Faint amp settings — Fender Frontman 20g

The Linkin Park guitar tone for “Faint”, dialed in for a Fender Frontman 20g with a Fender Squier Debut Series Stratocaster. Studio version, Meteora (2003)

Original rig

Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier, PRS Custom 24 with humbuckers, Tube Screamer for boost, noise gate

Tight, saturated nu-metal crunch with scooped mids and aggressive low-end punch

Amp settings — Fender Frontman 20g

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	10
Bass	6
Mid	4
Treble	7
Presence	0
Reverb	0
Master	5

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Guitar

PICKUPbridge TONE7 VOLUME10

Signal chain

01Distortion Pedal (Boss DS-1 or similar)

RECOMMENDED — not currently owned. Essential for this tone. The Frontman's gain channel cannot produce the saturated high-gain required. A DS-1 ($50) or Boss MT-2 Metal Zone gets you closer. Run amp gain at 3-4 if using this pedal.

Tone 5 · Level 7 · Dist 8

Why these settings

The Frontman 20G is a solid-state practice amp with limited gain saturation—it cannot replicate a Dual Rectifier's tube compression and harmonic saturation. Maxing the gain gets you into crunch territory but not nu-metal chug. I raised treble +1 vs the original to compensate for the Strat's single-coil brightness being less aggressive than Delson's humbuckers, and kept mids slightly higher than the original's scoop because the Frontman lacks low-end authority. Without a distortion pedal, this is the closest approximation, but the tone will be thin and lack the sustain of the recording.

PRO TIPPalm-mute hard and pick aggressively right over the bridge pickup—the attack transient is half of nu-metal's punch. If you add a distortion pedal later, drop the amp gain to 3 and let the pedal handle saturation; stacking both will turn to mud.

Get this tone on your amp

These settings are for a Fender Frontman 20g. ToneAdapt matches any song to whatever amp, guitar and pedals you own — first match is free.

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