# Best Distorted Tone You've Ever Heard???



## Blood Tempest (Feb 25, 2008)

I just would like to hear what all of you have to say on the issue of the best distorted tone you've ever heard. Who was it? What band (if any)? If you know, what kind of amp and guitar was used?

For me, I have a close call between two tones. I think Patrik Jensen from The Haunted has the best distorted tone, specifically on rEVOLVEr, where he used a Peavey 5150 and either an ESP Viper Urban Camo or his custom ESP EX Urban Camo. IMO, fucking amazing tone.
(For the record, the tone on The Dead Eye is fucking killer too, but rEVOLVEr's seems to stand out to me more)

My second place goes to Jeff Loomis from Nevermore, specifically on This Godless Endeavor. I believe he recorded with a Schecter Hellraiser through a Mesa Dual Rectifier and/or Krankenstein.

Bjorn from In Flames is pretty up there on my list too. 

What do you guys think?





Prime example of the best ever:
*The Haunted - "No Compromise"
*


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## Thomas (Feb 25, 2008)

John Petrucci on Dream Theater's _Train of Thought_. He used his Music Man signature models (and a PRS, I think) through a Mesa/Boogie Roadking. Absolutely immense rhythm tone right there.


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## Drew (Feb 25, 2008)

I seem to remember a track Vai recorded for Inteview with a Vampire that had a really cool rhythm guitar tone, sounded vaguely marshally but crystal clear and smooth at the same time. I heard it once maybe 6 years ago though, so take this with a grain of salt. 

I like a lot of Devin Townsend's Strapping Young Lad tones, on the heavier side of things - Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing has some great metal tones on it. And JP's live tone from his first G3 tour was to DIE for.


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## Apophis (Feb 25, 2008)

yeah, Petrucci


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## Edroz (Feb 25, 2008)

at the moment, Stephan Forte from Adagio. his rhythm and lead tone on the "Dominate" album is nearly perfection for me. his rhythm tone isn't overly gainy, but it just has this evil growl to it.

MySpace.com - Adagio - FR - Metal / Gothic / Progressive - www.myspace.com/adagioofficial


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## Blood Tempest (Feb 25, 2008)

Gotta love Dev and Vai for sure!


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## TimSE (Feb 25, 2008)

Devins tone on CITY
i think he was on the ESPs and Peavey 5150
but not 100%


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## kristallin (Feb 25, 2008)

Billy Howerdel on the first A Perfect Circle album is definitely one of my faves, besides Vai and Hevy Devy. Plus, the lead line on Maria McKee's "Absolutely Barking Stars" which has that Mick Ronson-esque quality to it, great tone. Played by Ms McKee herself, AFAIK.


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## Groff (Feb 25, 2008)

Metallica on the Load album.
Best tone i've ever heard.


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## Clydefrog (Feb 25, 2008)

As mentioned, Petrucci on Train of Thought.

Jon Shaffer on Something Wicked.


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## the xkill X (Feb 25, 2008)

kristallin said:


> Billy Howerdel on the first A Perfect Circle album




Me as well and Wes Borland Distortion tone i like and admire a lot.

as well as adam jones of tool


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## TemjinStrife (Feb 25, 2008)

Jon Schaeffer on "The Blessed and the Damned" album.

Dethklok (Brendan Smalls, et. al.) in "Go Into the Water"


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## Buzz762 (Feb 25, 2008)

For me, it's gotta be Carlos Santana's lead tone.


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## TimSE (Feb 25, 2008)

thinking about it, Petrucci's tone on Six Degrees had be going  for a while


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## Thomas (Feb 25, 2008)

kristallin said:


> Billy Howerdel on the first A Perfect Circle album is definitely one of my faves


I have always found that the sound of A Perfect Circle is more about brilliant production and not actual tone, and I don't think there is anything wrong with that. Everything seems blended together smoothly, making it hard to focus on and analyze the sound of a particular instrument, for me.


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## MrJack (Feb 25, 2008)

> thinking about it, Petrucci's tone on Six Degrees had be going for a while


 

Also Stam1na's tone. If I remember correctly the latest album was a 5150, Dual Rectifier and a Stiletto for the solos.





