Suggestions for a reasonably priced pedal for metal distortion

Dave_Mc

monquixote said:

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

Very early Metallica might have been a Rat, I think? But agreed, for anything later, it's not the right thing at all. The Digitech/Hardwire isn't bad for a crazy high gain metal type of pedal, but it's been discontinued for a good while so it'd have to be used.

AllThumbs

monquixote said:

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

Thanks for the heads-up.  I have been happy with my overdrives into the THR10, though that could be user error...

AllThumbs

Grumpyrocker said:

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

Thanks for the heads-up but I'm afraid I cannot bring myself to shop from Amazon.  Read this if you want to know why: https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/retailers/ten-reasons-avoid-amazon

AllThumbs

LionAquaLooper said:

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

I'm pretty sure I'm going to get a Metal Zone.  The Pedal Show video was inspiring, though also reinforced the view that the EQ is pretty tricky to tune in.  I wonder if there's anywhere online where people have uploaded MT-2 settings?

AllThumbs

monquixote said:

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

I'll have a look at these other suggestions and consider your offer, ta!

AllThumbs

monquixote said:

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

Also, I get confused about the two generations of Marshall dirt pedals.  Is the cheaper silver Jackhammer good (or in fact did it only come in that version?)?  Is the mk2 Shredmaster any good or do I need a black one?  And is the Super Badass better than the Fullbore Metal?  And is your user name anything to do with a Graham Greene novel I enjoyed recently??

rpr

B Stock Fender Hammer tone Metal pedal going for £39 at Kenny's Music.  No idea what it's like tho.
https://www.kennysmusic.co.uk/fender-hammertone-metal-pedal-b-stock-p7380

monquixote

AllThumbs said:

monquixote said:

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

Also, I get confused about the two generations of Marshall dirt pedals.  Is the cheaper silver Jackhammer good (or in fact did it only come in that version?)?  Is the mk2 Shredmaster any good or do I need a black one?  And is the Super Badass better than the Fullbore Metal?  And is your user name anything to do with a Graham Greene novel I enjoyed recently??

The Shredmaster was first and is great. I haven't tried the reissue but I assume it's basically identical.

The Jackhammer was later and I assumed the name change was because "shred" wasn't a cool word in the 90's. It's also good though I don't like it as much as it has too much bass, but you can just set it to zero.

LionAquaLooper

AllThumbs said:

LionAquaLooper said:

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

I'm pretty sure I'm going to get a Metal Zone.  The Pedal Show video was inspiring, though also reinforced the view that the EQ is pretty tricky to tune in.  I wonder if there's anywhere online where people have uploaded MT-2 settings?

It's really not that tricky or intimidating tbh. The 2 EQ knobs I adjust the most are the stacked mid pot. The bass is just for how boomy or tinny i want it, and the treble for how bright or dark. Set it and forget it. It's all about the mids. For the stacked mid knob. Once I've identified which frequency i want to tweak (i.e the bottom knob) i then adjust the smaller one to cut or boost. Only takes a few seconds of testing. Other people's settings online may not be useful for you because you will have a different set up. But the video above will show you how they set it to get a RAT tone as a starting point. 

My tubescreamer setting on it (for my strat) is basically

Gain minimum
Treble 10 o'clock
Bottom mid 12
Small mid knob at 3 to boost the hell out of that 1kHz frequency
Bass dialled low or high depending if I want a traditional tinny tubescreamer or a fuller bassy one

Sounds even better when I then mess with my guitar volume knob

Me personally I'll always prefer to have built in EQ flexibility than not. Saves space, not that difficult to learn, and more fun with the pedal  

CarpeDiem

I take the same approach as @LionAquaLooper  and set the EQ first before setting the gain. I agree that it’s not that intimidating. There is a wide range of EQ available, which is best adjusted gradually.

Grumpyrocker

Joyo Uzi - Friedman BE-OD clone 
Joyo Dark Flame - Revv G3 clone

Both £40 

Grumpyrocker

Took my own recommendation and bought a Joyo Uzi yesterday, which is supposedly a BE-OD clone.

Wow it sounds amazing. Fantastic hot-rodded Marshall sound, going up to full on metal dirt.

Controls are slightly different to the BE-OD, instead of a presence knob there's a full three band EQ. The BE-OD's tight control is there though - it's just called Bias on the UZI. All the way to the left gives you a fat thick tone, all the way to the right a very tight chuggy tone. 

Bargain for £40. 

HT986M2

Dave_Mc said:

monquixote said:

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

Very early Metallica might have been a Rat, I think? But agreed, for anything later, it's not the right thing at all. The Digitech/Hardwire isn't bad for a crazy high gain metal type of pedal, but it's been discontinued for a good while so it'd have to be used.

