Paranoid amp settings — Mighty eagle Mt 20

The Black sabath guitar tone for “Paranoid”, dialed in for a Mighty eagle Mt 20 with a Epiphone Les Paul special 2. Studio version, Paranoid album (1970)

Original rig

Gibson SG Standard → Dallas Rangemaster treble booster → Laney LA100BL (100W) with inputs overloaded, presence/mid/treble maxed, bass at 0

Aggressive midrange bark with cutting treble, gritty saturation from boosted preamp, no low-end mud

Amp settings — Mighty eagle Mt 20

BRIGHTonBOOSTon

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	7
Bass	2
Mid	9
Treble	8
Presence	8
Reverb	0
Master	5

Don’t have a Mighty eagle Mt 20? See this song on other amps → Match your own rig →

Guitar

PICKUPbridge TONE10 VOLUME10

Signal chain

01Treble Booster / TS-style overdrive (e.g. Joyo Vintage Overdrive, Behringer TO800)

RECOMMENDED — not currently owned. The Rangemaster was essential to Iommi's tone; it pushed the amp's preamp into saturation and added treble cut-through. A cheap TS-clone with low drive and high tone approximates this boost function. Without it, push amp gain to 8-9 and accept less definition.

Drive 3 · Tone 8 · Level 7

Why these settings

Iommi ran bass at literal zero — your Mighty Eagle needs bass at 2 to avoid thin fizz since small solid-state amps lack the power section warmth of a cranked Laney. Mid pushed to 9 replicates his maxed mids; treble at 8 instead of 10 because the Epiphone's humbuckers are already bright-voiced compared to a '70s SG. Without a treble booster pedal, this amp will struggle to replicate the pushed-preamp saturation — gain at 7 is the closest the amp gets without a boost in front.

PRO TIPIommi's attack came from picking hard directly over the bridge pickup pole pieces with a downward pickslant — dig in aggressively on the low strings and let the amp compress the transients; light picking on this rig will sound weak and undefined.

Get this tone on your amp

These settings are for a Mighty eagle Mt 20. 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.