Help getting good metal tone

[b0ng0]

Mmm, perhaps 'tone' is the wrong word. Basically i'm a bit of a noob with EQ and stuff like that. Even when I spend ages playing around with settings i'm never ENTIRELY sure what sound I will get (except the obvious ones such as all bass and no treble  :roll: ).

Anyway, I was wondering what could produce a nice 'clean' metal sound. By that I mean when I play I don't want an over saturated sound, but still a nice distorted sound. This is harder to explain than I thought :x

Anyway, I have a marshall MGDFX (or similar name, I can't remember the exact letters) and a Line6 Uber Metal pedal. I was wondering if I could get some pointers as to how much bass, treble, mids there should be to get a good metal sound, also, how much mids should be scooped (in my experience I usually end up making my guitar sound like a buzzsaw :p).

Also, if I am running my guitar through my pedal, is it best to have the EQ on my amp all at roughly the same value so when I change the settings on the pedal i'm getting what I see so to speak.

Thanks for any help, sorry for the vague-ishness it's very early and i'm still not quite awake  :)

[_tom_]

Well whenever I've tried scooping mids I always disliked the tone, so I'd try keeping the mids high-ish (also helps cut through in a band). I've never played the gear you have though, but thats my "advice" on mids..

[b0ng0]

The main type of sound I want is a tight distorted sound, but I'm just never sure what to set my EQ at. I usually have the bass and treble on my amp up high and mids slightly low on top of what I have on my pedal but is this the best way to do it?

[_tom_]

Well with less bass you may get a tighter sound, but could also be a bit thin depending on where you set it. Best advice is to just play around with the controls individually, like start at 0 and turn it up to 10 whilst playing to see what each control does to the sound if you know what I mean?

[deg0ey]

Tom: I'd suggest starting everything on 5 and adjusting - as if you start with everything on zero, it just sounds horrible wherever you move it to as everything else is still on 0...

I (for my metal ish tones) tend to go for about a 5 7 6 setting for Bass, Mid and Treble - although I don't have an MG, so I can't comment for you...

The other thing I would suggest is using less gain than you would normally think, and see what difference that makes. I would be inclined to try out either using the amp distortion without the pedal or the amp clean channel with the pedal and see what gives you the best sound.

My experience with the Uber Metal wasn't great, I didn't like it much - but I did only try it through a £50 amp in the shop, so it could be down to that...

Give the settings I suggested a go, and try it with the gain somewhere between about 3 and 6 and see if it works for you. Otherwise I can't help you much :drink:

[b0ng0]

Thanks for the advise, I guess i'll just need to muck around even more to find out.  8)

[maliciousteve]

try not using the pedal. Get all the overdrive from the amp. Set your mids and bass high and less treble and presence. That will get rid of alot of the fizz. Not having the gain on full will also help.

[gingataff]

+1 for deg0ey's advice re: staring point. If you want to use the pedal for your metal tone set the amp clean, again maybe 5-6-7 or thereabouts (adjust to taste) and then try it with the pedal, again starting with any tone controls around 5 and then adjusting and also starting the gain on the pedal from 0 and moving up.
Of course as steve said the pedal may not be necessary!

[Crazy_Joe]

I have the same gear as you my friend, i like my tone at the moment. My settings are as follows:

Amp Settings:

I am on the Clean Channel.

Bass - 10
Contour - 5
Treble - 7
Reverb - changes depending on what i am playing.

Line 6 Uber Metal Settings:

I am on the Pulverize setting, with gate 1.

Scoop - 2
Drive - 8.5
Bass - 10
Mid - 0
Treble - 6

Try that, i like it, great metal tone in my opinion.

[b0ng0]

Thanks for the suggested settings Joe, i'll try them after work :D.

One question though, why do you have the gate set to 1? I have had mine set to 2 since I started using my pedal and as soon as I switch back to just using the amp, the noise that was previously cut out by the pedal really makes itself known.

Perhaps it adds character?  

[TwilightOdyssey]

Well, amp settings depend on the amp! There is no set 'do XYZ for a great tone'. I can explain it to you in terms of frequency, but if you're not conversant in frequency bands, it won't help much.

Marshall EQ is passive, meaning that you would want to start with the settings dimed, and then add attenuation from there.

Does your amp have a valve in the preamp? If so, you should set the amp to the point where you're getting a good crunch, not dull-on distortion, and then add the OD, as clean as possible at first, then raising the gain until you have the desired gain.

If it sounds tizzy, roll back the Presence first, not the treble.

You don't want too much bass, it makes everything muddy and gummy sounding.

My personal rule of thumb is to tell people to set the midrange until you just thing that it's a bit much, and then add a bit more.

This should yield a tone that will sound good atl all levels.

Oh yeah ...

ALWAYS set the amp up with the effects turned OFF. After the effects are added, adjust the tone as needed.

[Crazy_Joe]

Thanks for the suggested settings Joe, i'll try them after work :D.

One question though, why do you have the gate set to 1? I have had mine set to 2 since I started using my pedal and as soon as I switch back to just using the amp, the noise that was previously cut out by the pedal really makes itself known.

Perhaps it adds character?  

There is minimal noise with my settings on Gate 1, but if you listen to live performances when bands finish a song they usually get that feedback when they leave the guitar on the last chord, Metallica did it a lot at Download this year.

But anyways i like it like that, you can put it on gate 2 if you wish, just depends on your style.

[Neemo]

Adjust the mids as high as possible but no so much that it starts to sound 'honky'

too low treble = bad, too much treble = worse, a shrill and trebly sound lacks balls due all the fizz and buzz

depends on how loud you play but bass should be where it brings warmth to the tone but does not make it sound flabby

gain is also a matter of taste, I prefer it quite low because the excess gain just makes it mushier. Keep the gain low but picking attack high to get a really tight and punchy tone (downpick everything á la hetfield of course). Lead work obviously needs bit more gain.