Full GuideRockBlues1960s
Jimi Hendrix
Bright Strat neck pickup into a cranked Marshall Plexi — thick fuzz, expressive wah and controlled feedback. The most influential electric guitar tone ever recorded.
Free Guitar Tone Engine
Build Guitar Tones From
Real-World Gear — Instantly
Compare artist rigs, explore DSP plugins, and build guitar setups at £200, £500, £1,000 and £2,500 budgets.
Where to Start
Choose Your Starting Point
Find Your Favourite Artist
Browse 215+ guitarists and get a complete rig guide — signal chain, gear list, and amp settings — at your exact budget.
Browse artists →Build a Rig by Budget
Choose £200, £500, £1,000, or £2,500. The Rig Builder generates a full hardware or DSP rig for any artist at your price point.
Open Rig Builder →Use Gear You Already Own
Enter your guitar and amp. Reverse Tone finds the artists you are already closest to and shows the most efficient next upgrade.
Try Reverse Tone →Explore DSP & Plugins
Not ready for a valve amp? Every rig on ToneStakr is also available as a DSP or hybrid version — modellers and amp sims included.
DSP vs real amps →Essential Reading
Featured Guides
Understand how tone works before you spend anything.
How Guitar Tone Actually Works
The signal chain explained — why your amp matters more than your guitar, and what actually shapes your sound.
Read →Best Guitar Rigs Under £500
Practical rig builds at the most useful budget level. Real gear, real prices, actually available.
Read →How to Build a Pedalboard
Signal chain order, power supplies, patching — how to put a board together correctly from scratch.
Read →Best Amps for Bedroom Players
Low-volume options that work properly — valve, solid-state, and modelling compared honestly.
Read →DSP Plugins vs Real Amps
What you actually give up and gain by going digital — latency, feel, cost, and the right context for each.
Read →Budget System
Four Levels. One Platform.
Spending more does not always sound better. ToneStakr shows you what each budget actually achieves — and when an upgrade is genuinely worth it.
£200Starter
Gets you into a functional rig. Solid-state or modelling amp, a beginner-friendly guitar, no pedals required. The right starting point if you are just getting going.
Explore £200 rigs →£500Core RigBest Value
The best balance of tone and affordability. A used valve combo, one quality overdrive, and a well-set-up guitar gets you 80% of the way to any classic tone.
Explore £500 rigs →£1,000Advanced
Gigging-ready. A reliable valve amp, a considered pedalboard, and a guitar with the right pickups for your style. Suitable for rehearsals, smaller venues, and home recording.
Explore £1,000 rigs →£2,500Premium
Studio and touring grade. Boutique or high-end production amplifiers, a curated effects chain, and a professional-specification guitar. Every component is a deliberate choice.
Explore £2,500 rigs →Simple Process
Your rig in 3 steps
Choose an Artist, Gear, or Budget
Search by guitarist name, enter the gear you already own, or set a budget. Three routes into the same engine.
Get Hardware + DSP Options
Every rig comes in physical and DSP versions. Compare both and choose what suits your setup and budget.
Refine in Rig Builder
Swap components, compare tone closeness scores, and adjust for budget or style until the rig is right for you.
Tone Library
Featured Guitarists
Full Guide
RockHard Rock1960s
Jimmy Page
Thick, saggy Les Paul through a modified Marshall Super Bass — from gentle acoustic picking to howling feedback, Page's tone captured both delicacy and unbridled power.
Hard RockRock1970s
Eddie Van Halen
Homemade "Frankenstrat" through a modified Marshall Plexi — Van Halen's "brown sound" blended crunch, warmth and explosive two-handed tapping that reset everyone's expectations.
Blues-RockBlues1960s
Eric Clapton
From Cream's saturated Marshall tones to his later Strat-through-Fender warmth, Clapton defined the British blues-rock vocabulary with precise string bends and a singing neck-pickup voice.
Full GuideRockProgressive1970s
David Gilmour
Strat into a Hiwatt, with Big Muff fuzz and long delay for iconic Pink Floyd atmosphere. Gilmour's vibrato and note selection carry the emotion — the gear serves the melody.
Full GuideBluesBlues-Rock1980s
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Heavy .013 strings on a Strat through a loud Fender Vibroverb with a Tube Screamer as a clean boost. SRV's physical attack was the real magic — the gear just had to keep up.
Full GuideHard RockRock1980s
Slash
Humbucker Les Paul into a cranked Marshall — thick midrange saturation, singing sustain, warm but aggressive attack. No scooped mids: it's all about that mid-forward Marshall crunch.
Hard RockBlues-Rock1970s
Angus Young
SG through a Marshall Super Lead at maximum volume — Angus's raw, punchy crunch is all about the humbucker meeting a pushed amp with zero pedals. Pure, simple, devastating.
FunkR&B1980s
Prince
Cloud guitar and Hohner Telecaster through a variety of amps — Prince's tone ranged from squeaky-clean funk rhythm to scorching rock leads with effortless dexterity and showmanship.
MetalHard Rock1970s
Tony Iommi
SG into a modified Marshall — Iommi invented heavy metal riffing with down-tuned, ominous power chords and a dark, woolly distorted tone. The godfather of heavy guitar.
Full GuideBlues-RockRock2000s
John Mayer
Warm Strat neck pickup into a clean Fender Twin, pushed by a Tube Screamer for vocal blues crunch. Everything lives in the dynamics — light touch gives cleans, dig in and it blooms.
GrungeAlternative1990s
Kurt Cobain
Fender Jaguar and Mustang through Boss DS-1 and Small Clone into a Mesa Boogie — Cobain's massive quiet-loud dynamic switched between clean shimmer and wall-of-fuzz assault.
Popular Builds
Popular Rigs
Platform Tools
Two Ways to Find Your Tone
Rig Builder
Start with an artist and a budget. The Rig Builder generates a complete signal chain — guitar, amp, and pedals — with real prices across all four budget tiers. Hardware, DSP, or hybrid. Swap any component. Compare tone closeness scores.
- Complete rigs at £200, £500, £1,000 and £2,500
- Hardware and DSP versions for every artist
- Four-dimension tone closeness scoring
Reverse Tone
Start with what you already own. Enter your guitar, amp, and pedals — Reverse Tone finds the artists whose tone most closely matches your current rig, shows what you can already sound like, and identifies the single most efficient upgrade.
- Matches against 215+ artist profiles
- Instant closeness scores across guitar, amp, and effects
- One upgrade path — the change that moves you furthest
Why ToneStakr
Built for Real Decisions
Most guitar tone advice focuses on expensive gear that most players cannot afford, or makes vague recommendations without accounting for budget, context, or how different components actually interact.
ToneStakr maps every recommendation to real, currently available gear at a specific price point. The engine accounts for what you already own, where you play, and whether hardware or DSP makes sense for your situation.
The goal is not to sell you the most expensive rig. It is to help you make the most efficient decision with what you have.
Real gear at real prices — not aspirational wishlists
Hardware and DSP options for every budget
Works from any starting point — artist, gear, or budget
Covers beginners through to studio and touring players
Explains the reasoning — not just the gear list
Free to use — no account needed to build a rig
Explore
Everything on ToneStakr
Artist Tones
Guides
Gear Categories
Start Building Your Tone Today
Free to use. No account required. Works for beginners and experienced players alike.