And for anybody interested, the 4 subjects in the videos are the band members:
A= Pekka "Pexi" Olkkonen (lead guitar/backing vocals)
B= Kai-Pekka "Kaikka" Kangasmäki (bass/backing vocals)
C= Antti "Hyrde" Hyrynen (vocals/rhythm guitar)
D= Teppo "Kake" Velin (drums)


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## The Dark Wolf (Feb 25, 2008)

Rhythm - Tie between LoG, especially on the 'Killadelphia' DVD, and Jeff Loomis, especially the 'This Godless Endeavor' album.


Lead - Hmm. Maybe EVH, circa Van Halen? Perhaps Reb Beach... anytime, really. But his tone on his solo album is particularly bad ass. I also dig Yng's tone on the G3 DVD, and on his Concerto. God. There's many lead guys who's lead tone I dig.


For low gain dirty shit, probably SRV. 'Texas Flood.' Brr. What tone!


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## budda (Feb 25, 2008)

i really dont know.


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## Blood Tempest (Feb 25, 2008)

budda said:


> i really dont know.



Oh c'mon, you know there's a tone in your mind that stands out.


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## TemjinStrife (Feb 25, 2008)

Lead - Brian May, Tom Scholz, David Gilmour. Sustaining, liquidy "singing" stuff > snarl/crunch.


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## Uber Mega (Feb 25, 2008)

Petrucci's TOT tone gets it from me aswell. Perfection for that album. Guthrie Govan has frighteningly good tone aswell.


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## WarriorOfMetal (Feb 25, 2008)

TemjinStrife said:


> Jon Schaeffer on "The Blessed and the Damned" album.



i don't think greatest hits type compilations count unless they're all new recordings specially made for the album, which that isn't.

that said, Schaffer on Something Wicked, Alive in Athens, and Framing Armageddon ftw 

also Loomis on DHIADW

and Rich Ward on Declaration of a Headhunter (Stuck Mojo)


i've also heard some badass guitar tones come out of Jacob Hansen's studio


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## smueske (Feb 25, 2008)

I can't think of a favorite rhythm sound, but for leads I love Gary Moore and George Lynch.


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## Hawksmoor (Feb 25, 2008)

Uber Mega said:


> Petrucci's TOT tone gets it from me aswell. Perfection for that album. Guthrie Govan has frighteningly good tone aswell.



Damn, a lot of us must have the same taste in tone.

Bolly Howerdel ( even if it was tracked 16 times) on Mer de noms was awesome!

I would also like to mention Filter on Title of Record ( the sound of that album has always got me going), Arch Enemy on Wages of sin, In Flames with Whoracle and Nevermore with This Godless Endeavour.

Also... Devin on Ziltoid


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## Blood Tempest (Feb 25, 2008)

Hawksmoor said:


> In Flames with Whoracle and Nevermore with This Godless Endeavour.



you are a wise man my friend.


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## NegaTiveXero (Feb 25, 2008)

Petrucci on Train Of Thought for rhythm. For leads...Petrucci on Liquid Tension Experiment 2, specifically Acid Rain.


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## Jongpil Yun (Feb 25, 2008)

Rhythm: Suicmez on Onset of Putrefaction, or, on the other end of the spectrum, Nile on AotW. Meshuggah's shit on Re-Nothing and Catch-33 is pretty awesome too.

Lead: Malmsteen, circa Trilogy, Suicmez, Onset of Putrefaction. Opeth's is pretty nice too.


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## Blood Tempest (Feb 25, 2008)

Meshuggah's tone on Catch 33 is definitely pretty crushing.


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## kristallin (Feb 25, 2008)

Thomas said:


> I have always found that the sound of A Perfect Circle is more about brilliant production and not actual tone, and I don't think there is anything wrong with that. Everything seems blended together smoothly, making it hard to focus on and analyze the sound of a particular instrument, for me.



Totally agree with that, Billy's tone stands out for me for exactly that reason.


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## Nick (Feb 25, 2008)

Machineheads tone on The more things change is fucking immense. I dont know why but its always stood out to me as a really good metal tone i wouldnt even put the album in my top 10 or 15 though.

Scar Symmetrys tone on Pitch black progress is also pretty crushing.

Im also going to throw in Decapitateds tone on The Negation. 

