best crunch pedal

[Dead Winter]

Welp, I just bought the Zoom GFX-8 effects processor, and although all the effects that I can produce on it are amazing, for the heaviest crunch and distortion, my little Boss Metal Zone pedal has everything else I have ever heard for under $500 beaten. Of course, you don't really buy an effects processor for crunch usually...and I must say that it has the best sounding distortion I've heard from several different processors. But I just love that heavy, deep, thick tone from the Metal Zone. Wow, I'm a poet and didn't know it.

But the tone of the Zoom is fucking great. This is definitely a "lead" pedal, not much fat rhythm to it. Some of the shrieking leads that come out of that thing are great...I highly recommend it if you want to diversify your sound. But if you just want to keep that heavy, low end crunch, fork up 90 bucks for a Metal Zone. Best crunch for yer buck.

 

[xenophobe]

Korg Hyper Distortion

They're not being made anymore, but can be found on ebay occasionally.

I haven't tried one personally, but from what I've heard from numerous people, it's be best Death Metal / thrash type distortion you can get.

I have an MT-2 and a DS-1, they're both nice, but nowhere near great.

 

[MetalHeadMarc]

For a while I used DOD Grunge petal but then I quit using it because the Gain is to high. You see when your gain is high on your petal it sounds like shit when you turn up your gain on your amp. I have marshall half stack, no tubes, but loud regardless. When I would run the petal through at high volume I got alot of noise and I couldn't distinguish notes. Thats not good at all. I would stay away from the death metal petals becuase the gain is so high, it sounds like one big note. The best distortion is from the shit built into the amps. Pre-amp Distortion is the best by far. Another thing, your amp and you pickups also have a say in your distortion sound. I've been on a quest for a killer distortion. And I've found that my built in distortion is great. Try a Peavy 5150 Amp head. Those bad boys are sick. In Flames uses em.

PS. damnit how do you make line to but a quote under on these messages?

 

[xenophobe]

Yes, you nailed it on the head...

TUBE Preamp distortion is the best sounding distortion, IMO.

 

[97reb]

I have been playing through crate and marshall amps, both have seriously good distortion, what seems to make the sound even better?... Play through both amps using an A/B box Selector Pedal. You can use different effects through both amps and make some really cool sounds. Lots of room to experiment, maybe with 2 different distortion pedals.

 

[xenophobe]

I've never heard an A/B box that I like... most don't seem to last long.... or are just plain noisy...

 

[Floyd]

I only have a little 30w Marshall amp. It has pretty good distortion though, but I wanted a bit more, so I bought a used Ibanez TM5 Thrashmetal distortion pedal. I think it sounds really good, but maybe thats just because I've never played through a good tube-amp............

 

[xenophobe]

Well, you're kinda right. Ignorance is bliss. Unfortunately, my sound comes at a price. :-\

 

[xenophobe]

Actually, and I forget who said this... someone on the Jackson board I think... nailed it to the tee... paraphrased:

"The MT-2 Metal Zone sounds great on a shitty amp, but the higher a quality of an amp you use it on, the shitter the Metal Zone sounds..."

I think it's a great band aid for crap tube amps, but if you use it on something nice, it's horrid...

 

[97reb]

Xenophobe - How are they noisy? Feedback at high volumes? I'm not getting any noise that I can tell, but then I've not really cranked it up to 10 and can't tell. I've gotten loud enough for the neighbours to hear and threaten to call the cops, but, still no noise that I know of (except what I'm playing, which may be considered noise).