Music Banter - View Single Post - How do you make a guitar sound 'metal'?
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Old 11-19-2009, 08:12 AM   #16 (permalink)
Certif1ed
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Join Date: Sep 2009
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Depends on the "Metal".

If you want a "proper" NWoBHM "Smokin' Valves" type metal sound, you NEED a Marshall JCM 800. Nothing else will do. JCM 900s sell for less money for a good reason.



Personally, I prefer the combo, as you can use it for practising, then wire it through a pair of 4x12s for gigs to get that "Wall of sound" - it's the SAME amp as they put in the heads.

Only use the hi gain channel, and don't monkey about with the tone too much - those things rule the old school metal sound. Add a couple of effects if you want to use the clean channel for those compulsory plinky sections - chorus is always good - because frankly, it sucks by itself.

The guitar should be something with humbuckers. Only get a strat or other single-coiled guitar if you want to play the blues. Gibson SGs, Explorers and Flying Vs are best, but failing that, anything from the Matumoku factory will do the job really well.

Consider Aria Pro IIs, or if those are outside your budget, get a Westone Thunder 1A - those things ROCK with their hi-gain and phase-shift circuits which are perfect for those screamin' solos, because the phase-switching produces harmonics to die for, especially from a JCM 800.

THE best "Uncle Matt" I've ever played (for Metal) is the Westone Dimension IV. It has high output Unbalanced Coil pickups which are easily as good as Seymour Duncan Invaders, if not slightly better, and Westone's Bendmaster deluxe trem, which is great for dive-bombs, but a royal PITA when it comes to string-changing or drop-tuning, like all locking trems.



The main thing is that the guitar should have a great tone when you play it unplugged, with loads of sustain, growl and snarl like an angry bear in a cave full of wasps when you chug out some riffs, and squeal like a boar mid-castration when you crank out a solo.


For "Modern" metal (the sound pretty much established by Metallica on "Ride The Lightning") you need a guitar with EMG 81/85 pickups, like a Jackson, ESP or something like that.

The guitar does not matter as much as the pickups. I bought an Ibanez G10 for £100, dropped EMGs in it, and it now sounds almost exactly the same as my £1500 ESP Kirk Hammett signature (which only has variations on bludgeon as its tone).

You'll aslo need a Mesa Boogie triple rectifier, with a Digitech Zoom or something like that. To tell the truth, I don't really go for these wizzy effects boxes, but I know they're popular.

Alternatively, a Line 6 amp modeller will pretty much give you the same sound on its "Insane" setting, and tons of effects. You can then run the modelled sound through a JCM 2000 (which has a decent clean channel) and it'll sound just like a Mesa at a fraction of the price.

Or just use the JCM, forget the effects, and get into the tone

Finally, for that authentic modern metal sound, get rid of all the middle, drop in a compressor, and, when you record, compress some more, then compress the mix when you've finished, and it'll sound exactly the same squeaky clean non-dynamic nightmare as everything else these days...

Heh - in between my ranting, there is a little sensible advice...
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