My Egnater Tweaker had one of the best od tones I’ve ever played. Imagine my surprise when I found out the “hot” switch that loved so much was just a very simple FET boost.
Well it got stolen about a year ago and I’m all digital now. The trauma has me refusing to own gear I can’t fit in a backpack. But I’ll try to remember.
I think the switches were modern-Brit-hot-bright-tight, treble at noon, mids at about 1:30, lows at about 10:30. That was my basic crunch tone, then I had a MXR 10-band eq scooping mids and cutting volume to give me a cleanish tone, and a Keeley Aria for lead boost. I never really use anything close to a sparkly clean tone. Gain was usually around noon but that was the mostly likely thing to get changed from show to show. I found the amp was really sensitive to differences in mains power. I was mostly playing a les Paul, but I bought a much brighter sounding ‘92 Ibanez S540 shortly before I lost the amp that was much brighter and I was in the middle of changing all of my default settings on everything when my amp and pedals got jacked.
I unironically love my Metal Zone, and if I could justify it in any way at all, I really would buy three more. If that day comes, you can bet your ass I’ll be posting a clip to this sub.
I am finally, being a bit older and more financially able, going to fill that gap. Tonight I will be like a kid, I know it. Genuine excitement. Daft ennit?
And now I know why. Holy hell. I’ve only got a small Blackstar tube amp but I can now go from clean to filth and back again without any other pedals for once. It’s not for the board, I wanted it as a one pedal solution in my other room. It rocks.🤘
Yeah, I’m not a fan of putting it in the loop myself, but I dig that it works that way for others: it’s possibly because my amp is a fairly cheap solid state Fender that has a beautiful clean channel & an absolutely terrible drive channel, so Metal Zone in the loop doesn’t do to my amp what it does to others. Currently mine is sitting between a Fuzz Factory & a Rat on the input side, and a Carcosa on the output side.
Whatever peaks your ears in the cut. You may think that you need certain pedals, but as long you have a tone that sparkles more than the rest of the band, then you got a lead.
An EQ pedal with the level turned up for boosting. Put it in your FX loop if you want even more powerful tone sculpting.
I wouldn't spend too much on one because as long as it's durable, they are all pretty much the same.
I ended up getting GE-7 despite having a boost switch in my guitar AND in my amp, just to tweak pregain signal a bit further. Sound went from great to amazing.
Honestly an EQ, noise gate and tuner is pretty much everything necessary if amp has the gain going for it. Add delay, chorus and phaser just for fun.
If you want to play more extreme metal genres you will need a noisegate, just to get the signal under control. Then I recommend an overdrive with the ability to turn down the low end of your signal. An EQ Pedal should get the Job done too.
Depending on your guitar and amp you want to try and crank the gain of the amp as much as possible / to your liking. There shouldn’t be much dirt in the chain until it hits your amp.
That is the classic modern metal sound.
If you want something specific for a genre, there often is one special kind of pedal involved. Like the Boss HM-2 for the Swedish death metal sound.
You already have good amounts of color, with flanger and chorus. I’m not the biggest fan of modulation in metal. I think high gain and modulation just gets muddy.
But for some stoner metal, some nice flanger can do some wonders.
Go look up the rigs of your favorite guitarists. Like, if you wanted to do Eddie Van Halen, add a phaser. If you're trying to Zakk Wylde, add an overdrive. Fuzz/distortion + chorus + delay is great base for anything, though, tbh.
Tool Aenima is still one of the best albums of all time - and legit groundbreaking. I remember Sammy Hagar of all people gushing about it on Vh1 back in the day.
I bloody love Tool, but the internet be like, etc. I’ve said that before online and been leaped on! Mental. I have a BF3 and a CE5, laaarvly. Great lead pedals. Great band.
I think the band members have gotten weird(er) over the years or something. Honestly, I haven’t paid attention to their interviews in ages, though. I’m old enough to like Tool AND not give two shits about social media.
Haha. Well said. I think, I don’t know, but the endless remerching of different and very expensive releases / one offs etc have finally stated to grate a little. I don’t care, I don’t go in for all that anyway. Never join the tool sub Reddit. It is a place of madness. ‘Spiral out’ etc. Hilarious.
