Distortion for metal

[schenr]

Hey guys I've been doing a lot of pondering and have decided to sell my boss mt2 (metal zone) and buy a hardwire metal distortion. I guess the mt2 just doesn't cut it for me, and the hardwire gets good reviews and the demos sound good (I know that's notthe best indication of how it sounds).
Any comments on the hardwire?
Also, has anyone tried the biyang metal end king? It's about $100 aus on eBay and it seems to be good but there's not much info on it.
Cheers

[tomjackson]

Not much help really but I've got the hardwire Reverb pedal and it is great.  I've tried their overdrive pedal and really liked that too.  They are a really good range of pedals, very solid.

[LazyNinja]

Get a decent tube amp and boost it with a Tube Screamer/Clean boost/Treble boost. Metal guys love the Maxon OD808.

[HTH AMPS]

The Hardwire Metal pedal does seem to cover all metal bases from what I've heard.  Here's how it sounds... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGwc0MY3lM8

[Mr. Air]

Maybe an Emma Electronics "PisdiYAUwot" pedal could suit you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awo1dFERMQY&feature=related

[Roobubba]

Get a decent tube amp and boost it with a Tube Screamer/Clean boost/Treble boost. Metal guys love the Maxon OD808.

I did this after having used distortion pedals/effects for metal for years. I'm so much happier with the sound now that the only things between my strings and the speakers are: BKPs, van damme cables, Bodenhamer bloody murder (tube screamer type), Peavey 5150-II and ISP decimator prorackG (noise gate-type).

Keep it simple, and the sound is just so much NICER! I get a fat, beefy tone with more gain than even I need and a low noise floor.
There's something so grating to me now when I hear guitarists using cheap 'metal' distortion effects rather than the gain stages of a high gain amp.

Maybe I'm just a snob now :(

Roo

[schenr]

Not much help really but I've got the hardwire Reverb pedal and it is great.  I've tried their overdrive pedal and really liked that too.  They are a really good range of pedals, very solid.

Yeah I've owned the hardwire valve distortion which was very impressive (which is why I'm leaning towards the metal distortion), but I have the MI audio tubezone and crunchbox which I can get the same and more sounds out of.

Get a decent tube amp and boost it with a Tube Screamer/Clean boost/Treble boost. Metal guys love the Maxon OD808.

I bought myself a new fender hotrod deluxe (wine red version) just last year, so I'd be very reluctant to get another one (not saying I wouldnt love to get something better tho). And I'm using the pedals through the clean channel (the distortion is pretty cr@ppy on the amp), and as mentioned before i have the mi audio pedals, but want something a bit more "metal" (for lack of a better word), and better than the metal zone (which i bought for $25 aud off a mate who thought there was no market for 2nd hand pedals).

Maybe an Emma Electronics "PisdiYAUwot" pedal could suit you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awo1dFERMQY&feature=related

looks good, but very expensive, way over my budget...


Nothing on the biyang pedal though?

[Denim n Leather]

A couple of pedals that might work for you:

Electro-Harmonix Big Muff.

Homebrew Electronics Full Metal Jacket.

[Copperhead]

My fav is the Distortus Maximus.

[LazyNinja]

Get a decent tube amp and boost it with a Tube Screamer/Clean boost/Treble boost. Metal guys love the Maxon OD808.

I bought myself a new fender hotrod deluxe (wine red version) just last year, so I'd be very reluctant to get another one (not saying I wouldnt love to get something better tho). And I'm using the pedals through the clean channel (the distortion is pretty cr@ppy on the amp), and as mentioned before i have the mi audio pedals, but want something a bit more "metal" (for lack of a better word), and better than the metal zone (which i bought for $25 aud off a mate who thought there was no market for 2nd hand pedals).

Ah ok. I had the same amp years ago and I used to play a Keeley Modded MT2 through it. We used to play stuff like Avenged Sevenfold and Trivium :lol: Sounded pretty decent. It can get stupidly tight and aggressive. Since you already have an MT2 that might be a nice cheap option?

[schenr]

 I had the same amp years ago

Did you do any mods to the amp itself? I've been looking into getting JJ 6V6s for the power tubes and some high gain preamp tubes to improve the cr@ppy o/d channel and make the amp break up a bit earlier (it also lowers the wattage to about 28W instead of 40).

And i've been doing a lot more tweaking with my mt2 and the tubezone and i get a much fatter sound out of it which seems to be doing it for me now, so i may just keep the mt2....who knows.

Also, my new bkp cold sweats have just arrived so i think i'm going to have to redecide what i do once theyve been installed and see how i go.

A couple of pedals that might work for you:

Electro-Harmonix Big Muff.

Homebrew Electronics Full Metal Jacket.

I looked into the eh big muff a while ago, but it didnt really cut it, but the HE FMJ, that is one nice sounding pedal, but a bit over my budget though...maybe in the future.

[_tom_]

MI Audio Tube Zone? Quite expensive though but I've heard it gets a good Mesa Boogie sound if that interests you at all.

[LazyNinja]

No, I did not do any mods to the amp. I mainly ran pedals through the clean channel.

I wouldn't recommend using high gain tubes to improve the OD channel. That OD channel just isn't going to do metal by itself. High gain tubes amplifies your input signal more but doesn't dramatically change the distortion characteristics of the amp. It's the preamp that does most of the sound shaping. If you're sticking with the amp, I think you're doing the right thing in looking for a distortion pedal.

If anything, I'd say put a low gain preamp tube in V1 so you have more headroom so that your pedal's input signal doesn't overload the amp input.

You have a tube zone? Is that not working out for you then?

What's your budget anyways?

Keeley MT2 can get that tight aggressive thing really well. Great string separation. Great for thrash but not that great for smooth recto nu-metal distortion.

I just won a Zoom Tri-metal on ebay (cos it was cheap) and I've been impressed by the Zoom analogue pedals in the past so I'm holding high hopes for this when it arrives.


EHX Big Muff is a muffled buzzy POS imo but the new Big Muff with Tone Wicker is meant to bypass the tone stack so you get more presence in sound which the BM badly needs. So it may be worth checking out.

Blackstar DistX might be good too.

Wampler/Emma/Tech 21/Catalinbread etc etc lots of boutique makers make high gain pedals but I have a feeling they're outside your budget.

Good luck with your search :)

[Denim n Leather]

EHX Big Muff is made of win.

Fixed!

[LazyNinja]

 :lol:

I don't know I just can't ever get them to work for me. You switch that thing on and you instantly dissappear from the room. They're ok with single coils but with humbuckers I really dislike them. Just my opinion of course.