Best Guitar Pedal For "Heavy Metal" distortion???

[Tops Cut oFF]

Im using a Jet city Head and Cab (tube) that doesnt give me enough gain for Metal. what are some of the best Pedals to get me there?

[BarefootStudios]

Metal Guys love the boss metal distortion pedals.. from what i hear.

[mahler007]

Emma Electronics Reezafratzitz...

[BJosephs]

Tube screamer? If you're looking for a pedal to push a moderate gain amp into a high gain one that's the classic. A cheaper alternative is the Boss OD250.

A good graphic eq pedal can do it too, roll off the lows and boost the mids then crank the gain.

If you want to use your clean channel and get all the OD from the pedal check out the Blackstart HT series. I have the dual and I really dig it.

Brian

[Aeolian]

You don't need as much gain as you think. Most of the time more gain just mushes things out. Makes the notes indistinct. Plus, with all the compression you get from that much gain, every little thing you do with the guitar comes out, often nearly as loud as the parts you wanted.

There's a big difference between playing by ones self and fitting into a live or recorded mix. Less gain will sound just as gainy with the band, only clearer.

[holdmyfinger]

I like my ibanez ts3dx turbo tube screamer. I put a medium distortion setting on my amp, then use the pedal on quite a low setting, 9 o'clock ish on drive (hot mode).

[camerondye]

Metal Muff is the best one I've tried and if you want the super scooped Nu-metal sound the MXR Fullbore Metal pedal is the one to go with. Like somebody already said, throwing a overdrive in front of a distortion pedal (or Amp distortion) works really well also (ala Zakk Wylde).

[jeremy.c.]

Originally Posted by Aeolian

You don't need as much gain as you think. Most of the time more gain just mushes things out. Makes the notes indistinct. Plus, with all the compression you get from that much gain, every little thing you do with the guitar comes out, often nearly as loud as the parts you wanted.

There's a big difference between playing by ones self and fitting into a live or recorded mix. Less gain will sound just as gainy with the band, only clearer.

I find myself giving this advice a lot on the forum. A good mid range push without a more moderate gain setting will sit better. Use feel and composition to make it sound heavy. Reading about Dimebag Darrell's setup back in the days of Pantera is a good instruction on this.

[shatz]

Originally Posted by jeremy.c.

I find myself giving this advice a lot on the forum. A good mid range push without a more moderate gain setting will sit better. Use feel and composition to make it sound heavy. Reading about Dimebag Darrell's setup back in the days of Pantera is a good instruction on this.

Great guitar player! Horrible sounding guitars!
lol

[drumdrum]

If its for recording purposes, just be careful as more often than not extra gain just ends up sounding extra mushy. Your guitars will lose note definition and clarity with too much gain.

A heavy live guitar sound rarely equates to a heavy recording sound. IME its the bass guitar and kick & snare drums that bring the heaviness to a track. Might sound a bit "wimpy" on their own, but often less gain gives a better overall mix.

Anyways, as for pedals, Ibanes TubeScreamer is great for pushing tube amps. Digitechs Bad Monkey pedal is great also. Dont let its low price fool you, it is a very diverse and great sounding pedal.

Anyways best of luck...

[axlepaas]

For me, the Fulltone OCD does the trick. One of my favs for heavy guitar...

kp

[MikeRL]

All of these are great suggestions... especially the one about not using to much gain..

but i would say.. like any piece of gear.. you MUST try out overdrive/distortion pedals. it needs to work with your amp, guitar, and most important, your hands...

i have used plenty of "nice" pedals i didn't like... they didn't work for ME, but they do for others.

[Faderjockey]

Originally Posted by Tops Cut oFF

Im using a Jet city Head and Cab (tube) that doesnt give me enough gain for Metal. what are some of the best Pedals to get me there?

For Metal? Biased here..

But I'll have to say our Dirty Bomb

[4130]

My personal opinion: none. The majority are way too buzzy and thin. For recording and using an existing head/cab I would look into used preamps like Mesa Studio Pre, ADA MP1, Marshall JMP, Rocktron, etc. You can find some of these for less than the cost of boutique pedals. Most preamps will also give you the equalization needed for metal guitar. Best bet would be to run the guitar into pre and out to amp's fx return.

