Top 5 guitar amps for tracking death metal dist. guitar ?

[Absolute]

I agree with Lugo that the Herbert is a dream of an amp.

But its overkill for death metal. The 5150 is the amp for death metal--always has been. Its on the majority of DM cd's. Some of that is because it inexpensive but the main reason is it has very crisp Low E string. And as you know those DM guys play about 200 low E's in every song. Yes, lack of vision..but coupled with the fact that they stack the guitar tracks on top of eachother you really need a crisp lowend.

Yes some people use Dual Rectos but they have to use a tube screamer to tighten their lowend--essentially robbing the amp of its distinct lowmid woooof.--so whats the point?

But the 5150 and its offshoots are the most middle of the road amp you can buy for rock, You really cant go wrong because it has no particular signature that would make it wrong for a song.

[matthewvandenham]

I just want to say that most of the recommendations have been something like: 'DM isn't really my thing... or I don't really dig brutal chug chug but...'' and then they plug their recommendations. I have been playing hardcore and death metal for about 10 years now and I've owned all kinds of amps--I love brutal music... just to slightly reiterate--DM guitar tone requires a v30 cab and a tube head capable of high natural gain and tight low end with nice 'whomp/thump' and bite. just keep those elements in mind when chosing your rig... a lot of metal heads think that brutal tone is just cranking the gain on your metal zone/boss box or a tube screamer cranked through a loud amp...but you'll just give your audience a headache and be a nightmare to the live sound guy...
you should be able to go from the clean channel to the dirty and it still sounds the same but just gives you nice bite and bigger sustain. stay away from excess fuzz and pedals in general... get your clean channel sounding great and lock that clean tone in your brain when you're adding gain. I don't really see a need for fx pedals in DM because you're so busy riffing like a mad-man and playing so precise and fast that you wouldn't really have the time or add anything cool to the sound.

this is just my personal view on how guitar tone should sound but of course, it's all a matter of opinion. but trust me, I play drums and guitar in brutal sounding bands and I don't want a noisy, excessively loud amp blaring in my ear all jam... you want to find that sweet spot of gain and volume and focus on playing your heart out.

[matthewvandenham]

Originally Posted by Absolute

I agree with Lugo that the Herbert is a dream of an amp.

But its overkill for death metal. The 5150 is the amp for death metal--always has been. Its on the majority of DM cd's. Some of that is because it inexpensive but the main reason is it has very crisp Low E string. And as you know those DM guys play about 200 low E's in every song. Yes, lack of vision..but coupled with the fact that they stack the guitar tracks on top of eachother you really need a crisp lowend.

.

Hardcore, deathcore, metalcore all abuse the open E/D/C/B/A... death metal I would say doesn't really focus too much on the open string.. it's more like classical music where the song structure and chording doesn't really repeat. They do use the open (e) string like any other genre, but not nearly to the same extent as the genres I've listed. don't say they lack vision just because you don't appreciate it... that's like me saying that pop music and blues lack vision because they repeat ideas over and over. (intro/verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/extended chorus/outro)... it's really great music, and just awesome to hear breakdowns and heavy parts live. listen to august burns red for example, they just molest the drop c in every song, but i doubt most musicians on this site could remember the insane rhythms and timing structures they've embedded in a simple breakdown.

there's good and bad music/bands in every genre.

[newlyformedmind]

Soldano SLO or Decatone
How come no one mentioned Laney, or Diezel? Oh and a VHT pitbull or Ultralead

[matthewvandenham]

yeah...soldano's are pretty sick actually... people have mentioned diezel almost every other post... not too sure about laney, haven't heard it live. I was checking out some diezel stuff on youtube and it sounded like crap... even with a lespaul and esp custom it still sounded flat or lifeless to my ears.

