Starless amp settings — Fender Champion 20

The King crimson guitar tone for “Starless”, dialed in for a Fender Champion 20 with a ESP LTD EC-1000. Studio version, Red (1974) — iconic soaring cello-like lead theme

Original rig

1959 Gibson Les Paul Custom (3-pickup, neck position) into Guild Foxey Lady Fuzz (early Big Muff circuit) into Hiwatt DR103 / Marshall 1959 Super Lead

Smooth, woolly violin/cello sustain with rolled-off top end and infinite singing compression

Amp settings — Fender Champion 20

CHANNELTweed (Clean/Warm Voice)BRIGHToffBOOSToff

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	2
Bass	7
Treble	4
Reverb	2
Master	5

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Guitar

PICKUPneck TONE3 VOLUME10

Signal chain

01ProCo Rat 2

Gain source — high Filter cuts harsh high frequencies to recreate Fripp's smooth, flute-like fuzz sustain

Distortion 8 · Filter 8 · Volume 6

Why these settings

The Fender Champion 20 has no physical Mid or Presence controls, so those are nulled, and the amp is set clean on the Tweed voice to avoid double-gain conflict with your Rat 2. The Rat 2 is dialed with high Distortion and a heavily turned Filter knob (8/10 cuts top end) to mimic the smooth, sustaining fuzz of Fripp's vintage Foxey Lady/Muff circuit. Rolling off your LTD neck pickup tone knob to 3 completes the dark, cello-like response.

PRO TIPUse classical parallel vibrato (shaking the finger along the length of the fret/string rather than bending vertically across it) and pick softly near the fretboard to mask initial pick transient.

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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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.