I like meshuggahs tone on the new album and on the nothing remaster but i dont think it would work for 'non meshuggah' stuff


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## Groff (Feb 25, 2008)

The Dark Wolf said:


> For low gain dirty shit, probably SRV. 'Texas Flood.' Brr. What tone!



 Putting metal aside... SRV is the definition of tone.


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## Trespass (Feb 25, 2008)

Eric Johnson? Like the king of amazing tone.


That being aside, Petrucci on Liquid Tension Experiment was his best. Tone. Ever. I want to take exactly what he used and steal it, its brilliant.

Vai.

Mattias Eklundh and Ron Thal definitely.


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## Desecrated (Feb 25, 2008)

Garry moore.


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## Nick (Feb 25, 2008)

distortion tone?


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## canuck brian (Feb 25, 2008)

My favorite recorded distorted rhythm sounds would be:

1) Carcass - Heartwork (5150's / Ibanez)
2) Petrucci's sound on Awake and Images and Words


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## Rick (Feb 25, 2008)

I love the tone from FF's Obsolete and Unearth's The Oncoming Storm.


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## Seedawakener (Feb 25, 2008)

Jeff Loomis on "enemies of reality" and Karl sanders on "Annihilation of the wicked"... I actually don't know what Jeff was using (a tubescreamer in front for sure though) but Karl used a JCM2000...


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## Zepp88 (Feb 25, 2008)

kristallin said:


> Billy Howerdel on the first A Perfect Circle album is definitely one of my faves, besides Vai and Hevy Devy. Plus, the lead line on Maria McKee's "Absolutely Barking Stars" which has that Mick Ronson-esque quality to it, great tone. Played by Ms McKee herself, AFAIK.



+1 on the APC dude!  That album sounded great.

I think Jerry Cantrell has had some of the best guitar tones

Darkane and Porcupine Tree come to mind as well...


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## Zepp88 (Feb 25, 2008)

Oooooo can't forget Adam Jones!


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## Metal Ken (Feb 25, 2008)

Sodom - M-16.


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## Eli14 (Feb 25, 2008)

TimSE said:


> Devins tone on CITY
> i think he was on the ESPs and Peavey 5150
> but not 100%


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## SeanC (Feb 25, 2008)

Edroz said:


> at the moment, Stephan Forte from Adagio. his rhythm and lead tone on the "Dominate" album is nearly perfection for me. his rhythm tone isn't overly gainy, but it just has this evil growl to it.
> 
> MySpace.com - Adagio - FR - Metal / Gothic / Progressive - www.myspace.com/adagioofficial



+1 on that. I've been loving his tone on Dominate so much lately.


One of my all time favorite distortion tones though would have to be Tom Scholz' on the first Boston album.


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## Thomas (Feb 25, 2008)

Zepp88 said:


> Oooooo can't forget Adam Jones!


He sounds absolutely huge on Lateralus. I would have mentioned him above if my lines between actual tone and production were not so blurred.


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## Edroz (Feb 25, 2008)

Metal Ken said:


> Sodom - M-16.



Ken, ever tried a Boss DS-1 as a boost with your Mesa? you might be able to get close to that sound with one.


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## B Lopez (Feb 25, 2008)

...besides mine 


Loomis' tone on DHIADW comes to mind first.


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## Slayer89 (Feb 25, 2008)

Machine Head - Through The Ashes of Empires
Nevermore - Dead Heart In A Dead World
Heaven Shall Burn - Antigone (Though this one may just be the massive sound as a whole rather than just the guitars ...)


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## Unknown Doodl3.2 (Feb 25, 2008)

James Hetfield's Mark IIC+ tone during Puppets/Justice is in my opinion, the ultimate distorted metal tone EVER.


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## MerlinTKD (Feb 25, 2008)

Ty Tabor


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## Hcash (Feb 25, 2008)

Maybe I'm an ass but I like stephen carpenters tone on Adrenaline.  And Paul Allender tone was good on Damnation and a Day. 

Lead tone is a different story though...


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## kristallin (Feb 25, 2008)

I forgot to add, I'm a sucker for Trent Reznor's tone on the "Beside You In Time" video, and not to mention the tone on "Broken" and "The Downward Spiral."
I can't remember who mentioned it, but Filter's "Title Of Record" does have a great guitar tone on it.


