Paranoid amp settings — Marshall Lead 100 mosfet

The Black Sabbath guitar tone for “Paranoid”, dialed in for a Marshall Lead 100 mosfet with a Ltd Ex400. Studio version, Paranoid album (1970)

Original rig

Gibson SG Standard → Dallas Rangemaster (modified) → Laney LA100BL heads into 4x12 cabs. Presence/Mid/Treble on 10, Bass on 0, volume maxed. Bridge pickup, guitar volume full.

Aggressive, cutting midrange grind with zero low-end mud — raw, punchy proto-metal crunch that slices through the mix

Amp settings — Marshall Lead 100 mosfet

CHANNELLead channel

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	3
Bass	1
Mid	10
Treble	8
Presence	8
Reverb	0
Master	6

Don’t have a Marshall Lead 100 mosfet? See this song on other amps → Match your own rig →

Guitar

PICKUPbridge TONE10 VOLUME10

Signal chain

01Boss DS-1

Substitutes for the Rangemaster treble boost — provides the midrange cut and grit. Run into amp's clean-ish setting.

Tone 7 · Level 6 · Dist 5

Why these settings

Your Marshall Lead 100 MOSFET is solid-state with more headroom than Iommi's cranked Laneys, so the DS-1 becomes your primary gain source — amp gain stays low to avoid fizzy stacking. The MOSFET is brighter and tighter than vintage tube Laneys, so I pulled treble back to 8 (vs Iommi's 10) and kept bass near zero as he did. Mids stay maxed — that's the entire Sabbath sound.

PRO TIPIommi's secret weapon was overloading the Laney's input with the Rangemaster. With the DS-1, roll your guitar volume back to 7-8 for rhythm parts to clean up slightly, then slam it to 10 for leads — this mimics his dynamic control and keeps the tone from getting too compressed.

Get this tone on your amp

These settings are for a Marshall Lead 100 mosfet. 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.