LOL Just getting bored at my place. Decided to play guitar after months. And was trying to decide which pedal to play with. So I thought why not try to play some 'Tallica stuff, that I began my playing with. LOL Doesnt matter that today I play far worse than I used toi play 4 years ago. Hahahaha Anyway, here is the Chapter 1 of the duel between these two that I have. As my playing becomes more proficient, I would try to include more "genres" ... but for now - the easiest. I have tried to match both the pedals to give the Mesa/Boogie Mark IV tone of Enter Sandman. Ofcourse fine tuning is required. But strcitcly speaking, Tri-ac here shines, and give more genuine tone than Metallizer (which sounds more like a Recto here). So here is our under-dog TriAC challenging Metallizer, in its territory - thrash metal. Enter Snadman original is panned to one side, and the pedals on other side. I have normalized the volume so that my guitar sound matches the original track (better listen on headphones) https://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=404167 Sandman and Sandman2 are two tracks. I guess in lo-fi version you wont get stereo sound, so check on hi-fi.
Right channel volume is too low.. What settings did u use?? Methinks u need to tweak more.. There are waay better tones in those pedals. What were the bass and treble settings on the metallizer? For me, the metallizer wins. The Tri AC doesnt sound modern enough for this... the high end sounds harsh, and the lows are muddy... The Metallizer on the other hand sounds nice and punchy, without any loss in clarity. Plus in a band situation, the metallizer is gonna cut through better. However, this challenge is somewhat unfair, both are meant for different tones. Lets see how the 2 do when playing somin like Sabbath/Purple. On a side note, good to see u playing again :beer: Oh and, I saw ronnie's band pipers live at BMSIT (they won 1st place) they were tight!! Even through a shitty PA that was being pushed too far, the Fatal Tube was :nw:
Right channel volume was made equal to the guitars on the left chanel, thats why it sounds feeble. Only when no vocals are there then you can compare. Bass and treble on Metallizer was full. And there again this pedal loses. You can't get more scoopy tone out of this. For thick fat tones this pedal is good. But for thin thrash metal ... *rolls eyes* What actually I tried to see in this was that Tri-ac can compete with Metallizer in the Metal territory. Ofcourse it cannot sound as powerful as Metallizer. Next should be some hair metal thingy. PS: DC, I wanted to check the pedal that comes closer to the ol' 'Tallica tone. Its there that Tri-ac sounds more genuine than Metallizer, more grainy/gravelly, more harshy, more bite.
If u wanna get a scooped sound out off the AMT, set level on min, and bass just under 50%. Set treble bet 50-70%. Leave the drive around 50-70% I find that turnin the bass under 10% or over 50% is just asking for a very harsh tone... at least thats how it is on the ones I have... Actually, u can nail the metallica tone with a Cali Sound...
Hmmm, but these AMTs cannot be scooped beyond a limit. And well what I recorded was the max scoopyness
Not really... Increasing the bass also increases the mids quite a bit. Keep level on min and bass under 50%. Oh and, check out the warren mendosa thread on music talk. I've posted the link to the whole album... Simply incredible.
^ But if you are playing along with other instruments and/or vocals, you gotta scoop your mids otherwise your guitar tone will overwhelm everything else. For leads/solos it is fine if you boost the mids. Anywya scoopy mids or honky mids are all matter of personal taste. DC: thanks. Will check the effect of bass on middyness. One more thing, this metallizer really starts sounding dry at low gains.
Even Fatal Tube sounds pathetic at low gain...BD2 kicks ass here....It actually has enough gain and crunch to play Black Sabbath....I prefer a more modern and compressed tone, so I use Fatal Tube...
^^ WTF??? What type of tones are u talking about?? U can pretty much nail the Hendrix (select tones) or SRV or ZZ Top type tones with it.. Good boy Where did that come from?? Having too much mids need not affect other instruments in any way.. (unless u have another guitar player with scooped mids). I used to use a very middy tone and no one else had any trouble getting through. Both the bass and the level affect mids in a big way.... level is almost like a contour control... It may not be as dramatic on its own, but when used with the bass and treble, its very powerful. As for sounding dry, well, u just need to play around with the eq to find the sweet spot.. Sometimes moving one position (ie one of those damn dots) can mean the difference between screechy/weak and perfect tone. Also just try increasing the level.. It usually helps make the tone more punchy. Ever tried the using the TriAC to boost the Metallizer or vice versa?? I just tried using the Fatal Tube to boost the Brit Sound and it was simply incredible!!! Using the Brit Sound to boost the Fatal Tube was also pretty good.. Have to sit and tweak now! :rock: :rock: :rock:
Oooh one more thing.. Probably the most important thing is that the amts built in voicings are pretty darn neat.. If u are trying for a particular tone, keep all knobs at zero and level at 9 o clock. Tweak from there. U can usually find THE tone before any of the knobs hit 12 o clock ie 50%.
^ I didnt. AMTs are too middy, and they lack the presence, which gives a sheen to the guitar tone. :cry1: Yup, its tr00. Actually even guitarists like Petrucci, Satch, Vai etc have high gain tones when they cover classic rock pieces, even though the original tone was pretty low-gained. DC: Hendrix, Blackmore, Page etc had a far lower-gain and "cleanish" tone than FT provides. I dunno how to describe it, but it is like hearing overdriven tone and you can also listen to clean guitar tone underneath. That thing doesnt come in AMT. Its not a bad thing, but I prefer that sound. Infact, I can give you analogy (which is not exactly the same, but has similar tonal effect) of what I am saying: G3: Satch, Vai and Malmsteen. Malmsteen's tone was what I would prefer, rather than Vai or Satch. Ofcourse the main difference in that case was because Malmsteen uses single coil with vintage Marshall. Whereas others were using humbucker with modern amps and pedals pushing them further into saturation. The Warren album is cool. From the first hearing - I can say this: it reeks pro. PS: I tried using the boost thingie. Tri-ac is almost useless to boost others because of its inherent strong voicing. However, I have tried boosting tri-ac once with FatalT00b when Ron had come to my place, and then I tried once with Metallizer. With FT it was pretty fine, sligtly fuzzy, which was great. But with Metallizer it become really fuzzy. The prob is that Metallizer is pretty much distorted even at least gain. Actually the prob is that I am trying to view Metallizer as overdrive pedal, whereas it is extreme opposite of that. It is a METAL distortion pedal. And it ROX in that!!! (except for thrash metal tone : )
Every classic rock lover is looking for that tone. It comes from a low gain t00b amp cranked. Hear the sustain on those songs..beautiful long notes, yet not much distortion. Pedals may never get there.