James used a Rat as a boost into his already driven, modded Marshall on KEM. So it wasn’t into a clean amp. 

If your kid is happy with the metal tone they have then I’d still suggest a Bluetooth midi foot switch so that they can change between clean and distorted channels mid-song. 

As others have mentioned the THR amps can be picky with pedals. I think you really need to spend more money to get a convincing metal tone from a pedal into a clean amp. Think MXR 5150 or BE-OD.  Buy once, cry once as they say.  

If you spend less then I don’t think it will sound any better than the current built in THR tones. 

Dave_Mc

HT986M2 said:

James used a Rat as a boost into his already driven, modded Marshall on KEM. So it wasn’t into a clean amp. 

Ah right, I didn't realise that, that's a good point.

AllThumbs

HT986M2 said:

If your kid is happy with the metal tone they have then I’d still suggest a Bluetooth midi foot switch so that they can change between clean and distorted channels mid-song. 

As others have mentioned the THR amps can be picky with pedals. I think you really need to spend more money to get a convincing metal tone from a pedal into a clean amp. Think MXR 5150 or BE-OD.  Buy once, cry once as they say.  

If you spend less then I don’t think it will sound any better than the current built in THR tones. 

We have an original THR10 and I'm not sure if you can get a bluetooth footswitch for that.  And I think I'd be looking for a new amp before I'd be buying premium pedals, to be honest.  Thanks for the input, though.

Dave_Mc

AllThumbs said:
And I think I'd be looking for a new amp before I'd be buying premium pedals, to be honest.  Thanks for the input, though.

Yeah that's the right way round to do it IMO at least for metal tones. FWIW I don't think you have to spend loads to get good pedals, even for higher gain tones, but it's a lot easier with an appropriate amp.

AllThumbs

Grumpyrocker said:

Took my own recommendation and bought a Joyo Uzi yesterday, which is supposedly a BE-OD clone.

Wow it sounds amazing. Fantastic hot-rodded Marshall sound, going up to full on metal dirt.

Controls are slightly different to the BE-OD, instead of a presence knob there's a full three band EQ. The BE-OD's tight control is there though - it's just called Bias on the UZI. All the way to the left gives you a fat thick tone, all the way to the right a very tight chuggy tone. 

Bargain for £40. 

Interesting, thanks - def one to consider.  I'm think I'm set on getting something with mids control, and a single knob rather than the MT2 2-knob mids set-up is appealing.  In fact I'm now wondering about a used MXR Super Badass which seem to be had for about £60.

AllThumbs

LionAquaLooper said:

It's really not that tricky or intimidating tbh. The 2 EQ knobs I adjust the most are the stacked mid pot. The bass is just for how boomy or tinny i want it, and the treble for how bright or dark. Set it and forget it. It's all about the mids. For the stacked mid knob. Once I've identified which frequency i want to tweak (i.e the bottom knob) i then adjust the smaller one to cut or boost. Only takes a few seconds of testing. Other people's settings online may not be useful for you because you will have a different set up. But the video above will show you how they set it to get a RAT tone as a starting point. 

My tubescreamer setting on it (for my strat) is basically

Gain minimum
Treble 10 o'clock
Bottom mid 12
Small mid knob at 3 to boost the hell out of that 1kHz frequency
Bass dialled low or high depending if I want a traditional tinny tubescreamer or a fuller bassy one

Sounds even better when I then mess with my guitar volume knob

Me personally I'll always prefer to have built in EQ flexibility than not. Saves space, not that difficult to learn, and more fun with the pedal  

Thanks - brilliant input!  I'm sure I want a pedal with a mids control but amleaning towards a one-knob mids option like the MXR Super Badass.

Sporky

The sweepable mid is one of the most useful things in the MT-2. Non-sweepable isn't anywhere near as flexible.

Grumpyrocker

AllThumbs said:

Grumpyrocker said:

Took my own recommendation and bought a Joyo Uzi yesterday, which is supposedly a BE-OD clone.

Wow it sounds amazing. Fantastic hot-rodded Marshall sound, going up to full on metal dirt.

Controls are slightly different to the BE-OD, instead of a presence knob there's a full three band EQ. The BE-OD's tight control is there though - it's just called Bias on the UZI. All the way to the left gives you a fat thick tone, all the way to the right a very tight chuggy tone. 

Bargain for £40. 

Interesting, thanks - def one to consider.  I'm think I'm set on getting something with mids control, and a single knob rather than the MT2 2-knob mids set-up is appealing.  In fact I'm now wondering about a used MXR Super Badass which seem to be had for about £60.

I'm rather shocked how good it sounds. It sounds just as good as my MXR 5150 OD that cost 5x the price.