Affordable distortions for metal.

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sohail

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I use a metal zone and it sucks ass. I bought it because it was just $50 and after buying delay that was all i had. It would be nice if any of you guies could suggest me some good affordable dynamic distortion pedal. Anywhere around a $50 to $100.
 
When you say "metal" what do you mean exactly? Metal could be classic Metallica or some sort of crazy modern death metal with a really low drop tuning.

Its also quite important to know what amp you're going into.

If you've got a half decent tube amp with a relatively good drive channel then you'll be more after something to give you a boost, push the front end of the amp harder and give you a bit more compression. Something like a Tube Screamer or Boss SD1.

If you've just got a solid state amp with a crystal clean tone then you're gonna be wanting to get all of your tone out of your distortion pedal. If you're going down this route and want something cheap but with a lot of options you could consider the Marshall Jackhammer, it can be tricky to dial in (like the metal zone) but its not too bad for a cheap "amp in a box" type pedal. For a really wet 90s style tone you could even consider a Boss DS-1.

All of these pedals will sound better when they're reacting with a good tube amp though.
 
My guitar is tuned to dropped c and I'm looking for a distortion that handles anything from a "djent" tone to some jaw crushing death metal. Thing to consider is amps that I'll be getting in shows can be some shitty digital amp modeling thing with a speaker or a decent amp. If it's even half decent tube amp with even half decent gain than I'll just plug my guitar right in. No pedals needed. The distortion is for 8/10 cases when i have to play through a shitty digital amp with no send and return. Marshall Jackhammer is out of the question because it is no longer in production and it is really hard to get hold of one. Boss DS 1 seems to be a really good option. However i'm not sure if it can handle death metal that well.
 
I've got a Zakk Wylde OD pedal that sounds pretty decent, and isn't too expensive....but OD/Distortion pedal tastes are very personal, so no matter what anyone recommends...it's up to you to try it out and see if it has the sound you want.

 
sohail said:
My guitar is tuned to dropped c and I'm looking for a distortion that handles anything from a "djent" tone to some jaw crushing death metal. Thing to consider is amps that I'll be getting in shows can be some shitty digital amp modeling thing with a speaker or a decent amp. If it's even half decent tube amp with even half decent gain than I'll just plug my guitar right in. No pedals needed. The distortion is for 8/10 cases when i have to play through a shitty digital amp with no send and return. Marshall Jackhammer is out of the question because it is no longer in production and it is really hard to get hold of one. Boss DS 1 seems to be a really good option. However i'm not sure if it can handle death metal that well.
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That's a pain - I sold a jackhammer for £10 about 6 months ago - I could probably have delivered it to Kathmandu for a reasonable price.

Another pedal you could consider would be the Boss Turbo Distortion - The DS-2. Its like a DS-1 but with more gain/drive. Make sure you listen to a lot of reviews and don't just buy something random based on what I am saying - you're gonna find it tricky to control the bottom end of your tone if you're in Drop C
 
miroslav said:
I've got a Zakk Wylde OD pedal that sounds pretty decent, and isn't too expensive....but OD/Distortion pedal tastes are very personal, so no matter what anyone recommends...it's up to you to try it out and see if it has the sound you want.

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Yes it does. But i don't think this will cut it for death metal
 
sohail said:
What do you think of a tube screamer in front of ds1?
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Probably sound awful! You can't really treat a DS1 like a tube amp and try and overdrive it like a tube amp cos it doesn't have preamp tubes, it's just a pretty simple solid state circuit.

I don't have a Tube Screamer but if I get chance I'll try driving a DS1 with an SD1 for you on the weekend to see if it's a tone you think you could work with. I see what you're after, you want something where you can just plug into any old shitty house amp and get something that sounds like "Your Tone"
 
If you're serious about it you'll stop just taking whatever amp happens to be available and actually take responsibility for your own tone. Otherwise, it's always just going to be a crapshoot. You might need one pedal for tonight's rig and something completely different tomorrow.
 
ashcat_lt said:
If you're serious about it you'll stop just taking whatever amp happens to be available and actually take responsibility for your own tone. Otherwise, it's always just going to be a crapshoot. You might need one pedal for tonight's rig and something completely different tomorrow.
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I agree with you, mate. Just think his options are gonna be a) limited and, b) expensive in Kathmandu!
 
JDOD said:
Probably sound awful! You can't really treat a DS1 like a tube amp and try and overdrive it like a tube amp cos it doesn't have preamp tubes, it's just a pretty simple solid state circuit.

I don't have a Tube Screamer but if I get chance I'll try driving a DS1 with an SD1 for you on the weekend to see if it's a tone you think you could work with. I see what you're after, you want something where you can just plug into any old shitty house amp and get something that sounds like "Your Tone"
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Exactly man.
 
sohail said:
Exactly man.
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Shameless spam I know but check out the LT range by Blackstar. I know very well that they are well designed and well made (none of that daft "true bypass" ***t!) and very competitively priced.

How easy it is to get them to your Lat'&Long' I do not know!

Dave.
 
Sohail - there's loads of pointless chatter going on in the Tone Thread so I'll post these clips here so you can find them more easily:

OK, here's some very high gain tones using a Boss DS1 and a Boss SD1 - both should be cheap and easily available in Kathmandu.

The DS1 is set with the level and tone both at about 12 O'Clock.
High Gain is with the gain all the way up, Medium Gain is with the gain somewhere between half and three quarters.

The DS1 will get very wet and mushy if left like this so I have the SD1 going into it with the tone just below 12 O'Clock, the level on full and the gain on zero. This compresses it all and tightens up the bass end so it doesn't turn into too much of a mushy mess.

Low volume is TV volume, High Volume is my normal recording volume. These actually sound better than I expected they would. They're all through the clean channel of my Blackstar but given that they're just pedals through a clean channel they shouldn't sound all that different through any half decent clean channel.

View attachment Low Vol Hi Gain.mp3
View attachment Low Vol Hi Gain Double.mp3
View attachment High Vol High Gain.mp3
View attachment High Vol High Gain Double.mp3
View attachment High Vol Med Gain.mp3
View attachment High Vol Med Gain Double.mp3

My personal favourite is Medium Gain, High Volume. Just playing a little more to myself this morning using this set up it was apparent that you start to lose note separation when playing quicker riffs with the higher gain setting. That's a general rule you can use as a starting point too. Try using more volume and a little less gain than you think you need. What sounds great at TV volume will sound messy shit at band practice volume.
 
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