with pappalardi and dowd, work continued on "sunshine of your love". for his guitar solo, clapton used a sound known as the "woman tone" on his 1964 gibson sg standard. author mitch gallagher describes it as a "smooth, dark, singing, sustaining sound". it is one of the best-known examples of the woman tone and quotes the melody from the perennial pop standard "blue moon". by using the song's major pentatonic scale, clapton provides a contrast with the riff's blues scale. a writer for the rock and roll hall of fame describes this as "creating a balance between the sun and the moon". baker plays much of the song on the tom-toms, described as sounding african (schumacher) and native american (shapiro). covach and boone note he "concentrates on the lower tom sounds and uses an articulation and sound reminiscent of the jazz drumming in the woody herman or benny goodman bands".