I'm broken amp settings — Ibanez Gta15r

The Pantera guitar tone for “I'm broken”, dialed in for a Ibanez Gta15r with a Squier Affinity Stratocaster. Studio version, Far Beyond Driven (1994)

Original rig

Dean ML with Bill Lawrence XL500L bridge humbucker → MXR M109S 6-Band Graphic EQ (gain boost) → Randall RG100ES solid-state head. D Standard tuning (D G C F A D). Dimebag stacked gain stages: hot pickup + MXR EQ boost + Furman PQ-4 into the Randall.

Scooped, aggressive, razor-sharp high-gain with tight low-end thump and cutting high-mids. Surgical pick attack, no mud.

Amp settings — Ibanez Gta15r

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	10
Bass	5
Mid	3
Treble	8
Reverb	0
Master	6

Don’t have a Ibanez Gta15r? See this song on other amps → Match your own rig →

Guitar

PICKUPbridge TONE10 VOLUME10

Signal chain

01High-Gain Distortion Pedal (Boss MT-2, MXR M75, or similar)

RECOMMENDED — not currently owned. The Ibanez GTA15R cannot produce Dimebag-level saturation from its preamp alone. A high-gain distortion pedal is essential to reach this tone. Set amp to clean settings when using this pedal.

Gain/Dist 7 · Level 7 · Low/Bass 5 · High/Treble 7

Why these settings

The Ibanez GTA15R is a 15W practice solid-state amp with limited gain on tap — nowhere near the cascaded gain stages Dimebag used (hot humbucker + MXR EQ boost + Randall). Maxing the amp gain gets you crunch, not thrash metal saturation. A distortion pedal is mandatory. Your Squier's single-coil bridge pickup is brighter and lower output than Dimebag's XL500L humbucker, so I dropped bass -1 from the original and kept treble high to compensate for the thinner attack. Mid stays scooped at 3 to match the original's signature cut.

PRO TIPTune to D Standard. Dimebag's attack came from extremely hard downstrokes with the pick angled sharply — dig in like you're trying to cut through the string, not glide over it. This is what makes the riff bark.

Get this tone on your amp

These settings are for a Ibanez Gta15r. ToneAdapt matches any song to whatever amp, guitar and pedals you own — first match is free.

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