She drives me crazy amp settings — Line 6 HX Stomp XL
The Fine young canibals guitar tone for “She drives me crazy”, dialed in for a Line 6 HX Stomp XL with a Fender American Ultra Stratocaster. Studio version, The Raw & the Cooked (1989) — signature overdriven power chord stabs
Fender Mustang / Stratocaster into cranked tube amp / console direct drive, studio outboard EQ sweeps by producer David Z, heavy compression and sampled/gated processing
| Knob | Setting (0–10) |
|---|---|
| Gain | 3 |
| Bass | 4 |
| Mid | 6 |
| Treble | 5 |
| Reverb | 0 |
| Master | 8 |
01Deluxe Comp (HX Block)
Compresses the transient attack before the distortion stage
02Vermin Dist (HX Block - ProCo Rat model)
Primary gain source for the thick, gritty chord stab
03Parametric EQ (HX Block)
Replicates David Z's manual studio console EQ filter peak on the chords
04Hard Gate (HX Block)
Clamps down abruptly to give the chords their tight, sampled cutoff
The studio tone relies on a clean tube amp platform slammed by aggressive distortion, heavy compression, and console EQ filtering rather than pure amp gain. Using the HX Stomp's US Double Nrm keeps the low end tight while the Vermin Dist and Parametric EQ blocks recreate the iconic filtered bite. A fast noise gate is essential at the end of the chain to replicate the sampled, abrupt cutoff of the original recording. Clean verse staccato line: bypass the Vermin Dist block and switch to bridge+middle position.
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These settings are for a Line 6 HX Stomp XL. ToneAdapt matches any song to whatever amp, guitar and pedals you own — first match is free.
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