http://www.ehow.com/how_2337942_get-good-metal-tone-guitar.html

THANKS E HOW.COM!

where was this site 10+ years ago!?

i feel raped.

Damn. I've been doing it wrong all these years!

Speaking of this. What do any/all of you use for settings? pedals? or just amp distortion.

I personally just use the distortion on the amp.. usually have settings in the following:

These are average. sometimes I may ajust them for temperature,/ how the other persons amp is set. (so I can hear myself)
Bass between 7-8
Trebs 5-6
Mids 3-4

A simple high-gain pedal like the "death metal" is good for getting that sound. As I recall, it only has a bass and treble dial. Some pedals even have a special "mid-range scoop" dial or something like that. While it is important to adjust according to the gear of others you're jamming with (especially in your basement), I find I get the best tone when crank the gain, bass and treble the whole way up and mid all the way down. Then I adjust them from there, and as for the gain it depends on the acceptable volume, cuz the higher the gain, (at least with my amp), the lower the volume.

roughly speaking I like boost the super low end, keep the lows flat, scoop the lower mides, peak the upper mids and keep the highs flat on my rhythm patch, keeps it behind the vocals, then for my leads i boost up the lower mids and the highs, and cut out the low lows...so the lead patch kinda drowns out the noise and sounds fresh to the ears...

running my 300 dollar guitar into my 200 dollar ada mp2 using old sovtex preamp tubes with a $100 alesies midi verb in the effects loop, then i run into the effects return of a poopy crate gxht something or ortheir $150 120 watts of solid state poop, then into my 1/2 loaded 4x12 i built out of an $80 3/4" sheet of baltic birch with $100 worth of ancient celestion gt-1275 pulled out of a jcm 800 cab.

I'm not ready to call it great, but I make it work as well as I can for now.