Best Amp for Heavy Guitar Tone

[crille]

For a brutal metal tone like Killswitch Engage (listen to their album "As Daylight Dies") you should buy a Framus Cobra!
Great amp, and the clean sound is great too.

[CapnMarvel]

Originally Posted by sonic dogg

The old Laney's are extreme in their low-end punch...As well as the small 50 watt Sound City head...this is midrange punch supere....as for a pedal....my guitarist recently went crazed and had all his pedals redone by Keeley......The best I've evr heard...

The Keeley redone Boss Metal Pedal....makes the stock one sound like a toy...

I second the Laney and the Sound City as being excellent amps for gobs of saturation. Also consider an Orange. I don't listen to the bands you've mentioned, but I really doubt a JCM800 is what you are going for, and the combo JCM800 is, oddly, really quite a disappointment tonally even over the head. Lots of people love their Mesa Boogie tones, too (myself excluded, but that's a matter of opinion). I play primarily a 50W Marshall JMP, but that's probably not where you need to head, either.

Maybe consider a Boogie combo in addition to your Mesa Boogie heads. Think James Hetfield tones. Bogner is also wonderful, but quite expensive.

Pedals really aren't where it's at for good, solid metal guitar tones. As was mentioned, you can use them to shape and add variation to your tone, but there's no substitute for good, old fashioned power amp tube saturation IMHO. A clean boost pedal might be a good start to push a tube amp over the edge into saturation. I also generally don't like 'drive' channels on amps, even tube amps (see above re: many Mesa Boogie products)

And, Keely or no, I'd rather gouge out an eyeball than play a Metal Zone pedal again.

[binsys]

Originally Posted by johnjm22

Wow, thanks for all the quick replies everone. One thing I've been wondering is do you guys recomend using any outbourd distortions? Like foot pedals. Or is it better to use the stock distortion of an amp?

Generally I find that stock distortions sound like shit. That would probably be a different story with a really high quality amp though.

I beg to differ with some above regarding pedals not delivering tone for recording. A vintage ProCo Rat or a vintage SansAmp Classic have some of the best tone (through a CLEAN amp channel) I have ever recorded. Both pedals have very versatile adjustments.

Strangely, try those through a Fender '65 Deluxe reissue - you might be surprised at how much 'AC/DC' sound comes out of that at moderate volume...

I have been playing and recording professionally for 40+ years, and I cannot tell a lie...

- h.

[CapnMarvel]

Originally Posted by binsys

I beg to differ with some above regarding pedals not delivering tone for recording. A vintage ProCo Rat or a vintage SansAmp Classic have some of the best tone (through a CLEAN amp channel) I have ever recorded. Both pedals have very versatile adjustments.

Strangely, try those through a Fender '65 Deluxe reissue - you might be surprised at how much 'AC/DC' sound comes out of that at moderate volume...

I have been playing and recording professionally for 40+ years, and I cannot tell a lie...

- h.

Hmm, yeah. I don't really like the results I get from a Rat (vintage or otherwise...my current Rat in the stable is a Beavis Audio FKR that I'm only holding onto because it was custom made for me) through my SF Twin, unlike, say a MXR Distortion III, which I find to be a great mid-heavy dirt pedal. Sansamps do sound good, though.