While I greatly admire pure, clean guitar tones—and yeah I love me some overdriven blues—what I enjoy most is rocking out to a thick, heavy, high gain tone. Of all the tones possible to get on an electric guitar, getting a really great high gain tone can be the most challenging—especially when you’re on a tight budget. The term “high gain” covers a pretty wide spectrum, but I’ll define it for my purposes here; “high gain” covers everything from old school Black Sabbath to the modern metal tones of Lamb of God. But for every great, heavy guitar tone that you hear on your favorite recordings or on stage, there usually exists a great amp. That said, what if you already love your amp, but are still missing the extra stage of gain it doesn’t possess? What’s the solution when you aren’t able to own a collection of great high-gain amps?
Pedals, of course! Now I’m not saying that any one pedal (or two, or three…) can replace the right amp. That’s not likely, but today there is a ton of good choices at many price points that, in conjunction with a good clean tube amp, can get you pretty close. And for studio or home use, the right pedal can also be a lot more convenient—not to mention a lot more affordable.
The challenge before me then, was to demo a few pedals (okay, actually 10) and report back on my findings, to answer this question: Am I able to get that high gain tone I hear in my head without having a high gain amp?
Some gear background: I used a simple Fender Humboldt Hot Rod v2—essentially a Blues Jr. on steroids—with the tone controls set fairly neutral. Guitars included a pair from PRS (SE Clint Lowery in Drop C tuning, and a new USA made S2 Custom Standard 22 tuned to drop D), a Les Paul (with Burstbucker 1 and 2 pickups), and to make it interesting, a Fender Custom Shop Telecaster (with Abigail Ybarra pickups).
First, I tested out five pedals that were under $200, and in part two, another five pedals over $200. I was looking to find out what types of distortion were on tap, from classic hard rock distortion and old-school heavy metal to more of a modern, super high gain metal tone.
In addition, I wanted to determine whether the pedals were truly amp-like or not. I wanted that visceral feel, where the tone hits you in the chest like a ton of bricks. I didn’t necessarily care if a pedal was geared towards old-school metal, modern high gain, or stoner rock, just that it sounded real, and inspired me to play more. So, which pedals do it best?
My selection here is admittedly limited—there are so many choices available, it can be overwhelming. I’m sure your favorite pedal might not have made the cut, apologies in advance. I also wanted an interesting selection with some affordable pedals, some that are easy to find in most guitar stores, as well as some higher end boutique selections to show what is possible. The 10 pedals range in price from $79 to $299. Let’s look first and the under $200 group:
ProCo Rat2 - $79
I wanted to start off with one of the most iconic distortion pedals of all time, to see how it has held up against newer and more expensive offerings. The answer: pretty damn well. The simplest pedal of the bunch, it has only three controls; Volume, Distortion, and the all-important Filter knob. Essentially, the Filter works sort of like a tone control: turned all the way clock wise, you get the least amount of treble (although still a fair amount), with more midrange and some bass. Turn it counter clockwise, and it quickly gets much brighter, but with less midrange and not much bass. I found I needed to keep the Filter control closer to fully-clockwise most of the time. The Rat has a good amount of both volume and distortion, so it should easily cut through any mix. It still has that distinct hard rock distortion tone and borders on fuzz.
What we like: Classic rock to punk rock distortion, the Rat is easy to use, affordable for most anyone, and still uses that cool heavy duty enclosure. If you’re playing in a band, the lack of low end won’t bother you, plus you will cut through the mix pretty well.
Concerns: A bit noisy compared to the others, and limited to the type of tone it will give you. Old school-metal is possible, especially when paired with an amp that is already slightly overdriven, but modern metal tones aren’t likely.
MXR M75 Super Badass - $99
Some might wonder why I didn’t choose MXR’s Fullbore Metal, but that pedal always seemed too over-the-top, and not as musical as I was wanting. The Super Badass actually has a lot of gain on its own, and for about $20 more that the Rat, you get a useful three-band EQ, allowing you much more flexibility. There is also a ton of volume on tap—almost too much, really—with the gain set at any level; if you need it, this pedal has it. The gain range is very useful too, although I liked it best around noon or a little higher, for that heavy crunch tone. It’s not quite a modern metal sound, and not a fuzzy doom type pedal either; it sort of straddles both. And even though there isn’t any type of noise gate option, it wasn’t too noisy at all.
