Drain You amp settings — Flatsons FBA-10

The Nirvana guitar tone for “Drain You”, dialed in for a Flatsons FBA-10 with a Squier Bullet Stratocaster. Studio version, Nevermind (1991) — main distorted rhythm riff

Original rig

Fender Jaguar (DiMarzio humbuckers) / '69 Mustang -> Boss DS-1 / ProCo Rat -> Mesa/Boogie Studio .22 Preamp / Fender Bassman into 4x12 cabs

Thick, aggressive wall-of-sound grunge rhythm distortion with scooped upper-mids and heavy saturation

Amp settings — Flatsons FBA-10

CHANNELDistortion / Drive channel (OD switch engaged)

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	8
Bass	7
Treble	5
Master	6

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Guitar

PICKUPbridge TONE8 VOLUME10

Signal chain

01Boss DS-1 Distortion

RECOMMENDED — not currently owned; with pedal, switch amp to clean and set amp gain to 2

Tone 5 · Level 7 · Dist 8

Why these settings

The Flatsons FBA-10 is a compact solid-state mini amp with basic Gain, Bass, and Treble controls (no Mid, Presence, or Reverb knobs on its panel). To approximate Kurt's thick Mesa/DS-1 multi-tracked wall of sound with single-coil pickups, push the amp's drive channel gain to 8 and roll the guitar tone back to 8 to tame excess Strat fizz. Keep the bass at 7 to simulate the 4x12 cab low-end without blowing out the micro speaker. Clean verse: disengage the amp drive switch and play on clean.

PRO TIPKurt hit open power chords with aggressive, heavy downstrokes across multiple layered tracks—dig in hard with a thick pick near the bridge to maximize low-end crunch from low-output single coils.

Get this tone on your amp

These settings are for a Flatsons FBA-10. 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.