Perhaps the best examples of the "woman tone" are Clapton's famous riff and solo from his band Cream's 1967 hit "Sunshine of Your Love." Clapton has explained that he obtained the tone with his Gibson's tone control rolled all the way down, switching to the neck pickup (closest to the fretboard) and the volume all the way up, with his amplifier also turned up. The treble, mids and bass controls on the amplifier were also maxed out. Some versions of the "woman tone" may also have involved strategic positioning of Clapton's wah-wah pedal.