Good pedal for modern metal ?

[Sid-W]

I have a friend who I want to repay for...being a friend...by building him a pedal.
He's a metal guitarist and I honestly don't have a clue what those guys want from a pedal, I'm more of a classic rock\blues person.

What are your favourite pedals for that kind of music ? something not too complex with a low parts count would be good, I'm not a complete novice but this will be my first pedal build. 

[ghostsauce]

Well.. low parts count pedal for metal to me says a dirty boost to boost the front end of his amp with for more tube gain. Very popular way of getting modern metal tones.. the ideal pedal here would be some kind of overdrive with control over treble and bass. Tubescreamer is popular for that, but no bass control so you could put the input cap on a switch for a few different values. Low value for tight lows, normal value for more transparent lows. Would be nice to throw the diodes on a switch too.. I did that with a TS clone I did and it's real nice to have the option when doing the boosting for metal thing.

As far as a standalone distortion unit.. hard to beat Ye Olde Dr. Boogey. If you don't already know it's a solid state version of the preamp out of a mesa boogie dual rectifier.. pretty much the holy grail tone for modern metal.  Not a tiny build by any stretch though.. If you do go this route, definitely do the modern/vintage/raw switch mod and the 10nF over the volume pot. These made the pedal stupidly close to the amp in terms of tone. You can build it without the tone stack as well, which is helpful for using it as a pedal in front of an amp, or with the tonestack if you want it to just plug into the FX return of his amp to replace his amp's preamp. I lent mine to my brother and don't expect to see it again any time soon. The Dr. B isn't that tough.. it was my first build. There's a couple kits around for it too, I think.

Beyond that, thinking really small parts count.. you could do some kind of boost. It wouldn't be as useful as the TS variant but if it had at least a tone knob it could be pretty great. Stuff like the SHO which doesn't have a tone knob is not so great for modern metal.. too much bass passing through turns the amp to sludge if you crank it up past unity. Great for other styles though.

[PBE6]

I'm only a casual metal fan, but the key sound seems to be a mid-scoop with exaggerated low-end (and to some extent exaggerated high-end too). The sound also seems to be very saturated.

The BSIAB is well regarded here, I'd also venture that a Big Muff would do the job nicely because of its mid-scoop and heavy distortion.

If you want to make something unique, I would suggest the following:

• Starting with a hard clipping section like the MXR Dist+
• Experiment with smaller caps in the ground leg of the gain section to cut more bass upfront, and try adding a small cap (47pF-100pF) across the 1M feedback resistor, both to cut fizziness in the distortion
• Add an opamp buffer after the clipping section
• Add a Big Muff tone section after the buffer
• Add another opamp buffer after the tone section
• Finish up with the volume pot

If you're feeling adventurous, I'd also suggest trying a post-distortion notch bass boost centered around 120-140 Hz or so. The bass boost from the Runoffgroove Thunderbird is a great starting point. Try using 22nF caps, a 12k ground resistor and a 250k pot on the feedback loop (no 47k resistor, wiper goes to -ve input on opamp) for a hefty chunky boost.

EDIT: the frequency of the notch boost is given by:

freq = 1/(2*pi*SQRT(C1*C2*Rpot*Rground))

For more info see this thread:
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=110210.0

EDIT2: those values give 26dB boost, waaay too much without an aggressive bass cut on the input. These values will give you a more reasonable 13dB boost centered at 126 Hz - 27nF caps, 100k pot, 22k ground resistor

[Sid-W]

Good grief, two great responses - thanks a lot

I'm not sure I understand everything you guys are suggesting at a component level - don't worry about explaining that though, I'll figure it out with a bit of research.

[steve_h]

I'd suggest the Box of Metal

[blackieNYC]

I've been searching for the same thing.  After editing my build list a number of times, I plan on trying the Black Forest by our own JOK3RX (a bit like the boogey perhaps).  He seems to have invested a lot of time,blood and passion in that thing. For a small parts count your friend might really dig this sludgy thing that I've just started collecting parts for:  It sounds mighty appealing - probably not a choice for your Dimebag soloing.  Ugly http://revolutiondeux.blogspot.com/2012/01/dam-meathead.html?m=1
I'm always drawn to a mid notch or a mid boost in a metal sound.  Never flat.  Seems odd. So I have a single-band parametric EQ, for the fixed-wah sound or the notch.  There, the best advice a guy who doesn't have one simple great metal pedal - yet - can give.  Aren't you lucky.

[Keppy]

If you do go this route, definitely do the modern/vintage/raw switch mod and the 10nF over the volume pot.

Do you have a link for those mods? A quick search didn't turn up anything solid.

[bloxstompboxes]

What about deadastro's Spitfire, I think it was. If I remember correctly, that gets pretty heavy.

