Drain you amp settings — Squire SP-10

The Nirvana guitar tone for “Drain you”, dialed in for a Squire SP-10 with a Fender Player Stratocaster. Studio version, Nevermind (1991) — Sound City tracking with Butch Vig

Original rig

Fender Mustang (bridge pickup) → Boss DS-1 → Mesa Boogie (2 tracks) + Fender Bassman (2 tracks + 1 'super grunge' track with pedal). Five distorted guitar layers plus one clean track. E♭ standard tuning.

Aggressive mid-forward grunge crunch with saturated DS-1 grit, punchy attack, and raw punk energy

Amp settings — Squire SP-10

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	7
Bass	4
Treble	6
Master	6

Don’t have a Squire SP-10? See this song on other amps → Match your own rig →

Guitar

PICKUPbridge TONE8 VOLUME10

Signal chain

01Boss DS-1 Distortion

RECOMMENDED — not currently owned. This is THE gain source for Cobain's tone; the SP-10 cannot produce this saturation alone. Keep amp gain at 3-4 once you add this pedal.

Tone 6 · Level 7 · Dist 7

Why these settings

The Squier SP-10 is a small solid-state practice amp with only gain, bass, treble, and master — no mid, presence, or reverb knobs. Its preamp cannot reach Nevermind-level saturation even at max gain. I've set gain at 7 to get the most grit possible from the amp alone, but the real tone requires a DS-1 in front (amp gain drops to 3-4 with the pedal). Your Strat's single-coil bridge is brighter and lower-output than Cobain's Mustang, so I pulled treble to 6 and bass to 4 to avoid ice-pick highs and keep the low-end tight through the small speaker.

PRO TIPDetune to E♭ standard — Cobain tracked the album a half-step down, which loosens string tension and adds that sludgy grunge feel. Attack the strings hard with all downstrokes on the verse riff; the percussive dig is half the tone.

Get this tone on your amp

These settings are for a Squire SP-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.