I never found a pedal that could give me the gain and low end chunk that a preamp could give me. Some have come close (HK Warp) but I'd still go the preamp route. Then again, there are tons of pedals out there and I certainly haven't tried them all.

[jeremy.c.]

Originally Posted by shatz

Great guitar player! Horrible sounding guitars!
lol

, well that was kinda my point, he still sounded heavy as hell and he used Randall's. It doesn't take a ton of gain to sound heavy, it's all in the playing and arrangement.

[Faderjockey]

Well I use our B-Custom Super Sport..
I play rock not so much metal..

But the Super Sport has Tone control on the outside.
But the inside has Pres, Mid, Bass, Harmonics, and Note shape control which is nice.
The Note shape can as it's named change the shape of the front of the note.. So it can give a different feeling like a different string gauge.

I will say haven't ever had anyone one call our Barber pedals thin or fizzy/buzzy.

But I have heard plenty over the years that do have that.. But there are a lot of good units out there now a days.

[Whitecat]

Suhr Riot

[ears2thesky]

I used to have a bunch of pedals until I got a Marshall JMP-1. I can't recommend it enough (especially for driving lower-gain amps). I would generally say stay away from the pedals, but the Suhr Riot is amazing! If I was going for the stompbox solution, that would be my choice.

[malaclypse]

I just ordered an Earthquaker Devices Monarch after digging on the demos I've heard. I don't think it does the seething metal distortion thing, but it gets real heavy without much compression.

[Empora]

I too like the OCD and tube screamers etc...

Saying that I would only use these to subtly "push" a great sounding amp. I would never rely solely on a pedal to get my sound (say through a clean channel on an amp). I tend to steer well clear of metalzone type pedals as they try to create the whole sound....

My absolute favourite at the moment I have to say though is the Seymour Duncan pickup booster. I'll get the amp sounding great but with a bit less distortion than I want and just use the PB to push the amp into the right place. Really clean gain, doesn't pollute anything and makes any guitar really punch! Cheap too!

[raycan]

Marshall Jackhammer http://www.guitartoneoverload.com/20...ll-jackhammer/ I run this through to a '76 fender champ and it's the most musical heavy sound you can imagine. Great control over eq and drive with nice creamy mids. And it's built like a tank on top of that.

[audiogeek]

Remember the DOD Grunge?

[Faderjockey]

[malaclypse]

Originally Posted by audiogeek

Remember the DOD Grunge?

lol, i've seen that pedal collecting dust in many a jam room, though i've never actually heard one. does it suck that bad?

[analogexplosions]

Originally Posted by malaclypse

lol, i've seen that pedal collecting dust in many a jam room, though i've never actually heard one. does it suck that bad?

its probably one of the worst pedals i've ever heard.

I use a ProCo Rat in front of a pushed, about to explode amp on a medium-ish gain setting.

[Akoppenheffer]

I'm a fan of a tube screamer in front of a nice high gain amp. I'd start with one of those and see where it gets you with your current amp... If all else fails it's still a killer pedal. See if you can find one second hand.

[EMR Audio]

If you don't mind spending a little more, the Keeley mods (www.robertkeeley.com/) are really nice. I own a tube screamer and MT2 that have his mods on them. Between these and my amps I can get just about everything I want.

[everybody's x]

NONE.

What you're looking for is quad tracking. I bet your head gets plenty gainy

[everybody's x]

wait, let me back up. "Metal" is an ambiguous term anymore

is this a heavy tone to you?

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6977488/crunch.mp3

if so I'll tell you what I did. if not...carry on

back in the thrash days the boss super overdrive was popular, now it's juicing the front end with a tube screamer, but any of it should be pumping up what you already got in the head

[drbob1]

Isn't there a great Slipperman instruction about recording heavy guitars? And it had a lot more to do with mic placement, good amps and many tracks than pushing the amp?