Distortion

[Mythos Inibri]

I was checking out distortion pedals for my new guitar today and came across a really cool one made by Zoom...it had all kindsa different types of distortions built into it including drum beats.It was not much more expensive than the Zakk Wylde pedal either.I'm thinking of getting it. All I have now is a Ross phaser for my system. What are some other options you guitar players would suggest??

[filthfan]

I got that question in mind too. All I can afford is pawn shop prices though. I see some Boss stomp boxes and I want some advice too.


Oh and is it a good idea to have your guitar pickups changed or just go for the trade in? cus I saw a epiphone bridge humbucker for dirt cheap and wondered if it was worth it?

Tell me please I'm shooting in the dark here

[Bradzilla]

The Boss MT-2 Metal Zone pedal is a pretty popular distortion pedal, and in addition to having a ton of distortion it has a pretty warm sound and semi-parametric midrange EQ. Some use it for distortion, some use it for EQ and boost. I've used it for a little of both on a Marshall Valvestate 8100 half stack and it sounds pretty good. Finding a good pedal that works for you will depend a lot on how you're using it, whether you're using it to overdrive a tube amp or be the main distortion through your amp's clean channel. I don't have much experience with the multi effects pedals so I couldn't speak to those, and there's a lot of emulators out there nowadays also which seem cool but aside from the Behringer V-Amp I don't have experience with them.
As far as pickups, it's partly a matter of taste but getting new pickups never hurts. It just depends on what kind of sound you want to get, but if it's a really old guitar that may have been questionably treated by its former owner you never know how good condition the pickups are in so you may need to change them.

[filthfan]

well it's a brand new cheap peavy stratocaster ripoff. So it's not really metal and I just wanted a humbucker or two to get a deeper sound. not to mention my single coils hum like a mother fucker

[tbhride]

Well filth if your peavey is routed for single coils, then upgrading to a fullsize humbucker would require routing the body, which combined with the cost of a pickup and getting someone to install it might end up costing as much as you paid for the guitar in the first place. Being such a low-end guitar in the first place it isn't really smart to dump a lot of money trying to improve it when you could get better results for similar amount of money by buying a new guitar.

You could get a pair of Duncan Hot Rails or some other such pickups that are humbuckers made in the size of a single coil. These can get a little pricey, but Carvin makes a good pickup that can be bought new for fairly cheap (40ish bucks with shipping) (http://www.carvin.com/products/single.php?ItemNumber=TBH60&CID=GTR/K) I honestly don't know how well they are suited to metal but Carvin does make quality products, and even a mediocre humbucker (install it in the bridge position) would sound better than your stock single-coils.

You'll still have to pay someone to install it though. Not sure how much repairspeople charge for that sort of thing.

As far as pedals go, it would help to know what kind of amps you guys have and also what kind of distortion you are looking for. There are three types of dist - fuzz, overdrive, and full on distortion. If you guys have cheap amps you would probably want a full distortion pedal. Overdrive pedals are made to push your amp harder by pumping more gain into it, so if your amp sounds like crap distorted to begin with, an overdrive wouldn't do much of anything except make it louder. And fuzz, well fuzz isn't really a metal type of sound.

So Dark Lord if you are using a cheap amp I would advise against the Zakk pedal since it is an overdrive pedal.

As Brad mentioned the Boss MetalZone is a popular choice and doesn't sound bad at all. As far as multi-effects pedal I can personally vouch for the Boss ME-50. It has the circuitry from a lot of popular Boss pedals (distortions and others) built in, including the MetalZone. I don't use the MetalZone setting because my amp has some great built in distortion but having formerly used the MetalZone stompbox, the ME-50 MetalZone setting is for all intents and purposes identical. Plus if you spring for the ME-50, you will have a great assortment of pedals to play with as you grow as a player and won't have to buy a new pedal every time you want to try something out. My only problem with the ME-50 is the wah sound is not the best in the world, but it is good enough to learn how to play a wah.

Filth if you are just playing through the amp that came with your raptor kit, I would recommend upgrading sooner or later. The Roland Cube30-X is an outstanding value. I own its predecessor the Cube30 and the "X" version just adds some features. The amp produces some amazingly realistic models of famous amps. Most importantly to us metalheads it replicates the Peavey 5150, and the Mesa/Boogie Rectifier. Put it this way. John Petrucci uses Rectifiers for his sound, and he practices with the Cube series.

If you upgrade to this amp it would (most likely) render the stompbox you choose obsolete because the built in sounds are so good. But if you buy a multieffects pedal such as the ME-50 first, you could use the metal-zone setting until you upgrade to a better amp and then you could use the ME-50's overdrive settings to get some really cool sounds when combined with your amps distortion.

