metalzone tweaking, old opeth distortion

[ladius]

hello...ive bought the boss metalzone pedal and was wondering if anyone would have any tips on how to tweak it to opeth standards used on my arms you hearse. or if anyone would know what they actually had the pedal set when they used.

 

[Noel]

I don't know much about gear, but I would say its easier to get Opeth's sound by plugging the guitar into a dog's butthole than with a metalzone.

 

[Necropeth]

Sell the MetalZone, that will get you started.

 

[fizz6207]

yeah admittedly I made the erkworthy purchase of a metalzone in my younger years, one of the worst choices I made. Really terrible tone and its gonna be very hard to get that deep warm sound from MAYH on it. You can try turning the mids right down but your best bet is to look at a better pedal

 

[Necropeth]

I have been looking for an Opeth sound forever, I love the tone on MAYH, it is very warm indeed^ =)

Although a Metalzone is simply a bad choice. Fizz pretty much took the words outta my mouth.

 

[RoadKing]

Sell the Metalzone, buy one of these and thank me later...

Or, if you're looking to completely cop Mike's rig, buy one of these, (this is Mike's actual board), and run it into a totally clean, ZERO gain tube amp.

You can pick one of these up used on ebay in good condition for around $300.

(didn't we already have this thread once today?!)

 

[Necropeth]

^There you go. Man I should pick up one of those...

 

[zdcheezit]

I thought I read under the My Arms, Your Hearse equipment listing that they used a Metalzone pedal, but I could have made that up in my head to justify the fact that I also have a Metalzone pedal (it was probably the Heavy Metal pedal)--and I took mine from a friend; I didn't buy it, just to clarify. I think you can actually get a somewhat decent sound with a decent amp, with most of the tone settings turned to around 10 or 11 o'clock and the distortion at about 3; but I don't know about an Opeth-like sound.

 

[fizz6207]

yeah its possible to get a decent sound if you set it up just right... but then it really has very little else to offer

Ive got the GT8... superb machine for the price Havent really tried to make a MAYH tone on it yet... may have a muck around later and see what I can come up with

edit: Ive looked at the GT10, and Ive got to say that the layout is better on the GT8 imo. Theyve tried to dumb it down with less knobs, but at the end of the day thats what I thought made the GT8 so easy to use, every knob is right there ready to go... no need to go stuffing about to adjust settings. Anyone used the GT10 yet?

 

[fizz6207]

Ive also heard from players that prefer this pedal board to the boss...Ive heard it has better drive sounds
https://www.audiolinks.com/tek9/tek9.asp?pg=products&specific=jnjrnqdno
it has real tubes in it, whether thats just a gimmick or not is another thing...but for a similar price to the GT8 it got me wondering whether I should consider to trade my GT8 in and get one.
What I really want though is a Bogner amp

 

[RoadKing]

I thought I read under the My Arms, Your Hearse equipment listing that they used a Metalzone pedal, but I could have made that up in my head to justify the fact that I also have a Metalzone pedal (it was probably the Heavy Metal pedal)--and I took mine from a friend; I didn't buy it, just to clarify. I think you can actually get a somewhat decent sound with a decent amp, with most of the tone settings turned to around 10 or 11 o'clock and the distortion at about 3; but I don't know about an Opeth-like sound.

There are also companies like Keeley and Analogman who do mods to the Metalzone pedal that take some of the buzzsaw out of them and make them much more rich and musical. That said, I'd take the GT-8, or its newer incarnation, the GT-10 any day over the Metalzone. THAT said, I'd take the BB Preamp over pretty much anything! Best sounding, most transparent and warmest gain box/overdrive I've ever played. It's got TONS of gain, and it's also true bypass! Believe me, you name it, I've tried damn near everything over the years but the Analogman King of Tone, which I'm on the 2 year waiting list for as we speak, and the BB smokes them all!

Yes, I am a total pedal whore!

I need help...

 

[ladius]

well alright guys...thanks for the replies. i am a noob to the whole guitar rig setup. i had found this pedal for fairly cheap and decided what the hell. and have been thinkin about a boss GT of some sort. coincidentally i do have a laney LX65D amp and this pedal doesnt sound too bad on it yet and shall check this BB preamp out if thats what its called. once again, thanks for the hastey replies! oh and no, im not really trying to copy mikes rig, i just love his clean tones! the amp sort of just came to me weirdly

 

[Deathamphetamine1313]

Your best deal to get the MAYH/Still Life tone (they used basically the same equipment). Is to get a 5150 w/ a V30 cab. The majority of the sound off both of those albums is all 5150 gain. And everybody is right when they say to sell your MetalZone. It does sound good once you find the sweet spot in it, but it's ridiculously hard to work with. If you want a cheaper route than the 5150, go with the Boss DS-1 Distortion. Much warmer, and 3 knobs is a hell of a lot easier to work with than 6. The Boss GT's are also a good bet, for the Peth tone. It's great because it covers all the albums tone, and opeth mainly used Boss stompboxes for their distorted sound anyway. I've got the GT-6, and so far, nothing has come closer to their tone. If you want Mike's clean tones, go buy a Seymour Duncan SH-10n Full Shred (NECK POSITION ONLY!!!!!!!) I cannot stress that last part enough. That's about as easy as it's gonna get, second to shelling out about 4 grand for a GH100L and a Custom 24. And, y'all should go to guitar center right now and buy the MXR Classic Distortion. 30 bucks for a very versatile, great sounding pedal. Just bought it today, and I pulled out a very nice thick Mastodon-esque tone out of it when I ran it w/ my Tubescreamer.

