What Pedals Does Slash Use?
Slash's pedalboard philosophy is consistent with his overall approach to tone: minimal, functional, and in service of the music. His primary tool is the wah pedal — used for expressive lead phrases rather than as a rhythmic texture.
Primary Pedal: Dunlop Cry Baby Wah (GCB-95)
The Dunlop Cry Baby GCB-95 is Slash's most-used pedal. His wah technique is distinctive — he uses it as a vocal, expressive tool during lead lines rather than rhythmically.
Key moments: "Welcome to the Jungle" intro wah, the Appetite solo sections, and live use throughout GN'R performances.
Settings: The GCB-95 is a passive wah with no adjustable parameters — it responds to toe position only. Slash typically uses the full sweep range rather than parking it in a fixed position.
Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor
The JCM800 at high gain produces significant 50/60Hz hum and noise between phrases. The NS-2 gates the signal when Slash is not playing, eliminating the noise floor.
Settings:
- Threshold: 12–3 o'clock (aggressive enough to eliminate the amp's hum, not so aggressive it clips the attack of notes)
- Decay: 9 o'clock (fast release — doesn't sit on the tail of notes)
- Mode: Gate (rather than Reduction)
Placement: After the wah, before the amp input. The NS-2 senses the guitar signal level and gates it — when the guitar isn't producing signal above the threshold, the output is cut.
MXR Phase 90
Used selectively — not on Appetite, but appears in live and later solo work. The Phase 90 produces a sweeping phaser effect. Slash tends to use it at a slow rate for a subtle, shimmering quality rather than the fast, dramatic phase sweeps associated with other players.
Settings: Speed: 9 o'clock (slow). The Phase 90 has a single Speed control — that's the only parameter.
Dunlop Slash Signature Wah (SW-95)
Slash has an endorsed Dunlop signature wah — the SW-95, a modified Cry Baby with:
- Custom voicing (slightly warmer Q than the standard GCB-95)
- Slash's face on the housing
- Internal Q and voice adjustment trims
The SW-95 is available for approximately £100 and is a good choice for players wanting to emulate Slash's specific wah character.
Signal Chain
Les Paul → Dunlop Cry Baby Wah → Boss NS-2 → Marshall AFD100 / JCM800
(MXR Phase 90 in FX loop or after NS-2 for specific songs)
The Appetite for Destruction Tone — No Overdrive Needed
A common misconception: players add an overdrive pedal to get the Appetite tone. This is incorrect — the overdrive comes from the Marshall JCM800 preamp itself. Adding a drive pedal on top produces a different, less dynamic tone.
Correct approach: Set the JCM800 (or AFD100) gain to 7–8. The amp provides the distortion. Wah for expression. NS-2 for noise control. That's the complete signal chain.
Why So Few Pedals
Slash's minimal pedalboard reflects the same principle behind his amp choice: the JCM800's own preamp saturation is already doing the tonal heavy lifting, so there's little for pedals to add beyond expression (wah) and practical noise control (the NS-2 gate). This is a genuinely different philosophy from players who build their gain from a clean amp plus a stack of overdrive pedals — Slash's rig has almost nothing between the guitar and the amp's input, which is exactly why his tone responds so directly to pick attack and guitar volume changes.
Understanding this saves money and complexity for anyone chasing the tone: a bigger pedalboard doesn't get you closer to Slash's sound, it typically gets you further away by adding tonal elements that were never part of the original signal chain.
Common Mistakes
Adding an overdrive or boost pedal to "help" get more gain. As the guide explicitly states, this is the most common misconception about the Appetite tone — the JCM800's own preamp provides the distortion, and stacking a drive pedal on top produces a different, less dynamic result than the original recordings.
Using an active/buffered wah instead of a passive unit like the Cry Baby. The GCB-95's passive circuit interacts with the guitar's pickups and the amp's input in a specific way that an actively buffered wah doesn't replicate — the passive design is part of the actual tonal character, not an incidental detail.
Skipping the noise gate and being surprised by amp hum. As the NS-2 section notes, a JCM800 at genuinely high gain (7-8) produces significant audible hum between phrases — this isn't a flaw specific to a bad amp, it's a normal characteristic of high-gain tube preamps that the gate exists specifically to manage.
Using the wah pedal rhythmically rather than expressively. Slash's technique treats the wah as a vocal, phrase-shaping tool during leads — using it as a constant rhythmic "quack" effect (a different, equally valid technique used by funk players) produces a noticeably different musical result than his actual approach.
ToneStakr's Take
For players chasing this tone, resist the urge to build out a larger pedalboard than the one Slash actually uses — a passive wah (Cry Baby or the SW-95 signature version) and, if hum becomes a problem at high gain, a noise gate are genuinely the complete list. Any additional gain-stage pedals move you away from, not toward, the actual Appetite for Destruction sound.
Frequently Asked Questions
What wah pedal does Slash use?
The Dunlop Cry Baby GCB-95 (the original passive model) throughout most of his career, and since the mid-2000s, the Dunlop SW-95 Slash Signature Wah — a modified Cry Baby with custom voicing.
Does Slash use an overdrive pedal?
Not for his primary tone — the distortion on Appetite for Destruction comes entirely from the Marshall JCM800's own preamp saturation. Very light boost has occasionally appeared in later rigs, but it's not central to his signature sound.
What is the simplest way to get Slash's Appetite tone?
A Gibson Les Paul (or a quality Epiphone Les Paul) into a Dunlop Cry Baby wah, into a Marshall JCM800 or AFD100 with gain around 7-8, through a Marshall 4x12 cabinet. No other pedals are genuinely needed to approximate the core tone.
Why does Slash use a noise gate if his rig is otherwise so simple?
Because it solves a real practical problem rather than adding tonal character — high-gain tube preamps like the JCM800's produce audible hum and noise between notes, and the NS-2 exists purely to eliminate that noise, not to shape the tone itself.
Is the Slash Signature SW-95 wah worth buying over a standard Cry Baby?
If you want the closest match to his specific tonal voicing, yes — the SW-95's internal Q and voice adjustments are tuned to replicate his particular wah character more closely than a stock GCB-95, though the difference is subtle enough that a standard Cry Baby gets most players close enough.
Does Slash use any modulation effects like chorus or flanger?
Rarely, and not as a defining part of his core tone — the MXR Phase 90 appears occasionally in live and later solo work at a slow, subtle setting, but it's not part of the foundational Appetite for Destruction sound, which relies on guitar, wah, and amp alone.