Drain You amp settings — Laney LH50

The Nirvana guitar tone for “Drain You”, dialed in for a Laney LH50 with a Gibson Les Paul Standard 50s. Live at The Paramount, Seattle, October 31, 1991

Original rig

Fender Mustang (stock single-coils) → Boss DS-1 (gain dimed) → EHX Small Clone → Mesa/Boogie Studio Preamp (clean) → Crown Power Base 2 → Marshall 1960A 4x12

Raw, aggressive distortion with mid-forward grind and subtle chorus shimmer on bridge sections

Amp settings — Laney LH50

CHANNELClean channelBRIGHToffBOOSToff

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

Don’t have a Laney LH50? See this song on other amps → Match your own rig →

Guitar

PICKUPbridge TONE7 VOLUME10

Signal chain

01Boss DS-1 Distortion

RECOMMENDED — not currently owned. This pedal IS the tone. Cobain ran DS-1 gain fully dimed into a clean amp. Essential purchase for this sound.

Tone 5 · Level 8 · Dist 10

02Electro-Harmonix Small Clone Chorus

RECOMMENDED — not currently owned. Depth switch OFF (subtle). Used on bridge/interlude sections only, bypass for main riff.

Rate 4 · Depth 0

Why these settings

Your Les Paul's humbuckers are hotter and warmer than Cobain's stock Mustang single-coils. Compensate by rolling tone knob to 7 (cuts high-mid ice), dropping bass -1 from original to prevent mud, and pushing mids +1 to retain the aggressive bark. The Laney LH50 is a Marshall-voiced amp—keep it clean and let the DS-1 do all the dirt work, exactly as Cobain did with his Mesa preamp.

PRO TIPCobain's picking attack was central to this tone—dig in hard on downstrokes and let the DS-1 compress the transients into that iconic 'crushed' grunge sound. With your Les Paul's higher output, you may find the DS-1 Dist knob at 8-9 achieves the same saturation Cobain got at 10 with his weaker Mustang pickups.

Get this tone on your amp

These settings are for a Laney LH50. ToneAdapt matches any song to whatever amp, guitar and pedals you own — first match is free.

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