Modern metal Stereo rig suggestions

[D-Rock]

I feel the same way about Orange.
I've played some different Peters amps and they were all very nice. I think he is making single channel amps now, but it's hard to pick a model beacause they are all so nice. The Hydra is my fav I think. Really open, dynamic and aggressively voiced.

 

[colimofsmoke]

a while back I talked to James about this stuff and he seemed to think I would be a good candidate for a Chimera. I'd love a single channel. I really never use more than one channel, so two-channels aren't that useful. although a Chimera/Hydra might be cool. Fuck it, maybe it's time to just knuckle down and order an amp from James and one from Kyle at Rhodes (waiting for the two channel tho).

 

[petejt]

Maybe you could try running a subtle modulation effect into the front of the VHT, just to juice it up a little bit so it won't be too dry.
Just watch the mud.

 

[petejt]

The D60 is tight and aggressive, bit mot very compressed or saturated. It can be dialed in for a mid gain tone that cuts like a mother. Emphasizing on crunch and clarity.
Then an amp like the Fireball would handle the saturation, lowend thump and liquid sustaining gain. Just throwing a curve ball at ya,

That's sort of what like I'm trying to achieve by blending a Marshall JCM 800 with a Mesa/Boogie MarkIV.


The tricky thing though is that I also want this deep growling undercurrent, underneath a searing punching aggressive high gain crunch. And a lot of low end chug. And articulation and definition.

 

[D-Rock]

The D60 is tight and aggressive, bit mot very compressed or saturated. It can be dialed in for a mid gain tone that cuts like a mother. Emphasizing on crunch and clarity.
Then an amp like the Fireball would handle the saturation, lowend thump and liquid sustaining gain. Just throwing a curve ball at ya,

That's sort of what like I'm trying to achieve by blending a Marshall JCM 800 with a Mesa/Boogie MarkIV.


The tricky thing though is that I also want this deep growling undercurrent, underneath a searing punching aggressive high gain crunch. And a lot of low end chug. And articulation and definition.

This is exactly what I'm getting out of my new ENGL. Good stuff.

 

[colimofsmoke]

adding an Engl might not be a bad idea.

 

[D-Rock]

I haven't played my VHT since getting the ENGL, but tonight I'm going to A/B/Y them. I'm a little afraid for the VHT on the A/B test.
The stereo "Y" test should be fun though.

 

[EOT]

I've been playing a stereo rig for a few years now. My current rig is Herbert/VHT UL. The way I set the two up is to have the Herb handle the more modern saturated tone while the UL brings the clarity and articulation. Granted I am going for a very modern, aggressive tone. More along the lines of Ion Dissonance, Meshuggah, Acacia Strain, Ect... Not really doom. But if you get the chance to, try running a more saturated amp alongside your D60 kind of like D-Rock has suggested. You may even like a Mesa mixed with it even if you don't like them on there own.

FWIW I'm using baritone 7 and 8 stringers detuned...

 

[colimofsmoke]

That's good info, thanks. I'm really wondering now if I shouldn't try what you and D-Rock suggest and use the VHT as the lower gain amp. I don't really want to sound like all the classic doom tones, I need to find a better way to describe what I'm after.

 

[petejt]

The D60 is tight and aggressive, bit mot very compressed or saturated. It can be dialed in for a mid gain tone that cuts like a mother. Emphasizing on crunch and clarity.
Then an amp like the Fireball would handle the saturation, lowend thump and liquid sustaining gain. Just throwing a curve ball at ya,

That's sort of what like I'm trying to achieve by blending a Marshall JCM 800 with a Mesa/Boogie MarkIV.


The tricky thing though is that I also want this deep growling undercurrent, underneath a searing punching aggressive high gain crunch. And a lot of low end chug. And articulation and definition.

This is exactly what I'm getting out of my new ENGL. Good stuff.

Funny, I used to own an Engl. But I sold it because I wanted a "less modern-sounding" sound.
It was great for high gain and ultra clean, but I wanted that gritty gain/mid gain bark you get with an old Marshall.


