Heart

The iconic acoustic intro to "Crazy On You" was originally just Nancy Wilson's warm-up exercise backstage. She developed it into a full arrangement that became one of the most recognized acoustic guitar passages in rock history.

Roger Fisher used a unique technique on "Barracuda" where he combined his pick attack with feedback control, letting sustained notes bloom into harmonic overtones by positioning himself relative to his amp stack, a trick he learned from studying Jeff Beck.

Nancy Wilson recorded many of Heart's acoustic parts on a Gibson J-200 and a Martin acoustic, but for the "Crazy On You" intro she frequently used an Ovation acoustic with a thinner neck profile that made the rapid hammer-on passages more comfortable.

The riff for "Barracuda" was partially inspired by the band's anger at their record label, the aggressive, almost punk-like energy of the palm-muted riff was a direct emotional response, and the song was written in a single furious session.

Howard Leese owned over 200 guitars during his time with Heart and was known for swapping instruments multiple times during a single show to get exactly the right tone for each song, from Les Pauls for crunch rhythm to Stratocasters for glassy clean passages.

Heart's early recordings were done in Vancouver, Canada, where they had access to larger studio spaces. The room reverb on the guitar tracks from "Dreamboat Annie" is largely natural ambience, not artificial effects, giving those recordings an organic warmth that's hard to replicate digitally.

Nancy Wilson studied classical guitar technique before joining Heart, which explains her unusually precise right-hand fingerpicking form. She doesn't use fingerpicks, it's all bare fingers, which contributes to the warm, round tone on her acoustic passages.