Boosting Into High Gain: Pedal Comparison
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ก.ย. 2024
- High gain boosting comparison between 4 different, commonly available pedals:
Ibanez Tube Screamer, TC Electronic Spark Mini, Boss Metal Zone, and Hotone Blues.
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![Get More From Your Tube Screamer Overdrive Pedal [Solo Boost, Harmonic Feedback & More!]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/zfNT5-P1sdA/mqdefault.jpg)
![Get More From Your Tube Screamer Overdrive Pedal [Solo Boost, Harmonic Feedback & More!]](/img/tr.png)
Bugera amp (crunch channel): 0:39
Ibanez TS9 (modded to TS808): 3:00
TC Electronic Spark (clean booster): 4:40
Boss MT-2 (modded Metal Zone): 6:39
Hotone Blues (overdriver): 8:45
The tube screamer "does the work". The spark boosts a considerable amount of low end, sounds very chunky, fitting for those palm muting riffs. The metal zone sounds narrow on the frequency range (I've also physically compared it with other distortions on 2 tube amps and in all honesty it's distortion sounds very low quality, regardless of the equalization. Metal muff is way better.) .. Finally the Hotone Blues, best pedal of the shootout. Enhances all frequencies in a more "uniform" way and sounds even higher quality than the TC Electronic. I don't play blues, I play black and death metal and I'd still use it. A fantastic find.
Sure it was different in the room but I hear little difference in any
i WISH YOU GAVE US THE NON BOOSTED SOUND EACH TIME THEN CLICKED THE BOOST.
+Snooze00 or you could replay the earlier point of the video if you need a refresher.
I agree, instead of making the video stupidly lengthy because some people are lazy.
Snooze00 LOUD NOISES
Agree 100%....made the vid useless to me
Seriously!
The Metal Zone with the boost configuration combined with a Mesa amp (Mark, Double, or Triple Rectifier) is an absolutely dangerous and brutal sounding combo. Oh and check out the Maxon ST-9 Super Tube Pro Plus it's a fantastic booster/ OD
Olas video got me to buy the Maxon ST9 Pro Plus and it’s fantastic
I found myself enjoying the spark the most.
Yeah, I really liked that.
Same - you can really hear the bass come through. It sounds way chunkier.
Nice Darkness licks. I too, believe in a thing called love.
My favorite thing to do in the morning is to watch a video of a Scotsman talking about how much he hates the MT2.
The second riff with the Tube Screamer gave me an intense Immortal flashback.
The irony of it all is that the Boss Metal Zone is the best selling Boss pedal of all time....
isn't that the distortion DS-1?
The volkswagon beetle was also the most sold car of all time....same logic
brogo ram that was what BOSS themselves said I"m afraid.
irony OR reality?
The thing is that is sounds EPIC through the effects return of an amp!!! Bypasses the pre-amp of the amp and sounds immense
There seem to be some products where the only place they belong is in a "hall of shame." The Boss Metal Zone is in there, along with the Line 6 Spider. The strange thing is that the products in the hall of shame seem to appeal to beginner musicians, who don't yet know how to get a good tone.
This video is still the most relevant one explaining boosting. I think it's important not to turn down the gain completely on a TS-9 style pedal. Imo it sucks alot of the tone out. Somewhere around 9 o'clock is the sweet spot for that nice high end
The same for me, I discovered this for boost. With the gain at 9 brings up the madness, I use with the level at 12 oclock and then add eq pedal to frec modelling.
Tube screamer for the win. Thank you for a wonderful review. had heard so much about how the metal zone was the best boost for high gain, you settled that debate. Got a tube screamer instead. Thank you!
This just came up on my Play Next list and I remembered that I bought the Hotone Blues about a year ago because of this video. I use it with my amp just below biting point to push into some meaty OD and it does the job very well.
So, thanks for the pointer Colin.
Tube screamer is still my favourite "booster", i just like the color it gives to the sound :-).
Nice video.
I can't explain all the feelings that you're making me feel. My heart's in overdrive and you're behind the steering wheel...
ALL THE GAAAIIIINNNN.... METAAAAALLL... MOOOREEE GAIIIIIN... METAAAAL ZOOONNNEEEE!!!! :P
Anyway, nice review, Colin.
