“Mesa/Boogies have what they call ‘suggested settings.’ I have it set for death metal”: Why Walter Trout uses a metal setting to dial in his blues guitar tones

Sometimes, guitar tone hacks come from some unlikely places. For esteemed Ocean City guitarist and blues-rock heavyweight Walter Trout, he’s found that the heavier the tone he dials into his tube amp, the better his blues leads sound.

For some guitarists, putting a well-curated pedalboard in front of an amp is the secret to tonal success. Trout, however, goes sans 'board and straight into the firepower of a Mesa/Boogie amp. That’s all he needs. Well, that and, er, the amp's onboard metal setting.

“As you know, Mesa/Boogies have what they call ‘suggested settings,’” he tells Guitar World in a new interview. “Now, for all the bluesers out there, I’m going to tell you my suggested setting. I have it set for death metal.”

It’s not exactly a conventional approach. But then, rules are meant to be broken.

“I’m serious,” he continues. “If I want to clean it up, I just turn the volume down on the guitar. Between about five and 10 on the volume knob, it adds overdrive. Listen to the lead solo on [2025 track] Sign of the Times. That’s the death metal setting with the guitar turned all the way up.”

Doing as he suggests, it’s clear that there are bags of grit sizzling through his Fender Strat. The fact that it has single-coil pickups rather than fatter-sounding humbuckers perhaps makes his attack a little more forgiving and befitting the genre. In all, it goes to show that guitar players are rewarded for veering left-field from time to time.

Walter Trout - Sign of the Times (Official Lyric Video) - YouTube

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Trout has previously spoken about how he deems pedals unnecessary when tone-tweaking. In 2023, he asked, “If you get a kickass amp, why would you put it through a $100 pedal?” and he has a point. Recently echoing that idea, next-gen guitar hero Yvette Young ranked amps as more important than guitars when crafting the perfect tone.

Of course, it’s very much a case of each to their own. Other blues players may find Mesa/Boogie’s ‘death metal’ setting is far too hot for how they like it, or even not hot enough. But it shows that sticking by the playbook isn’t always going to get you what you want.

Trout has also offered his best guitar-buying advice and revealed that he’ll never turn to humbucker axes.

His full interview with Guitar World will be published online very soon.