Tone library / Ariana Grande / Dangerous woman

Dangerous woman amp settings — Fender MUSTANGGT40

The Ariana Grande guitar tone for “Dangerous woman”, dialed in for a Fender MUSTANGGT40 with a Ibanez GIO GRG170DX. Studio version, Dangerous Woman album (2016) — retro-soul/R&B pop production

Original rig

Session guitars by Johan Carlsson and Ilya Salmanzadeh — clean Fender-style amp tones with warm, vintage-voiced pickups, likely Strat or semi-hollow for the smooth R&B character; minimal gain, emphasis on warm cleans with subtle compression

Warm, glassy clean with soft upper-mid presence — sits back in the mix supporting synths and vocals, retro-soul smoothness with touch-sensitive dynamics

Amp settings — Fender MUSTANGGT40

CHANNEL'65 Deluxe Reverb model (or closest Fender clean preset)BRIGHToffBOOSToff

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	3
Bass	5
Mid	6
Treble	5
Presence	4
Reverb	3
Master	6

Don’t have a Fender MUSTANGGT40? See this song on other amps → Match your own rig →

Guitar

PICKUPneck TONE6 VOLUME8

Why these settings

Your GRG170DX has humbuckers which are hotter and darker than the likely single-coil or semi-hollow tones on the original. Compensate by using the neck pickup with tone rolled to 6 for smoothness, and volume at 8 to reduce output into the amp for cleaner response. The Mustang GT40's Deluxe Reverb model nails the warm Fender clean headroom this track needs — keep gain at 3 to stay pristine with no breakup.

PRO TIPPick closer to the neck (over the fretboard edge) with the fleshy part of your thumb or fingers rather than a hard pick attack — this softens the transient and gives you that pillowy, R&B session-player tone that sits perfectly under vocals without competing.

Get this tone on your amp

These settings are for a Fender MUSTANGGT40. ToneAdapt matches any song to whatever amp, guitar and pedals you own — first match is free.

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Song, artist and gear names are used to identify the tone being matched; ToneAdapt is not affiliated with or endorsed by the artists or manufacturers mentioned. Settings are AI-generated starting points — trust your ears.