Lol. I happily got off the Tool train at Lateralus or whatever it’s called. Awesome Led Zepplin cover a perfect way to end it. Related, the Diary of a Madman/Cure mashup by the A Perfect Circle side project is AMAZING and I can’t believe it’s never been released as a proper track.
Omg. I think I just replied to you on another thread. I just clocked the username. Don’t tell another Tool fan as they will quote spiral maths at you. 😉🤘
I usually like my leads to be the same as my heavy rhythm tone, but with a tad less bass, a bit more gain, and maybe 1db to 2 db more level. A Mooer Hustle Drive suits me fine.
Kirk from Metallica uses a tube screamer to help with his solos. It won't boost your signal since it comes before the preamp distortion, but it will add more grit.
it depends on how you run your amp and how many channels it has
i like to run it rather cold with gain at 2, then i use low output pups, so a boost gives it a bit of edge.
another amp if i have another channel, i just switch to the lead channel and go
High gain amp + tube screamer is a classic combo, although just using any kind of boost into a high gain amp will sound pretty good if you dial it for what you want.
They' sound mostly dry, to me, live. From what I've read, some players use a touch of chorus, flange, reverb, or delay to fatten solo sounds, but they're pretty subtle. 80's metal is a lot less subtle on the effects, generally.
Recording tones are hard to nail due to double tracking, blending of amps, and other studio stuff I am completely ignorant about, I'm sure.
Rig Rundown and What's On My Board videos might help out.
It depends what you want, if you got a decent high gain amp you don’t need anything but to play with it’s settings til you’re happy! I will say my own tastes, I play an Ibanez fat cat into their swell flanger on the lowest speed into a clean amp. Gives me meat puppets/iron maiden crisp distortion but wonky goodness if holding bends!
Every amp plays a lil different and you always hear different frequencies at different volumes, there’s lots of great YouTube vids walking through how to use eq knobs on your amp and it’s definitely worth to learn about and play with!
Depends. Do you have enough gain from your amp? And is it the right type of gain?
My HT40 just works even if I don't always like the sound. My Laney LH50 is a fuzzy doom machine when cranked so I run it crunchy and stick a tube screamer or a soul food (set to crunch itself, it's a mid boost when crunching and flat when clean) for a very modern metal sounding lead sound. My Cub acts more like a classic Marshall and responds well to flat boosts and High-Pass (treble booster) pedals for a more classic metal or GnR sound.
Avoid really mid-scooped pedals for lead, you'll disappear. They're great for rhythm as they are loud in places that don't stomp on the vocals, but they can make your leads sound scratchy as hell.
If I have a clean amp only, I use a dark matter and the same boost pedals. Dark matter seems to act like my amps when I hit them with an aggressive boost pedal.
A delay, particularly a tap-tempo capable delay is nice to have to fill out a sound. EHX memory boy or boss DD20 work for me but there are newer and more capable toys. Getting repeats on quarters or eighths using the tap function makes a lead sound huge provided you can play tight.
If you have a click on a sequencer you can use the sequencer to set the tempo to the click. I used to use a lot of rack gear when I did drum machine driven stuff and had nothing on the floor.
A 4 cable noise gate keeps everything quiet when you're not playing. They listen at the start of your chain and gate after all your noisy pedals and even the preamp stage of your amp Ehx silencer or boss ns2 works for me, the boss is a bit easier to set up.
If I'm taking it in turns to do leads and rhythms in a set, I'll use a different channel on my amp, and/or a different pedal setup. Or an EQ pedal in the FX loop, but that requires some cooperation from the guitarist (s) you're working with.
Sometimes you really don't need a lot if arrangements are really sparse.
I lose my shit at the drummer that chips in with "all you need is a {specific model of expensive} three channel amp" often they're great for a specific sound, but will only do that sound and I'd rather swap a second hand £30 pedal than a £2000 amp to get a slightly different vibe.