[Joe]

The Shredmaster is pretty decent, and not too hard to make. You can simplifying it by leaving out the tone controls (or use a simpler one).

[deadastronaut]

What about deadastro's Spitfire, I think it was. If I remember correctly, that gets pretty heavy.

yup, nice and easy build too....

[Sid-W]

OK, after listening to numerous sound clips...it's the Spitfire
Thanks to everyone  who responded

Now wait for the build thread entitled " Why doesn't my Spitfire work ?, what have I messed up ? " 

[deadastronaut]

  you,ll be ok man, nice n easy...just shied the input wire, and your good to go...

[Sid-W]

you,ll be ok man, nice n easy...just shied the input wire, and your good to go...

You don't have PCB's available do you ? I can etch my own, but they generally look like something the cat dragged in....

[deadastronaut]

none left, sorry....

[ghostsauce]

If you do go this route, definitely do the modern/vintage/raw switch mod and the 10nF over the volume pot.

Do you have a link for those mods? A quick search didn't turn up anything solid.

Heya, sorry to keep you waiting, but glad you found a good project. I've never heard the spitfire... I'll have to check it out. If you or anybody else is interested in the mods I mentioned, these are really just hashed together from searching all the DB threads in this forum, but here goes:

DR Boogey mods:


- build a standard DR boogie with gaussmarkov´s PCB..
- Replace (C2) the first coupling cap (after the fisrt fet, 22n) to 4.7nF
- replace the first stage bypass caps for two caps, 10uF for "modern", 220nF for "Raw", none of them for "vintage", switch between them with a spdt On-off-on switch


- replace the second coupling cap for 6.8nF or so
- Change the treble cap on the tonestack (6.8n) for something smaller (2,2nF or so)
- use 2 250k pots for volume A and Volume B, i only switch the output of them with one side of a dpdt, the other side controls the leds
- put a 10nF cap between lugs 1 &3 of one of the volume pots (doesn´t matter which one) to eliminate most of the harshness..


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this part taken from:     http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=84110.0

C1 and C6 are bypass caps they effect what frequencies are boosted,using lower values only boosts higher frequencies.The smaller the cap the higher the frequencies that are boosted.  The bigger the cap the more/lower frequencies are boosted.This of course sets the knee at what point the effect becomes less...

Changing C3 bigger allows more lows through,raising R4 attenuates more signal and increases the effect of C3.
I would guess more is going on I am not aware of with those two components as well...

Increasing the presence cap increases its filter/effect on the tone.Someone else can give you a more detailed explanation as to what kind of filters ,ect.   Or use the search button and look up high pass / low pass filters.


______________________________________________________
this part taken from:     http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=60453.0


To get this sound i did this:
- Use gaussmarkov´s layout and scaled down tonestack
- change the 680pf (ussually ceramic) for a 1nF poliprop...
- change the 1uF first gain stage bypass cap to 680nF (for less buzzy sound IMHO)
- make the presence cap bigger (a lot bigger) like 22nF or 47nF, the stock value dont make a noticeable effect (i tried values till i liked the range)
- In my case, i had troubles with lack of gain (believe it or not..it had a lot, but this thing is suppossed to be a gain monster) so i changed the first stage bypass resistor to 2.2K, and lowered some 470k resistors in some voltage dividers of the signal.
- test A LOT of j201 till you´re happy

be patient with trimpots, start from output to input getting the most hiss (yes, it has hiss and i use it like a "trimpot OK" meter) more hiss-->more gain.

using the older layout i use a mpf102 at the third stage, keeping tha gain up and the sqeal down..

and the most important:
- no milleniums, only 3pdt´s
- Clean wire work
- shielded cable for everything you can (in/out/gain/treble/presence , etc..)
- a good soliud metal box and..
- a nice regulated power source.

[ghostsauce]

Deadastro! Just checked out the spitfire vid on your site.. great sound straight into the mixer!!! What a great stripped down straight in setup. Got a layout? 

[bloxstompboxes]

Deadastro! Just checked out the spitfire vid on your site.. great sound straight into the mixer!!! What a great stripped down straight in setup. Got a layout? 

Check the spitfire thread; it's in the PDFs. Sorry, too busy to link it right now. But I was there recently and checked myself.

[deadastronaut]

Yeah pdfs on thread...

sounds great through my marshall clean channel....i,ll have to update my clips..

funny though as i have a spit roasting on the breadboard with a BMT  stack at the mo..

Just been busy at the mo to finish it off.....coming soon_ish...

[ghostsauce]

*Salute*

[bluebunny]

@Sid: I got a PCB from Ronan a while back. I don't know if he has any left, but it's worth a punt?