The Fuzz-Tone That Changed Rock: 'Satisfaction' and the Rolling Stones' Reluctance

The chunky, snarling riff of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” was almost left on the cutting-room floor. Keith Richards came up with it in a Florida motel room after falling asleep with his guitar and a cassette recorder running. The next morning he heard two minutes of “Satisfaction” followed by 40 minutes of snoring. He didn’t think the riff was special—he saw it as a placeholder for a horn section.

During the RCA Hollywood sessions in May 1965, Richards recorded the riff using a new Gibson Maestro Fuzz-Tone pedal (model FZ-1). The box had just hit the market, and Richards was experimenting with its ability to distort and sustain his Gibson ES-355. The result transformed a simple three-n