Paranoid amp settings — Aroma Ag 10

The Black Sabbath guitar tone for “Paranoid”, dialed in for a Aroma Ag 10 with a Epiphone Slash Les Paul Standard. Studio version, Paranoid album (1970), recorded at Regent Sound Studios in approximately 8 hours

Original rig

Gibson SG Standard → Dallas Rangemaster treble booster → Laney LA100BL head (Plexi-style circuit) with 4x12 cabinets, inputs overloaded for extra gain

Aggressive, grinding mid-forward crunch with cutting treble bite and minimal low-end mud

Amp settings — Aroma Ag 10

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	7
Bass	2
Mid	8
Treble	8
Presence	0
Reverb	0
Master	6

Don’t have a Aroma Ag 10? See this song on other amps → Match your own rig →

Guitar

PICKUPbridge TONE10 VOLUME10

Signal chain

01Treble Booster (TC Electronic Spark Mini or similar)

RECOMMENDED — not currently owned. Critical to Iommi's tone; the Rangemaster pushed the amp's front end and added upper-mid bite. A clean boost or EQ pedal with treble emphasis will get you closer.

Level 6

Why these settings

The Aroma AG-10 is a small solid-state practice amp with limited headroom, so it cannot replicate power-tube saturation. I pushed gain to 7 to compensate for the lack of a treble booster, raised mids to 8 to match Iommi's scooped-bass/maxed-mids approach, and dropped bass to 2 because your Slash Les Paul's Alnico II humbuckers already deliver warm low-end that will mud up a small speaker. The original had zero bass on the amp. Without a treble booster pedal, you will lack the sizzling upper-mid aggression that defines the riff attack.

PRO TIPDig in hard with your pick right over the bridge pickup pole pieces and use all downstrokes on the main riff—Iommi's attack is percussive and deliberate, and the Slash Les Paul's slightly lower-output Alnico IIs will clean up if you play too lightly.

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These settings are for a Aroma Ag 10. 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.