How to get a metal tone on any amp
Cut the bass further than feels right, keep the gain lower than you expect, leave the mids audible, and use a noise gate. Most amps that supposedly cannot do metal are being asked to make heaviness out of bass and gain, which is where heaviness does not come from.
If the amp genuinely runs out of gain, an overdrive pedal in front of the input with the drive low and the level high adds saturation and tightens the low end at the same time.
Turn the gain down
Past a certain point more gain adds compression and noise rather than aggression. It also destroys the gap between notes, and palm-muted riffing depends entirely on that gap being clean.
Set the gain where a fast palm-muted run stays readable, then stop. On most amps that is a good deal lower than the panel suggests.
Cut the bass, not the mids
Distortion multiplies low frequencies into everything else, so bass that sounds correct clean turns into mud as soon as the gain rises. Detuned parts need it cut further still.
Cutting mids is the more common instinct and the more damaging one. It hollows the tone out and removes the range that makes a riff audible with drums playing. See the guide on scooped mids for why the records that made it famous do not apply to a single live guitar.
Put an overdrive in front
A Tube Screamer style pedal with the drive near zero, the tone around the middle and the level high is not being used as a distortion. It is being used as a filter and a boost: it rolls off the low end before the signal reaches the amp's distortion, and it pushes the input harder.
The result is a tighter, more focused version of the same amp, which is the single most effective thing you can do to a mid-priced high-gain amp. It also works on an amp that does not have enough gain of its own.
Gate it
High gain and single-coil-adjacent noise are a bad combination, and the silence between riffs is part of what makes a rhythm part sound tight. A noise gate is not a luxury on a high-gain rig.
Set the threshold just above the noise floor with the guitar's volume up, not down, or the gate will chop off sustained notes.
On a modelling amp, pick the model first
The voicing selector sets the ceiling. Every knob afterwards works inside whatever the model can do, so turning the gain up on a clean voicing will never arrive anywhere useful.
Choose the high-gain model, then apply everything above inside it.
Getting a specific tone rather than a good one
The advice above produces a solid metal tone on almost any amp. Landing on a particular record is a different job, because the numbers change with the amp and the guitar.
Tonelify takes the song, your amp and your guitar and returns the positions for your rig, using only the controls that amp actually has.
Common questions
Can you get a metal tone from a cheap practice amp?
Usually yes, with the bass cut further than feels natural, the gain lower than expected, the mids left audible and an overdrive pedal in front of the input to tighten the low end. Most practice amps fail at metal because they are asked to make heaviness out of bass and gain rather than out of tightness and midrange.
Why does my high-gain tone sound muddy?
Almost always too much bass, too much gain, or both. Distortion multiplies low frequencies into everything else, so a bass setting that sounds right on a clean channel turns to mud once the gain rises. Cut the bass first and lower the gain second.
What does a Tube Screamer do in front of a high-gain amp?
With the drive near zero and the level high, it works as a filter and a boost rather than a distortion. It rolls off low frequencies before they reach the amp's distortion stage and pushes the input harder, which produces a tighter, more focused version of the same amp.
Settings for your own amp
This guide covers what is true of every rig. For a specific song on a specific amp, Tonelify reads the documented chain behind the recording and returns gain, bass, middle, treble and presence values for the controls your amp actually has. Free for 7 days, no charge until the trial ends.
Keep reading
- What does scooping the mids mean?Scooped mids means cutting the midrange and boosting bass and treble. Why it sounds enormous on its own, why it disappears with a band, and where it is genuinely correct.
- How to EQ a guitar ampSet the gain first, then cut before you boost, and move one control at a time. A repeatable method for EQing any guitar amp, and what each band actually does.
- What order should guitar pedals go in?Tuner, filter, compressor, drive, modulation, delay, reverb. The standard pedal order, the reason behind each position, and the cases where swapping two is correct.