the answers

The Woking Wonder was turned on by players like Pete Townshend of The Who, Small Faces icon Steve Marriott and Dr Feelgood’s Wilko Johnson. These guys all favoured dynamics over gear obsession, and Weller echoes the sentiment with his ferocious right hand power, aka his legendary ‘fire and skill’. Listen to his command of dynamics on Strange Town and Going Underground. His guitar is distorted but he never loses note separation. So, if you want to sound like Paul, you better stop dreaming of the quiet life and turn it up and hit it hard.

01 You need a dynamic overdrive/ distortion sound and plenty of compression – Ricky players know how enthusiastically their 330s feed off compression. Listen to The Jam’s debut 45 In The City, and that wonderful compression Paul gets when he hits the high Em barre chord (the “I wanna say, I wanna tell you” bit). To get that warm valve tone we’d recommended the excellent Orange Kongpressor [£119].

02 The videos on YouTube are classic examples of letting the gear do all the work. Like Weller, you need to regard your right hand as part of your signal chain. As for pedals, look for one that combines the warmth of an overdrive with the snarl of a good distortion – a Tube Screamer won’t cut it. For a tone with malice, try something such as the Fulltone PS PlimSoul [c£145].

03 On The Eton Rifles, The Jam’s producer Vic Coppersmith-Heaven surrounded Paul’s Vox AC30 with sheets of corrugated iron for a “sharp, metallic tone”. Unless you fancy raiding scrap yards you could try boosting your top end with the MXR M108S Ten-Band EQ [c£134]. Bespoke tailoring is the heart of mod, and that goes for your tone too.