Cahyo Amiseso you need to be haired
Slayer
My gain blew out my lose!
I have the spark mini on my board. It works way better going into a high gain channel set to about 1 'oclock to add some compression and saturation. Using the spark mini allows me to drop my amp gain to about noon and get an amazing sound. Great vid Colin.
Spark FTW. Full range clean boost into a tube amp kicks arse (esp if the input stage is set slightly dirty). O/D pedals next for this, TS styles work well (to a point) and those pedals with some sort of EQ shaping (either passive or active) like a high pass filter for controlling bass work well too. The metalzone was never really intended for the purpose of boosting tubes but meant for full out distortion on its own and not so much as a boost pedal. Boosting is very subjective and with so many variables, each persons experience will be markedly different. I use my own design 2 stage jfet boost pedal into my DSL 100 (green classic gain channel) (12AT7 in V1) and that gives me a nice creamy sounding "driven" rock sound, if i want to add extra gain for shreddy stuff i kick on a TS O/D in front of that to provide a little diode clipping and compression.
Colin... the NEW SOUND is using a Fuzz to boost into High Gain. Great video. Cheers.
A lot of knowledge in these videos. You know you shit, i gleamed lots of stuff from you videos useful for picking tone in song writing and general equipment pro and cons. good stuff subbed.
You might want to try the normal Spark booster for this, you might be able to find the color you want as the normal size one has a bass, treble and gain controls and a mini switch to change the boost from clean to fat and mid boost. :)
Just sold an MT-2 that I've had for a long time. Had to get a Decimator pedal just to shut the noise down from that monster. I think the Tube Screamer was my favorite. With the Spark a close second. AWESOME VID MY DUDE!
A great video, very informative. I'm astonished you managed to get a halfway decent tone out of that MT-2.
Who would have thought that Diezel modding a Metal Zone wouldn't turn it into a tube screamer...
+PANICBLADE He did say that modding a Metal Zone is very much an exercise in polishing a turd. And honestly considering how shite the pedal is and how easy it is to get an unbelievably dreadful sound out of it, I'd say he did an ok job with getting a somewhat decent sound out of it here.
Preferred the MT-2 over the Spark, myself.
That being said the Hotone and TS-9 were definitely the best.
I personally liked the TS9 the best, which is good because I was planning on buying one, so I haven't changed my mind. I use single coils, so the mid boost could be nice (I use a strat because I don't exclusively play metal).
Also, the Metal Zone sounded better than I would've expected, which isn't saying much. It had an okay boosting sound, but was still mediocre with it's high gain even on min. It added too much noise, which puts in in the middle-bad category as a booster IMO.
Remember his is really a TS808! But the ts9 will sound similar enough, and very good anyway :)
Oh yeah. Eh, two resistor difference causing a max volume and max gain difference is insignificant to me.
Good god, the MT-2 hiss. Just can't get rid of it.
It's part of its nasty mojo. We all have noise gates now anyway.
Also, if you've got one lying around and haven't tried it in the effects loop (and really put the extensive EQ thru its paces), you really should. That's really where it seems to belong.
wow thanks for this video Collin once again I'm convinced that the tube screamer is the best for boosting
I always feel bad cause Colin makes awesome videos on all this stuff and then we're all out here like " WILL IT sHReD" and I'm guilty of it too but seriously all of this is amazing content
Really cool review!
My favorite here would definitely be the Hotone.
Would be great to have this comparison done in a mix!
I find the trick with using a Metal Zone as a boost is to set the bass at about 9 o'clock so its actually cutting some lows off the guitar's signal. There's a certain type of really sharp, compressed sounding tone like the first Machine Head album or Crowbar that the MT-2 as a boost does really well at getting through the right amp.
Hi, this is a great video and excellent channel. I've been trying to perfect the 80s 'hair metal' tone for a while (think guitarists like George Lynch on Dokken's 'Back For The Attack' album, Vito Bratto, Ratt, etc). I was wondering how important a boost pedal is for achieving this sound, or stacking overdrive pedals or distortion? I have a few questions:
1) Is a boost pedal meant to be used for a lead tone, or is it ok to use for rhythm too? I get that I could just use amp distortion for my rhythm sound, then boost for the solo with a pedal, but if I've already added a boost pedal to rock rhythm tone, how do I then boost again for the solo?
