Tone library / Marcus King / Wildflowers & Wine

Wildflowers & Wine amp settings — Fender Vibro Champ

The Marcus King guitar tone for “Wildflowers & Wine”, dialed in for a Fender Vibro Champ with a Squier Contemporary Stratocaster. Studio version, El Dorado album (2019), produced by Dan Auerbach

Original rig

Gibson ES-345 or D'Angelico EXL-1 → Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer → Fender 1965 Super Reverb

Warm, bluesy clean-to-edge breakup with vocal midrange and vintage Fender chime

Amp settings — Fender Vibro Champ

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	7
Bass	4
Mid	6
Treble	5
Presence	0
Reverb	3
Master	10

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Guitar

PICKUPneck TONE7 VOLUME10

Signal chain

01Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer

RECOMMENDED — not currently owned. Critical for this tone. King uses low output volume with moderate drive to add grit without overwhelming the amp. A Boss SD-1 or EHX East River Drive are budget alternatives.

Drive 5 · Tone 5 · Level 3

Why these settings

Your Vibro Champ is a single-ended Class A Fender like the Super Reverb's preamp section but at lower wattage — it will break up earlier, which works in your favor here. Your Strat's single coils are brighter and thinner than King's ES-345 humbuckers, so I've rolled treble back to 5 (vs Super Reverb's typical 6-7) and boosted mids to compensate for the missing low-mid warmth. Without a Tube Screamer, crank the Vibro Champ's volume to get natural breakup, but the tone will lack the focused midrange push King gets from the TS9.

PRO TIPKing's touch dynamics are central to this tone — he digs in hard on accents and backs off for clean passages, all with volume knob at 10. Practice controlling your attack: pick closer to the bridge and strike firmly for grit, then move toward the neck and lighten up for the clean, breathy sections. Roll your Strat's tone knob down to 5-6 during the verse for extra warmth, then open it up on the chorus.

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These settings are for a Fender Vibro Champ. 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.