[fakiekid]

Originally Posted by matthewvandenham

I just want to say that most of the recommendations have been something like: 'DM isn't really my thing... or I don't really dig brutal chug chug but...'' and then they plug their recommendations. I have been playing hardcore and death metal for about 10 years now and I've owned all kinds of amps--I love brutal music... just to slightly reiterate--DM guitar tone requires a v30 cab and a tube head capable of high natural gain and tight low end with nice 'whomp/thump' and bite. just keep those elements in mind when chosing your rig... a lot of metal heads think that brutal tone is just cranking the gain on your metal zone/boss box or a tube screamer cranked through a loud amp...but you'll just give your audience a headache and be a nightmare to the live sound guy...
you should be able to go from the clean channel to the dirty and it still sounds the same but just gives you nice bite and bigger sustain. stay away from excess fuzz and pedals in general... get your clean channel sounding great and lock that clean tone in your brain when you're adding gain. I don't really see a need for fx pedals in DM because you're so busy riffing like a mad-man and playing so precise and fast that you wouldn't really have the time or add anything cool to the sound.

this is just my personal view on how guitar tone should sound but of course, it's all a matter of opinion. but trust me, I play drums and guitar in brutal sounding bands and I don't want a noisy, excessively loud amp blaring in my ear all jam... you want to find that sweet spot of gain and volume and focus on playing your heart out.

here here mate!

a few amps I've come across that do metal great.

Dual Rec (because I've never had access to a triple yet!)
Randall MTS (the Top Boost is a great lead tone !)
Diezel VH4
Peavey 5150

I would say that its more about layers. Lots of different amps blended together. My fav metal guitar tone is from a Nickelback song Throw Yourself Away and that was done with around 4 amps from fenders to triple recs. So get saving for a Little Labs STD

[Etch-A-Sketch]

All great suggestion so far. I've used the Diezel and Mesa Boogie for metal before. Here's some audio examples so you can hear what they sound like in a musical context.

megatrax + music + cd details

Tracks 1-7, 17, 18, 23-25:
I was the tracking engineer for these songs. We used a Diezel VH4 and a Mesa Boogie Road King II (Dual Rectifier) for heads. Going through a Mesa Rectifier 4x12. On tracks 6 & 7 we also used a Blankenship modded 1970's 100W marshall head through an old 70's Marshall 4x12 and a Mesa Boogie Lonestar Special 1x12 combo amp.

Tracks 8-16, 19-22:
I didn't record these, but the producer told me they used a Randall MTS 100W head with the Treadplate (and I think the XTC and Ultra XL) preamp modules in it, some sort of Mesa Boogie (not sure if it was a Mark IV or a Triple Rectifier), and I believe they also had a Marshall JCM800. They were using a Mesa Rectifier 2x12 cabinet and a Marshall 4x12 cabinet.

You can definitely hear a difference between the two sets of tracks, but both have good guitar sounds. Mics, mic'ing technique, guitar choice, strings and gauge, tuning, etc all come into play as well... But at least this will give you some audible reference to what people are talking about.

I personally loved the Diezel. Very beefy, thick and heavy sounding. The "Deep" knob on it does some sort of bass feedback loop and can really add girth to the "chug" parts. It contrasted very nicely with the Road King. Mesa Dual and Triple Rectifiers are really bright. You can really hear all the definition in the pick attacks, especially with very fast guitar parts. Doubling certain parts with both amps really helped round out the tone. The Diezel on its own might have been a little too dark, the Boogie a little too bright.

[Etch-A-Sketch]

Originally Posted by Absolute

the main reason is it has very crisp Low E string.

In trying to record and emulate a lot of the more well-known metal artists in the different genres within "metal". I gotta mention it is almost impossible to get a really great metal/death metal tone using a standard tuning on a guitar, regardless of the amp you have.

So instead of low E...it's more like Low B or Low A. A friend of mine joined Korn a couple years ago and in talking with him, they use Drop B (stardard C#, but drop the low C# to a B) and Drop A (Standard B, but drop the low B to an A) a lot. This kind of forces you to use thicker strings, 12's or 13's. Which in conjunction with the low tuning and the humbucking (usually active) pickup, it REALLY drives the amp differently than using the same guitar with 9's or 10's with a Standard E tuning.

I had to take my SG, put 12's on it and get it setup for Drop B tuning before I really started getting those heavy+tight "chug" tones.

