Drain you amp settings — ZAR E15-DR

The Nirvana guitar tone for “Drain you”, dialed in for a ZAR E15-DR with a Harley benton St-20. Studio version, Nevermind (1991) - Main distorted rhythm track

Original rig

Fender '65 Jaguar (with humbucker), Boss DS-1 / ProCo Rat, Mesa Boogie Studio .22 / Studio Preamp into Marshall 4x12 and Fender Bassman

Massive, thick, wall-of-sound grunge rhythm with gritty upper-mid bite

Amp settings — ZAR E15-DR

CHANNELDrive (Overdrive button engaged)

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

Don’t have a ZAR E15-DR? See this song on other amps → Match your own rig →

Guitar

PICKUPbridge TONE8 VOLUME10

Signal chain

01Boss DS-1 Distortion

RECOMMENDED — not currently owned; adds the iconic Nevermind rasp and thick low-end saturation

Tone 5 · Level 7 · Dist 8

Why these settings

The ZAR E15-DR is a small solid-state practice amp with an 8-inch speaker, so pushing the onboard drive channel to gain 8 gives you the necessary grunge saturation today without an external pedal. To compensate for the thin single-coil bridge pickup on the Harley Benton ST-20, tone is rolled down to 8 and bass is raised to 7 to add body. If you add a DS-1 pedal later, switch the amp to its Clean channel with gain at 2 and let the pedal generate the dirt. Clean verse: hit the amp's drive switch to disengage overdrive and roll guitar volume to 7.

PRO TIPPick aggressively near the bridge with a medium-heavy pick and hit open power chords with full downward arm swings to get the signature aggressive string rattle heard across Nevermind.

Get this tone on your amp

These settings are for a ZAR E15-DR. ToneAdapt matches any song to whatever amp, guitar and pedals you own — first match is free.

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Drain you on other ampsSAME SONG, YOUR AMP Nirvana tonesALL SONGS Harley benton St-20 tonesSAME GUITAR Tone libraryEVERYTHING

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.