Tone library / Nirvana / Smells like teen spirit

Smells like teen spirit amp settings — Borne Strike G30

The Nirvana guitar tone for “Smells like teen spirit”, dialed in for a Borne Strike G30 with a Epiphone SG Standard. Studio version, Nevermind (1991) — main distorted riff and chorus

Original rig

Fender Stratocaster (Seymour Duncan JB humbucker) -> Boss DS-1 Distortion -> Mesa Boogie Studio Preamp (clean rhythm channel) -> Crown Power Base 2 -> Marshall 1960B 4x12 cab

Aggressive, abrasive grunge distortion with punchy upper-mids and tight low end

Amp settings — Borne Strike G30

CHANNELOverdrive / Drive channelBOOSToff

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

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Guitar

PICKUPbridge TONE10 VOLUME10

Signal chain

01Boss DS-1 Distortion

RECOMMENDED — not currently owned; with pedal, switch amp to Clean and set amp Gain to 2

Tone 6 · Level 7 · Dist 8

Why these settings

The Borne Strike G30 is a compact solid-state practice amp without dedicated mid or presence controls, so drive saturation is pushed to 8 on its overdrive channel to capture Kurt's aggressive distortion purely on owned gear. Your Epiphone SG's bridge humbucker matches the output of Cobain's Seymour Duncan JB humbucker, requiring treble at 7 to keep the iconic upper-mid rasp while keeping bass controlled to avoid small-speaker mud. Clean verse: switch the amp back to the clean channel with guitar volume at 8.

PRO TIPHit the muted 16th-note strums between the main power chords aggressively with heavy right-hand pick attack using all four fretting fingers resting flat across the strings to nail the percussive 'scratch' sound.

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These settings are for a Borne Strike G30. ToneAdapt matches any song to whatever amp, guitar and pedals you own — first match is free.

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