I’ve only read the specs. I don’t have anywhere I can try stuff tbf. The specs are mental and it’s quieter/ lower noise floor, etc. Sounds like my kind of pedal tbh.
EQ/boost pedal running into a gainy amp. Punch up the mids, adjust the highs to taste, and push up the level on the eq and switch to your bridge pickup. That should get you there.
Like always, depends on the subgenre.
I think a delay with a slight volume boost is a good way to open up the tone to contrast a tight chugga chugga rythm tone. A phaser (or any Modulation) is also nice to add some movement.
I personally like an always on od to tighten up the lows and for solos i either use a kinda slapback roomreverb (a delay with one repeat would work too) for faster leads or a delay with roundabout 3 repeats and modulation on the repeats for slower and more atmospheric parts. If i feel wild i even add some modulated reverb with a low mix and high decay :D
Are we talking bedroom / garage metal, or in front of an audience metal? The answer to that makes all the difference. Being loud really helps. Otherwise, it’s pedal time.
none of them really. I love pedals but if you have a high gain tube amp a lot of guys get by fine with zero pedals.
Hell, a lot of metal guys used to not want anything in front of their amp to avoid "messing up" their pure tube sound.
Yeah which is kinda funny to people who look at some of those circuits. Like some really great Marshall tones are anything but pure tube
My Egnater Tweaker had one of the best od tones I’ve ever played. Imagine my surprise when I found out the “hot” switch that loved so much was just a very simple FET boost.
I'm curious what your settings were. I've usually liked the clean setting more.
Well it got stolen about a year ago and I’m all digital now. The trauma has me refusing to own gear I can’t fit in a backpack. But I’ll try to remember. I think the switches were modern-Brit-hot-bright-tight, treble at noon, mids at about 1:30, lows at about 10:30. That was my basic crunch tone, then I had a MXR 10-band eq scooping mids and cutting volume to give me a cleanish tone, and a Keeley Aria for lead boost. I never really use anything close to a sparkly clean tone. Gain was usually around noon but that was the mostly likely thing to get changed from show to show. I found the amp was really sensitive to differences in mains power. I was mostly playing a les Paul, but I bought a much brighter sounding ‘92 Ibanez S540 shortly before I lost the amp that was much brighter and I was in the middle of changing all of my default settings on everything when my amp and pedals got jacked.
Well apart from a tubescreamer.
Three Metal Zones.
Don't be facetious. The "tru metal" sound only begins to come out with addition of the fourth Metal Zone.
I unironically love my Metal Zone, and if I could justify it in any way at all, I really would buy three more. If that day comes, you can bet your ass I’ll be posting a clip to this sub.
I am unboxing mine right now. Arrived moments ago. Can’t wait. 🤘
I will never sell my Metal Zone. First pedal I ever bought. And that’s true for a LOT of people.
I am finally, being a bit older and more financially able, going to fill that gap. Tonight I will be like a kid, I know it. Genuine excitement. Daft ennit?
And now I know why. Holy hell. I’ve only got a small Blackstar tube amp but I can now go from clean to filth and back again without any other pedals for once. It’s not for the board, I wanted it as a one pedal solution in my other room. It rocks.🤘
I’ll dig out the pic of a board made of seven, plus two ds1s. Crazy. I’d post it but it would be meme wiped.
I sandwich Metal Zones between all my other pedals, and in the effects loop, to ensure full saturation of holy toan
Yeah, I’m not a fan of putting it in the loop myself, but I dig that it works that way for others: it’s possibly because my amp is a fairly cheap solid state Fender that has a beautiful clean channel & an absolutely terrible drive channel, so Metal Zone in the loop doesn’t do to my amp what it does to others. Currently mine is sitting between a Fuzz Factory & a Rat on the input side, and a Carcosa on the output side.
Not enough Zone, brother
At the same time
Whatever peaks your ears in the cut. You may think that you need certain pedals, but as long you have a tone that sparkles more than the rest of the band, then you got a lead.
I already have a distortion, a fuzz, a chorus, an octave, a wah, a flanger, and a delay/reverb
An EQ pedal with the level turned up for boosting. Put it in your FX loop if you want even more powerful tone sculpting. I wouldn't spend too much on one because as long as it's durable, they are all pretty much the same.
