Tone library / Black Sabbath / Iron Man

Iron Man amp settings — Fender Mustang Micro

The Black Sabbath guitar tone for “Iron Man”, dialed in for a Fender Mustang Micro with a Glarry Red stratocastor single coil pickups. Studio version, Paranoid (1970) - Main Riff

Original rig

1965 Gibson SG Special (P-90 bridge pickup) into custom Dallas-Arbiter Rangemaster treble booster into Laney Supergroup LA 100 BL with Laney 4x12 cab (Celestion G12-25M speakers)

Thick, mid-heavy British proto-metal crunch with tight bass and cutting upper-mid bite
Amp settings — Fender Mustang Micro
CHANNELPreset: '70s British (Green/Amber - Marshall Plexi / British Crunch)BOOSToff
GAIN 7 BASS 6 TREBLE 7 REVERB 0 MASTER 7
KnobSetting (0–10)
Gain7
Bass6
Treble7
Reverb0
Master7
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Guitar
PICKUPbridge TONE8 VOLUME10
Signal chain

01Dallas-Arbiter Rangemaster Treble Booster (or Naga Viper)

RECOMMENDED — not currently owned; adds the signature Tony Iommi low-cut bite and drives the preamp into saturated fuzz-crunch

Boost 8 · Range 6
Why these settings

On the Mustang Micro, select the '70s British amp model and push gain to 7 to replicate the cranked Laney Supergroup's power amp saturation. Since your Glarry Strat has lower-output, brighter single coils compared to Tony Iommi's P-90s, roll the guitar tone knob back to 8 and keep the amp EQ adjusted with bass at 6 to fill out the low-mid thump. If you add an external treble booster later, run it into a cleaner Plexi setting to mimic the exact Dallas-Arbiter circuit push.

PRO TIPPick firmly with heavy downstrokes near the bridge to recreate Tony Iommi's aggressive attack, and ensure your low E string is tuned down slightly if you want to match the loose, sludgy tension of his ultra-light gauge strings.

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

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