It may take a while depending on your budget but I would say get a good multi-effects unit (again I recommend the Boss ME-50) and then save up for an amp such as the Roland Cube-30 or MicroCube. However I would avoid the Cube-15 and Cube-20. Those two amps don't have built in amp models, but built in distortion pedal effects instead which would limit the sounds you could get in the long run.

Wow this turned out to be a long post. Too much information?

[Mythos Inibri]

Yeah, I just have a practice amp. right now,it's a Rage 158 by Peavey.
I have no plans on upgrading to a larger one right away.Another thing about the Zoom distortion pedal is I can record directly from it onto a CD but I'm not too sure about the drum machine.I haven't heard it yet,either and the booklet that comes with it has so much information my head is spinning just thinking about it

[tbhride]

Just for clarification the Cube30 is only a 30 watt amp, so as far as metal is concerned it is definitely still a practice amp. Its perfect for me as I don't play in a band and this lets me get great tones without the high volume which would be a bad thing in an apartment complex "D

[Mythos Inibri]

Just for clarification the Cube30 is only a 30 watt amp, so as far as metal is concerned it is definitely still a practice amp. Its perfect for me as I don't play in a band and this lets me get great tones without the high volume which would be a bad thing in an apartment complex "D

Yeah,I'm in an apartment too so after 10pm i rarely play unless it's turned real low.Someday I'll have a basement and can really crank the fucker up:evil
my girl wants a drumset too.

[Replica]

Yeah, I just have a practice amp. right now,it's a Rage 158 by Peavey.

Hell yeah, I got one of those too! I bought it about 15 years ago. Fucker really cranks for a little thing, dunnit? :D

[Mythos Inibri]

Hell yeah, I got one of those too! I bought it about 15 years ago. Fucker really cranks for a little thing, dunnit? :D

yeah,it's about as loud as you could want for a practice amp.
i got mine about 14 years ago from my Dad and it still sounds brand new:monkeybang

[Vish]

the only distortion pedal that i have ever owned is the boss metal zone distortion pedal. it has the perfect sound for me. never have messed with any others because i have always been so happy with this one.

[Mythos Inibri]

Obtained a new piece of gear today.A friend of mine got a new system for his guitar and gave me one of his old pedals,an Ibanez DE7 DELAY/ECHO...just got it tonight but haven't messed with it yet..:) :maiden

[fuzzay crisis]

mine are all boss:
metal zone
super overdrive
super distortion
super phaser
flanger

[Mythos Inibri]

We were at a party yesterday and I was introduced to a new friend.He's damn good at guitar and has all kindsa cool guitars and equipment.
Anyways he loaned me a different pedal.I'm thinking about buying one.It's a Boss Distortion DS-1.Sounds really cool and has alot of sustain to it.I'm not really sure about getting the Zoom pedal with the built in drum beats now.It's probably really complicated.Anyone use this Boss pedal before? What are some other pedalds,any recommendations. I like the sound Piggy from Voivod had,anyone know what he used?

[StonerMafia]

We were at a party yesterday and I was introduced to a new friend.He's damn good at guitar and has all kindsa cool guitars and equipment.
Anyways he loaned me a different pedal.I'm thinking about buying one.It's a Boss Distortion DS-1.Sounds really cool and has alot of sustain to it.

Had one until I purchased a metal zone. :brootal

[Vish]

Had one until I purchased a metal zone. :brootal

word. the only distortion pedal you will ever need!

[tbhride]

We were at a party yesterday and I was introduced to a new friend.He's damn good at guitar and has all kindsa cool guitars and equipment.
Anyways he loaned me a different pedal.I'm thinking about buying one.It's a Boss Distortion DS-1.Sounds really cool and has alot of sustain to it.I'm not really sure about getting the Zoom pedal with the built in drum beats now.It's probably really complicated.Anyone use this Boss pedal before? What are some other pedalds,any recommendations. I like the sound Piggy from Voivod had,anyone know what he used?

My first stompbox was a DS-1. I'd be willing to sell it to ya cheap as my ME-50 has the DS-1 sound in it and I haven't used it in a while.

If you want to go all out on a distortion box give the Krank Distortus Maximus a try. Blows away the Metal Zone and the controls are more like an amp channel (in that it has 3 band eq, gain, and master volume) as opposed to most distortion pedals with just a tone knob, gain and volume.

[StonerMafia]

word. the only distortion pedal you will ever need!


No way!

It's good, but not that good.

My gain on my V3 would crush the shit out of a metalzone.

[DtroitPunk72]

I currently use a DOD FX69B it was the only pedal in my price range that I liked the sound of. I got it about 6 years ago for like $25 on sale around christmas at Mars music. For alot of people it might not get heavy enough, I play mostly punk and 80's metal. I like it just fine with my Jackson Kelly model. But if you dont have decent pick ups or you use single coils it will probably be a little wimpy. I have a cheap Arion compressor in front of it so that helps a bit as well!

I REALLY want the new Rocktron Utopia pedal unit! It is supposed to have some insane presets!