Tone library / Metallica / Fade to Black

Fade to Black amp settings — Fender Champion 50XL

The Metallica guitar tone for “Fade to Black”, dialed in for a Fender Champion 50XL with a Squier Classic Vibe 50s Stratocaster. Iconic intro solo and heavy rhythm tone, Ride the Lightning (1984)

Original rig

Modified Marshall JCM800 2203, Ibanez TS9 / ProCo Rat boost, Gibson Flying V / Fernandes Strat clone with humbuckers

Saturated, biting mid-scooped early thrash crunch with singing lead sustain

Amp settings — Fender Champion 50XL

CHANNELMetal 2000 (Voice selector)

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

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Guitar

PICKUPneck TONE8 VOLUME10

Why these settings

The Champion 50XL features a 3-band EQ and onboard digital voicings, so setting the Voice to 'Metal 2000' emulates the cascaded high-gain Marshall crunch without needing external pedals. Because the Squier Strat's single-coils are brighter and thinner than Kirk's humbuckers, the tone knob is rolled back to 8 and bass is boosted to 7 to add warmth and body. Switch to the bridge pickup for the aggressive heavy rhythm sections later in the song.

PRO TIPFor the intro solo, pick with the edge of the pick close to the neck pickup using a soft, fluid attack to let the singing, violin-like sustain bloom naturally on single-coils.

Get this tone on your amp

These settings are for a Fender Champion 50XL. 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.