Hey, I've been randomly asking people due to my extreme notion of hate towards the distortion I'm running now. So in the eyes of all on this site which is better overall(live and studio) as a distortion pedal. The line 6 uber metal(the only one of them with a built in noise gate), The digitech distortion factory(seems kind of limited), the digitech metal master, or the boss metal zone pedal. If I don't get the line 6 I'll probably need to also get a noise gate but that doesn't really matter to me it's just a little extra. My set up is crappy for now anyways and I have another pedal on the way. Right now I have my guitar(esp ltd ec-1000,PRS santana se(crappy)) running to where my Digitech whammy is about to be, then to a Dunlop 535Q then to a Digitech rp 300(sucks) and from there to an amp, which live I use my wireless system but the amps I use differ. It is either a 65 fender twin reverb(shitty) or a Marshall halfstack(not quite mode four but it gets the job done). When I record I just use my RP300's jack for that and ehhh, which will make it sound better live and studio wise for my rig. I'm wanting more of a dark type feel but I don't want to lose any versatility(hence I keep ordering pedals).

uh-huh. So, what's to purpose if this random thread? To tell us about your gear?

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To ask which of the pedals I listed would sound best with my gear, because certain things I could throw in may make my set up sound like crap. Kinda don't want that.

Like, MF is the Marshall flagship head?!

So what's the stack anyway? MG?

Pffff....I don't get this one....Could be just me

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if it's no mode four i wouldnt buy it.... if it is a mode four, i wouldnt buy it. the only non ALL TUBE marshall i'd go for is the jmp-1 preamp, because it owns. other than that marshall has yet to produce a s.s. or hybrid head that really wows me.

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Marshall is overpriced, and most of it is overrated. They have such a popularity because of their rock image. Every movie that's made about rock or metal has Marshall amps in it, by default. Did you ever see a Peavey amp in a movie that's not a documentary or live coverage?

Marshall is probably the only amp brand non musicians know, just like Fender and maybe Gibson.

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He used the phrase "it's no Mode Four" as if it's the best Marshall head ever produced.

MF is OK IMO, but it's one of the most overpriced amps I know of. And even for half of that price I still wouldn't prefer it over a JCM2000. Haven't heard the jmp-1 but from what you say it must be pretty good.

AVT, the either way I don't own any of the amps I use. Anyways, apparently I'm not going to recieve an answer as to what pedal would sound best with my set-up. . .another failed attempt. Might as well ask another question, is the Fender Metal head half stack any good? it runs like 550 watts at 2 ohms and 400 watts at 4 ohms, but I don't know anything more about it.

Odd that you call names, Maybe true. I just use what I have access too. I used to have hughes and ketner. At one time I was using peavey. At another time Crate. And even once Kustom. oh and let's not forget when I used a Rogue half stack*gag*

What most people here will tell you is instead of a crap pedal get a decent amp, and I agree. Even an AVT has better tone than a distortion pedal.

OD pedals are another story, but they won't do much good to your SS setup.

Eh, See, I'm doing direct line recording(no mics, so the amp isn't going to help very much). I hate using the amps Distortion. I rely on my pedal set-up. It's partially how I change so quickly and get my nice little progressive tones.
I've had decent experience as far as rig set-ups and pedals but I'm no tech. I'm more of a theorist/musician. I just wanted to know about the three distortions I listed, personal opinions. I haven't found much useful information just a lot of sales pitches.

Well, I wouldn't personally trust anything Line 6. As for the MT-2, if it's only for recording maybe you could get a good sound out of it, I don't hate it as much as most people here do, it's actually been useful to me for recording ONE song, which was an ambient black metal instrumental, and that's it. Forget about solo's, no distortion pedal's tone will ever sound right in the mix. But it MIGHT sound decent for some rythme work, especially the speed metal palm muted stuff but you should do a lot of tweaking as it will produce a very thin sound which could easily mess up the mix.

All that said, if I was absolutely forced to get a dist pedal I'd get a cheap DS-1 and experiment with it.

Thanks, you answered my questions. Hear anything good about the Metal Master(digitech) though?

Between the three big "metal" pedals (MT-2, Death Metal, Metal Master) I prefer the MT-2, mainly because it gives you more control over the tone. Then again, I'd get a DS-1 if I were you. It gives an overall better tone and is also usable as a boost, which is very handy when you at last get a tube amp.

did you not read my post?

i said, if it's no mode four(meaning it's not as good as a mode four) i wouldnt bother... and if it is a mode four(or as good) i wouldnt buy it.

and then i went with the marshall should stick to tubes rant...

the jmp-1 rock i had one for a while... it's basically a tube preamp really.. one tube for the cleans one for the overdrive... and in addition to the tube in the overdrive side, you also have clipping diodes(s.s. gain source).

so really it's the same concept as boosting a lo/medium gain tube preamp with a s.s. boost pedal like a tubescreamer. it's very warm and tubey, yet tight and focused..

i had one for a while, and plan on owning another in the future.

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Sorry, wasn't sure if I'd got your point at first so went on repeating mine to avoid another misunderstanding.




I've always been under the impression that the jmp-1 was another one of Marshall's attempts at stepping into an unknown (to them) territory and that it was a failure, up until I read people's comments on this board. Sure I can't judge while I haven't heard it myself, but since it's being praised by so many experienced musicians I assume it must be at least OK.

Still, I'm giving serious thought to getting an Engl 530.

Have you played the 3203 Artist? Its a weird head.. It has a solid state preamp but their is also one preamp tube and a completly tube power amp.

Sounds good with a tube screamer.

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I always heard that the key to tube tone is not pre-amp distortion, but power amp saturation. Wouldn't that make sense?

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yeah, i've seen a couple, played one once briefly... didn't realize it was a hybrid of any kind. it sounded ok for a classic marshall crunch amp.. but i was plugging straight into it... i didn't have any pedals available to boost it with.

the single preamp tube is probably a phase inverter or buffer for the poweramp section..

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