[Etch-A-Sketch]

Originally Posted by matthewvandenham

yeah...soldano's are pretty sick actually... people have mentioned diezel almost every other post... not too sure about laney, haven't heard it live. I was checking out some diezel stuff on youtube and it sounded like crap... even with a lespaul and esp custom it still sounded flat or lifeless to my ears.

You really can't use Youtube as a judge. The compression ratios they put on the audio are awful.

They are hard to find, but if you can come across one in person, play with it for a little bit. I have a feeling you won't be dissappointed. Also realize that Diezel makes 4 or 5 different amps/lines. The ones for Metal are the Herbert and the VH4. They have a couple others (Einstein, Schmidt, Lucy) that are designed to do different things, like a more bluesy tone or classic rock crunch, etc... And each amp has it's own unique features that shape the sound too. For example the Herbert has a "Mid Cut" feature, while the VH4 has a "Deep" feature. Each does different things to the tone and therefore can make the amps drastically different from one another. So for metal, definitely try to check out the Herbert or VH4.

[matthewvandenham]

Originally Posted by Etch-A-Sketch

You really can't use Youtube as a judge. The compression ratios they put on the audio are awful.

They are hard to find, but if you can come across one in person, play with it for a little bit. I have a feeling you won't be dissappointed. Also realize that Diezel makes 4 or 5 different amps/lines. The ones for Metal are the Herbert and the VH4. They have a couple others (Einstein, Schmidt, Lucy) that are designed to do different things, like a more bluesy tone or classic rock crunch, etc... And each amp has it's own unique features that shape the sound too. For example the Herbert has a "Mid Cut" feature, while the VH4 has a "Deep" feature. Each does different things to the tone and therefore can make the amps drastically different from one another. So for metal, definitely try to check out the Herbert or VH4.

yeah I mentioned in a previous post that youtube videos aren't the best judge of course, but you can pick up the general sound of the amp after a dozen or so videos from different players. listen to how nice the orange rockerverb sounds and it's not like that guy was using anything special... you can clearly hear the popping and crackle from the crappy web cam mic, but you can also hear the massive swoop and fat bottom end and smooth highs.
diezel sounds like the EVH 5150 3... too loud, too much compression and sounds lifeless to me. it does sound sick at first glance, but when you start messing around with chords and clean channel it shows it's true colours. I've tried out a few DH's and my friend who works at that particular shop has owned one, and he said it wasn't the tone he liked and it was hard to find it every time you turned it on... similar to line 6... i believe he has a soldano avenger now, and he says it can do country to death metal and it sounds good on ANY setting.

so to summarize, my choice of amps for death and general versitility are:
1.) orange 50w rockerverb (almost a tie)
1.5.) mesa single rectifier
2.) soldano avenger
3.) engl powerball
4.) 5150, 5150 2, 6505+ evh and diezel herbert.

loudness is really easily attained... what I'm looking for thick tone with out the headache. you could play an orange amp on 1 or 2 and the tone would cut through better than a line6 spider-3 on level 9 or 10. even the 15w tiny terror could tear up most 'heavy' amps like the fender metalhead in terms of tone and ability to cut through on the mix.

[LewisWu]

a high gain tube amp is a good start..

i like using a noise gate -> compressor -> another noise gate..

set properly you can get those punishing machine gun staccato riffs to translate pretty easily..

a solid state rectifier in the power amp helps tame the low end.. and by tame, i mean keeps it in the yard

[toledo3]

I just make sure that I have one amp that is something small, solid state, and driven into total raging distortion. I actually use a fender amp from the 80's with a 8 or 10 inch speaker most often for that.

Then, I get a D.I for running through stuff like line 6/amp farm/whatever.

... and finally, I record whatever the player's actual rig is.

Now, if I had to have my pick I would have around a

-Triple Rectifier
-Soldano 50w from the 90's
-JCM 800 w/extra tube gainstage preamp mod
-A Pignose.
-A Little Smokey

... and the methodology would be to stack with with different amps on successive passes. You use the small ones to add "fry", set one of them a bit cleaner and to emphasize pick attack, and maybe another with some blaring low end. Millions of variations on this idea.

