New Gear, Help On Tone

Hi,

I just upgraded all of my guitar gear. Im now running:

Schecter C-1 Exotic Star
Peavey Valveking 112
BOSS MT2 Metal Zone
BOSS TU2 Chronomatic Tuner

I love all the gear and its awsome but im having trouble finding the right tones for certain bands, and im pretty new to tonal stuff so im not 100% with all the meanings.

I like to play the likes of Bullet For My Valentine, Avenged Sevenfold, In Flames etc.. but I cant get the right tone.

I know it can be done cause ive seen people with the same gear as me getting the proper tone in their covers but they wont tell me how lol.

Hopefully someone hear can guide me.

Thanks in advance,

Rowan88

your gonna have to scoop them mids!

Although its a very popular pedal I was never impressed with the MT2. You can get kl off the cuff tones but when it comes to getting something recordable I would look elsewhere or just go with the amp tone itself. Straight amp tone is almost always superior to pedal tones, the best combo if often an overdrive pedal onfront of the amps own preamp.

It's obvious that you play Metal from your set up. The problem with most aspiring metal guitarists is that they read about gear and often don't understand how one piece of gear compliments another (or doesn't as might be the case for you). The most common mistake that newer players make is getting all the DIRTY sounding stuff they can, Metal Distortion, Tube Amp (with the distortion all the way up), the latest Duncan or DiMarzio heavy-metal pickups (like Dimebag Darrell pickups), etc... and when they put it all together they find that it's robbed their guitar of all intelligibility, along with the bell tones and chimes that occur naturally. Basically they are losing all of the sound of the guitar and getting only the sound of their effects. A HUGE tone mistake.

The best most raw and in-your-face tones come from getting a good CLEAN sound from your amp and getting the distortion from using a GOOD overdrive pedal to break up the amp sound (to make it distort). Try turning the distortion down all the way and the level (or output) all the way up. Then dial the distortion up a bit at a time while playing power chords. If you play around long enough you SHOULD be able to get what you are seeking from what you've got. My BEST advice though would be to dump the Metal pedal and replace it with an Ibanez TS-808 Vintage Tubescreamer reissue. This distortion pedal works great for ALL styles of music and has a more...well...MUSICAL tone.

Also...while your 1x12" combo might be fine for practicing, it will NOT be enough for playing onstage. For the type of music you are into you are going to want a head and 4x12" cab. Until you are ready to play in a band however, you are probably good with the Valveking 1x12" combo.

Alas, I have an alternate idea...Try getting some new, higher quality tubes (I'm assuming the stock tubes are in the amp - if not then disregard everything I'm about to say lol). Then, get the amp biased properly. You'd be amazed in the difference that good tubes and a proper bias can make in your amp's overall tone. Then, use a nice OD pedal like a Tubescreamer or BBE Green Screamer to push your drive channel into serious high-gain territory. If you're not quite familiar with different types of tubes and biasing, visit the Eurotubes website for some good information, and the guy (his name escapes my mind right now) has full retube kits for many amps including the Valveking.