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when you play (if you ever do) in style that requires MEGATONS of gain, KILOBELLS of balls and whole world of EVIL etc - what do you use?
i know some here are metal haters and fuzz lovers, so i feel prepared for the replies

i like stuffs like A Perfect Circle, Tool, Amon Amarth, Machinehead and even one album of P.O.D. and other various pussy-metal artists, and that stuff is hard to play when your amp doesn't have any high gain channel and the only shit you have is a preamp with *some* gain.

so far i only know the epic Boss MT-2 aka ****[[ M3T4L ]]*****-zone. although it is versatile, i don't really like it, mostly because it's pricy and kinda mainstreamish...

what would you guys recommend for one who is in deep longing for becoming TRULY BRUTAL?

I like megatons of gain.

I also like mids.

why ?


lol j/k

fuck i don't know, metal is such a broad term, are you after a tight distortion or a more messy distortion etc, there's sooo many genres..
i still think for this type of distortion you're always gonna be more statisfied with a suited tube amp( what sort of metal distortion you're after) because .. well.. pedals are pedals and the sound changes from amp to amp really.
i've owned a boss metalzone but used it for bass, never liked it on guitar, too 'well lined' and synthetic sounding, i think that's why it works so well for bass, you keep definition and lots of low end.. for guitar.. i'm not a fan.

so yeah.. i don't know what amp you use now but if it doesn't deliver the sound you're after (hi gain distortion for metal right? which isn't THAT HARD to get on a decent tube amp) i'd look into another amp first instead of buying pedals...

I like the Blackstar pedals, I have the dual HT, but I am guessing that the Distortion would do a good job too.
Not really my area as I get my hi-gain from my JVM, so maybe as Kim said, look into the amp first if you can.

Depends what other gear you're using really:

Krank Distortus Maximus
Metalesque lolz in name, product description cites "bone crunching tone", Chuck writes in his review "It makes these really tiny no name crappy amps we have here in iraq sound really killer."

Amon Amarth are worshipped by my friend Tom and he forced me to accept a burned copy of their latest album and I swear you can do that kind of stuff with a scooped Metal Zone and an amp with the bass whacked up, my brother had one when we were growing up. You could always look into the Behringer UM100 Ultra Metal if cost is a concern.

What I'd suggest is an EQ pedal with a dirt pedal you already own, or amp distortion. I don't think of those extreme metal tones as particularly elusive; when you factor in all the processing between the cabinet and the finished recording, I'd think an EQ pedal could get you fairly close with a variety of different base distortion sounds. Metal guitarists don't all use the same gear, after all. Just a lot of them.

tool is quite a tricky tone to try and get. adam jones has a very unique sound, which mainly comes from the amps and guitar that he uses, not really pedals.
les pauls in to a marshall superbass and two dieizel Vh4's. he's normally uses effects as effects, not to get the basis of his tone. that said he does have a coloursound tonebender and a foxx tone machine on his board, along with this lot.

Ibanez Delay
Ibanez Chorus/Flanger
Boss GE-7
Crybaby 535q
Custom made Effects volume pedal
Gig Fx Chopper Pedal
Colorsound Fuzz Pedal(blue)
Foxx Tone Machine
Dunlop Heil Talk Box
2 Boss Power Supplies PSM-5
EB Volume pedal
Micro Amp
BOSS DD-3 (Delay)
BOSS BF-2 (Flanger)
Voodoo Labs Tremolo
DOD EQ
Line 6 DL-4 (Delay)
Moog Taurus II
2 Snarling Dogs foot pedals ( one blue, one yellow)
Boss SYB-5 (Bass Synth)

Huh, that's the second person I've heard of using the DOD eq, the other being Tom Morrello for a lead boost. I wonder if Jones uses it for the same thing. I honestly don't know how they keep from breaking those things, DOD's are too damn fragile for me.

i've never owned a DOD pedal, though i know people who own DOD 250's that are always a little temperamental.

Progrockabuse wrote: les pauls in to a marshall superbass

HEY-O!!!!

super high gain saturated goodness of fucking fuck

straight metal sound, easy to get that stereotipical tone

heavium wrote:why ?


lol j/k

fuck i don't know, metal is such a broad term, are you after a tight distortion or a more messy distortion etc, there's sooo many genres..
i still think for this type of distortion you're always gonna be more statisfied with a suited tube amp( what sort of metal distortion you're after) because .. well.. pedals are pedals and the sound changes from amp to amp really.
i've owned a boss metalzone but used it for bass, never liked it on guitar, too 'well lined' and synthetic sounding, i think that's why it works so well for bass, you keep definition and lots of low end.. for guitar.. i'm not a fan.

so yeah.. i don't know what amp you use now but if it doesn't deliver the sound you're after (hi gain distortion for metal right? which isn't THAT HARD to get on a decent tube amp) i'd look into another amp first instead of buying pedals...

well i'm not really after metal sounds, i just like to mess around occasionally. i have lil' custom-made practice amp in my bedroom which is all-tube but only like 5 watts or something. i really would look into getting a head and 4x10 or 4x12 cab, but i live in a flat and neighbours would call police and shit.. i'm satisfied with clean and crunchy sounds that my amp delivers combined with an external tube preamp, but as i've said - sometimes i like to mess around...

i think i'm after tight, compressed and gate-like distortion. boss metalzone delivers this type of sound well, but i don't like the sound of it at all at low distortion level. and, oh well, i'm just curious if there are any alternatives to this. i've heard boss has new metal pedal now, called metalcore or something like that, but i guess it is more expensive than metalzone.

not sure if you guys will tolerate, but looking at the price of modern pedals (MT-2 costs like 140 USD here..) i'm even more tempted to learn electronics and put soldering iron in my hand... i mean, what the hell.. $140 for metal box with several OPamps/diodes/caps/resistors/pots planted onto PCB which is sticked to the box with tears of children of indonesia? thanks, but no. i could probably do this myself a lot cheaper. sure, this will take very much time, and since i'm noob with this stuff it's gonna be a failure at first.. but hey, i'll have a fun of learning

btw, does danelectro make any high-gain pedal? am i stingy a bit too much?

Haze wrote:

super high gain saturated goodness of fucking fuck

straight metal sound, easy to get that stereotipical tone

thanks, gonna check it out.
at least it looks really cool.

it's great for rythm stuff, not too sure about lead though
but killer for chuggy rythm

well in that case, if you just wanna mess about maybe behringer pedals are interesting too, they're cheap and i used to be biased but now i have a few (for modulation fx though, not fuzzes or distortions) but i'm very statisfied with those. couldn't hurt to try them at a store...

that ehx metal muff is a good idea too but it has no eq shaping knobs so maybe not ideal unless you use an eq pedal or like the sound the way it is through your amp.

I think a big Marshall is probably what you're after. For some reason, in my head, I think that you can't get a proper metal tone without at least 100 watts and a 412 (I know this is a preposterous claim).

The Danelectro FAB Metal pedal is apparently brilliant and very cheap. Or you could check out the Metal and Metal-II pedals from their new Cool Cat range.

That reminds me, ages ago ekwatts said something about wanting to get rid of a Danelectro Black Paisley. I offered to buy it, but I think he ended up giving it away to a band mate.

Must shout him about it, in case he didn't.