Tone library / Nirvana / Come As You Are

Come As You Are amp settings — Fender champiom 25 II 25

The Nirvana guitar tone for “Come As You Are”, dialed in for a Fender champiom 25 II 25 with a Epiphone Les Paul Classic. Studio version, Nevermind (1991) — iconic watery clean intro and main riff

Original rig

1965 Fender Jaguar / 1969 Mustang (D-Standard tuning, neck pickup) into Electro-Harmonix Small Clone into Mesa/Boogie Studio Preamp, Crown Power Amp, and Marshall 4x12 cab

Warm, watery, dark clean tone with distinctive deep chorus modulation

Amp settings — Fender champiom 25 II 25

CHANNELVoice: '65 Twin (Voice knob at 1), FX Select: ChorusBRIGHToffBOOSToff

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	3
Bass	6
Treble	5
Reverb	2
Master	5

Don’t have a Fender champiom 25 II 25? See this song on other amps → Match your own rig →

Guitar

PICKUPneck TONE7 VOLUME10

Signal chain

01Onboard Chorus FX

Select the onboard Chorus voice on the Champion and set FX Level to around 7 for the deep Small Clone watery modulation

FX Level 7

Why these settings

The Champion II 25 lacks a physical mid knob and presence control, so mids are handled by selecting the warm '65 Twin voice and slightly backing off the treble. Because your Epiphone Les Paul has darker humbuckers than Cobain's single-coil Mustang/Jaguar, rolling the guitar tone back slightly to 7 captures the dark, rounded attack without getting overly muddy. For the chorus part, use the Champion's onboard Chorus setting pushed high to replicate the deep EHX Small Clone sweep. Chorus stays active for the verse; switch to a distortion voice like 'Metal 2000' or an external DS-1 for the heavy chorus section.

PRO TIPTune your guitar down a full step to D-Standard (D-G-C-F-A-D) and pick gently near the neck pickup using a medium-thin pick to match Kurt's loose, ringing string attack.

Get this tone on your amp

These settings are for a Fender champiom 25 II 25. 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.