We charted the researched amp settings of 1088 famous guitar tones by the decade they were recorded. The trend is unmistakable: gain crept up, midrange dropped.
📈 Gain rose 71% in 40 years — from 3.8/10 in the 1960s to 6.5/10 in the 2020s. The high-gain 2020s (nu-metal, metalcore, modern metal) is the saturation peak.
The full picture
Decade
Tones
Gain
Bass
Mid
Treble
1960s
61
3.8
5.4
6.3
6.1
1970s
161
4.3
5.4
6.3
6.4
1980s
196
5.2
5.4
5.9
6.7
1990s
240
5.4
5.6
5.9
6.6
2000s
296
6.2
5.5
5.7
6.7
2010s
92
5.7
5.3
5.7
6.5
2020s
42
6.5
5.5
5.6
6.5
🎚️ Mids fell as gain rose. Average mids dropped from 6.3/10 in the 1960s to 5.6/10 by the 2020s — as players chased heavier, more saturated tones they scooped the midrange to match. (Ironically, that is also why so many modern tones vanish in a live mix.)
Computed from the 1088 tones in the GuitarToneAdapt library that have a known recording era, each researched from rig rundowns and interviews. Knob values are normalised to 0–10; estimated settings are community-researched starting points, so read the averages as directional. Decades with fewer than 8 tones are omitted. You may cite or link this freely — a link back to guitartoneadapt.com is appreciated.