"Memories.... at the corner of my miiiiinddddd....."

All of a sudden, I'm picturing the Cookie Monster fronting a metal band. Why not?

[Daniel Pampuri]

5150

[Demonslave]

Yeah the amp has a lot to do with it, but you'll never get that thick crunch-y crunch without
A. A 1073
B. Tape (Only two takes for Rhythm....... no really, not like the 4-6 you need in PT for any ballz)

[Etch-A-Sketch]

Originally Posted by Demonslave

Yeah the amp has a lot to do with it, but you'll never get that thick crunch-y crunch without
A. A 1073
B. Tape (Only two takes for Rhythm....... no really, not like the 4-6 you need in PT for any ballz)

LOL... to each his own I guess.

[Harvey Gerst]

Another option:

aov.mp3

Left guitar: recorded with a Marshall 100 watt head into a Marshall 1960 with four Celestion Greenbacks.

Right guitar: recorded into same Marshall 1960, driven by a Fender Frontman15 watt amp.

Shure SM57 on both, and recorded straight into the board, set flat.

[Proggm]

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/458576/PG...20-%20Sold.mp3

EMG 81 > Maxon Tubescreamer OD9 > MXR EQ6 > Soldano X88R > Furman PQ4 > Mesa Boogie 2:90 > Mesa Boogie Stilleto 4x12 > SM57 > Chandler TG-2

; ) but adding the Tubescreamer OD9 (tone maxed out) or the MXR EQ6 (inverted V eq shape) to a dual rectifier will get you into the ballpark.

[matthewvandenham]

Originally Posted by Demonslave

Yeah the amp has a lot to do with it, but you'll never get that thick crunch-y crunch without
A. A 1073
B. Tape (Only two takes for Rhythm....... no really, not like the 4-6 you need in PT for any ballz)

never heard of a 1073... who makes that? I agree, tape is the way to go for thick crunchy guitar tone.

[matthewvandenham]

Originally Posted by Proggm

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/458576/PG...20-%20Sold.mp3

EMG 81 > Maxon Tubescreamer OD9 > MXR EQ6 > Soldano X88R > Furman PQ4 > Mesa Boogie 2:90 > Mesa Boogie Stilleto 4x12 > SM57 > Chandler TG-2

; ) but adding the Tubescreamer OD9 (tone maxed out) or the MXR EQ6 (inverted V eq shape) to a dual rectifier will get you into the ballpark.

nice work!
the mid /high range guitar tone sounds really great but i think the lows are cluttered and a tad muffled. there's either either too many tracks or the amp had a touch too much bass when originally recorded. pretty sick sustsain and chainsaw...i like it.

[matthewvandenham]

Originally Posted by Harvey Gerst

Another option:

aov.mp3

Left guitar: recorded with a Marshall 100 watt head into a Marshall 1960 with four Celestion Greenbacks.

Right guitar: recorded into same Marshall 1960, driven by a Fender Frontman15 watt amp.

Shure SM57 on both, and recorded straight into the board, set flat.

pretty sweet recordings however I feel that there's too much bass guitar in the mix... and the guitar tone is typical marshall crunch...
record with a mesa single or orange rockerverb (stack) next time!

[Etch-A-Sketch]

Originally Posted by matthewvandenham

never heard of a 1073... who makes that?

Exactly!!! That's why I laughed. It really doesn't have that much to do with guitar tone. It's the most well known preamp and EQ module from the old (vintage) Neve 80 series consoles. Neve recently started reissuing them because of the popularity of the vintage ones.

A vintage one sells for around $6000 or $7000 and the reissues are around $4000.

And in my experience, the mic preamp is probably one of the least significant factors in a guitar tone (the recording medium is right there with it too on that least significant list). I've A/B'd a vintage 1073 against a millennia HV3 and an aphex 1100... Nobody could tell the difference, including me! For certain instruments and microphones the preamp can make an impact on the sound, but heavily distorted guitar really isn't one of them. The tuning, guitar amp and speaker cab are about 90-95% of the sound. Swapping mic preamps or debating tape vs daw is just splitting hairs at that point.

