War Pigs amp settings — Marshall MG10CF

The Black Sabbath guitar tone for “War Pigs”, dialed in for a Marshall MG10CF with a Gibson Les Paul Modern. Studio version, Paranoid (1970)

Original rig

1964/65 Gibson SG Special 'Monkey' (P-90s) -> Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster (modified) -> Laney Supergroup 100W Head

Dark, heavy British crunch pushed by an aggressive treble booster with biting upper mids and a tight low end

Amp settings — Marshall MG10CF

CHANNELOverdrive

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	7
Reverb	0
Master	6

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Guitar

PICKUPbridge TONE8 VOLUME10

Signal chain

01Dallas Rangemaster (or Treble Booster clone)

RECOMMENDED — not currently owned; push into the clean/crunch channel for authentic Iommi bite

Boost 8

Why these settings

The Marshall MG10CF features a single Contour control rather than a standard 3-band EQ, so set Contour to 4 (counter-clockwise pushes the prominent midrange frequencies vital for Iommi's tone). Because you do not own a treble booster, the amp's Overdrive channel at gain 7 provides the necessary saturation and bite from the amp alone. If you add a treble booster later, switch to the Clean channel and use the pedal to slam the front end.

PRO TIPTony Iommi used ultra-light gauge strings and tuned to standard E on Paranoid, but picked extremely hard right next to the bridge to compensate for low string tension and accentuate upper-harmonic bite.

Get this tone on your amp

These settings are for a Marshall MG10CF. ToneAdapt matches any song to whatever amp, guitar and pedals you own — first match is free.

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