Paranoid amp settings — Fender Champion 20

The Black Sabbath guitar tone for “Paranoid”, dialed in for a Fender Champion 20 with a Jackson JS32 Dinky. Studio version, Paranoid (1970) — iconic main riff

Original rig

1965 Gibson SG Special ('Monkey' with custom John Birch P90s) into modified Dallas Rangemaster treble booster and cranked Laney LA100BL Supergroup head

Raw, mid-heavy proto-metal crunch with pushed upper midrange and tight, trimmed low-end

Amp settings — Fender Champion 20

CHANNELVoice: British (Amber LED)

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	8
Bass	3
Treble	8
Reverb	0
Master	4

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Guitar

PICKUPbridge TONE9 VOLUME10

Why these settings

The Fender Champion 20 lacks a dedicated mid knob and presence control, so selecting the mid-forward British voice (amber LED, emulating an overdriven Plexi/Laney stack) provides the essential vintage British bark. Iommi cut his Laney's bass completely and cranked the treble booster; to recreate that cut and punch on the JS32's hotter humbuckers through an 8-inch speaker, bass is pulled down to 3 with treble pushed to 8. Because the Champion is a modeling amp, no external pedal is needed—the British voice provides authentic preamp crunch on its own.

PRO TIPIommi used very light custom gauge strings (.008s tuned to standard on Paranoid) and pressed lightly due to his prosthetic fingertips; hit the E and D string double-stops with an aggressive downpick right next to the bridge to emulate the biting attack of his modified Rangemaster.

Get this tone on your amp

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

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