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Guitar amp settings for beginners: where to start
Updated 9 stepsAbout 56 min of reading
Learn the controls before you chase a sound. Find out what each knob does, set the amount of distortion with Gain and the loudness with Master, then put bass, middle and treble at 5 and move one control at a time. Allow for your pickups, get one clean sound working, and only then pick a style.
The nine steps below are the order to read this site's guides in, each with the one thing to take from it. After the styles come fixing mud and fizz, then what a record adds that an amp cannot, and last a song you know on the amp you own.
Hear what one knob does
Same riff, same amp, one control changed. Press play, then switch between the two settings while it loops. Both sides are matched in loudness, so what you hear change is the tone, not the volume.
Gain 3 vs 8
Gain sets how much the amp distorts. At 3 the riff is close to clean with a little edge. At 8 it is fully distorted, the notes compress and ring on.
Held still: Bass 5, Middle 5, Treble 6, Presence 5
Middle 3 vs 7
Middle sets how much of the guitar's core is in the sound. At 3 it is scooped, with the lows and highs in front. At 7 the riff comes forward, the way it cuts through a band.
Held still: Gain 7, Bass 5, Treble 6, Presence 5
How these were made: a direct guitar recording, with no amp on it, run through Tonelify's own amp model at the values shown. The recording is unfa's “Guitar Jamming” on Freesound, released as CC0. Your amp will sound different; the direction of each change is what carries over.
The 9 steps, in order
Step 1: Learn what each knob does
Gain sets how much the amp distorts, volume sets how loud it is, and presence acts after bass, middle and treble.
Step 2: Separate gain from volume
Set the amount of distortion with Gain first, then the loudness with Master. A single Volume knob does both jobs at once.
Step 3: Set the EQ
Start bass, middle and treble at 5, move one control at a time, and cut the band that bothers you before boosting another.
Step 4: Allow for your pickups
Humbuckers reach the same saturation at lower gain and want more treble; single coils need more gain and less treble.
Step 5: Get one good clean sound
Gain at 2 to 3, the loudness from the volume, bass 5, middle 5, treble 6 and reverb around 3.
Step 6: Pick your style
Each style guide gives a starting point on a 0 to 10 amp and says what to move first when it does not sound right.
Read the one for the music you play.
Step 7: Fix mud and fizz
Mud is usually too much bass and gain for the volume you play at; fizz is usually gain the sound cannot use.
Read the one for the music you play.
Step 8: Know what a record adds
A record is a mix, not an amp. What you can reach at home is the amp-in-the-room version of the tone.
Step 9: Play a song you know
Find what was used on the recording, set the gain lower than you think, and EQ against the record at the same loudness.
If your first amp is a modeller
On a modelling amp the model you pick matters as much as the knobs. The Boss Katana, Positive Grid Spark and Fender Mustang LT25 cheat sheets give clean, blues, rock and metal settings on those amps' own models, and the gear pages list the controls on many more.
Common questions
What should a beginner set a guitar amp to?
Set the gain before the EQ, and start with bass, middle and treble at 5. For a clean sound, put the gain at 2 to 3 and get the loudness from the volume or master, with treble at 6 and reverb around 3. Then move one control at a time.
More in How to get a clean tone on any amp →Which knob on an amp makes it distorted?
Gain. It sets how hard the preamp is driven and so how much the amp distorts; volume or master sets how loud the result is. On an amp with only a Volume knob, that one knob does both jobs, so the amp gets louder and more distorted together.
More in Gain vs volume vs master volume: what each one does →Why don't settings copied from another player sound right on my amp?
Pickups and amps. Humbuckers send a hotter, darker signal than single coils, so the same settings land differently, and a 6 on a Marshall is not a 6 on a Katana. What carries over is the shape of the tone: how much gain, where the mids sit, which pickup and which pedal.
More in How to get any song's guitar tone on the amp you own →Then try it on your own amp
The steps above are true of every rig. For one song on the amp you own, Tonelify reads the documented chain behind the recording and returns values for the controls your amp actually has. A first plan starts with 7 days free, $0 today.