No. 0041991·grunge·5 blocks
Smells Like Teen Spirit
The tone that defined a generation. Cobain's approach to guitar tone was anti-perfectionist: a cheap offset guitar, a Boss DS-1 cranked for maximum aggression, and a Small Clone chorus adding an underwater shimmer. The genius of Teen Spirit is the quiet-verse/loud-chorus dynamic. The verses are clean with chorus; the choruses slam the DS-1 for a wall of scooped, angry distortion. The mid-scooped character is key to the grunge sound: heavy lows, biting highs, and a hollow midrange.
NevermindSignal path · input → output · 2 blocksLive values · IK TONEX
Guitar
Fender Mustang
Pickups
SS
Tuning
bridge
Strings
standard
Search ToneNET for 'Mesa Boogie Studio' or 'Cobain' or 'Nirvana'
Search ToneNET for 'Mesa Boogie Studio' or 'Cobain' or 'Nirvana'
← Mesa/Boogie Studio .22
Engineer's note
File 004
The tone that defined a generation. Cobain's approach to guitar tone was anti-perfectionist: a cheap offset guitar, a Boss DS-1 cranked for maximum aggression, and a Small Clone chorus adding an underwater shimmer. The genius of Teen Spirit is the quiet-verse/loud-chorus dynamic. The verses are clean with chorus; the choruses slam the DS-1 for a wall of scooped, angry distortion. The mid-scooped character is key to the grunge sound: heavy lows, biting highs, and a hollow midrange.
— Kurt Cobain
Sources · Verified by
Field notes for this tone
All field notes →Boss DS-1 Settings for Every Style: Punk, Grunge, Classic Rock, and Metal
Boss DS-1 settings for punk, grunge, rock, and metal, with dial tables, the Tone sweet spot most players miss, and Keeley/Monte Allums mod tips.
RAT Pedal Settings for Every Genre: Blues, Grunge, Shoegaze, and More
Exact RAT pedal settings for blues, classic rock, grunge, shoegaze, and doom, with amp pairings and the one filter secret most players miss.
The Great Dismal: How Nothing's Third Album Changed the Shoegaze Gain Structure
Nothing's The Great Dismal guitar tone breakdown: Will Yip's hip-hop compression approach, the shift from Tired of Tomorrow's fuzz wall, and exact settings to get the album's dense, smacking heavy shoegaze sound.