Metal Guitar Rig

VesuviusJay

VesuviusJay

Poser Roaster
Hey all, this is for those who replied to the Krank message...

I am looking for a guitar rig to play extreme metal. I also want to forge a unique tone, so marshall, and mesa boogie are out of the question.

Anyone suggest a rig to try for heavy death metal?
 
First tip, there is no unique metal tone. There are a thousend metal bands, all the tones have been used. So basically you've got 2 options, use a tone thats similer to something else, or use a shit tone!
 
LMAO! what about engl or amps of that calibre, hughes and ketnor maybe? Come on someone has to have an oppinion.
 
Well, in the right hands you'll get a good and unique tone out of anything.
But besides Marshall, Peavey and Mesa..... You've also got Engl, Bogner, Framus and Hughes & Kettner that are all awesome and pretty popular for metal.
Some of the best tone I've ever heard live was Cattle Decapitation when he was using both an Engl and a Bogner Uberschall. Tone to rip off your head!
 
fender metalhead hasnt been mention....ive never heard it but hey it has 'metalhead' in the title
 
I have heard the metalhead, and while I didn't care too much for the tone, it was hands down the loudest amp I've ever heard! ;)
 
really louder than a mode four or a blue voodoo (both 350 watts) those are 350 watts and tube?
 
Well, I heard a full stack on 10 outside. It was fucking earthshaking.
I guess I haven't heard those amps you mentioned in the same situation....so I don't know.... Maybe?
 
i've heard many a loud amp in my short career as a musician, but hands down the loudest and meanest amp i've ever heard is randall's war head. you want big tone and upsurd volume thats what i suggest
 
Work on it. Dime's sound came from a cheapo Randal RG100 head that he won. He ran an eq or two on it, and made it his signature sound. Any decent amp will provide a wide range of tones, long before you start diddling with external effects, tube swaps, etc.

The mode 4 is a solid state power amp, not tube.
 
VesuviusJay said:
LMAO! what about engl or amps of that calibre, hughes and ketnor maybe? Come on someone has to have an oppinion.
Click to expand...

Go out and see if you can get your hands on an old Earth or SMF amp......made back in the 60's, were supposed to be Marshal's competition.......I know where there are several that have never been played.

Curriors Music World in Richmond Kentucky :D
 
I don't know what exact style of music you play, but if you like the really loud, heavy, mega-gain sound, try an 80's or early 90's Randall stack with really hot pickups or an SD-1 overdrive or TS-808 in front of it. Not super unique, but not super common either, and I can tell you from experience it will sound brutal.
 
Elmo89m said:
really louder than a mode four or a blue voodoo (both 350 watts) those are 350 watts and tube?
Click to expand...

Mode Four isn't tube, it's SS like Fender's Metalhead.

Try using a Twin with some nasty d-pedals in front (that's right, plural), and an EQ.
 
For a metal tone, I think of one of two things. Either a thin, shreaking, screaming guitar tone, or a really bass heavy, drop D kind of tone.

Here are a couple suggestions for neither, really:

Get a small amp or hook up a tube amp to a small cab. Most "metal" amps are too loud, and a lot of metal players use full stacks, so they can't get all the speaker distortion that they could if they used less or smaller speakers. Speaker distortion can be a great asset in providing tone. To hurry it along, stick a pencil through the speaker cone halfway between the center and the perimeter, equally spaced 2 to 4 times per speaker. I guarantee that will give you a lot of distortion, just make sure you never want to play clean again.

Stay away from the processed tones. They're not unique, and they always come out sounding pretty bad.

Try 10" speakers rather than 12". You can still get a good amount of bass through 10's, and I tend to like the breakup better on 10's.

You can always be unique in metal by being "retro," instead of metal, throwback to a classic rock type guitar tone. Some of those tones are the very best ever recorded.

Most importantly, experiment! Break the rules, whenever possible. One time when I had a band in my studio, we needed a really killer lead tone. I took the guitarist's Marshall JCM TSL 2000 and put that into my Mesa Boogie Single Rectifier. It was pretty nasty, I can tell you that much.

-MD
 
I agree with Themaddog on trying out some good old classic rock type tone... and adding a more modern amp to your War Machine of a rig... I've ran into an early 80's JCM 800 100 watt head, Laney Cab(unsure of how it was loaded inside, dry, no effect) and a Dual Recto into it's Recto Cab with vintage 30's with a small amount of a Boss Chorus Ensemble into effects loop... noone can deny that those early JCM 800's were beyond LOUD!!!... the 800 filled in the mids that the Recto lacks... and the Mesa with it's tighter than tight bottom created this god like giant sound that Even Tony Iommi would say yes to. The rest of the details are a secret. ;)
 
A friend of mine uses Hughes and Kettner. Not being a huge death metal fan, I like this thread more from the aspect of forging the original tone. In my hairband days, I had a reputation for being an excellent rhythm guy. I just loved the chug. While everyone used ADA rackmount amps, I went with 2 Laney AOR 100's. I had the sound.

Your sound is different, but I think the issue is that there are many playing the same amps, but you can tell immediately when the music hits that it is _____. It is what is coming through their fingers, whether it is lust, anger or whatever. To use a dated example, their is a huge difference between Eric Clapton and Richie Blackmore- both were strat players.

I think you should find an amp that does what you need it to, and make it work for you. Drive it to its max- re-bias it- chain distortion boxes and EQ's/effects and make your mark. If you've got it, they'll identify you with the amp. When you play your songs and get wood over the tone- that's your amp

My ~zen~ moment for the evening... An amplifier never played a guitar
 
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