What we like: Versatile EQ helps match up the amount of gain to your type of guitar and pickups. Nice sounding rock and metal tones in some situations. Affordable and easy to find.
Concerns: It can’t quite do the tight, palm muting chugga-chugga type tones I like to employ now and then. The overall tone is a bit generic, but it’s very capable.
TC Electronic Rottweiler - $129
If you want really heavy, modern metal tones, the Rottweiler has them in spades. The amount of gain it has ranges from a whole lot to ridiculous. There is a toggle switch (Voice) that changes the mid focus, plus there are Bass and Treble controls. Depending on how you set the Voice toggle, you end up with either a very scooped midrange tone, or just a somewhat scooped midrange—think Cowboys from Hell by Pantera. There is no other way to add in extra midrange. What I found was most odd with this pedal, is that I found the sweet spot with just about every control, including Gain, Volume and Treble turned down most of the way, with the Bass control turned up past noon. Thick, tight percussive tone is the Rottweiler’s signature tone, and basically its only tone.
What we like: The Rottweiler will appeal to more of the extreme type of metal; black metal, death metal, etc. Modern metal tones, and palm muting chugga-chugga stuff is a breeze with this pedal.
Concerns: It’s noisy. It would benefit from a noise gate. Not very versatile beyond the genres mentioned.
Keeley Electronics Stahlhammer - $149
It seems like Keeley has been on quite a roll lately. After spending many years being known first as a pedal modding company before offering a few of its own designs, Keeley now has something like 28 different pedals in its repertoire, including the high-gain Stahlhammer. With a setup similar to the MXR, it features Volume, Gain and a three-band EQ. It’s a very slick looking pedal, with a very nice feel and build quality to it. Fortunately, it sounds really good too. It also has a realistic volume taper to it—something that I appreciate. Turn the gain below noon and you get less distortion—in fact, it’s closer to an overdrive tone. Turn it up past noon, and it starts getting heavier. Unlike just about every pedal in this group, I liked it best with the gain turned up all the way. Even then, it doesn’t have the brutal heavy tone of the Rottweiler but it’s close while being more musical. Depending on how you set the tone controls, it can be dialed in to give you a somewhat tight tone, or a little fuzzier, without sounding like an actual fuzz pedal.
What we like: Versatile, great range of gain and very useful EQ controls. It sounds like an amp, and not a pedal. Not noisy even without a noise gate.
Concerns: Very little. With lower-powered pickups, I might have wanted just a little more gain, but depending on your needs, this might be a non-issue.
ARC Effects Soothsayer - $179
The Soothsayer is a Rat derivative, so this might seem like an odd choice here, but I wanted to illustrate what a great boutique build gets you for about $100 more. In a word, everything. The Soothsayer actually uses the coveted new old stock LM308 chip that made the original whiteface Rat so special (I still kick myself for selling my early ‘80s Rat, d’oh!) The Soothsayer has a wider and deeper gain spectrum. The Filter control has been rewired to work more as a traditional tone control, which I found much more useful. In addition, the Soothsayer includes several different distortion tones via a simple toggle, with options for Classic, Boutique, Open and Turbo. Plus there is an internal Hi-Lo switch that lowers the overall gain of the circuit and allows the pedal to be used more like an overdrive if you need that. What doesn’t change however, is that the Soothsayer really doesn’t do high gain metal chugga-chugga.
What we like: Versatile hard rock tones, with an absolute ton of volume on tap. The ability to set it differently for more overdrive-like tones. Superb build quality.
Concerns: Not the right distortion pedal if you want a more modern type tone.
Just with these five pedals I was surprised by the variety of tones they all achieved, and that none were that alike, even the Rat and the Soothsayer. In Part Two, we’ll look at the next group of five, all over them over $200 to see if they’re worth the extra cash, and what they bring to the party. Until then, rock on!