Everyone remembers Summertime Blues as an electric record and it mostly isn't. The drive comes from a hard-strummed acoustic, handclaps and a voice - one of the first great examples of a rock record where the energy is in the arrangement rather than the amplifier.
What makes the tone. A big, close-miked acoustic doing the work, with electric bass and handclaps filling the space a drum kit would normally take. Where electric guitar appears it is clean and short - Cochran played a Gretsch 6120 through a small amp with tape slapback.
The analogue recipe. Strum an acoustic hard with a heavy pick and mic it close. For the electric parts, a hollowbody into a small tweed amp turned up just enough to break up on the loud notes, with a short tape slapback around 100ms. Keep the reverb out of it - this is a dry record.
On a Boss GT-100 / GT-1000 / GX-100. An acoustic sim on a clean amp model for the main part, or a bright clean model with the drive off and a compressor. For the electric fills, a low-gain tweed model and a single slapback delay at about 100ms with one repeat.
On a Kemper. A clean tweed profile with the gain low and the volume high enough to bite on the accents. Slapback delay, no reverb. If your Kemper has an acoustic sim, use it for the strummed part rather than trying to make a clean electric sound like one.
Save yourself an evening. The Soulster Tonebook for fans of Classic '50s Rock 'n' Roll → has the chords, capo positions, tempos and dialled-in settings for this one.
See all 88 Rock 'n' Roll Originators prints →
Also as a print. The "Summertime Blues" Film Noir print → and the Film Noir t-shirt → carry the same song. Also on the Practice print → and the Studio print →.
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