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Posted by: bgrossbe May 18 2011, 08:18 AM

Hi gang,

I need new both a new distortion and delay pedal for my setup.

Currently I am playing a

G&L S-500 Tribute > Decimator Noise Gate > Ibanez Weeping Demon Wah > Xotic BB Plus Overdrive > Fender Hotrod Deluxe

I had been playing in a classic rock cover band, and my setup worked great for that.

But now I am moving into a more progressive rock/metal project, and I need to be able to broaden my range of sounds. I know my setup isn't ideal for metal sounds, but the band is going to be pretty diverse. I'll be adding an MIJ Ibanez at some point in the next few months, so that will give me a humbucking option. But I'll be stuck with the amp for a while.

As for distortion, I can stick with BB and drive channels of the amp for all of my overdrive tones, so I really just need something that will give me a good metal distortion sound. I like doing a fair amount of tight, palm muted riffing on the bridge pickup, so I don't want anything that's gonna sound too loose. But I also play lots of lead. I would prefer something that could give me a power metal tone. I'm particularly fond of the smooth-but-tight muted riffing tones on the Avantasia Metal Opera albums. Not really interested in any extreme metal tones.

I've been leaning heavily toward a Metal Muff, but I thought I would get a second opinion. I'm wondering if I should instead go for something with a tube in it.

As for delay pedals, I am really just looking for a classic David Gilmour style acid-drenched melting guitar lines sound that I can couple with my overdrive and single coils for some Pink Floyd / Ayreon / Eloy sounding lead passages.

My total budget is from $200-$400 for both pedals combined. I would prefer to be on the lower end of the budget, if possible. I am looking forward to any advice you guys might have.

Posted by: mhskeide May 18 2011, 08:37 AM

I can highly recommand my own setup here! Unless you need some sort of special delays, the trusty MXR Carbon Copy (all analog delay) will do the trick. A quick look at ebay showed that you can get this pedal from 70-130 $.

As for distortion, I would go for a HT-Dual, a two-channel overdrive/distortion tube-pedal that at least rocks my world! You could look up the HT-dist and HT-distX as well, but I think the ht-dual is more versatile and has more than enough gain. You can also set this pedal "against the american" side, so you can achieve tight bass and chug-chug all night long
You can get this pedal from 100-200$ I believe, so you won`t break your budget, and still have bad-ass sound

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl May 18 2011, 08:40 AM

Not sure I am the best person to answer this - I tend to get the metal sound in post production by adding overdubs etc.

You probably know the the metal zone is a classic pedal if you want to remain in the metal category but still be very flexible. If you want something that's on the other side of the spectrum check out pedals by tonebone (I am not sure if they are int he right price range though).

An often overlooked alternative is to simply get an EQ pedal - as that can do wonders to your sound (both as far as riffing and solo goes) - however you do need to be somewhat happy with the sound you are starting with!

Edit - oh and I forgot: Welcome to GMC!!

Feel free to start a new topic where you let us know what your goals are, your problem areas etc

Posted by: bgrossbe May 18 2011, 08:45 AM

QUOTE (mhskeide @ May 18 2011, 07:37 AM)

I can highly recommand my own setup here! Unless you need some sort of special delays, the trusty MXR Carbon Copy (all analog delay) will do the trick. A quick look at ebay showed that you can get this pedal from 60-100 $.

As for distortion, I would go for a HT-Dual, a two-channel overdrive/distortion tube-pedal that at least rocks my world! You could look up the HT-dist and HT-distX as well, but I think the ht-dual is more versatile and has more than enough gain. You can also set this pedal "against the american" side, so you can achieve tight bass and chug-chug all night long
You can get this pedal from 100-200$ I believe, so you won`t break your budget, and still have bad-ass sound

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic May 18 2011, 09:43 AM

I can also advise the HT Drive pedal, it's pretty saturated and tight:



Other recommendation would be Tech21 SansAmp GT2. It's without tube, but legendary pedal:




As delays go, there isn't much choice for your budget, these two overdrives are already around 180-190$. So for the delays, I advise that you check out Boss DD7, or Hardwire DL-8. Make no mistake because they are not boutique pedals - these two are some of the most used tools for a working musician: