How to Create a Rock & Roll Tone in CrossWire

Rock & Roll signal chain at a glance

1. 1
   INPUTkeep direct pick response
2. 2
   GATElight at −50 dB
3. 3
   TIGHTa small 2.2 trim
4. 4
   OVERDRIVElight push into the plexi — there is no compressor in this rig
5. 5
   AMP — Marshall - 1959 Super Leadvintage three-stage roar, cleans up from the guitar volume
6. 6
   CAB — Jensen - 2x12 Open Backbright, chimey, open
7. 7
   EQthe pultec-eqp1a curve for body and air
8. 8
   REVERBsmall room
9. 9
   OUTPUTpreserve dynamic peaks

Guitar setup: Use the bridge pickup for bright riffs and the neck pickup for rounder fills. Let chords ring rather than adding more gain.

What this Rig Seed sets for you

Recall the seed and every node arrives set exactly as below — the rendered graph above shows the same values, so zoom in to cross-check any knob. Controls run 0–10 unless a unit is shown. To adjust: drag a knob up or down, hold Shift while dragging for fine steps, and note that double-clicking resets a knob to its factory default — not the seed’s value — so recall the seed again if you want the published baseline back.

Listen for: The tone should feel loud and open, with a little grain on strong chords but enough headroom for the chord shape to speak.

Build this rock & roll tone in CrossWire

1. Recall this rig and let the plexi do the work

Recall this tutorial’s Rig Seed and turn your guitar volume full up: the Marshall - 1959 Super Lead model at GAIN 5.9 grows hair on hard open chords. Roll the volume to 6 and it cleans right up — the model is voiced to break up late and answer the guitar, so ride the volume pot instead of reaching for the canvas between song sections.

2. Listen to the whole chord

Play open-position major chords, not just power chords. If a chord blurs, drag AMP GAIN down before anything else — BASS already sits at 3.7 to keep the low strings open, and the EQ’s 60 Hz shelf puts the weight back after the cab, where it can’t muddy the breakup.

3. Strip it back further — with wire surgery

To hear the rig without the OVERDRIVE entirely: click the TIGHT→OVERDRIVE wire and press Delete, do the same to OVERDRIVE→AMP, click the OVERDRIVE node and press Delete, then drag from TIGHT’s output port to AMP’s input port. Raw plexi. If you keep it, save it with File → Save... (the top-bar preset name shows "(edited)" until you do); to get the tutorial rig back, just recall this rig’s seed again.

How to adapt the recipe

• For more crunch, drag AMP GAIN up from 5.9 by half a step before touching OVERDRIVE DRIVE.
• For a 1950s-style cleaner rhythm, turn the guitar volume down and leave the rig alone — the plexi model is voiced to clean up.

Modeling note: The target is open, speaker-like breakup with air around the chord — not modern saturation. The small room reverb keeps the rhythmic attack upfront.

Troubleshooting the tone

Chords are too soft

drag AMP MID up from 3.9 before adding any drive.

The sound is brittle

drag CAB HICUT down from 20.0 toward 7.5 kHz.