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Transparent Overdrive is the way to go. Not.

WeHuntKings wrote:So I'm getting a 5150 soon to play some hebbies. I will probably be getting a Maxon 808 for my birthday, but are there any ILF approved dirt pedals that will work well the super high gain amps out there? I want to go for some black metal sounds, so I guess that means smeary chords that still cut through well.

Get a powered volume pedal with boost. If it has low threshold control too then leave a little volume at the bottom end of the sweep for your kleen tones.

If I still had my high gain tube amp, the only thing I would use for gain or distortion is the amp itself, because most distortions are gonna compress to shit if your amp's gain is up enough to get its signature tone. Now fuzz, that's a whole nudder thing. Most tube amps don't fuzz out unless the speakers are torn or it's a Metasonix.

5150's have mids out the ass, by the way. They'll tear your head off if you're not careful. I've said this a ton before, but I've found that amp to be super sensitive to tubes. Preamp tubes particularly. You'll find a much bigger difference by changing preamp tubes than you will with any boost pedal. Mine wonder best with the older chines tubes that were in it when I bought it. I think they were 9th generation shuagangs, but I'm not sure, but they were monsters in that amp. So many people who played it and heard it said it was unlike any other 5150 they'd known. I'm sure there's other tubes that will sound awesome but those were the best I tried. Stay away from jj's. Maybe other standard shit too, but I'm not sure.

dase wrote:HM2 with the Justin Broadrick settings (as opposed to the Swedish settings) into a rat with the distortion fairly low for blown out black metal sounds. MXR distortion+/dod 250 for side b of 'scum' grind sounds. Get your bass player to plug into a ds1 straight into the board to be truly real. Also if you are a false don't entry.



My hipster bm band uses pedals and high gain amps. Encirclingsea.bandcamp.com. The last album was all Mesa v twin, rat, and earthbound supercollider into a trace elliott supertramp and a master volume modded plexi with the gain right up.

Oh and 5150s sound way better when you push them with a pedal instead of using the gain channel anyway.

I'd listen to this guy....

misterstomach wrote:i had a 5150 for years. sounds killer for black metal. i really don't think you need a pedal at all unless you want a boost for leads or something. i just used amp gain. i think you would be wasting the amp to run into the clean channel with outboard pedals providing dirt. the cleans aren't the world's best, although they're usable, but if you were doing that you could easily find a reasonably priced clean amp and do better. it's a pretty good amp for the black metal. i never tried hitting the front with dirt, but i played in a doomy black metal band with mine and i kept the gain at around four. there was just so much available i didn't see much point in slamming the amp with something. maybe it'd sound cool though. i can't imagine going with anything dirtier than a tubescreamer though.

...and to this guy.
They know they're shit when it comes to this stuff (both the bands in question are rad as fuck.

goroth wrote:

Iommic Pope wrote: Goroth will be in to tout the arc flash soon,
then he will say elements.
Then he'll say Fuck.

While there is an... element... (haha!) of truth in this statement, I wouldn't run any of them into a high gain amp, except the Elements. Arc and Fuck have waaay too much bass. As Garden says, you need something to cut the bass to get the chugga chuggas all nicey tightey, and something to give the mids a bit of a kick, but without adding too much distortion on their own. TS variants are perfect for this. But, any circuit that allows you to cut the bass, and has a decent amount of mids will work well. SD-1s are nice, have slightly different clipping to a TS and are cheap as chips.

I know Get Tom to make a custom Arc Flash with a bass cut toggle!

Um... otherwise... treble booster? Worked for Sabbath, though they weren't running amps that would get near a 5150 in terms of saturation.

I've also noticed that 5150s are kinda finicky with pedals. Dunno why, and I don't know if that's a common experience. ??

I completely neglected to read WHK's post in it's entirety and missed several important details. Either that or a had a brain shart. Probably both.
I interpreted it as, "fuck, can I avoid a tubescreamer, but still find something that does a similar job without sounding pedestrian?"
Apologies.
But I still stand by my Black Forest suggestion. Mother fucker will do anything.

I'm curious about that Sabbra Cadabra Catalinbread did. It may have applications outside of generic Sabbatian worship cults.

Like, in Kvlt cults.

And nice dad jokes.

5150s shouldn't take too much work to sound good. As everyone else has mentioned.

Barracuda wrote: I'm curious about the mesas as well, they're just too expensive for what they are. The 5 band eq ones are crazy expensive!

These new Egnater pedals might be something to consider as well... I've been keeping my eyes out for some reviews of these....

http://www.sweetwater.com/c969--Egnater ... ive_Pedals

Yeah, they're fucking brutal price wise. Could be worth it?
Those Egnaters look interesting, but also expensive...I'm gonna hunt for some demos.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm also looking at the EQD arrows and some walrus audio shit too.

BAT Revelation Superlead!

EQD Palisades.

EQD Talons. Srsly. Run it at 18v. It's glorious, but nobody seems to believe me.

Elements.

jrmy wrote: EQD Talons. Srsly. Run it at 18v. It's glorious, but nobody seems to believe me.

I keep almost pulling the trigger on Talons. I keep seeing them go for pretty good prices. Didn't know they could go 18v. Having a 5150 your post has piqued my interest.

The lesson here kids is never give up.

zeravla wrote:

jrmy wrote: EQD Talons. Srsly. Run it at 18v. It's glorious, but nobody seems to believe me.

I keep almost pulling the trigger on Talons. I keep seeing them go for pretty good prices. Didn't know they could go 18v. Having a 5150 your post has piqued my interest.

Yeah... as a caveat, I'm playing bass. But not super-subs-lows-bass. But still.... I loves it. The EQ is really flexible, and playing it at 18v really seemed to open up the midrange... though phrases like "open up the midrange" make me . But still, it does, and so there you go.

its all about being able to shape your tone (tighten up the low end) before hitting hte preamp.
lowering the gain on the amp also helps as remember, low gain on pedal + low/medium gain on amps preamp = more gain than you think.