By the way though I managed to get my tone working the way I want, so I'm stoked now!
I changed a few things around and it's cookin' nicely- now I just need to make some clips...

 

[petejt]

That's good info, thanks. I'm really wondering now if I shouldn't try what you and D-Rock suggest and use the VHT as the lower gain amp. I don't really want to sound like all the classic doom tones, I need to find a better way to describe what I'm after.

Are you saying you want a dark, sombre, heavy high gain sound, but one that isn't just burpy sloppy sludge OR the clattery-yet-soggy top end sound?

 

[Heritage Softail]

The D60 is tight and aggressive, bit mot very compressed or saturated. It can be dialed in for a mid gain tone that cuts like a mother. Emphasizing on crunch and clarity.
Then an amp like the Fireball would handle the saturation, lowend thump and liquid sustaining gain. Just throwing a curve ball at ya,

That's sort of what like I'm trying to achieve by blending a Marshall JCM 800 with a Mesa/Boogie MarkIV.


The tricky thing though is that I also want this deep growling undercurrent, underneath a searing punching aggressive high gain crunch. And a lot of low end chug. And articulation and definition.

This is what is on so many recordings as I hear it.

Lugo did an amp mix demo and many people liked the Marshall Recto mix. Cantrell does the same thing with Angry and Pissed, upper and lower midrange focus.

I bought a DSL100 just to pair with my TJ or MKIIC. It really does seem to create some width. To my ears, I can hear the separation of the amps because they don't step on each others focal frequencies, but together is is a wall of wide sound.

But after all that, someone else on here shared a more simple solution. Do wet dry and put an EQ in the loop of the wet amp to accomplish that same 'different focus' feeling. It worked pretty good. Quicker, easy, and you can just switch a couple cables to flip flop the master slave amps.

I wish I would have found RT years ago. So many great ideas from players on here.

 

[colimofsmoke]

That's good info, thanks. I'm really wondering now if I shouldn't try what you and D-Rock suggest and use the VHT as the lower gain amp. I don't really want to sound like all the classic doom tones, I need to find a better way to describe what I'm after.

Are you saying you want a dark, sombre, heavy high gain sound, but one that isn't just burpy sloppy sludge OR the clattery-yet-soggy top end sound?

"dark, sombre, heavy high gain sound, but one that isn't just burpy sloppy sludge"


^this.

not sure what the clattery soggy sound is.

 

[petejt]

"dark, sombre, heavy high gain sound, but one that isn't just burpy sloppy sludge"


^this.

not sure what the clattery soggy sound is.

Ah okay.


Sorry about my obscure 2nd description. "Soggy" is what I mean when there is no top end crunch in a high gain sound.

"Clattery" is a really harsh metallic string-slapping sound- you basically hear the strings clatter rather than thump, chug, growl, grind, or crunch. You hear it a lot in 'djent'-type high gain sounds.

 

[colimofsmoke]

yeah, i can't say I love the Djent sound. or most Djent bands, for that matter. although I do like Meshuggah. not that I necessarily want that sound.

 

[petejt]

The D60 is tight and aggressive, bit mot very compressed or saturated. It can be dialed in for a mid gain tone that cuts like a mother. Emphasizing on crunch and clarity.
Then an amp like the Fireball would handle the saturation, lowend thump and liquid sustaining gain. Just throwing a curve ball at ya,

That's sort of what like I'm trying to achieve by blending a Marshall JCM 800 with a Mesa/Boogie MarkIV.


The tricky thing though is that I also want this deep growling undercurrent, underneath a searing punching aggressive high gain crunch. And a lot of low end chug. And articulation and definition.

This is what is on so many recordings as I hear it.

I hear it too. It's what makes so many of those guitar tones so thick.


