Crate GX 1200H and CRUNCH

[asi9]

I bought this amp from a friend of mine used for a damn good price, but alas, I lack the manuals and all that stuff that comes with it. I've heard good things about this amp, and it seems to perform okay, but I don't think I'm getting it to sound quite as good as it could. I like the sound of a sustained chord, but the palm mutes aren't quite as crunchy as I would like them too sound; there's a lot of low end, but the 'chick' and the balls of the palm muting don't have that resonating 'ooomph' sound.... just a bunch of really low end hum.

Also, I have a DOD Death Metal pedal that I really like, but it doesn't seem to work very well in the clean channel; it can only get half as loud as the distorted channel, and the highs can give you an instant headache..... and I've tried turning the highs down on the pedal AND the head. I had a friend that had an amp like this and got great sound going in through a Boss Metal Zone. Someone mentioned that this might be an impedence problem or something (?). Or maybe the pedal would be better going through the effects loop rather than into the pedal then into the input?

MUST... GET.... CRUNCHY METAL TONE.......

 

[happy hour]

The DOD pedal is kinda weird, I have it and it really depends on the kind of amp. It sounds great on Peavey's cuz they have a dark clean tone, but on clean spanking sparkly Fenders it sounds like total junk. I would try the Metal Zone, I'm probably gonna be pickin one up soon as an alternative to my Death Metal.

Have fun with the Carvin, I wanted one too but it would have been to hard for me to get one in Canada.

 

[asi9]

The DOD Death Metal does sound like trash on it.... but I was listening and it sounds a lot like a possible impedence problem. Once you turn the clean channel up to 4 and turn it up higher, it doesn't get any louder. WTF? A side note though, I was trying some tweaked out settings I found the other day on the heads distortion and it sounds a lot better..... turn the gain down to 4, turn the shape to 6-8, turn the bass to 8 and treble to 10, and the level to 7. Some pretty sick, piercing tone that blends really well with the band and the picking comes through really, really well. My only gripe is that the 'meat' of the palm mute chugs doesn't give you that hitting-your-chest feel, but I'm gonna go through a compression pedal first and see if that doesn't help a little in bringing out that resonance. Wisheth me luck....eth.