2) If most amps can do really high gain nowadays, why the need for a boost pedal to get the tone into higher gain distortion? Why not just use high gain on the amp itself? Perhaps it's more a tonal thing, i.e. adding the boost gives a different tone than just high gain from the amp only?
3) When it comes to overdrive or distortion stacking, do you start with a clean tone on the amp, then add higher gain pedals? Or an already distorted tone on the amp, with extra pedals? The latter seems to be what you're showing here, but then again can too much distortion in the chain muddy the sound up? Maybe adding an extra boost to amp distortion is better than adding a high gain pedal too.
Perhaps you could do a video about different ways to achieve the 80s 'hair metal' tone. As I understand it, amp tone in that era/genre was mainly either a Marshall JCM800 or later the Soldano SLO-100, with the bass lowered and the mids and treble raised up (plus delay, reverb, modulation etc). However what role does adding extra pedals (distortion, boost, overdrive etc) play to this tone also, and how is best to set them up? Maybe there was even a graphic EQ pedal in some of the guitar rigs of that period, though I believe stuff like to Tubescreamer already boosts mids. Thanks.
That riff at 1:07 is awesome. Should be a full song (if it isn't already).
its an iron maiden song. i forget wich tho
Have you thought about setting up a Patreon page? I really enjoy your tutorials and reviews, as you give great emphasis to the clarity of your criticism, the structure of your reviews and respect to your craft. It would be great to provide monthly support, which would help to finance things like better video editing, camera, lighting, boom mic etc. I wonder if production is the reason why you've not broke the 100,000+ mark for subscribers, as your content is fucking amazing.
my overdrive pedal of choice is the MXR modified OD. I find it very versatile because you can really dial in the EQ with it and really can help boost your guitar signal without overly colouring it. it also has a button that focuses the bottom end more on top of that. the tube screamer kind of reminded me of it and id recommend checking it out. because of this once i start collecting more types of the same effects and stuff im going to definitely pick up the three pedals in this video (screamer, blues and spark) thanks for the cool vids!!!
+Kieran Leski If you really like the MXR, you should try either the VIsual Sound Drivetrain or Fulltone Full-Drive 3. They have the same drive you get with the MXR but have a bit more low end.
ill be sure to check those out but i dont think i need more low end. my band plays in drop c so theres already a lot of natural low end. itd be a good experiment though to see if i can get crazy bassy legato stuff going
+Kieran Leski I don't know if they so much as add any low end per-se but the Tube Screamer (and variants) tend to add a bit of mid-range which may decrease the perceived low end you normally get out of your amp. With those kinds of pedals, they either don't have that mid-range bump or you can dial some low end back in (or out), they just have a bit more tonal flexibility. It also really depends on what kind of amp you're using them with. I have both a GSP1101 and a Pod X3 and I find that some od pedals work better with some amps than others. ie: I find the MXR CBM works best with the 5150 models and the Drivetrain & Full-Drive 3 work really well with the Randall RG100.
Cool video, Colin. Good comparison. Surprised you didn't have Boss SD1 in there, I currently have one on my board set to gain zero, level maximum. Provides a great boost into the Blackstar which is all valve... The SD1 is also really cheap!
Everybody needs to understand that metal zones proper use is in the effects loop of clean chanel - there it gives quite acceptable metal sounds.
Colin, while agree that the Metal Zone might possibly be the worst distortion pedal ever, I found that noise aside, it did pretty well here. I was impressed. Not impressed enough to subject my wife or my neighbours to it, but I was impressed.
I liked the Hotone Overdrive for a boosted high gain rhythm tone and the TS9 for solos.
Have you ever considered doing a comparison of the various Marshall in a box style pedals? I've been tinkering with a Marshall Guv'nor Plus lately and while it's not very usable in stock form, I've been finding with a few mods I found online it really comes to life.
