How do you make a guitar sound 'metal'?
 

How do you make an electric guitar sound like a metal guitar? Is there a setting on the instrument itself, on the amp, or is it a pedal or something you get? Sorry if this is a basic question, but with the guitar and amp I have there don't seem to be settings that can make any kinds of 'metal' sounds.

Pretty obvious, but putting your guitar in Drop D or C makes it go lower, and is a pretty easy way of making it sound more 'metal' I guess.

downtune guitar, turn amp's volume & gain to highest setting

depends on the style of metal you're looking to play.

for the most part you're looking for a distortion pedal. there are a few basic distinctions between the types of distortion you can get such as, fuzz, overdrive, or compression, but ultimately they're all distortion pedals.

new school metal and technical stuff that's played on 7+ string guitars would require down tuning, contrary to popular belief this also means LESS distortion. maybe even just a compressor to tighten up your signal so that it doesn't become a pile of mud.

on the other hand if you like the sludgy / muddy style of blues based metal then you're mostly looking for fuzz like a Big Muff Pi.

something a lot of old school metal guys used to do was 'scallop' their sound with the EQ settings on their amps. lows and highs would be maxed out and the mids would be completely removed. apparently Kirk Hammett used to duct tape the knobs on his amps to ensure that setting in Metallica's early days.

there's also a relatively cheap BOSS pedal called 'the Metal Zone' that normally runs around $100 that lives up to its name especially when you're still starting out. i'd also recommend picking up a wall adapter if you're going to get one as opposed to dealing with 9volt batteries.

Also you need to pledge your firstborn to Satan.

^^^LOL,oh and you can only go out at night and eat dead babies.

Depending on your budget, it may be worth looking up what pedals, amps, etc. your favourite guitarists use as well.

You need a good amp,I prefer Fender tube amps,a great distortion pedal,Digitech Death Metal is awesome,and an EQ pedal.This is just my setup so I'm not trying to preach.The guitar is important,some guitars will never sound metal IMO.After many years i know just how to set EQ and tone to get that "in your face" sound without sounding "tinny".Just experiment,you'll be able to set your tone perfectly after a while.I use the EQ on the amp for certain things,and the EQ pedal for others.You can cut the EQ in and out to range between bright and dirty sounds.Boss used to make a distortion/overdrive pedal that was totally insane..I dont know if they still make them or not.I did all kinds of crazy stuff when I first started to acheive a good tone-stuffing pillows in amps,running through stereos you name it.lol

The tone you hear depends on two things. Your guitar and your amp. (<---obviously)

Amp:
Some amps are designed for low gain, mellow blues tones and simply can't be driven hard enough to get a good, thick overdriven/distorted sound. Some amps, on the other hand, (this pertains more to tube amps like the Mesa Rectifier, Marshall JCM2000, Peavey 5150 etc) are wired to put out as much gain as as you could ever need. This also has to do with the tubes in the amp (EL34s and 6L6s are the most popular choices, 6L6 tubes are pretty standard in terms of amps like the 5150 designed specifically for high gain tone).

If you're playing through a solid state amp which, with a question like this I'm assuming you probably are, your tone will be a lot weaker because you wont get the warmth, saturation, headroom, and especially the low end you'd get out of a tube amp, and your tone will sound a lot muddier, especially if you aren't using a distortion pedal (which is designed to emulate tube sounds). Most solid state amps on the market these days come with relatively weak built in distortion circuits, and for an even halfway decent high gain tone, need to have a distortion pedal in front of them. There are some exceptions to this. Any Line6 amp or anything else digital will have a decent high gain tone for an amature guitar player, but will have very little headroom or low end. Fender makes a solid state amp called the "Metalhead" that is designed for high gain tone but you need a 500 watt cab for it just to keep up with tube amps. (A 25 watt tube amp is as loud if not louder than a 100 watt solid state amp.)

Guitar:
Your tone also depends a lot on the components in your guitar. A standard Fender Stratocaster comes loaded with 3 single coil pickups. While these are great for bluesy clean and crunch tones, they will sound very thin when a "metal" amount of gain is applied. A Gibson Les Paul comes with humbuckers (dual coil pickups designed to reduce the electronic "hum" that single coils are notorious for). These will give you a much thicker, fatter, and fuller sound, and when distorted, will sound smoother and warmer. Different pickups are designed for higher output, more high end, more low end, or more mids. The higher the output of your pickup, the more of a driven tone you'll get. (with a solid state amp, that is. Mid to lower output pickups will actually give a fatter tone when played through a high gain amp)

Consider getting a distortion pedal. I used them for years before I bought my tube amp. Some companies (Krank, I believe, is one of them) make distortion pedals that actually have a vaccum tube in the circuitry. That's going to be your best bet in terms of pedals, but check out the ones that others are suggesting too, you may find you like them better.

Hope this helps a little.

If all else fails, a chainsaw has the propensity to make just about anything sound metal.

I was unaware that a compressor is a type of distortion. I know it balances out the attack of your notes, shapes your tone to an extent, limits volume spikes and such but haven't heard of it being use to produce distortion on it's own. I've played through Electro Harmonix compressor and it can create an overdriven sound but I just assumed it was a side effect of it's purpose.

...tune your guitar a half step down, put the treble and bass to max and put mid-range at 0.

...you also want distortion instead of overdrive pedals...and solid state amps instead of tube amps.

turn overdrive and distortion to 11, play e major

Haha. Thank you for reminding me of this best forgotten band:

http://tokyo5.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/jackyl.jpg

maybe calling it a type of distortion was inaccurate but like you said, that kind of pedal 'can' produce some rather distorted tones.

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.

http://www.specialistguitarservices....00-300x255.jpg

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.

http://cdn3.ioffer.com/img/item/757/...BCoGX3flyo.jpg

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 :D

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... :D

I can get a "Doom" metal sound by cranking the overdrive on both my OD pedal and amp, then I just crank the distortion up on my rat and switch to the humbucker on my Tele. Oh, don't forget to downtune your guitar.

I just get an amp with a great clean channel and find a pedal to do the rest. You can get any distortion with the right pedal or combination of pedals. It helps to pay attention to whether the pedal is a digital pedal or analog, digital pedals are great for versatility but i find that they tend to lack the crunchy punch that analog pedals put out. Humbuckers are very good but Gibson p94s are great with the right setup, really clear and crunchy. Sounds really good for Metallica type stuff, and even for most of the melodic death styles.

:thumb:










turn your pre gain almost all the way up, and your post gain almost all the way down.

Scooping your mids is really god damned useless. Sure, it sounds good when you're on your own but pretty soon you'll get used to playing with that sound and when it's time for you to jam with a drummer and bassist you will not be able to hear yourself very well.

Pedals and alternate tunings.

Drop D, or other low tunings as well as a pedal, I have a "death metal pedal" as my uncle calls it. It's done by Digitech it's simply called, "Death Metal" It's not the best but it give's any guitar or bass great sustain and distortion.

tuning down does not automatically make a guitar sound 'metal'

more often than not tuning down makes a guitar sound 'muddy' (great if you want to play Sabbath, horrible if you want to play Meshuggah for example)

the lower you tune the more attention you need to pay to your tone and EQ settings if you want to maintain a tight percussive sound. as odd as it sounds, you generally use less distortion the lower you tune for the same amount of 'heaviness'.