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What’s new at Zystrix? Read on… January 6, 2025 Metal Guitar Pedal Essentials Lets start the new year, 2025, by going over some essential guitar pedals. These are the 5 pedals that would be part of a stripped down metal guitar rig – the least amount of gear for the biggest bang for the buck. So sit back and relax. Welcome to Zystrix, the heartbeat of the universe. Where creativity and free-thinking have more value than conformity. Background Artwork The colorful artwork that surrounds the edges of this website is invisible to many cell phone users. It’s included here for your enjoyment. Multiple copies are tiled together for a cohesive and seamless background seen all around this page. Enjoy. Metal Guitar Pedal Essentials Believe it or not it’s possible to have only 5 pedals in a metal guitar rig. The trick becomes choosing the right overdrive pedal because there are so many, and because it depends on your final sound requirements, and it also depends on your amplifier sound. If you are going to rock then clean amps have different requirements than overdriven amps. Does your amp offer reverb? This may save on buying a reverb pedal later. The rest of the pedals are not so difficult to choose. This list is also assuming you have a power supply with cables for each pedal to power them, and short patch cables to connect your pedals together. All pedals have free shipping, and I put them in the order I would hook them up. And away we go... THE FINE PRINT: We never use affiliate links to monetize this website. Unlike most music websites, Zystrix never receives any commission on any gear or software you may purchase via a link on this website. This keeps our reviews dead honest, and also helps keep your price of gear lower. #1. Tuner Although a tuner clipped onto your head stock saves pedal board real estate, having a tuner on your pedal board or clipped to your guitar head stock is imperative. Not using a tuner is just as bad as a drummer who says they don’t need a metronome. And if you play in a band with a keyboardist a tuner is even more important because keyboards make guitar tuning imperfections really stick out. Joyo makes a good tuner, the JF-188R ($67.80 and free shipping). The Behringer TU300 Chromatic Tuner pedal gets inspiration from the Boss TU-3 pedal, and can be found for about $25 USA with free shipping. And for a price that low I can’t think of a reason not to get one, and it can be even used as a spare. The Behringer TU300 Tuner has features like different tuning modes including Regular, Flat, Double Flat, and Chromatic mode. It also has a mute bypass function, and it can be adjusted from 438Hz to 447Hz. Just get one. #2. Noise gate If your guitar has single coil pickups, or you use a distortion pedal, or you’re going for a world record in guitar high gain then a noise gate is a must. Rowin makes an excellent noise gate ($28.80 USA with free shipping) as does Behringer with their NR300 Noise Reducer pedal. Once again it gets inspiration from Boss, namely the Boss NS-2. And at $25 and free shipping the NR300 is perfect. The Reduction mode eliminates noise, while the Mute mode acts as a kill switch for instant silence. The Pulse Noise Gate PT-19 is another hard gate type like the Rowin for only $28.80 USA and free shipping. I prefer the Rowin because of the hard and soft gate switch that’s excellent for gallops and chugs, but you have to be the final judge. #3. Compressor I feel this pedal is essential, although many don’t understand what it is doing and don’t like it. Compression squashes or flattens the overall volume, so it brings the high and low points of the amplitude closer to the middle. This is excellent for making everything sound more even, and it also increases perceived sustain. It also makes recording a guitar easier because there aren’t as many spikes in the signal that distort the front end of the recording console. I prefer it used before the overdrive or distortion pedal because it makes it more ballsy and raucous. Stacking a compressor and an overdrive is like combining your favorite gin and Campari; they just go together naturally. And if it’s used before a clean amp tone the sound becomes more full, round, and pleasant. I prefer the sound of a big tube amplifier that’s begging for mercy, and every time I slam a chord it sags. That’s how I run my compressor, and I don’t use a clean sound very often, if at all. When it comes to pedal choices the Lekato R-Comp (sometimes found at the online Walmart site with free shipping) is a good one if you like the old Ross Compressor sound and response. Another great choice is the Behinger CS400 ($25 USA with free shipping), as it gets inspiration from the Boss CS-3, and it’s considerably cheaper than the Boss. The Pulse Compressor ($32.00 USA and free shipping) has a bright and normal switch feature to help bring life back to squashed signals. And here’s one that has another bend on compression called the Caline Presure Tank ($33.80 and free shipping), and it is inspired by the yellow Diamond Compressor pedal. And one that has yet another slightly different take on compression is the DemonFX CK Compressor ($44.80 USA with free shipping), and it gets it’s inspiration from the somewhat pricey Keeley Compressor pedal. I used the MXR DynaComp for at least 30 years, but I recently switched to the DemonFX CK because I think it sounds a little more natural, and they also stack well together, if needed. #4. Overdrive Overdrive is another must- have pedal for the metal guitarist, and if you’re going to rock