 

[nocturno91]

Seymour Duncan SH-10n Full Shred (NECK POSITION ONLY!!!!!!!)

Hmm, what does he use in the bridge?

 

[Deathamphetamine1313]

He uses it in the bridge too. But the bridge distortion in it is really weak and it's really difficult to get their tone without gain boxes. In his main guitars he uses the PRS Vintage neck pickup and HFS bridge pickup. I think, anyway.

 

[g-rant]

just some personal input. Definitley sell the metal zone and get a boss gt-8 or gt-10...but be prepared for some countless hours of tweaking or just don't get it.

I have a boss gt-10...just picked it up last week...and so far I really like it. I previously owned the gt-8 a few years back and didn't really like it, I didn't take the time to get in to it, I wasn't as patient. But after going from that to multiple noisy single stomp boxes, then to an overpriced but beautiful sounding TC G-System with some OD stomp boxes...I found myself researching a bunch and ending up back at the BOSS route with the new GT-10. I have to say I am very happy, I got most of my money back after selling that G-system and the effects in the GT-10 are pretty close to the same quality...not quite...but close. But you get so much more.

for opeth tone, I definitely find it best to use a BOSS GT-(insert model here). When you first go through the presets you are going to think "why the fuck did I waste my money on this"...but really you have to spend time at it because all the good tones are hidden in tweaking.

it is best to start from scratch (ie. turn everything off and start from the pre-amp). for me, i use the 4 cable method, dual mono 5150 drive preamp, 1 of them is mid scooped, 1 is mid boosted a bit, very low gain (around 40/100), and a resonator to fatten it up a bit. I am still playing with the eq and speakers to get the exact sound I want but I have to say...for a digital distortion this is probably the best I have ever heard so far

the great thing about these units is you can turn the pre-amp off and use your amps pre-amp if you like it, and then just colour your existant tone with effects/od

they are extremely versatile and very very convenient...you just have to spend time at it

edit: it also helps to have a cu24 with a SD full shred in the BRIDGE, not the neck, the prs vintage is much nicer. and I wouldn't necessarily say the full shred is weak...its just not harsh and not mid scooped like the dimebucker or something. its a warm fat and full sounding pickup but not tooooo hot. though...tone is so subjective isn't it haha

 

[Iki-ilkkuja]

hello...ive bought the boss metalzone pedal and was wondering if anyone would have any tips on how to tweak it to opeth standards used on my arms you hearse. or if anyone would know what they actually had the pedal set when they used.

Having active pickups and a shitty Marshall is needed. Just, why would someone ever want to get that guitar sound. It literally sucks.

 

[Deathamphetamine1313]

edit: it also helps to have a cu24 with a SD full shred in the BRIDGE, not the neck, the prs vintage is much nicer. and I wouldn't necessarily say the full shred is weak...its just not harsh and not mid scooped like the dimebucker or something. its a warm fat and full sounding pickup but not tooooo hot. though...tone is so subjective isn't it haha

See, I bought the full shred set (neck and bridge pickups) and i found the neck pup to be very much likable. Especially, for Opeth's clean tone. But i didn't like the bridge pickup that much. It had a good tone and eq to it, but it didn't have hardly any heat to it. My stock mexi-strat humbucker had more gain to it than the full shred bridge pup did. I dunno, I think a JB or a burstbucker would sound a good bit better in the bridge for their distorted tone. But as you said, tone is subjective lol

 

[g-rant]

See, I bought the full shred set (neck and bridge pickups) and i found the neck pup to be very much likable. Especially, for Opeth's clean tone. But i didn't like the bridge pickup that much. It had a good tone and eq to it, but it didn't have hardly any heat to it. My stock mexi-strat humbucker had more gain to it than the full shred bridge pup did. I dunno, I think a JB or a burstbucker would sound a good bit better in the bridge for their distorted tone. But as you said, tone is subjective lol

haha yeah thats the thing, it is very much a personal thing, even the way we perceive opeth's tones is personal...but I think we can mostly all agree that they are amazing tones.

I find the prs vintage in the neck with a full shred in the bridge is a great combo for me, i don't like too hot of a pickup because they are hard to tame...and I don't like too much distortion. I'd prefer to get my sound out of picking dynamics and well tweaked patches through a beautiful amp. That said, the JB and the burstbucker are great pickups as well!