A Forest Guitar Tone: Smith's Chorus-and-Flanger Fog

Seventeen Seconds gave The Cure their blueprint, and this single from April 1980 was its clearest statement. It only crept to No. 31, yet it has outlived most of what charted above it. Mike Hedges and Robert Smith produced it at Morgan Studios in London, and what grips people is less a riff than a weather system: a looping minor-key figure that seems to shift under your feet.

What makes the tone. Smith played a Fender Jazzmaster into a Vox AC30 with no dirt at all, so the amp adds sparkle and nothing more. The character comes from running a CE-2 chorus and an MXR flanger at once, and the two sweeps rubbing against each other make the floor tilt. Treat the effects as the lead instrument. The notes themselves are simple, and they are meant to be.

The analogue recipe. Jazzmaster or any bright single-coil, a light compressor, the chorus, then the flanger, into an AC30-type amp kept spotless, with a big hall reverb as the last link. Run both modulation pedals at moderate depth rather than maxing either, since together they compound quickly. Be generous with the hall, enough that the figure trails off into the dark.

How to play it. It sits in D minor with no capo at 140 BPM, and is graded intermediate. Pick the chords as broken arpeggios instead of strumming them, and let each string keep ringing into the next shape. The hard part is holding the right hand perfectly even for minutes at a time while the bass pushes on underneath.

On a Boss GT-1000 / GX-100 / GT-100. Start from the Twin Combo amp model on its Jensen 2x12 cabinet, gain low, with the drive block off. FX1 carries a compressor, FX2 the CE-1 chorus and FX3 a flanger; delay stays out and a hall reverb closes the patch. Set the flanger noticeably slower than the chorus so the two sweeps drift apart and meet again instead of pulsing in step.

On a Kemper. Look for an AC30 profile with plenty of chime and very little tube shape. The four stomp slots run compressor, Vintage Chorus, Analog Flanger and an empty fourth, with a hall reverb after the amp and no delay. If it turns seasick, trim the flanger's mix before you touch the chorus: the chorus is the bed, the flanger is the seasoning.

Skip the guesswork. The Soulster Tonebook for fans of The Cure → has the exact settings for “A Forest” on all five rigs — GT-1000, GX-100, GT-100, Kemper Stage and Player — plus the chords and the session story.