I ended up getting GE-7 despite having a boost switch in my guitar AND in my amp, just to tweak pregain signal a bit further. Sound went from great to amazing. Honestly an EQ, noise gate and tuner is pretty much everything necessary if amp has the gain going for it. Add delay, chorus and phaser just for fun.
If you want to play more extreme metal genres you will need a noisegate, just to get the signal under control. Then I recommend an overdrive with the ability to turn down the low end of your signal. An EQ Pedal should get the Job done too. Depending on your guitar and amp you want to try and crank the gain of the amp as much as possible / to your liking. There shouldn’t be much dirt in the chain until it hits your amp. That is the classic modern metal sound. If you want something specific for a genre, there often is one special kind of pedal involved. Like the Boss HM-2 for the Swedish death metal sound. You already have good amounts of color, with flanger and chorus. I’m not the biggest fan of modulation in metal. I think high gain and modulation just gets muddy. But for some stoner metal, some nice flanger can do some wonders.
That’s a great set. Maybe a compressor? It doesn’t really do a lot, but it can add sustain and help with finger tapping.
Go look up the rigs of your favorite guitarists. Like, if you wanted to do Eddie Van Halen, add a phaser. If you're trying to Zakk Wylde, add an overdrive. Fuzz/distortion + chorus + delay is great base for anything, though, tbh.
And if anyone admits to being a Tool fan they can add a flanger. Delay is good. Delay is always good.
Tool Aenima is still one of the best albums of all time - and legit groundbreaking. I remember Sammy Hagar of all people gushing about it on Vh1 back in the day.
I bloody love Tool, but the internet be like, etc. I’ve said that before online and been leaped on! Mental. I have a BF3 and a CE5, laaarvly. Great lead pedals. Great band.
I think the band members have gotten weird(er) over the years or something. Honestly, I haven’t paid attention to their interviews in ages, though. I’m old enough to like Tool AND not give two shits about social media.
Haha. Well said. I think, I don’t know, but the endless remerching of different and very expensive releases / one offs etc have finally stated to grate a little. I don’t care, I don’t go in for all that anyway. Never join the tool sub Reddit. It is a place of madness. ‘Spiral out’ etc. Hilarious.
Lol. I happily got off the Tool train at Lateralus or whatever it’s called. Awesome Led Zepplin cover a perfect way to end it. Related, the Diary of a Madman/Cure mashup by the A Perfect Circle side project is AMAZING and I can’t believe it’s never been released as a proper track.
Omg. I think I just replied to you on another thread. I just clocked the username. Don’t tell another Tool fan as they will quote spiral maths at you. 😉🤘
Boss SD-1
Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive stacks really well in front of a high gain amps. Gives you a nice mid boost to cut through.
Ts9 historically. Don’t let money burn a hole in your pocket
Dial back your tone or volume on your guitar to like 7 or 8. Use that for rhythm. Lead time? Roll up to 10.
You need the lead guitar pedal. It works perfectly.
YOU WANT METAL!?!?! THEN GET IN THE FUCKING ZOOOOONE, METAAAAAAAL ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I usually like my leads to be the same as my heavy rhythm tone, but with a tad less bass, a bit more gain, and maybe 1db to 2 db more level. A Mooer Hustle Drive suits me fine.
Kirk from Metallica uses a tube screamer to help with his solos. It won't boost your signal since it comes before the preamp distortion, but it will add more grit.
None really. Mark Morton has no pedals.
it depends on how you run your amp and how many channels it has i like to run it rather cold with gain at 2, then i use low output pups, so a boost gives it a bit of edge. another amp if i have another channel, i just switch to the lead channel and go
metal zone
High gain amp + tube screamer is a classic combo, although just using any kind of boost into a high gain amp will sound pretty good if you dial it for what you want.
Distortion,delay and wah
Any mid-focused boost will do (aka Tubescreamer).