you’re going to need one. Even if your amplifier has built-in overdrive or a lead channel, it’s still nice to have a different overdrive in a pedal format on your board. You can even use a couple overdrive pedals to stack gains (or run in parallel) for your own signature sound, or simply use both the amp and the pedal overdrive to do the same thing. And the range of sounds that can be created from even just one overdrive pedal is mind-blowing; from slight dirt when digging into the notes, to a meaty crunch for slamming chords, to metal tones that kill small animals within 10 meters (approx 30 feet). And the number of pedals available that can do the job is staggering. A good starting point for lighter distortion or a transparent type drive is the Caline Pure Sky ($29.80 and free shipping). It’s an excellent Vemuram Jan Ray or MXR Timmy clone, and to me it’s better. Or try the Behinger Vintage Tube Overdrive (original Tube Screamer 808 clone), the Mosky Golden Horse (a very good Klon clone), or the Mooer Blues Crab (Marshall Bluesbreaker clone). And some pedals offer stacking all by themselves. Check out one of my favorites, the DemonFX ‘83 $64.80 USA (Marshall Blues Breaker and Klon clones), or also the DemonFX King of Drive (Marshall Blues Breaker and Tube Screamer clones) and it sounds as good as the Analog Man King of Tone to my ear, and there’s no 4-year wait. Or try the Tone City King of Blues $64.00 USA (Klon and Bluesbreaker clone). And if you like a more aggressive tone try pedals like the Caline English Man $32.00 USA (sounds similar to a Marshall 800), or the Tone City Golden Plexi 2 $59.00 USA (guess what that sounds like), or the Joyo R-03 Uzi for $47.80 USA and free shipping (Friedman BE-OD clone with better tone control), or one of my favorites, the wickedly monstrous sounding Joyo JF-04 High Gain Distortion $37.80 USA (Son of Hyde clone) for about $37.80 USA and free shipping. I wish it had a bass control, but an EQ pedal fixes that. Or try the Joyo R-17 Dark Flame (Revv G3 clone) $52.80 USA and free shipping, or the DemonFX Revelation 4 (Revv G4 clone) for $54.80 USA and free shipping. And one of my personal favorites is the DemonFX BE-Deluxe 2 (Friedman Dirty Shirley clone), it’s the one with the toggle switch on the side, for $55.80 USA and free shipping. To hear my take on two pedals listed above check out the “Zoo-Tube” video, “Guitar Pedal Shootout – Golden Plexi 2 vs English Man - Zystrix”. Or another way to see and hear the same results without ever leaving this website is to simply click here. #5. Equalization I suppose most pedal dealers would tell you that a modulation pedal of some sort would be the next pedal of choice for this 5th spot. But I feel an EQ pedal would be the best choice. Why? To me it’s all about finding a personal guitar sound that’s all yours. And EQ can fine tune a mediocre overdrive tone into a great tone. And EQ can also do other tasks like make a great scooped guitar tone, or an old radio Lo-Fi guitar tone, or it can also be used as a clean boost pedal into a tube amplifier (run all faders flat except turn up the level slider). All of these options make for a better basic guitar sound, hence I chose an EQ pedal for this spot. And there are some superb EQ pedals out there for a great price. Try the Joyo JF-11 6-band EQ $37.80 USA with free shipping. Another one is the Caline CP-71 EQ ($46.00 USA with free shipping). But probably the most bang-for-the-buck is the Behringer EQ700 (Boss GE-7 clone) for $25.00 with free shipping. And if you can’t dial in your sound with one of these EQ pedals then you can’t dial in your sound. Conclusion And there you have it; the 5 essential pedals for playing metal guitar. Don’t go on a spending spree. Although a person can’t go wrong with any of the pedals listed above, it’s better to shop slowly and listen. Use your ear. The sounds I like and what you are trying to accomplish in the way of your own sound could be two different things. Besides, I just scratched the surface of the available pedals. What I tried to do with this list is get the best sound for the least amount of money. So order online (or use big-box music stores) and get some new toys and have fun playing. Don’t touch that dial… Stay tuned next time… We’re going to look at some modulation pedals that would be plugged in after the ones we covered today. And Dangerous Neighbors has a new piano tune called Beautiful Pink Casket. Maybe I’ll see you next time. Always remember that you’re unique, just like everyone else. Knowledge, art, and music for all.

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The Free Dangerous Neighbors Album The Fluid, Embalmed for Life comes included as part of the audio book and parts are available here as a free download. The paperback book is available for sale at Amazon dot com. I have no control over these sales; because of the Amazon agreement I cannot offer complete paperback or complete audio books here. And for some reason most book sales go to Japan. Who would have thunk it? Click here for free audio books, book reading samples, music samples, etc. Take me back to the top of the page. Zystrix Privacy Policy THE FINE PRINT: Zystrix is a world leader in personal privacy and we take your privacy very seriously. We do not store, sell, give away, or barter with any of your personal or private information including your email, IP address, links clicked, location, habits, tastes, online activities and behaviors, or anything else considered personal or private information. We never have. 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