But yet a lot of two-guitarist bands get the same effect when performing live. Say Metallica for instance- Kirk's guitar always had/has a more 'squawky' guitar sounnd (spike in the central mids and upper mids), while James' sound was more rounded and filled out on the lower mids, while having more of the upper mid-top end crunch. It's a little different now though.

Lugo did an amp mix demo and many people liked the Marshall Recto mix. Cantrell does the same thing with Angry and Pissed, upper and lower midrange focus.

I've always wondered if that was part of the chemistry of Adam Jones' sound- where he pairs the Diezel VH4 with the Marshall Super Bass.


That reminds me of a comment Kirk Hammett said about recording his guitar tracks in 1990- he split the signal and sent the lows and mids to his Bradshaw rack preamp with the VHT poweramp, and sent the highs to a pair of Marshall Plexi amps.

I bought a DSL100 just to pair with my TJ or MKIIC. It really does seem to create some width. To my ears, I can hear the separation of the amps because they don't step on each others focal frequencies, but together is is a wall of wide sound.

But after all that, someone else on here shared a more simple solution. Do wet dry and put an EQ in the loop of the wet amp to accomplish that same 'different focus' feeling. It worked pretty good. Quicker, easy, and you can just switch a couple cables to flip flop the master slave amps.

Another way is to use different combinations of speakers. I changed my MarkIV's amp settings today and also used two different speakers with it. I dialed it in so the graphic EQ scooped a lot of upper mids while boosting the bass and low mids. I cranked the 6.6kHz treble slider and presence so the top crunch would still be there. I then sent one speaker signal to a cab that had EV 12S 200 watt speakers and C90 speakers, and another cab with WGS ET-65 & C90s.

The cab with the EV/C90 combo sounds really gutsy and growly, while the ET-65 cab has a lot of the top end crunch and surprisingly heaps of upper mids- so much it's searing.


And to further complicate things- I threw in the chorus as well! The WGS cab is stereo, so actually receives a stereo chorus signal from the stereo poweramp (driven by the Slave Out of the MarkIV). It's quite sublime though so just thickens the texture nicely without getting washy and soupy, or that shrillness.


I dialed up the Marshall to have as low-middy a tone as possible (no presence, medium bass and mids, low treble), and set the gain at about halfway to keep it mildly clean. I goosed the front end with an overdrive pedal set with a low Tone. And then I sent it to the EV cab so that keeps it dark. It actually meshes quite well with the growly Boogie sound, and helps to balance the more upper-middy high sound from the WGS speakers. And I guess that's what gives the overall sound that width.



I guess this description sounds more perfect than it actually is! But it is close, and after lots of difficulty I am glad I got things working closer to what I want and hear in my head.

 

[Lord Toneking]

My stereo rig is a Peavey 5150 and a Splawn Quickrod

The 5150 has the low mid thing going on while the Splawn has a tighter more 'focused' mid punch

They pair up nicely

 

[petejt]

yeah, i can't say I love the Djent sound. or most Djent bands, for that matter. although I do like Meshuggah. not that I necessarily want that sound.

Same here. I do like the percussiveness but I hate that clatteryness and the "burp" of djent sounds.

This bloke here explains it quite well. 'Djent' is more of a technique to create a guitar tone, rather than amp settings & effects etc.

 

[Heritage Softail]

My stereo rig is a Peavey 5150 and a Splawn Quickrod

The 5150 has the low mid thing going on while the Splawn has a tighter more 'focused' mid punch

They pair up nicely

That seems like it would be a perfect match. Splawn would have a very diff mid focus. Probably almost sounds like 2 guitars.

 

[somata]

I wonder if the missing part of the equation here-and this will open a whole other can of worms-is some dirt pedals. They're not a doom band per se, but Neurosis gets a pretty killer sound in their big doomy riffs and a bit part of Steve Von Till's sound is a dual amp rig that combines a Mark IV and Garnet (or Fender combo) with Rat pedals alongside Scott Kelly's JCM 800. The guitarist from Gaza also relies on pedals to send his Marshall DSLs over the edge.

Some examples of the tone you like would help....