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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.

Check out the East River Drive for a tubescreamer/overdrive. Ive read people like as much or better than the Maxon 808 and its a lot cheaper.

The Visual Sound Route 808 is supposed to be really good as well, it's a Tubescreamer type pedal with a bass boost switch.
A friend of mine who is a very experienced Metal player used to not be able to find a better pedal than the Maxon OD808 for boosting and tightening up his crunchy / driven amps, until he found the Visual Sound Route 808.

You're doomed to tubescreamers.

Everybody who does the boost into modern high-gain metal amp lead channel thing seems to do some variant of Tubescreamer, though I don't chase that sorta thing so I haven't done an exhaustive investigation. Speculatively, you might be able to use a Rat in low gain range with the filter tuned to taste. (no Ruetz mod--you want the bass leaned up for this purpose.)

I have no idea about the lower gain modes on that particular amp, but often the clean or rhythm channel of a high-gainer plays a lot better with dirt and fuzz pedals.

Lower the gain on the amp, less gain from the pedals?

WeHuntKings wrote:So I'm getting a 5150 soon to play some hebbies. I will probably be geing 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.

Rat into tube head is the shit. I prefer the od808, but if you are handy with a soldering iron, buy the ts9 for $100 less and change out about $2 worth of parts to have a 100% 808 clone.

GE7?

Tubescreamers aren't all bad. A really good take on one, that I've touted before is the Lutherdrove (yes, the gearmanndude pedal). It sounds less gainy more huge and open.
My recommendation would be a good compressor (optical) and a.....who can guess what I'm gonna say next?
Come on. It's the same thing I always say.
Well, that or a BAT Quantum Mystic.
Even an EQD monarch would be rad.
Goroth will be in to tout the arc flash soon.
Someone else will say elements.
Then someone else will say fuck.

I do wonder what those new little bogner and Mesa drives are like though.

WayToHip wrote:Lower the gain on the amp, less gain from the pedals?

The modern metal lead thing seems to be moderate gain from the TS and lead channel gain down a bit from what it would have been. The distribution of gain is supposed to help articulation/clarity/punch while keeping the same sort of sustaining intensity that a higher gain amp setting would have gotten.

For typical ILF kind use, you could always try to run the lead gain really low, and sometimes it's usefully different sounding from the lower gain rhythm channel, but odds are the lower gain channel likes dirt pedals more in their normal use.

Gone Fission wrote:

WayToHip wrote:Lower the gain on the amp, less gain from the pedals?

The modern metal lead thing seems to be moderate gain from the TS and lead channel gain down a bit from what it would have been. The distribution of gain is supposed to help articulation/clarity/punch while keeping the same sort of sustaining intensity that a higher gain amp setting would have gotten.

Only way to use a tube screamer is no again, level dimed and tone knob wherever.

Basically you want a boost that cuts your lows and creates a perceived mid hump.

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.

Iommic Pope wrote:Tubescreamers aren't all bad. A really good take on one, that I've touted before is the Lutherdrove (yes, the gearmanndude pedal). It sounds less gainy more huge and open.
My recommendation would be a good compressor (optical) and a.....who can guess what I'm gonna say next?
Come on. It's the same thing I always say.
Well, that or a BAT Quantum Mystic.
Even an EQD monarch would be rad.
Goroth will be in to tout the arc flash soon.
Someone else will say elements.
Then someone else will say fuck.

I do wonder what those new little bogner and Mesa drives are like though.

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

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.

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. ??