Death Metal Tone

Guitar tone is a highly subjective topic, especially when delving into genres of extreme metal. This page isn’t designed to be the be-all-end-all on the matter, but rather to help you on your way to finding your own sound.

There are several factors that determine your tone. We’re going to break things up into the tools and components that make up your sound.

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Ears – This is THE most important tool in your quest. Some guitar players have a “sound” that is in their head they go about trying to materialize. Others have a desire to mimic their favorite recorded sound. Either way, you need to be adept at critically listening to what kind of sound is coming from your axe and discerning what needs to be done to achieve your goal, i.e. more bass, less gain, etc. On a side note, if you’re trying to mimic a recorded tone remember things aren’t always as they appear. You may have a blueprint of your favorite players rig with all of his settings clearly marked, but that is not necessarily what was used to record an album. In the recording process it is VERY common for several guitar tracks to be layered together to achieve the end result. It’s also very common for several different setups to be blended together. For example, you might use a Marshall cranked to 10 with a 15 watt practice amp mixed in to add “texture” to the sound. Remember just because your idol is standing next to a full stack in a Krank ad doesn’t mean he uses that exclusively.

Check out this interview with Bill Steer and Mike Hickey from Carcass for further reading.

http://www.goddamnbastard.org/carcass/interviews/gwinter.html - Carcass interview

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Technique – You’ve probably heard the saying “your tone is in your hands”. That is a very true statement. If it sounds like two cats fucking when you play, all the pedals and amps in the world aren’t going to fix that. Before you drop $3000 on a new rig make sure you’re confident in your skills with the gear you have. If not, consider putting in some more practice time or possibly taking some lessons.

Guitar – Now on to the fun stuff. For metal, your ideal guitar is going to have a solid body. A solid body guitar allows for more volume and sustain than a hollow body or semi hollow body guitar.

While type of wood the body is made of can greatly affect your tone, for death metal your controlling factor is really going to be the type of pickups you use. If you are purchasing a new guitar you wouldn’t necessarily have to hunt down a guitar made from an extinct species of maple that was handcrafted by a midget luthier with one eye. That’s not to say you should completely discount the body material though. When you’re at the music store testing several guitars, play them unplugged before you crank them up. Compare the unamplified volume and sustain of each guitar. Ideally, you want a louder guitar that sustains more.

Now compare the playability of the guitars. Look for a guitar that is comfortable and has a fast playing neck. You can change pickups and buy different amps to change your sound, but if you can only play your guitar for 20 minutes before you get a cramp in your hand it all becomes pointless.

Some brands favored by death metal players are Ibanez, Jackson, ESP and Schecter.

After you’ve selected your beast (or you already have one) the next thing you want to do is get it setup properly. A good setup with low action will keep your axe playing like butter. You can have it done at your music store for a fee or you can do it yourself. If you’ve never done it before there are tons of books and tutorials on how to do it.

Pickups – There are two roads you can go on when it comes to pickups – active or passive. In the realm of death metal active is usually the style of choice. More guitarists than you can count swear by EMG pickups. Active pickups offer you greater output and better control over your tone via an onboard preamp. Because actives are so high output it is more difficult to get clean sound with them (although not a great consideration for most death metal players, it is something to think about if your style requires diversity). Another drawback to actives is the batteries and preamp. If you are upgrading from passive pickups you have to consider where the battery compartment is going to go and how the leads are going reach the pickups. Sometimes this will require modifying the body, which can require prying money out of your wallet. Common active pickups are EMG 81s and 85s and Seymour Duncan Blackouts.

Passive pickups while less common definitely have their place, especially when dynamics are required. Passives don’t require batteries and are easier to change out. Manufacturers have started making high output passives that can compete with the actives, but you start running into the same problem of getting a decent clean sound. Some common passive pickups are Dimarzio X2Ns, Dimarzio Super Distortions, Seymour Duncan Invaders and Seymour Duncan Distortions.