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## Mastodon (Feb 25, 2008)

Gunface and Mike Keller's guitars on the latest Red Chord album Prey for Eyes has really stood out to me.

That entire albums has awesome production values through and through.

Mentioned already but also Necrophagist's tone on Epitaph.


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## Blood Tempest (Feb 25, 2008)

Ah yes, The Red Chord is definitely tonally superior to most in the genre these days  good call.


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## Mastodon (Feb 26, 2008)

Another nod goes to the tone on A Life Once Lost's album "Hunter"


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## Hcash (Feb 26, 2008)

Yeah, Hunter was a good CD but the new one sucks...


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## Sebastian (Feb 26, 2008)

Best distorted tone...

I really like Dimes tone on "Reinventing The Steel"


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## B36arin (Feb 26, 2008)

Meshuggah's rhythm tone is generally amazing. I love the tone on DEI with lots of djent and power chords, and I'm a huge fan of their tone on I/C33/obZen as well. Patrik Jensen's(The Haunted) tone on One Kill Wonder/Revolver absolutely slays as well. And then there is Jeff Loomis on DHIADW.

When it comes to lead tone there is only one winner, nobody else even gets close. I am talking about Fredrik Thordendal of course.


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## sakeido (Feb 26, 2008)

I'd have to break it down a bit... as far as extreme gain sounds go, I'd say Machine Head's tone on the Blackening is as good as it gets. For the kind of tones I go for, The Ocean's Aeolian had some sick tone, and then for lower gain stuff, SRV


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## zimbloth (Feb 26, 2008)

kristallin said:


> Billy Howerdel on the first A Perfect Circle album is definitely one of my faves,



Couldn't agree more. The overall tone, production and quality of songwriting on Mer De Noms is just stunning. A Perfect Circle is one of my favorite bands.

I also agree with the Machine Head thing, his tone is fairly flawless IMO. I could go on forever with tones I love though so I'll just leave it there for now.


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## Mastodon (Feb 26, 2008)

Hcash said:


> Yeah, Hunter was a good CD but the new one sucks...



Agreed, luckily they play mostly songs of Hunter live.


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## Variant (Feb 26, 2008)




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## oompa (Feb 26, 2008)

meshuggahs tone on chaosphere makes me afraid that it is as good as tone ever will get.







runner up's:

suneson/tervonen (the crown) on possessed 13
vogg (decapitated) on organic hallucinosis
devin (syl) on city


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## Mattayus (Feb 26, 2008)

dimebag on 'by demons be driven', hands down


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## Cancer (Feb 26, 2008)

smueske said:


> I can't think of a favorite rhythm sound, but for leads I love Gary Moore and George Lynch.




....and you can also add any of the 80's guys using a Lawrence pickup (Jabs, DeMartini, etc). That tone always did it for me.


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## Drew (Feb 26, 2008)

George Lynch DOES rule.


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## Decipher (Feb 26, 2008)

Mattayus said:


> dimebag on 'by demons be driven', hands down


 Good call...

This is a hard choice, Machine Head's tone's always been good, Meshuggah on Chaosphere, Nevermore Enemies of Reality, Dream Theater, Pantera VDOP & RITS, Tool Lateralus, Fear Factory Demanufacture, Divine Heresy BTF....... I don't know if I could narrow my choice to one or even two.


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## Jongpil Yun (Feb 26, 2008)

Lynch's shit with maple and alder bodies, ooh fuck nice stuff. I just didn't mention it because he isn't tuned low enough


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## Apex1rg7x (Feb 26, 2008)

I gotta go with SRV's also but we all know alot of his came from his hand. I really like Stephen Carpenters tone and of course Meshuggah's. I may be the only one to say this but i love Korns tone too.


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## Blood Tempest (Feb 26, 2008)

KoRn's tone in the later years (when they were able to get better quality production on records) does sound pretty awesome. All of their effects and weird things they do, mixed with their straight up distortion stuff always sounds good. Lots of people hate on them, but I'll always dig 'em.