+thisdyingsoul76 Regardless of how good or bad the Metal Zone may be, really high gain pedals in general don't do as well as a boost as a regular overdrive will. I know on various metal forums, some people say that the MZ is "great" but those guys also love the 'razor thin' tones that a lot of death metal players use.
Wow. Surprised. Liked the tubescreamer most. Great work!
Great to see a Fossboard, my mate is the maker of those bad boys! Oh and love the spark, have one myself works great like this but also really great as a crystal clean volume boost in an effects loop...MT2 = shit
glad you mentioned EQ pedal since its probobly the most versitile/controlable for this kind of thing.
While not explicitly a booster, could be interesting to compare a Boss PQ-4 Parametric Equaliser to the Metal Zone!
Seems as if the metal zone gives a good cardboard tone lol
the metal zone sound bright when gain all the way down. another thing you can try is fuzz pedal into transistor amp on the clean channel and use volume to over drive the preamp section to make fuzz sound like it high gain than it is.
Cool video and good comparison Colin. As for the noise on the Metal Zone that's what noise gates are made for, Boss NS-2 or Rocktron Hush, etc. I enjoyed all of these tones but I still like using high gain pedals to get my tone, it's just the way I learnt to get my tone from early on and have always stuck to that. I play a lot of Death Metal and while I think the MT-2 is pretty cool my preference is for Digitech\DOD Pedals, The Death Metal, Metal Master and DF-7 Distortion Factory.
Will it ever shred? :(
+Cameron Lamb i doubt it :(
+Cameron Lamb he even has a short with 'will it shred' on it now. i think it's been too long now haha
I just like to think he broke it..
the whole thing probably caught on fire
+Vincent Esteves It's that damn binding!
Ugh, the MT2 will never sound good and that is no surprise, on the other hand that little blue box impressed me.
EOS44 it sounds bad as a boost. It needs to go into a clean amp and it's actually not bad.
No. th-cam.com/video/YX83ulNWyKA/w-d-xo.html
It only sounds really good when it's used as a preamp tho
Bro its a preamp
The tube screamer sounds so damn nice
I use the Hotone blues in front of my Carvin Legacy 3. I would choose it over any of these simply because it’s such a dynamic overdrive. Don’t let anyone tell you it doesn’t have enough gain either haha.
Sweet shirt Collin!!
Just the info I needed. Thanks Collin.
MachOverspeed
nice dorje + the drills poster in the background
The big (4 knob) Spark is absolutely fantastic for boosting vintage gain amps. I use it in front of the gain channel of my Laney VC15.
Somehow at 7:07 you managed to give me a flashback to playing "Jim Power" on the Amiga, a game I haven't played in over 20 years. I guess the metal zone does "generic 80's/90's side-scrolling shooter" music very well!
I just bought the tc electronic spark but the full pedal, not the mini booster. It's great because you can still use it as just a clean boost but you can also add more mids or fatness to your tone if you wish. killer pedal, I'd recommend it! \m/
I boost with a Joyo Ultimate Drive, with the gain on zero and all the other controls dimed, the boost is much more aggressive than the pedals you mentioned here, it can make a JCM-esq sound a usable tone for most modern metal
The best boost for hi-gain is EHX Germanium Big Muff. The overdrive part of it.
Tip for anyone. Metal zone (or any high gain distortions with lots of eq) sounds great in the fx loop
Those Hotone pedals are really pretty good, affordable, take up no space at all, and well made. I've got their buffer/boost pedal (can't remember the name of it). Looking to get some more of their stuff as I go on.
Excellent video, thank you Collin.
the tube screamer makes anything sound amazing, it's surely the best pedal for high gaining a rock amp without over distorting your sound
Cool video, thanks for sharing; the problem I find with these videos though is how misleading they might be, as they're all aiming to the same type of sound; cleanish clear modern metal tones. What people wants varies, and some people actually still looks the old school dirtiness. Not saying is better or worse, just a case of not sounding like copycats the whole load of us.
great video! it was in your video that I realized the uselessness of the metal zone as an amplification for amps. no matter how much I love cannibal corpse, but metal zone is not for me: loose, fuzzy, no biting midrange ... and catches a lot of noise).
for myself, I have identified the best trinity:
1 - mesa flux drive
2 - boss sd 1 waza
3 - maxon 808
I use an electroharmonix soul food
I think the Ibanez Tube Screamer sounded best but I was impressed with the TC Spark. The Hotone Blues looks like a cool toy robot so I may go with that one!
