About a Girl amp settings — Herley Benton HB-20R

The Nirvana guitar tone for “About a Girl”, dialed in for a Herley Benton HB-20R with a Herley Benton ST Junior BK. Studio version, Bleach album (1989) — clean riff tone, not the distorted bridge/solo section

Original rig

Fender Mustang or Epiphone ET-270 (neck pickup) → 1960s Fender Twin Reverb (clean channel, light spring reverb). No pedals on the main riff.

Clean, warm, slightly dark jangle with subtle spring reverb — pop-melodic grunge precursor

Amp settings — Herley Benton HB-20R

BOOSToff

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

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Guitar

PICKUPneck TONE7 VOLUME10

Why these settings

The HB-20R is a small solid-state practice amp with no mid or presence knob — those are nulled. The original Twin Reverb is a clean, scooped Fender platform; your amp is voiced similarly but with less headroom. Gain stays low (3) to keep it clean like the original. Bass and treble are moderate (5 each) to avoid the harsh highs and loose lows common on small speakers. The built-in spring reverb at 3 approximates the light room ambience on Bleach.

PRO TIPRoll the guitar's tone knob to 7 and use the neck pickup — this darkens the single-coil brightness to match Cobain's warmer Mustang neck tone. Alternate-strum the Em-G riff with relaxed downstrokes; the feel is lazy and slightly behind the beat, not aggressive.

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These settings are for a Herley Benton HB-20R. 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.