best guitar pedals for playing metal

[SouthernTrendkill]

I'd like it to be fairly low in price, no fucking $150 pedal. But $70-80 sounds reasonable.

I have this pedal called "Fab Metal" which is a very good pedal for how cheap of a cost it had. But it can only be used for rock, punk, and grunge. It makes far too much feedback to play any actual metal on it. What I notice about metal is that even though the guitar tone is extremely distorted, it's actually a very precise and dare-I-say clean-cut sound.

I'm worried if I buy a death metal pedal it will end up being too feedback'd and not precise enough to play good metal. So what are some good ones, do you think?

 

[Vimana]

I would suggest Line 6 Uber Metal because its cheap but in the Metal channel of mine it sounded like chorus flange was mixed in on and off. I put it on Pulverize and turn the Bass up to 10 and it sounds good for Metal. But the type of Metal I play, probably not the kind you play. But the pedal has a built in noise gate so it cuts off a lot of string noise.

 

[waif]

My recommendation: A Mesa head and halfstack. Of course, ridiculously expensive. But SO worth it; the built in distortion goes up to death metal levels without any feedback.

On to pedals:

I have a BOSS Metal Zone pedal. It's all right, but has plenty of feedback. A noise gate or something could take care of that. Main problem is the tone sounds like static if you play it through a solid state amp.

The old tube screamers are supposed to be amazing, but apparently the new ones have a different chip or something that makes the sound nowhere near as good. Can't confirm, as I've never used one of the old ones. I can tell you the new ones are nothing special.

In the re-release of Slaughter of the Soul Thomas Lindberg says that the ATG guitar tone comes from chaining a BOSS Metal Zone and a BOSS Heavy Metal pedal into a Peavy 160 or something. So...there's that.

Here's the thing: no matter what pedal you get, you're gonna end up with lots of feedback at high gain + high volume. Get a noise gate or something. Should fix it. So go for the death metal. BOSS also makes a cheap noise reducer, can't remember what it's called, but it works pretty well.

The best metal sound I've gotten was when I tuned my Ibanez RG down 2.5 steps and plugged it into an AC30. The chain incorporated a bulldog distortion pedal, a tube screamer, a Metal Zone, and a noise gate. Fuckin' brutal.

 

[inhe]

The old tube screamers are supposed to be amazing, but apparently the new ones have a different chip or something that makes the sound nowhere near as good. Can't confirm, as I've never used one of the old ones. I can tell you the new ones are nothing special.

They are not distortion pedals meant for playing heavy rythm, they are meant to boost/add warmth to your lead tone on an already distorted amp.

 

[Trevor Lane]

Digitech RP-50. It does everything you could want it to do and only costs $50

http://www.guitarcenter.com/DigiTech-RP50-Modeling-Guitar-Processor-102135435-i1124374.gc

 

[Vimana]

Can you tell us what style you play, what type of sound you have? Give us recordings? Asking best pedal for Metal is kind of a hard question because there are so many different sounds in Metal. But if you kinda wanna get a creepyish harmonized sound or high pitched screeching for solos as well as low growling edgeless guitar then get a DigiTech Whammy Pedal. I actually just got it today. I like it a lot.

 

[SouthernTrendkill]

Thanks for the help, guys! I'm going to scout out this music store tomorrow, see what they have.

Can you tell us what style you play, what type of sound you have? Give us recordings? Asking best pedal for Metal is kind of a hard question because there are so many different sounds in Metal. But if you kinda wanna get a creepyish harmonized sound or high pitched screeching for solos as well as low growling edgeless guitar then get a DigiTech Whammy Pedal. I actually just got it today. I like it a lot.

I'm looking for just a straight-forward exteme metal guitar tone without too much feedback and such. Anything that could be used to cover Slayer or Cryptopsy or even Lamb of God. I can't give recordings since my electric recordings up until now have been punk, grunge, & rock rather than metal.

 

[Vimana]

DigiTech Death Metal pedal has a pretty good tone, get a noise gate though. You'll need it.

Also a tip for making the guitar sound even heavier is putting delay on maybe a couple responses, make sure its after about a milisecond so it won't sound like any echo, it will almost sound like its harmonizing with itself and the sound will be heavier.

 

[Valerie]

DigiTech Death Metal pedal has a pretty good tone

No it doesn't.

 

[genocide roach]

blah, no pedal is going to sound as good as an amp. i do have a boss distortion thats ok though.

to get great tone, you want a tube head. they do make tube pedals too. when it comes to tone, drop the cash man.
~gR~

 

[waif]

pretty much any pedal is gonna give you a scratchy sound and lotsa feedback. But if you don't have $2000 then it may be your only option. A tube pedal with a noisegate might be all right. What kind of amp do you have?

 

[Vimana]

Would this be good? I'm kinda wondering myself.

The Nu-Metal gain on this is kind of good. But not for Death Metal, maybe for solos, its good if you want a Heavy sound but don't want a buzzing sound that you get when you reach high gain levels.

 

[Valerie]

No one likes nu-metal here.

 

[Vimana]

Duh, I know that. Just because it has Nu-Metal in its name doesn't mean it sounds like shit.

 

[Tonka Time]

ive got the digitech death metal one, it works for me but then again i havnt really tried any other distortion pedals. anybody know any other good pedals for death metal or grind?

 

[waif]

Would this be good? I'm kinda wondering myself.

The Nu-Metal gain on this is kind of good. But not for Death Metal, maybe for solos, its good if you want a Heavy sound but don't want a buzzing sound that you get when you reach high gain levels.

Ok, that first one goes over the $80 limit. The second is cheap enough, but after looking at the reviews, it seems pretty obvious it isn't what SouthernTrendkill is looking for. Also, let me point out again that nobody likes nu metal. And how exactly does that give you a good solo tone? Nu-metal usually doesn't even have solos, but the guitar tone is usually midrange and bass, heavily distorted and crapified. That would be a pretty shitty solo.

I think I might look into this digitech death metal pedal myself...

 

[Valerie]

I think I might look into this digitech death metal pedal myself...

Look for a used DOD one on ebay.

 

[Vimana]

Ok, that first one goes over the $80 limit. The second is cheap enough, but after looking at the reviews, it seems pretty obvious it isn't what SouthernTrendkill is looking for. Also, let me point out again that nobody likes nu metal. And how exactly does that give you a good solo tone? Nu-metal usually doesn't even have solos, but the guitar tone is usually midrange and bass, heavily distorted and crapified. That would be a pretty shitty solo.

I think I might look into this digitech death metal pedal myself...

First of all have you even used this thing before? At the school of Rock they have one of those processors. When I used it it didn't sound like Korn or anything, it was a lot less buzzy I guess I should describe it. Well I have a strat so it must've been my guitar. It was clear and Heavy which is a good thing for soloing in my opinion.

 

[waif]

First of all have you even used this thing before? At the school of Rock they have one of those processors. When I used it it didn't sound like Korn or anything, it was a lot less buzzy I guess I should describe it. Well I have a strat so it must've been my guitar. It was clear and Heavy which is a good thing for soloing in my opinion.

Ok...I realize this may sound weird, but when something is called nu-metal I expect it to sound like nu-metal. If it doesn't, then that's good. And how are you gonna get a buzzy chainsaw sound out of a strat? That would be pretty impressive.
For soloing a clear and heavy tone is pretty much exactly what you want, I think everyone would agree. But a nu-metal guitar tone isn't clear and heavy. I guess maybe it's just poorly named. Anyhow, the reviews looked pretty lackluster too.