The tightest and best sounding boost ever is the boss super overdrive. Try it!!!
Hi Colin! Hope you had a great christmas! I just was wondering, what pickups are installed in this CS? The bridge sounds awesome!
Excellent video! I found this very helpful! Thank you!
That tube screamer kicks ass!
I'm surprised that you didn't use the full sized Spark. I have one and it happens to be my favorite pedal. I never turn it off.
I think the regular spark would be a much better contender with 3 settings for flat eq, a bass or mid push and a treble and bass control.
Different comment here: Not going to ask, "will it shred"
: Not going to rip on Metal Zone,
Good informative video, thanks!!
If you have high-gain amp screamer is perfect for adding that small punch to it.
those bugera infiniums are absolutely amazing, the Quality far exceeds the price range
The blues driver definitely sounded the best, but I have an issue with the demo overall. In my opinion, taking a medium driven amp and pushing to high gain with a pedal defeats the purpose entirely, at least in this day and age.
I have only ever seen or heard people use them on the high gain channel with the drive backed off on the amp to boost the sustain of the high gain channel without over saturating.
For instance: A Mesa Boogie Dual rec has tons of gain, we all know that, but pushing the gain past about 1 o'clock is just a little too extreme. The problem with the 1 o'clock gain setting is that a good many players want for more sustain and oomph, but not necessarily more gain. Enter the overdrive. Gain on 0-2ish, Level all the way up, tone to taste and you have a fire-breathing monster that eats faces and lays waste to all that oppose it. What you did here was fine, but I'd have been much more interested to see what the boosts would have done for the lead channel, rather than the crunch.
Damn you Colin, now I have to listen to Permission To Land.
Haha. The Darkness! Thanks for these videos. I cant wait to start working on some of these projects myself.
Colin if you haven’t seen ola englund’s video about the metal zone check it out he made it sound good by putting it through the effects loop
I liked the spark most, I don't know exactly why, but it just sounded perfect
Have you ever tried using a Boss Super Overdrive (SD-1) or even a DS-1 as a boost? The SD-1 is a common one for that purpose, and I actually have used the DS-1 as a boost with my Epiphone SG and my Marshall solid-state combo. The amp doesn't carry a ton of distortion, so I'm stuck with a low-gain setting on the amp, and then I set the DS-1 to a high volume, with the tone scooped and the distortion knob at about 9:00. This gives a much bigger, more distorted, characteristically different tone; it turns the low-quality overdrive tone of the amp into a fat, gainy distortion tone. Much better than just the amp on its own.
The Metal Zone sounded surprisingly good. The TC was my favourite.
You should do a part 2 with a Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive, Visual Sound Drivetrain and possibly a couple other sub - $100 pedals like the Joyo Ultimate Overdrive. I know a lot of pedals can be a bit hard to get overseas but those should be fairly easy to come by.
Wish you would have done some pinch harmonics. Also,would have like to hear them all through the clean channel.
As the owner of a Metal Zone, no it is not a boost. However it sounds better when used as a boost. Although since I bought a Rat, I have labeled it as Pantallica Toanz.
Out my ipad speakers, the hotone was winning until that maiden like riff happened, sort of like a band pass resonant filter with the attack that I wasn't down with.
I used the tube screamer (not modded) and found the leads to sound really fn good! But that lack of low end was killing my amps natural tone. I use a Soul Food to boost my crunch channel. I get the chunky low end and the nice lead sounds! (Leads not as good as TS9 but still does the job!) I would recomend trying different pedals because nobody has the same ear for tones! I tried about 5 pedals before that including the Ts9, blues driver, the really shitty power driver and a few more before settling with the soul food! With my amp and speaker combo, this pedal sounds great! Its trial and error! Good Vid!
I hate the pick noise on the strings during the really fast riffing... Great Video though dude !!!...
How does it sound if you boost the amp with a fuzz pedal? Can it sound good?
