Suggestions for a reasonably priced pedal for metal distortion

AllThumbs

My son is making great progress learning the guitar, mainly metal and especially Metallica.  He's enjoying the Modern setting on my Yamaha THR10 (modelling a Mesa amp I think) but could do with a pedal to switch from clean to distorted mid-song.  Any suggestions for a cheapish (ideally under £50) pedal?  I've got a bit lost in my googling/youtubing - so many conflicting views and it seems like there's not an obvious candidate.  A lot of people say Boss Metal Zone but others seem to hate it.  The EHX Metal Muff looks pretty good but I get the impression it's full-on even with the gain down and a pedal that can do AC/DC tones as well would be nice.  Am I asking too much?!

CarpeDiem

The Boss Metal Zone is a versatile pedal, with good EQ controls. It benefits from being well dialled in, and it operates more like a pre-amp so works well plugged in to amp’s effects loop (but this isn’t essential IMHO). 

ICBM

Boss Metal Zone, or if you want really cheap, Behringer Ultra Metal - it's a copy of the Boss. Personally I thought the Behringer sounded very marginally better! But I don't play metal, so I may be coming at it wrong.

Grumpyrocker

Joyo Chopper-z

It's a clone of the Horizon Preamp, which is built upon the MXR EVH5150 Overdrive. Both cost around £200.

The Chopper-Z can be had for around £50 or lower. It sounds very close to the £200 pedals and has a good noise gate. 

Littlejonny

TC Electronic Fangs. 

Also - try the Thomann Stompenberg experience. You can hook up your laptop to your amp and play through them.

Sporky

Zoom TriMetal was my second favourite for chugga chugga stuff. The MetalZone is excellent provided you don't max the dirt, and do play with the EQ. 

AllThumbs

Thanks for the input, folks!  Metal Zone seems to be in the lead so far...

LionAquaLooper

Another vote for the Behringer Ultra Metal (UM300). It's a Boss Metal Zone but cheaper. For your sons purposes and level its perfect.

 I also vote for the Mooer Black Secret, which is their Rat clone. It's awesome. 

blobb

Can't believe nobody has said Arion Metal Master!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK4j5x6SAgY

...of course neither are heavy metal, if you want that you need a Sabbra Cadabra.

Fez

Marshall Jackhammer

TJT1979

The Metal Muff is probably too much, as you said at the top. I think it actually sounds really good but it doesn't go down as far as AC/DC gain levels. It's a fairly hard rock sound at minimum. 

snowblind

Cheap - Behringer HM300 or the more expensive "real" version Boss HM-2. 

BTW if you stick a TC Spark boost in front of an HM-2 things get pretty biblical, specially with a nice delay after it.  

steer

Rat

AllThumbs

Thanks again to everyone for the ideas.  Will a Rat do the mid-scoopy sort of sound he's enjoying from the modern setting on the THR10?

Grumpyrocker

Chopper-Z is on sale at £46 at Amazon today https://www.amazon.co.uk/JOYO-Distortion-Simulator-Electric-CHOPPER-Z/dp/B0B74Z1D6R

monquixote

My watch out is that when I borrowed a THR 10 I found it didn't work well with any of my distortion pedals.

HT986M2

AllThumbs said:

Thanks again to everyone for the ideas.  Will a Rat do the mid-scoopy sort of sound he's enjoying from the modern setting on the THR10?  

No. It hasn’t got enough on its own. 

A Metal Zone will be hit or miss. It can get the tone you are looking for, but the EQ is so sensitive it can be hard to dial in. 

If your kid likes the metal tone already in the THR10, why not buy a Bluetooth midi footswitch instead so he can change channels mid-song?

tone1

Palmer Solid Metal 

LionAquaLooper

I posted this on another thread but I'll recommend it here since you're looking for a metal pedal. Buy a used metal zone (about £50), snip off the C35 capacitor (5 second job), sit back and enjoy the ride. I just did this the other day and it's awesome. It's called the Waza mod because it turns the old Metal zone into the newer Waza version.

Between that mod and the stock EQ flexibility it'll do all the ODs and distortion pedals you'll ever need (inc. RAT, tubescreamer, even Klon) . I guarantee you'll be tempted to keep it for yourself  

The pedal show guys themselves were amazed

Dave_Mc

AllThumbs said:

Thanks again to everyone for the ideas.  Will a Rat do the mid-scoopy sort of sound he's enjoying from the modern setting on the THR10?

I don't think so, a Rat is pretty middy. And also watch out for what @monquixote said about the THR- I haven't tried one, but if it doesn't take pedals well, you might need to rethink the whole pedal thing!

monquixote

Dave_Mc said:

AllThumbs said:

Thanks again to everyone for the ideas.  Will a Rat do the mid-scoopy sort of sound he's enjoying from the modern setting on the THR10?

I don't think so, a Rat is pretty middy. And also watch out for what @monquixote said about the THR- I haven't tried one, but if it doesn't take pedals well, you might need to rethink the whole pedal thing!

Just putting my 2p in regarding the pedals some of the pedals that have been suggested are not right for Metalica Recto type sounds.

Boss HM2 is great, but it's swedish chainsaw death metal
Rat is great, but it doesn't sound anything like Metallica into a clean amp.

Lots of good options suggested in terms of: Jackhammer, Metal Zone (Hard to dial in!), 5150. I'd also add Shredmaster, Super Badass and Riot to the mix. 

I'm considering selling a JuanSolo Riot clone for not very much if you are interested