Tone library / Stone Temple Pilots / Army Ants

Army Ants amp settings — Fender Champion 20

The Stone Temple Pilots guitar tone for “Army Ants”, dialed in for a Fender Champion 20 with a Squier Affinity Stratocaster. Studio version, Purple (1994)

Original rig

Marshall JCM800/900, Gibson Les Paul with humbuckers, flanger pedal (likely MXR or Boss BF-2), mild overdrive for boost

Thick, mid-forward grunge crunch with swirling flanger modulation on verses, heavier distorted power chords on main riff

Amp settings — Fender Champion 20

CHANNELOverdrive channel

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

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Guitar

PICKUPbridge TONE6 VOLUME10

Signal chain

01Flanger (RECOMMENDED — Boss BF-3 or Donner Jet Convolution)

RECOMMENDED — not currently owned. Essential for the intro/verse swirl. Budget options: Donner Jet Convolution (~$35), Behringer BF400 (~$25). Without this, you get the crunch but lose the signature swooshing texture.

Rate 3 · Depth 6 · Res/Feedback 5 · Level 7

Why these settings

The Champion 20 is Fender-voiced with scooped mids, while the original Marshall JCM is mid-forward. Pushed mid to 7 (vs typical Marshall 5-6) to compensate for the Fender scoop. Your Strat's single coils are brighter and lower output than DeLeo's Les Paul humbuckers, so treble dropped to 5 and gain pushed to 7 to approximate the thicker, saturated humbucker response. Tone knob rolled to 6 to tame single-coil ice pick.

PRO TIPThe intro riff uses open D string drones under fretted notes on the G string — let that D ring as a pedal tone. Pick closer to the neck for a fatter attack that mimics humbucker response from your single coils.

Get this tone on your amp

These settings are for a Fender Champion 20. 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.