I had my first full band rehearsal with my band today at a rehearsal space we rented for a few hours. 12€ an hour was pretty good for the space I think but unfortunately the amps they have are shit and I can barely hear myself with the drummer and other guitar playing, let alone the vocalist. They had a Marshall MG50FX and I had the volume dimed on the thing and could still just barely hear myself.

I'm going to try bringing my guitar DI box, hooking it up to my amp's fx loop, and sending the signal from it into the mixer to see if the monitors project sound better than the crappy marshall amp, but if that doesn't sound good I think I'm going to need a pedal/preamp of some sort too hook up to a mixer strictly for rehearsal purposes. Pod XT is out of my price range, and I don't even need 1/10th of what it has, I just need a decent clear distorted sound.

I would love some suggestions of dist. pedals/compact preamps that people here have actually used straight into a mixer in a band situation and gotten a decent sound out of it. Something that'll just allow me(and the drummer) to hear myself playing, that has some decent high gain grind to it(clarity being a big issue here, not just a wall of distortion), does not need to be anything fancy. I have heard of people using friggin Digitech distortion pedals straight into the mixer with great success(most of the new ones have "mixer outs" now), has anyone done this?

I have played a Pod 2.0 before and did not like the sound, but i wasn't really running it into a mixer so I have no idea how it would sound in that situation.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

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As much as people bash on them, I rather like the sound of the Digitech Death Metal pedal straight in. It has the mixer out with cab emulation so it doesn't sound like an overdistorted mess. It's not gonna sound like a thousand dollar tube amp, but it's pretty decent.

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Yeah I was thinking of those digitech pedals, all of them seem to have a mixer out. The one I've heard that I liked was the black 13, sounded pretty good in Scott Ian's demo.

Have you used the DM pedal straight into the mixer with a drummer and other people playing too? Could you hear yourself pretty well with it?

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Tech21/ Sansamp make a load of stuff like that don't they? I've certainly seen a number of their preamp-in-a-pedal go for under £100 here (on the ebay). Do they even have a cab there? If so I'd recommend saving up for an Orange Tiny Terror, I've seen a number of high gain clips and man they sound incredible! Also Line6 have just released the Pocket POD, which is way under £100. Apart from that, the Digitech sounds the best bet. I was certainly more than happy with my Bad Monkey in terms of sound quality and clarity.

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No they don't have cabs, just combo amps. Yeah I was thinking about the Sansamp GT2 for a while, but I it's quite a bit of cash(here it's a bit over 200€) and there's no way I can try it, I've heard some convincing samples but I'm not sure I want to spend that much on just a pedal I'm going to use 3-4 times a month you know.

I've been listening to a ton of samples both on the digitech site and on youtube but to me it sounds like they're all too bassy/warm, or maybe the recordings just don't do them justice I don't know. I've heard some samples of the DOD YJM overdrive, not a great deal of gain but it sounded reallly nice, EQ wise, I loved the accented upper mids and treble without being screechy or thin sounding. Does anyone know of any pedal like this that has a little more grind to it?

Just came across this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MCrFvrpy6Zc

Really diggin the sound, the top boost seems like a good idea to add a bit more treble sparkle which would help a lot as far as clarity goes. Anyone tried the EH metalmuff?

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I just got one of those Digitech Bad Monkey's. It actually sounds really good. I haven't plugged out line level though. I heard it maintains quite well though... Gonna try it out soon once I get shit setup.

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Oh man, this is my favourite Metal pedal, I had one for a couple of months before I bought the JCM. All I can say is that is rocks hard, loads of gain and it sounds really beefy as its Active EQ is like +18db on the B/M/T. Not particularly tight but its not muddy either. If you are considering metal pedals in general this is the one to go for, hands down.

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Woohoo, thanks man, I think my local store has a few EH pedals so I'll be trying it out if they have it.

One question though, I noticed that there are 3 models:

Metal Muff with top boost: http://i17.ebayimg.com/01/i/000/97/cf/3487_1.JPG

Micro Metal muff: http://www.musicbrokers.com/ebay/im...o_metalmuff.jpg

Which only has a tone knob instead of 3-4 band EQ

and lastly the nano muff: http://www.mohomods.com/ebay/pocketmetalmuff.jpg
Which has no EQ but still has the same top boost type of switch I think.

You had the first one right? Do they all sound the same or is the big one better sound-wise? I think I might just get the big one as it has more EQ knobs.

Also I think it might be cool to use it as a treble boost/OD with my Engl Fireball keeping the dist knob really low and the volume knob up high with the boost engaged right? Did you ever try using it with little gain to overdrive a gain channel on an amp?

If it's useless for that it doesn't matter then, it sounds like it will sound amazing into any amp or mixer, all the clips I've seen on YT just sound really amazing.

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Yeah, I had the original, full EQ version. I have heard that the smaller versions sound identical though, judging by mag reviews. To be honest theres very little difference in price, so I'd get the larger one. I never used it as a boost so I can't really comment on that. I wouldn't have said that it would work well with the FB, the sounds are characteristically different and the Metal Muff has a lot of gain even at low settings. The FB didn't even like my Bad Monkey. Stand-alone though its really convincing, just don't expect a really modern 5150/ buzzsaw kinda sound, its heavy and old school.

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That's cool man, it sounds amazing for what it is. Like I said I don't need anything fancy, just some clear, portable and br00tlz. Yeah I noticed that the difference in price is menial so I'll get the full sized version. Cheers.

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Don't know if you ordered the pedal yet, so I'm gonna throw in my recommendation for an AMT pedal. I have an AMT DT-2 which is pretty much a russian sansamp gt-2. Pretty solid pedal and it has some decent tone. I used it on this video if you want to check it out http://youtube.com/watch?v=lyWh8L7TOoY . That was guitar->DT2->sound card with just the eq on the pedal. Also, the EQ on this is responsive as hell plus it's got a shit load of gain (I only had the gain 1/4 of the way up on that vid). The AMT is a little more expensive than the EH muff's, but I think the quality justifies it.

So, if you are a little more interested and want to hear a sample of the DT2 by itself just lemme know.

Nah thanks man it's ok. I think I've heard of that one before, if it sounds like the gt2 it must sound awesome. But are they easy to find though? Doesn't look like that manufacturer gets a lot of distribution. I wasn't planning on ordering it online, just picking it up at a store locally where I can try it or wait til next month as I'll be in the US. Thanks for the help.

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Well, I just checked guitar center's website and they carry them, so maybe if you check one out while your here there'll be one in stock.

I heard some samples at the AMT site... honestly it sounds like a cheap pedal to me, it's like a muddy version of the GT-2. :/ Thanks anyway, but I think I'm pretty set on the MM.

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