Leader Of The Pack is closer to radio drama than to pop, complete with motorcycle engines and spoken dialogue. Shadow Morton built the whole thing as a scene, and the guitar's role is to set the mood between the events rather than to play a part you would learn.
What makes the sound. Clean, dark and reverberant, playing sustained chords and simple arpeggios in the gaps. The tone is deliberately anonymous; the personality of the record is in the arrangement and the effects.
The analogue recipe. Clean amp, tone rolled back, generous plate reverb, played softly with the fingers. Space matters far more than timbre - the part is mostly about when you don't play.
On a Boss GT-100 / GT-1000 / GX-100. Clean model, treble down, long plate reverb, compressor with a slow attack. Add a slow tremolo if you want the melodrama; it is not on the record but it suits it.
On a Kemper. A dark clean profile with a long reverb. Worth learning as an arrangement exercise rather than a tone one - almost nothing here is about the amp.
Get it dialled in. The Soulster Tonebook for fans of Motown Classics → has the chords, capo positions, tempos and dialled-in settings for this one.
See all 110 Motown & Girl Groups prints →
Off the record, onto the wall. The "Leader Of The Pack" Paperback print → is the same song, printed.
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