Soundgarden

Soundgarden formed in Seattle in 1984, with guitarist Kim Thayil developing one of the heaviest guitar tones in alternative rock history through unconventional tunings and an uncompromising approach to volume. On Louder Than Love (1989), Thayil played a Guild S-100 — an obscure hollow-body guitar with an unusual midrange character — through a Mesa/Boogie Trem-O-Verb, creating a saturated, scooped tone that sounded enormous. He augmented the Guild's natural resonance with an EHX Big Muff Pi and a Pro Co RAT, layering different shades of distortion. By Badmotorfinger (1991), produced by Terry Date, Thayil had expanded to include a 1970s Guild S-100 Polara alongside the standard S-100, running them through a combination of Mesa Boogies and a Sunn Model T — the same amp used by Earth and other doom bands, chosen for its crushing low-end response. His use of alternate tunings — many of which Chris Cornell invented specifically for Soundgarden — required heavy strings and produced intervals that sounded alien within the context of 1990s rock. Superunknown (1994), produced by Michael Beinhorn, captured the band at their most sonically ambitious: Thayil recorded with a combination of the Guild, a Les Paul, and various drop tunings through the Mesa Trem-O-Verb and an Electra-Dyne, while Cornell's rhythm guitar work on a Gretsch Country Gentleman and a Gibson ES-335 added texture beneath the primary riffs. Ben Shepherd's bass work on a Fender Precision through an Ampeg SVT anchored songs like "Black Hole Sun" and "Spoonman." Live, Thayil's rig was deliberately simple: Guild S-100, a Dunlop Cry Baby, the Big Muff, the RAT, and an MXR Phase 90 into a wall of Mesa heads. The band's tuning experiments and Thayil's refusal to play conventionally "pretty" guitar made Soundgarden one of the few grunge bands whose heaviness could not be reduced to a formula.