It's not bad but it won't tighten up anything, depends on the tone you're looking for.
It depends on the purpose of your boosting. With fuzz face for example it can get some great harmonics and feedback ... but as with any fuzz pedal, the reactions of the amp can get pretty slow. Especially if you'd play as fast licks as in this video. But for stoner /sludgy sound, yep.
I use fuzz strictly for a sound effecf, slow licks and chords. For fast leads and all solos I turn it off
It doesn't sound bad at all, just a different kind of sound. I have a Black Arts Toneworks Pharaoh Fuzz, and boosting my Dual Rectifier with it is basically doom metal chaos.
Because fuzz doesn't focus the low end, and since the Recto has loads of low end thump naturally, it can get pretty nasty.
But that's the doom metal way, chaos. Just a different tone for a different purpose.
Not bad Colin but most of these videos that people do with boosts especially clean boosts hardly any put them in the loop which is where they shine? Ep boost, cae line drive, mxr micro amp, tc spark and even compressors sound incredible in the loop over an already dirty tone. I have a few but atm I’m using an mxr dyna comp with the sensitivity all the way down so essentially it’s a clean boost. It does color the tone as do most I mentioned but in a good way. People don’t think to use compression in loop but it’s a great lead boost really fattens single lines up.
you've used the spark mini so I don't think this is fair unless you use the ts9 mini as with the larger model you can choose between the boost type mid, fat etc and on the mid settings I believe it closer to the tube screamer.
Also the metal zone is a distortion pedal not an overdrive so the clipping stage is completely different lol
I'm sorry but people who say that the Metal Zone should be used as a boost don't really know what they're talking about. Yes, you CAN use it as a boost if you're stuck with the pedal and can't sell it to anyone, but to buy a Metal Zone instead of ANY overdrive pedal (you can get the Joyo for like $30) solely for the purpose of boosting, you've got to be insane. That's not what the pedal was designed to do and the designers aren't idiots that don't know what the product does.
The pedal was meant to give you a high-gain sound on the clean channel and I find that it works much better with a solid state amp, possibly even plugged into the Return so the preamp isn't fucking with its EQ. If you want a boost - literally get anything else but a Metal Zone. If you want high gain - eeeeeeeeeh, you can get it, but I don't recommend it either way. As Colin himself said, check out the Marshall Jackhammer. Beast of a pedal.
love the tube screamer
The MD-2 would be good for boosting into high gain and for me it's much better than the MT-2 as you can dial in the amount of distortion more freely.
Hey Colin. Did you make a vid on the mini spark pedal? Also, ever thought about putting a multitrack comparison video up where all of tje pedals can be heard together and the original?
I had a boss ds1 lying around and found that it makes as a decent boost in the effects loop. Gain 2:00, tone 12:00 and level adjusted according to the amount of volume boost you want.
I heard db boosts in the effects loop can damage the out put tubes. Maybe look that up! ( :
+Kiran Evetts I read up and was getting mixed opinions. Worst case I will change power tubes earlier but I don't care still using factory tubes
+Luke Wilson fair
The spark does sounds just a little muddy.
Im ok with the metal zone but im almost convinced its a fuzz pedal with overdrive.
Nice vids thank you for the demos, would love to see an Equalizer into gain (post Gan too!) session. I use 2x EQ's via the stiletto... its too much fun
TBH I couldn't hear the difference when playing ...maybe it's my speakers etc i really couldn't spot any difference . With exception when you pointed out the excessive hissing sound given by the Boss pedal ...
To my untrained ear the tube screamer and the blue sounded by far better than the other 2, the metal zone sounded like Shite in my opinion.
I like to use my Maxon reissue to boost my Marshall. If I need more bottom end I use the ZW44 setup clean.
Sorry Colin, not sure if I'm getting you. Can you clarify whether you like the Boss Metal Zone pedal or not? There seems to be an element of doubt there....:) LOL.
Joking aside I think it is a bad pedal purely from the point of view of the amount of white noise it generates. I tried using one, and the tone wasn't too bad, but I needed extra effects to just quell the hiss - which in turn destroyed the tone. Can't win with this pedal.