Tone library / Rage Against the Machine / Fistful of Steel

Fistful of Steel amp settings — Fender Mustang LT25

The Rage Against the Machine guitar tone for “Fistful of Steel”, dialed in for a Fender Mustang LT25 with a Fender Player Stratocaster. Studio version, Rage Against the Machine (1992), tracked at Sound City with Andy Wallace mixing

Original rig

Marshall JCM800 2205 50W head, Peavey 4x12 cab, 'Arm the Homeless' guitar with EMG 85/H pickups, DigiTech WH-1 Whammy, DOD FX40B EQ, Cry Baby wah, Boss DD-2 delay

Aggressive mid-forward crunch with tight low-end, grinding upper-mids, and raw percussive attack for toggle/slide noise techniques

Amp settings — Fender Mustang LT25

CHANNELSelect '70s British or British 80s amp model (closest to JCM800 voicing)

Knob	Setting (0–10)
Gain	7
Bass	4
Mid	7
Treble	6
Presence	5
Reverb	0
Master	6

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Guitar

PICKUPbridge TONE8 VOLUME10

Signal chain

01Pitch Shifter (Mustang LT25 built-in effect)

Set to +1 octave up for intro noise section — engage only for the karate-chop string scraping parts; bypass for main riff

Pitch 10 · Mix 10

Why these settings

Your Mustang LT25's British amp models approximate the JCM800's mid-forward bark. The Fender Strat with single coils is brighter and lower output than Morello's EMG-loaded guitar, so I pushed mids to 7 (vs his flatter EQ) and kept treble moderate at 6 to avoid ice-pick highs. Gain at 7 compensates for the Strat's weaker output vs active EMGs. The recording is bone-dry — reverb stays at 0.

PRO TIPThe 'laughing guitar' sound at 2:09 is created by holding a metal slide over the strings near the pickups while rapidly toggling between pickup positions — on a Strat, flick your 5-way switch quickly between positions 1 and 2 while scraping; it's not as instant as Morello's kill-switch but gets close. For the intro, karate-chop the strings near the bridge with your picking hand while palm-muting, then release the mute for the higher squeals.

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These settings are for a Fender Mustang LT25. 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.