Metal Gear Thread?

[Waylanderau]

Seeing as there seems to be a blues/jazz focus on these forums I figured it might be fun to start a metal thread. Tell us about your gear; Stuff you love, stuff you hate, stuff you've sold and wished you'd kept. This would also be a great place to post questions about nailing your perfect tone. Come on metalheads of The Fret! I know you're out there.

[bcdon]

Great thread!

I really dig Seymour Duncan Blackouts. I replaced the passive EMG-hz in my Zakk Wylde Epi and haven't been able to put the guitar down.

http://www.sonicftp.com/news/images/seymourduncan_blackouts.jpg

[bcdon]

I also have Dunlop's 'MXR Fullbore Metal Distortion' which I'm not super happy with. Perhaps it is because I was using it with my VOX VT30. Also, I really haven't put a lot of time tweaking it. I'll give it another go sometime soon. :dude

http://www.jimdunlop.com/blog/?p=225

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[Waylanderau]

I haven't yet had the pleasure of trying the blackouts, I did love the EMG 85X that I installed in a now stolen Rhoads. I actually have to say that as a long time EMG addict I really like the tone of the Duncans in my new Jackson. Not as smooth and saturated as an active but the JB in the bridge has a very raw, gnarly sound that works really well with my setup. I'm actually thinking of swapping them into another guitar and dropping the EMG Alexi Laiho setup into my Jackson to try and get the best of both worlds. I did try the Full Bore pedal a while ago through a Kustom valve half stack and it wasn't half bad. To be honest though my TBX head provides way more gain than you could possibly need so I don't use raunch pedals anymore

[bcdon]

The EMGs I replaced were the passive ones, EMG-hz. They sounded a little wonky to me so I replaced them with the blackouts. However, I think the pups were just fine, as I was changing the pickups I discovered the wiring was just terrible.

I'm with you on getting all your gain out of the amph. The other reason I haven't spent too much time tweaking the pedal is that I got a Boogie Mark V and I haven't needed any extra umph when I'm on the iv/extreme channel. :dude

What is a TBX?

[Waylanderau]

I thought the HZs were ok, i had a set in an LTD guitar years ago. Not great but ok. The Alexi sig setup is actually a slightly overwound HZ but with an adjustable gain boost/eq built into the volume pot so you get a more open passive tone but with the extra output. The TBX is my Ibanez TBX150H head and cabinet.

[Katastrophe]

Used to have a full rack system through a Marshal 1960 4x12 cab. The sound was glorious, and HEAVY. I wish my old rack still worked, and that I hadn't traded that cab in for a smaller amph. But, I was looking to simplify, and the salesman gave me exactly what I asked for.

I've still got my Ibanez and ESP pointy guitars from those days...

[Waylanderau]

Pointy guitars FTW! Two things I really regret selling are an early 90s Crate Half Stack, a 160 watt solid state monster that I pumped out some of the best 80s metal tones ever and a Vester copy of a Charvel Model 6. That guitar was amazing, exactly like the original. My guitar teacher had one of the Charvel ones and blindfolded you couldn't tell them apart. Even had the same active electronics. Being young and stupid I think i sold it off for drinking money

[marnold]

Heh, you sound like a man after my own heart, Waylanderau. My Jackson is my avatar. Beyond that I don't have anything particularly metal, although my Soldano-designed Jet City can do a mean 80s-metal amount of gain. I used to have an abused Charvel Model 7 that I sold. I've been learning using the Metal Method series of DVDs.

bcdon, I'd like to try that Fullbore some day for teh br00talz. It's not normally my cup of tea, but sometime you just have to take it to ludicrous speed.

[Waylanderau]

I was that close to buying one of the Jet City 120 watt heads as a replacement when a bunch of my gear got stolen a while back. I loved the clean/mid gain tones and the high gain lead sound was amazing but it just wasn't voiced quite the way I wanted for chugging. Great amp though, I've heard some guys getting great heavy rhythm tones out of them using a Tubescreamer or something as a boost and the amp by itself would OWN for classic/hard rock tones. That's a beautiful guitar in your avatar man, the maple board is a nice touch, don't see to many of those around.

[tunghaichuan]

I'm a metalhead from way back. Although I wouldn't call myself a metal player (don't have the chops to pull it off.)

I do have a MI Audio Tube Zone, which does great Boogie Recto sounds. Tons (tonnes?) of usable gain.

Back in the 90s, I had a Yamaha T50 head. This was designed by Michael Soldano and built by Dennis Kager who designed Sundown and Pignose amps. The T50 wasn't quite as good sounding as the Soldano SLO, but it sounded pretty good in its own right. Again, lots of usable gain on tap. The clean was kind of sterile, but it did two great gain sounds: with the master down and the gain all the way up it had a very liquid SLO/Recto (but low volume) sound. With the gain on about 1-2 o'clock and the master up it did a great crunch sound. It had a great-sounding slave output.

Like an idiot, I traded it for an ADA MP-2 and two months later ADA went belly up :thwap I never could get any usable sounds out of the ADA.