Okay, it's not that simple, but I want to get a completely professional, brutal, thick, chunky, palm-muting metal sound. I will be using my Les Paul for this (a '96 Classic w. stock pickups on it at the moment). I have an 80 watt Allen Tonesavor (Twin Reverb copy) and the following pedals: Klon Centaur, Tubeworks 901 Realtube, Zvex Fuzz Probe. For those who don't know, the amp has a "RAW" switch that dials in more gain. I can't seem to get the real heavy metal sound with this setup. I am on a budget, and want to know the best way to go; should I be getting EMG's, trying out distortion boxes (I KNOW that I only have 2 od's and a fuzz), or looking for a more suitable amp? I DO have a Marshall 4x12 lying around the house. What to do?? Thanks for your input!

It sounds like you've got some absoutely terrific equipment, but all that stuff is designed to make different sounds from the one you're saying you want. If you ONLY want the metal sounds you described, trade every single one of those items for stuff designed for metal.

Have to agree with dmt on this one. Fender amps have never been big with the metal crowd. I did spend some time playing metal some years ago and that is really a sound that you get from plugging your guitar straight into a good heavy sounding amp. I emded up with a mesa 50 caliber (this was before the rectifiers came out). It 100% nailed the Hetfied MOP sound I was after when running it through a 4x12.

You should take your Paul to stores and try out some of the "metal" amps out there. There are off course different shades of metal, so you might wanna find someone who has a sound close to what your after and then find out what they are using (should be fairly easy to find out over the internett).

Remember though that whilst your current setup will work well with pedals and be able to give you lots of different sound and flavours, a tube amp set up for a good meaty metal sound is a one trick pony. Such a setup will not give you enything other than a perfect metal sound, no clean sound, no crunch sound, absolutely nothing else.....

Master, master.....

Thanks a bunch! That was what I was afraid of. Too bad the metal gig is only a temporary sort of thing, and I dwell more in the blues-rock and jazz vein. I can't sell any of the stuff I have now because I love every piece and spent years and thousands getting my favorite sounds. Maybe I'll consider a used 100 watt head of some sort, but it's gotta be cheap.BTW don't bother trying alnico speakers for heavy.

How 'bout renting a head?

Well, renting a head is like throwing money away, and I ain't got none. Not a bad recommendation, though. I just want to see what y'all think about my Allen set up for loud and clean, then using a good distortion through a 4x12 clsoed-back cab? I'm desperate here... But I won't sell my gear!

I'd check into the tech21 pedal/box stuff

I have their PSA-1 and don't know how their pedal/box compares but they're highly praised for their sound. Plus this might be on the store's rental list for you to try at home on your setup for a week end.

If not you can always work out a deal if you have a good relationship with the store owner. Like 20$ for a week-end to try, and this can be turned into a "cashdown" if you want to buy it on monday kinda deal.

Anyhow that's an idea...

The Tech 21 XXL pedal, maybe. It's brutal if you want it to be.

A cheaper thing to try instead of a new head would be the THD YellowJackets. It will take down your wattage but it will be class A so it should still be plenty loud. This will give you more distortion, plug it into the Marshall cab and you should be closer to what you want.

Keep in mind that a "professional" sounds good with the band. So what maybe the biggest, baddest sound on your own is going to be muddy as hell with the band. So if you don't have all the low end that you want, this may be a good thing.

I would however pickup a cabinet emulator (Digital Lab Cabtone maybe?) so that your soundguy can add all the lowend (the PA will always have more lowend than your stage rig) without feedback problems. I love these things!

Also check out the guyatone HD-2 and TZ-2 pedals. Pickups will make a difference too but it will be less noticable than any of these things.

Actually, the guyatone MMX Metal Monster has more EQ options. That would probably the pedal to check out.

Yah, I can't do Yellowjackets in my amp cuz it's the wrong type of bias, but that Guyaone has some nice reviews! I might just go for that...

I think you may have the wrong idea about the yellowjackets. Your amp is fixed bias which is what the standard yellowjackets are designed for. They do their own cathode biasing so you don't need to reset anything.

They also have ones for cathode bias that you have to do one connection with.

That being said, the el-84's would be nice for the distortion and the fact that you would be able to run the amp hotter. But they don't have much low-end.

I would ask David Allen about using el-34's. You might be able to switch with just a bias adjustment. He would probably have some other mods that you can do cheap too.

Here's a little update. I saw a pair of Fane speakers on Ebay, and I knew they were excellent because a buddy of mine had one in a Mesa Boogie copy. So I picked them up, and after spending a week rebuilding the baffle, bracing, grille, etc., I got to try them out last night. They make a huge difference because they're so well designed and made. An 82oz magnet is nothing to sneeze at!