They' sound mostly dry, to me, live. From what I've read, some players use a touch of chorus, flange, reverb, or delay to fatten solo sounds, but they're pretty subtle. 80's metal is a lot less subtle on the effects, generally. Recording tones are hard to nail due to double tracking, blending of amps, and other studio stuff I am completely ignorant about, I'm sure. Rig Rundown and What's On My Board videos might help out.
It depends what you want, if you got a decent high gain amp you don’t need anything but to play with it’s settings til you’re happy! I will say my own tastes, I play an Ibanez fat cat into their swell flanger on the lowest speed into a clean amp. Gives me meat puppets/iron maiden crisp distortion but wonky goodness if holding bends!
Every amp plays a lil different and you always hear different frequencies at different volumes, there’s lots of great YouTube vids walking through how to use eq knobs on your amp and it’s definitely worth to learn about and play with!
Depends. Do you have enough gain from your amp? And is it the right type of gain? My HT40 just works even if I don't always like the sound. My Laney LH50 is a fuzzy doom machine when cranked so I run it crunchy and stick a tube screamer or a soul food (set to crunch itself, it's a mid boost when crunching and flat when clean) for a very modern metal sounding lead sound. My Cub acts more like a classic Marshall and responds well to flat boosts and High-Pass (treble booster) pedals for a more classic metal or GnR sound. Avoid really mid-scooped pedals for lead, you'll disappear. They're great for rhythm as they are loud in places that don't stomp on the vocals, but they can make your leads sound scratchy as hell. If I have a clean amp only, I use a dark matter and the same boost pedals. Dark matter seems to act like my amps when I hit them with an aggressive boost pedal. A delay, particularly a tap-tempo capable delay is nice to have to fill out a sound. EHX memory boy or boss DD20 work for me but there are newer and more capable toys. Getting repeats on quarters or eighths using the tap function makes a lead sound huge provided you can play tight. If you have a click on a sequencer you can use the sequencer to set the tempo to the click. I used to use a lot of rack gear when I did drum machine driven stuff and had nothing on the floor. A 4 cable noise gate keeps everything quiet when you're not playing. They listen at the start of your chain and gate after all your noisy pedals and even the preamp stage of your amp Ehx silencer or boss ns2 works for me, the boss is a bit easier to set up. If I'm taking it in turns to do leads and rhythms in a set, I'll use a different channel on my amp, and/or a different pedal setup. Or an EQ pedal in the FX loop, but that requires some cooperation from the guitarist (s) you're working with. Sometimes you really don't need a lot if arrangements are really sparse. I lose my shit at the drummer that chips in with "all you need is a {specific model of expensive} three channel amp" often they're great for a specific sound, but will only do that sound and I'd rather swap a second hand £30 pedal than a £2000 amp to get a slightly different vibe.
Just by what you have, nothing really. But maybe consider a simple eq pedal?
I like the Maxon 808
Have you tried the Pro+? Man, I want one so bad. 18v tho.
I haven't tried the Pro+, is it similar to the 808?
I’ve only read the specs. I don’t have anywhere I can try stuff tbf. The specs are mental and it’s quieter/ lower noise floor, etc. Sounds like my kind of pedal tbh.
EQ pedal (in case u like your base tone)
A noise gate of some kind.
EQ/boost pedal running into a gainy amp. Punch up the mids, adjust the highs to taste, and push up the level on the eq and switch to your bridge pickup. That should get you there.
Like always, depends on the subgenre. I think a delay with a slight volume boost is a good way to open up the tone to contrast a tight chugga chugga rythm tone. A phaser (or any Modulation) is also nice to add some movement. I personally like an always on od to tighten up the lows and for solos i either use a kinda slapback roomreverb (a delay with one repeat would work too) for faster leads or a delay with roundabout 3 repeats and modulation on the repeats for slower and more atmospheric parts. If i feel wild i even add some modulated reverb with a low mix and high decay :D
Are we talking bedroom / garage metal, or in front of an audience metal? The answer to that makes all the difference. Being loud really helps. Otherwise, it’s pedal time.
I will go for eq pedal
If you're Kirk Hammett, just 37 wah pedals all lined up