Tone library / Metallica / Creeping Death

Creeping Death amp settings — peavey rage 158

The Metallica guitar tone for “Creeping Death”, dialed in for a peavey rage 158 with a squier sonic mustang SS. Studio version, Ride the Lightning (1984)

Original rig

Marshall JCM800 2203 (Jose Arredondo mod) → 4x12 cab, Gibson Explorer with Dirty Fingers humbucker (bridge)

Tight, aggressive thrash rhythm with scooped mids, cutting high-end bite, and controlled low-end thump

Amp settings — peavey rage 158

CHANNELHigh (distortion channel)

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	0
Bass	4
Mid	2
Treble	7
Reverb	0
Master	6

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Guitar

PICKUPbridge TONE10 VOLUME10

Signal chain

01Boss DS-2 Turbo Distortion

Mode II (Turbo) for tighter, more aggressive voicing. This is your primary gain source—amp gain stays at 0 to prevent mud.

Level 7 · Tone 6 · Dist 7

Why these settings

The Peavey Rage 158 is a small solid-state practice amp with limited headroom and a fizzy distortion channel—unusable for tight thrash. Your DS-2 becomes the entire gain stage; the amp runs clean to stay tight. Your Mustang's single coils are bright and low-output vs Hetfield's hot humbucker, so DS-2 Dist is pushed to 7 and amp treble stays high at 7 to compensate for the thinner attack. Bass dropped to 4 to prevent flub through the small 8" speaker.

PRO TIPPalm-mute hard and pick aggressively right over the bridge pickup pole pieces—Hetfield's attack is percussive and downpicked, which is 50% of that tone. The DS-2 in Mode II responds well to pick dynamics, so dig in.

Get this tone on your amp

These settings are for a peavey rage 158. ToneAdapt matches any song to whatever amp, guitar and pedals you own — first match is free.

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