How the Stones Got That 'Start Me Up' Guitar Sound: Off-Axis Mic on a Tiny Fender Amp

The iconic riff of “Start Me Up” started life as a reggae outtake from the Black and Blue sessions in 1975. Keith Richards was noodling in open-G tuning, and the band jammed a lazy skank — but the song sat on a shelf for six years until they resurrected it for Tattoo You. The reggae feel was scrapped, but that open-G chug remained.

To capture Keith’s guitar without the buzz that open tuning can create, engineer Chris Kimsey (or possibly Bob Clearmountain, depending on the mix stage) placed a dynamic microphone — likely a Shure SM57 — off-axis to the speaker cone of a small Fender amp, probably a Champ. By angling the mic away from dead center, the pickup rejected some of the harsh