Tone library / Metallica / Fade To Black

Fade To Black amp settings — fender Frontman 15G

The Metallica guitar tone for “Fade To Black”, dialed in for a fender Frontman 15G with a Squier Affinity Stratocaster. Studio cut, Ride the Lightning (1984) — Iconic acoustic-clean intro & singing neck-pickup intro solo

Original rig

Marshall JCM800 2203 / modded Jose Arredondo Marshall, Ibanez TS9 / ProCo Rat, Gibson 'Flying V' with Gibson PAF / Duncan humbuckers

Atmospheric, dynamic intro tone balancing acoustic-clean warmth and a smooth, singing neck lead

Amp settings — fender Frontman 15G

CHANNELNormal / CleanBOOSToff

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	2
Bass	6
Mid	5
Treble	4
Master	4

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Guitar

PICKUPneck TONE7 VOLUME9

Signal chain

01ProCo Rat 2 (Distortion)

RECOMMENDED — not currently owned (required to switch to the heavy rhythm and outro solo)

Distortion 6 · Filter 6 · Volume 7

Why these settings

The Frontman 15G's clean channel provides ample headroom for the intro, while pushing Bass to 6 compensates for the thin 8-inch speaker and single-coil bridge/neck output. Treble is trimmed to 4 and guitar tone is dialed back to 7 to round off bright single-coil quack into Kirk's warm Gibson humbucker voice. High-gain rhythm sections are unreachable cleanly from this amp's built-in drive, so a dedicated distortion pedal is recommended for later sections.

PRO TIPPick right over the 15th to 17th fret harmonic node with a relaxed grip to recreate the hollow, fluty acoustic-hybrid bloom Kirk achieves on the intro lead.

Get this tone on your amp

These settings are for a fender Frontman 15G. ToneAdapt matches any song to whatever amp, guitar and pedals you own — first match is free.

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