Good metal distortion pedal

[Painkiller]

Does anyone have any tips for a good metal distortion pedal I could build? I tried the Krank Distortus Maximus the other day, and thought it sounded good, but I haven't found any schematics for it. Any other pedals with a modern heavy metal sound? Now I'm using a Tube Screamer in front of an overdriven tube amp that gives me the 80's sound, but I would also like to have a more modern heavy sound.

[GREEN FUZ]

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=58549.0

[Painkiller]

Thanks. Guess I should wait for soulsonic to finish the SLO pedal then.

[jonathan perez]

metal zone

[MartyMart]

Dr Boogie ..... Blackfire ..... Jfet Vulcan 

[soulsonic]

metal zone

Oh, come one.... you know those things sound terrible Nothing but highly-filtered noise with those....

[dirk]

metal zone

Oh, come one.... you know those things sound terrible Nothing but highly-filtered noise with those....

Straight out of the box the metalzone does sound pretty bad, but with a few mods it can sound surprisingly good.

[col]

Set the metalzone up properly and it sounds awesome otherwise it's the wasp in a jam jar on steroids scenario, and I have a few tales about stand in guitarists................ try a triangle muff clone or a Marshall Jackhammer or one of the clones of the Snarling Dogs 'Black Dog' that are hanging around here somewhere. Much better IMO

[Processaurus]

Fab Metal!  Nice and harsh.  No warmth whatsoever.  I've been meaning to get another one (I think the first got "borrowed") and stick it in a real metal box, and use a metal momentary switch, to keep the work down by using the Dano electronic bypass.

[soulsonic]

Fab Metal? Is that the same as the Fab Tone? I've got one of those - I've got a 50/50 opinion of it. Some things it sounds great with - other things it sounds terrible with. It sounds great with cello - listen to any of Rasputina's stuff from the past few years, that's a Fab Tone pedal. I've seen 'em a few times live and I saw the pedal sitting there while they were playing - it's the only pedal they used as far as I could tell, and if you're familiar with the kind of tone a Fab Tone gets with guitar, you'll instantly recognize it on their distorted cello parts.

[jschwalls]

I have a Metal Zone which i heavily modded, upgraded every Cap to metal film and a few resistors as well... I also changed the R41 resistor to a VERY high value like 6K5 which totally calmed down the noisy distortion. It worked wonders for me. Now it is a very quiet pedal.  D4=1N4001 D3=LED.
Most mods were from Brain Wampler at IndyGuitarist.com.

After the R41 change i highly recommend this pedal for Metal style.

[jschwalls]

I added a switch to change R41 from 1K to 6K5.. btw.. Sometime you just NEED 'too-much' distortion.. lol

[soulsonic]

What bugs me about the Metal Zone is all the crazy filtering they put on the distortion. It might as well not have any tone controls because that weird filtered sound is there no matter what. Do any of the mods mess with the filter? I bet there's at least a couple that do. The other guitarist in my band has a Metal Zone that he stopped using because he was sick of having a shitty tone, so I'm thinking I might try modding it. One of my friends has Wampler's book, so I guess I could try the mods in there - though if there's any other ones, I'd like to know about it. I tried the DS-1 mod that was in there, and I don't like what it did.

[grolschie]

Is that the same as the Fab Tone? I've got one of those - I've got a 50/50 opinion of it. Some things it sounds great with - other things it sounds terrible with. It sounds great with cello - listen to any of Rasputina's stuff from the past few years, that's a Fab Tone pedal. I've seen 'em a few times live and I saw the pedal sitting there while they were playing - it's the only pedal they used as far as I could tell, and if you're familiar with the kind of tone a Fab Tone gets with guitar, you'll instantly recognize it on their distorted cello parts.

My friend loaned me has Fab Tone once. A real misnomer IMHO. To me, it wasn't fab and it had zero tone. Just thin transistor bees at any gain level. Maybe bees can sound good in front of a cranked valve amp - but not at bedroom levels. The Fab Tone would make a great paper weight or doorstop.   

[soulsonic]

Fab Tone sounds good with cello!

[Painkiller]

[...]

[theundeadelvis]

Some have recommended some of the pedals Joe Davisson designed like the Blackfire. I just built a BF, but haven't got it going yet. If I do I'll post my opinion.

[km-r]

IMO thor with tonestack can do some metal stuff...
i tried it TS -> thor -> condor

i really think it will DO thrash metal...

oh, btw, i agree with the "dont-scoop-the-mids" stuff...

[magikker]

Zakk Wylde's metal right?
This shows him using an SD-1
http://guitargeek.com/rigview/284/

I think for a good metal sound your best bet is a nice amp. Second best bet is a pedal that is based on said like amp. Check out run off groove.

[grolschie]

The Sansamp GT-2 is pretty good. I don't think it does the Digitech Dan Donegan "The Weapon" tones though.