Toxicity amp settings — Fender Blues Junior IV

The System of A Down guitar tone for “Toxicity”, dialed in for a Fender Blues Junior IV with a Fender Player Telecaster. Studio version, Toxicity (2001) - heavy main riff and chorus

The Blues Junior IV cannot physically achieve Daron Malakian's crushing Dual Rectifier saturation without an external high-gain pedal, so engage the 'FAT' boost and push preamp gain to 9 for the maximum possible crunch today. Roll your Telecaster bridge tone knob back to 7 and keep amp treble at 5 to tame harsh single-coil bite while retaining attack. Adding a dedicated high-gain distortion pedal like a Rat or MT-2 will instantly close the gap; once owned, switch off the FAT switch and set amp gain to 2-3. For the clean intro and verses, roll your guitar volume knob down to 4.

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.