Iron Man amp settings — Harley Benton 20

The Black Sabbath guitar tone for “Iron Man”, dialed in for a Harley Benton 20 with a Jackson JS32 Dinky. Studio version, Paranoid (1970) — main riff and rhythm

Original rig

1965 Gibson SG Special (P-90s) into modified Dallas-Arbiter Rangemaster Treble Booster into Laney Supergroup MK I 100W head and 4x12 cab

Mid-heavy, gritty British crunch with tight bass cut and sharp upper-mid bite

Amp settings — Harley Benton 20

CHANNELOverdrive / LeadBOOSTon

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	7
Bass	5
Mid	8
Treble	7
Reverb	0
Master	6

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Guitar

PICKUPbridge TONE9 VOLUME10

Signal chain

01Treble Booster (Dallas-Arbiter Rangemaster style)

RECOMMENDED — not currently owned; running this in front of a clean or slightly breaking amp replicates Tony's exact front-end saturation

Boost / Set 8

Why these settings

The Harley Benton 20 lacks the huge headroom and natural power-stage crunch of a cranked Laney Supergroup, so the amp's built-in Overdrive channel carries the distortion. Because the Jackson JS32 has hotter humbuckers compared to Tony's modified P-90s, keep the bass tight at 5 to avoid flub and push the mids to 8 to mimic the Rangemaster's focused mid-frequency push. With an actual Rangemaster pedal, switch to the clean channel, keep treble booster output high, and let the pedal drive the input.

PRO TIPTony Iommi down-tuned slightly (or used ultra-light gauge strings with soft plastic fingertip thimbles) and struck the strings heavily with a thick plectrum near the bridge; pick aggressively right against the bridge saddles to get that signature metallic attack.

Get this tone on your amp

These settings are for a Harley Benton 20. ToneAdapt matches any song to whatever amp, guitar and pedals you own — first match is free.

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Iron Man on other ampsSAME SONG, YOUR AMP Black Sabbath tonesALL SONGS Jackson JS32 Dinky tonesSAME GUITAR Tone libraryEVERYTHING

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.