Buddy Holly

Rivers Cuomo uses a clean, bright guitar tone with crunch for the chorus. Strat or Tele into a Fender amp.

The Blue Album was recorded primarily with Ric Ocasek’s Gibson Les Paul Special and Junior through a vintage Mesa/Boogie Mark I, without a distortion pedal. No song-specific control sheet survives, so the values below are representative settings for the documented direct-to-amp rig. Source: Guitar.com’s Blue Album gear guide (2023) and Premier Guitar’s Rivers Cuomo interview (2023).