What guitar pedals should I get to give my Marshall a more aggressive metal sound ?

Question

I have a JCM 2000 DSL and though it sounds great I feel that it just isn't enough. I have a distortion plus pedal but that makes it sound like crap. I was looking into buying a metal muff or an overdrive pedal like the tube screamer.

Answer 1

Too much crunch changes "coloration" of a good heavy sound to garbage. You should try thickening the sound with a reverb or delay line - a little echo goes a long way when you plug into the distortion channel.



You could try a flanger, but the trouble with the flanger effect is that it dies away with distance from the amp - sounds great standing in front of the speaker, doesn't sound as good twenty feet away. That's why flanger addicts like Robin Trower need half a dozen Electric Mistresses on the board for playing really big venues ...



If you get one of those multi effects units you can try out combinations of these effects. Probably the best option in this case.

Answer 2

Answered this the other day when you asked a very similar question.



Use the overdrive channel of your amp and put an overdrive pedal in front of it, but DON'T turn the gain on the pedal up. You just want to use it to hit your pre-amp with a stronger signal to drive the tubes into distortion sooner.



Leave the gain on the pedal almost off (1 or 2 at most), turn up the volume until there is no discernible difference in volume between pedal off and pedal on, hit a chord and set the tone knob of the pedal where it sounds good to you, and let the amp do the rest.



You really shouldn't need a pedal, but if you choose to use one the best way to do it is to use the pedal as more of a boost of your pickups' output.



Have you ever used your Marshall in the context of a full band? Like, a drummer, bass player and maybe another guitarist? If you haven't done so yet, you may find that when you do your tone is TOO distorted and gets buried in the mix of everything else.



Also, dial some midrange into your tone. It's more important than you think it is. You don't have to crank the mids, but don't scoop all of it out either. I like mine set at about 4 or 5.



I suspect part of your problem lies in 1) Not setting the EQ up properly, and 2) Your playing style. A lot of guitarists don't realize it, but how you hit the strings is a HUGE part of how you sound. Proper picking technique can make an amp you don't think sounds aggressive into a monster.

Answer 3

The JCM 2000 DSL has built-in distortion. Many reviews of this amp rave over the great distortion that the amp is capable of. You might want to try letting the amp do it's job and eliminating the Metal Muff entirely. If you need to use the Metal Muff, be sure to ONLY use it through the clean(est) settings that the amp is capable of.



My suspicion is that you may be trying to combine the two distortions.....with the thought that if one is good, two is better. It doesn't work that way. When your amp applies distortion to a signal that's already distorted (from the pedal) the result tends to be garbage. It's the old GIGO Garbage-In-Garbage-Out) principle. In this case, less is more....try using either the Metal Muff OR the high gain channel on your Marshall.

Answer 4

That amp does have good distortion, but it isn't a high gain amp like a Mesa Triple Rectifier or anything like that. What cnewshadow mentioned will work, but for really high gain I prefer to use a high gain pedal on the clean channel instead. I have tried several but he Wampler SLOstortion has worked best for me. It is what I use now.



http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifiers-effects/wampler-slostortion-distortion-guitar-effects-pedal

Answer 5

Get the overdrive and a clean boost pedal. I use a clean boost and leave it turned on at all times, then use the TS808 for solo's or heavier riffs.