About a Girl amp settings — Fender Champion 20

The Nirvana guitar tone for “About a Girl”, dialed in for a Fender Champion 20 with a Fender Mustang. Studio version, Bleach (1989)

Original rig

Fender Mustang → Boss DS-1 → Mesa Boogie Mark V — bridge pickup, E♭ Standard tuning

Swampy, slightly dirty clean for verses; gritty edge from the DS-1 throughout — raw and punky but melodic

Amp settings — Fender Champion 20

CHANNELClean (Voice switch set to clean position)

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	3
Bass	4
Mid	6
Treble	5
Presence	0
Reverb	1
Master	5

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Guitar

PICKUPbridge TONE8 VOLUME10

Signal chain

01Boss DS-1 Distortion

RECOMMENDED — not currently owned. This pedal defines the song's grit. Without it, push amp gain to 5-6 and accept a fuzzier, less defined breakup.

Tone 4 · Level 7 · Dist 5

Why these settings

The Champion 20 is a solid-state Fender with a naturally scooped, bright voicing. The original Mesa has more mid-punch and smoother gain, so I pushed mid +1 over the original's setting and kept treble conservative to avoid ice-pick highs. Without the DS-1, the Champion's onboard gain gets fuzzy fast — it won't replicate the DS-1's tight, raspy character, but gain at 5-6 gets you in the ballpark for a dirtier approximation.

PRO TIPCobain strummed this with consistent downstrokes on the verse riff (Em-G), keeping the attack even and punky — don't alternate pick it, the tone lives in that rigid eighth-note pulse. Roll your guitar's tone knob to 6-7 during the solo section to thicken the leads.

Get this tone on your amp

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

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More tones for the Fender Champion 20

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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.