Tone library / Led Zeppelin / Stairway to Heaven

Stairway to Heaven amp settings — AVE 3RD BA-15

The Led Zeppelin guitar tone for “Stairway to Heaven”, dialed in for a AVE 3RD BA-15 with a Harley Benton Stratocaster. Studio version, Led Zeppelin IV (1971) — iconic guitar solo

Original rig

1959 Fender Telecaster (bridge pickup) into a cranked 1959 Supro 1690T Coronado (1x12 mod)

Biting, mid-forward vintage tube compression with bright top-end snap and tight low end

Amp settings — AVE 3RD BA-15

CHANNELCleanBOOSToff

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	2
Bass	5
Mid	7
Treble	6
Master	6

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Guitar

PICKUPbridge TONE9 VOLUME10

Signal chain

01Crunch Distortion

Gain source — run directly into the amp clean channel to recreate the cranked Supro tube breakup.

Gain 6 · Tone 6 · Level 7

Why these settings

The cranked 1959 Supro distortion is provided entirely by your Crunch Distortion pedal into the clean channel of the BA-15 to avoid muddy solid-state preamp clipping. Your Stratocaster bridge single-coil closely matches Jimmy Page's Telecaster bridge bite, but rolling the guitar tone back slightly to 9 tames the glassiness of the smaller practice amp speaker. The mid control is pushed on the amp to simulate the thick, mid-forward character of the vintage Supro circuit. Acoustic/clean intro: bypass the Crunch Distortion pedal and switch to neck+middle pickups.

PRO TIPJimmy Page attacked the solo with aggressive, dynamic pick-hand velocity near the bridge to accentuate upper-harmonic bite; dig in hard on the bends to match the sustained, compressed bloom on the record.

Get this tone on your amp

These settings are for a AVE 3RD BA-15. 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.