I just bought my first electic guitar, a fender strat. I know it's important to develop your own tone, but first I'd like to play to some of artists I've long admired. So far, it's been trial and error -- mostly error -- trying to match up my settings to the likes of Neil Young, Elvis Costello, The Who, etc. Is there a rule of thumb for bass, treble and tone settings for rock songs with and without distortion effects? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

The rule of thumb is that there is no rule of thumb. Unless you have the exact same equipment as your heros, don't expect to get even close to their sound. And even if you do have the same equipment they do, your chances of sounding anything like them are slim as you do not have their fingers. So concentrate on developing your own tone and play their songs your way.

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Bill

Nothing you can really do other then listen to the tone your after while playing through the amp. Start with the Treb, Bass & Mids at 6 and adjust them as needed. It's easy to add or remove bass, treb, etc. Pickup selection matters alot, there is a huge tone difference between the bridge, middle and neck pickups. Take your time and have fun seeing what tones you can come up with.

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

Not to burst your bubble but Neil Young (Gibson and Gretsch), Elvis Costello (Jazzmaster) and the Who (mostly Rickenbacker and Gibsons although Pete recently has been using an Eric Clapton sig Strat) would not be associated with Strats and they're sound is very different.

As bluesky636 said, you're better off focus on developing your own sound and style.

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2012 Fender American Standard Stratocaster
2013 Fender Pure Vintage 65 Stratocaster
2003 Gibson ES-355
2015 Gibson Les Paul Traditional
2002 Gretsch Duo Jet
1980 Rickenbacker 360/12 Fireglo
2014 Martin 000X1AE
2014 Fender Blues Junior III

Bluesky has got it, there is no "rule of thumb" for setting your tone, that will come as you go. Then, once you found a tone that you like, you'll probably find something you don't like and tweak it some more. So let me offer my tone setting to get you rolling. The amp I've been using alot lately is a Peavey Delta Blues 115 w/ a Marshall 4x10" ex. cab. I run the amp clean and used various stomps for effects. BASS: 9, MID: 5, TREB: 7. please keep inmind that these knobs dail from 0-12. Happy Jamming!

Even if you have their exact gear you will still sound like you. The best you can do is to lean how they play. So much has been talked about this. Do yourself a favor and try to sound like you.

Thanks, all, for the helpful advice.

I generally set all my amp tone knobs to 6, and usually keep the guitar tone knobs at 10. There's so many factors that go into guitar tone, and IMO the biggest one is your fingers. Especially when I was playing a lot of jazz, I saw several clinics and jam sessions where so-and-so famous jazz player with the instantly-recognizable ES-175, 15 guage-strings, Roland JC-120 sound would get up and play a Parker Fly through a POS Crate combo amp, and guess what - they sounded like themselves! It's crazy, but the more I've played, the more I've realized how much of your tone is directly connected to your fingertips.