Tone library / Nirvana / Smells Like Teen Spirit

Smells Like Teen Spirit amp settings — Boston GA-15R

The Nirvana guitar tone for “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, dialed in for a Boston GA-15R with a Framus Strato super 1967. Studio version, Nevermind (1991) — iconic main riff and heavy chorus tone

Original rig

Fender Stratocaster with Seymour Duncan JB humbucker, Boss DS-1 Distortion, Mesa/Boogie Studio Preamp (clean channel) into Crown Power Base 2 power amp, Marshall 1960B 4x12 cab

Aggressive, abrasive high-gain grunge crunch with biting upper-mids and scooped low-mids

Amp settings — Boston GA-15R

CHANNELCleanBOOSToff

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	2
Bass	6
Mid	5
Treble	7
Reverb	0
Master	6

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Guitar

PICKUPbridge TONE10 VOLUME10

Signal chain

01Donner Morpher Distortion

Mode toggle set to Natural (or Crunch); serves as the main high-gain distortion source

Gain 8 · Tone 7 · Level 7

Why these settings

Because the Donner Morpher distortion pedal is your primary gain source imitating the Boss DS-1 into a clean preamp, keep the Boston GA-15R on its Clean channel with gain dropped to 2 to prevent muddy double-gain distortion. The vintage Framus single-coil bridge pickup has lower output and a thinner bite than Cobain's hot Seymour Duncan JB humbucker, so compensate by pushing the Morpher's gain to 8 and keeping the amp's treble at 7 for that sharp grunge attack. Clean verse: bypass the Morpher pedal and roll guitar volume down slightly.

PRO TIPDig in hard with a heavy downward strumming angle across the four muted-string percussive chucks between chords to get Cobain's explosive dynamic attack.

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These settings are for a Boston GA-15R. 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.