Cables – While not the most glamorous aspect of your rig they are in integral piece. It doesn’t do any good to have a badass guitar and a badass amp and you have a dollar store cable connecting the two. You don’t have to buy a $10.00 a foot cable, but you want to get something robust and well constructed. Look for thicker gauge cable. It will give you better bass response. This goes for speaker cables as well.

Amp – This is the big one. The real question when it comes to amplifiers is solid state or tube. Usually players are loyal to the death to one or the other. Each has their pros and cons.

If you’ve been around music for more than 5 minutes you’ve heard several times over people espouse the virtues of tube amps. They can produce an earth shattering tone, they can get huge low end and they can provide what gives every death metal guitarist a raging hard on – MASSIVE GAIN! That being said, you can also view tube amps like a high maintenance girlfriend (or boyfriend). They require special care, they produce tons of heat, they’re heavy and they usually come with a hefty price tag. To produce some of the spectacular tones that a tube amp is capable of requires that amp to be turned up very loud. While this may not seem like a hindrance, it can be a twofold problem. Playing at excessive volumes will produce the aforementioned heat problem causing the tube life to be shortened. Also playing at high levels causes the rest of the band to raise their volume and for some reason when this happens it produces a mating call that only cops can hear and they show up at your door. The volume can be tamed with an attenuator, such as those made by Weber or the Marshall Powerbrake, but you still have the heat problem and the money from your wallet problem. The low end on a tube amp also tends to be “loose” or “floppy” which gives that “fat” sound for chord intensive work, but can turn complex rhythms into mush. Another quirk of tube amps is that they have a tendency to change their sound as the temperature of the tubes change, which can cause a need to adjust your sound the longer you play.

If you decide to go with a tube amp (or own one) some of the inherent traits of a tube amp can be overcome with pedals. Putting a distortion pedal in front of the amp can boost your signal to provide you with greater gain at a lower volume. Set the pedal distortion to “0” and adjust the volume and tone controls as needed. Placing an equalizer in the effects loop or in front of the amp can help you tighten up your low end and tailor your sound as you see fit.

Some common metal tube amps are the Peavey 5150, Marshall JCM800, Bogner Uberschall, Mesa/Boogie Rectifier series and Engl Powerball.

Solid state amps have a stigma attached to them that isn’t entirely warranted. Many guitarists decry them as being “lifeless” or “sterile”. While this may be true for styles such as blues and rock, it doesn’t really apply when you’re going for “brutal”. Solid state amps will produce the same amount of gain at any volume. The overall sound of them tends to be “tighter”, allowing clear and articulate sound when playing complex passages. Maintenance on solid state amps is low, they run cooler, they’re lighter than tube amps and they tend to be cheaper. The biggest drawback to solid state amps is that they don’t sound like tube amps. No matter what new engineering marvels an amplifier company produces you can’t change the fundamental fact that a transistor is not a tube. This may or may not be an issue for you. Go listen to Suffocation’s “Effigy of the Forgotten” and decide for yourself if not using tubes is a problem.

Some sought after solid state amps for death metal are the Ampeg VH140C, the Crate GX130C and the Randall RG series.

Speakers – For metal purposes, your ideal speaker cabinet is going to be a sealed cabinet. While open back cabinets tend to be louder than sealed cabs, they lack the bass response of the sealed cabs. As far as the speakers themselves, 10” or 12” is going to be the size of choice. 12” speakers will give better bass response, but 10” speakers with have more mid range punch that can help cut through a mix. The Celestion Vintage 30 is the industry standard for cabinets. It’s reliable, it sounds good and it’s readily available. It’s also expensive and used by so many players that it’s almost a generic sound. If you want to expand your sonic horizons Eminence, Weber and Warehouse Speakers offer a wide range of speakers that are comparable to and in some opinions exceed the Vintage 30s.

Settings – Now that you have your rig together let’s tweak and make it badass. The two main components we’re going to deal with are gain and EQ.