[matthewvandenham]

Originally Posted by NickH

I am intrigued that no one has mentioned the Marshall Mode 4…

Maybe I am the only one that likes them.

sounds like shit...that's why nobody's mentioned them... same category as the fender metalhead.

[matthewvandenham]

Originally Posted by bgrotto

And don't forget old tubey combo amps. Those can work miracles on a metal session. Just don't let the guitar player see what you're setting up...

yeah man! combo's rule... they sound amazing on recordings. especially if you can get a single 15" speaker or a 2x10. I think my next amp will be a combo... great for recordings, practicing in my apartment and i can rig it up to an external 4x12..also, I've read that combo amps tend to pump the speaker(s) harder. I think the tighter speaker casing/box helps tighten up your tone and especially the low end.

[matthewvandenham]

Originally Posted by keithrt99

sneap used a krank rev1 and a boogie dual rec on TGE.


Peavey 5150
Mesa dual/triple recto
Engl Savage/powerball/blackmore
Framus Cobra

awesome recordings! \m/

[Harvey Gerst]

Originally Posted by matthewvandenham

pretty sweet recordings however I feel that there's too much bass guitar in the mix... and the guitar tone is typical marshall crunch...
record with a mesa single or orange rockerverb (stack) next time!!

OK, here are the same guitars, isolated:

Marshall on the left, and the $25 15 Watt Fender Frontman on the right:

Metal Guitars.mp3

[oceantracks]

Originally Posted by matthewvandenham

yeah man! combo's rule... they sound amazing on recordings. especially if you can get a single 15" speaker or a 2x10. I think my next amp will be a combo... great for recordings, practicing in my apartment and i can rig it up to an external 4x12..also, I've read that combo amps tend to pump the speaker(s) harder. I think the tighter speaker casing/box helps tighten up your tone and especially the low end.

Many ways to get there. DEATH mentioned using Randall and Marshall Valvestate amps.....

TH

[matthewvandenham]

Originally Posted by Harvey Gerst

OK, here are the same guitars, isolated:

Marshall on the left, and the $25 15 Watt Fender Frontman on the right:

Metal Guitars.mp3

yeah man...with all due respect, I really don't like the mud in the low end. listen to at the gates-slaughter of the soul. lamb of god, quo vadis, all that remains (singer sucks but the guitars and drums are kickass), .... i think that is sort of aligned with the style of metal guitars your are trying to achieve. YouTube - At The Gates - Blinded By Fear

[Harvey Gerst]

Originally Posted by matthewvandenham

yeah man...with all due respect, I really don't like the mud in the low end. listen to at the gates-slaughter of the soul. lamb of god, quo vadis, all that remains (singer sucks but the guitars and drums are kickass), .... i think that is sort of aligned with the style of metal guitars your are trying to achieve. YouTube - At The Gates - Blinded By Fear

Well, the OP asked about the standard sounds of metal guitars and I was pointing out the kinda standard setup. This was the sound this band wanted.

[matthewvandenham]

alright cool... hey check this out, I just downloaded the making of the slaughter of the soul (i own the rest of their material...and i'll probably buy this one eventually)
it's really cool! they talk about all kinds of techniques they used for recording and achieving that super thick guitar tone.

guitar rig for slaughter of the soul---> 4 sm57's.. 2x10, 2x12 speakers..' peavey supreme 160 head... metalzone pedal cranked...ibanez guitars...b tuning...analog recording and they were extremely militant about perfection of the takes.
trailer

[NoisyNarrowBand]

Originally Posted by matthewvandenham

diezel sounds like the EVH 5150 3... too loud, too much compression and sounds lifeless to me.

man - I don't think you are on the money here. you should try a diezel, preferably a herbert but the vh4 does great things too. on the last two napalm death records all guitars are vh4's. slipknot used the herbert on their last one.

these amps kill and the have plenty of colour, plenty of live in em. I have recorded pretty much any amp mentioned in this thread and I`d take a diezel over them any day. they are the meanest amps out there bout also very, very versatile. way more versatile than a marshall or a 5150 for example.

get yourself one and record it. a 57, a good guitarist and bingo