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## InTheRavensName (Feb 26, 2008)

Rhythm: John Schaffer (alive in athens is everything I want my triplets to be) or Samoth from Zyklon (The Prophetic Method is pretty much the pinnacle of modern DM for me)
Lead: Michael Amott or Jani Liimatainen...that smooth, almost classic rock sounding lead


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## Edroz (Feb 26, 2008)

Korn's tone of "Untouchables" is pretty damn impressive to me.


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## Blood Tempest (Feb 26, 2008)

Edroz said:


> Korn's tone of "Untouchables" is pretty damn impressive to me.



Indeed. "See You On The Other Side" gets me. That's honestly my favorite KoRn album of all time.


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## shadowgenesis (Feb 26, 2008)

i really love John Petrucci's tone on his later stuff, specifically Train of Thought. Wes Borland was kinda hit and miss for me, but i really liked his tone on certain tracks. And Korn's mid-period stuff sounded amazing to me. There is something that i fuckin LOVE about that kinda sickenly crunchy super low sound. Kinda like Dream Theater's "These Walls". ermmm. A lot of that alt-metal stuff like Tool tends to have sick rhythm sounds.
And lead-wise, most Petrucci and Gilmore stuff wins!



Edroz said:


> Korn's tone of "Untouchables" is pretty damn impressive to me.



 first album i ever headbanged to


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## kmanick (Feb 26, 2008)

Metal Rhythm tones (i won't even go into lead tones here)
Loomis: DHIADW and Enemies of Reality
Eddie Van Halen:Van Halen I
Arch Enemy :Anthems of Rebellion and Wages of Sin
In Flames :Whoracle
Petrucci:Train of Thought and 6 Degrees of inner turbulence.
SYL: "Aftermath", "The New Black"


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## biggness (Feb 26, 2008)

I would go with this guys tone. (click me) 

It is nothing but straight up crunch and clarity. Any body wanna guess what he plays? You will never guess!!  For real though, check out the break down in "ocean walls" starting at around 4:10 or for that matter the whole "led astray" song(check the lyrics also, really sad cause they are about his wife) Well anywhos, hope you do enjoy.


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## Jysan (Feb 26, 2008)

Scar Symmetry - Pitch Black Progress


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## Mastodon (Feb 26, 2008)

Big big second to Decapitated's tone on Organic Hallucinosis. Holy shit that tone is orgasmic.

I really like Munky's tone on See You On the Other Side.

Not a big fan of their tone on Untouchables (even though it is my favorite album by them)


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## theunforgiven246 (Feb 26, 2008)

I personally love Opeth's Ghost Reveries tone.


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## Naren (Feb 26, 2008)

Jysan said:


> Scar Symmetry - Pitch Black Progress



I thought I was going to be the first to post that in this thread.  I guess I was wrong, yo.

Scar Symmetry - Pitch Black Progress
and
Scar Symmetry - Symmetric In Design


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## jaredowty (Feb 27, 2008)

Nevermore's DHIADW and TGE for sure.
Petrucci's rhythm tones on ToT and his leads on the G3 DVD and Systematic Chaos. Good lord.
Evergrey's In Search of Truth album. Primarily recorded with Randall solid states but sounds fucking massive, thick, and articulate.
Deliverence by Opeth.
Michael Romeo's lead tones on Paradise Lost. 
Jon Schaffer's tone on pretty much everything, very tight, meaty, and kind of clanky.


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## Hawksmoor (Feb 27, 2008)

jaredowty said:


> Nevermore's DHIADW and TGE for sure.
> Petrucci's rhythm tones on ToT and his leads on the G3 DVD and Systematic Chaos. Good lord.
> Evergrey's In Search of Truth album. Primarily recorded with Randall solid states but sounds fucking massive, thick, and articulate.
> Deliverence by Opeth.
> ...



Tasty


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## FortePenance (Feb 27, 2008)

Dino Cazare's tone on Edgecrusher.

Cynic's lead tone.


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## charles22880 (Feb 27, 2008)

i love the tone i created on my vetta, deity lead and deity crunch set to my desire. it sounds so warm and crunchy for me


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## Thrashmanzac (Feb 27, 2008)

killswitch engage- for you
nevermore- godmoney
the absence- into the pit.

i am searching for these tones, COMBINED


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## charles22880 (Feb 27, 2008)

Brian May's tone on a kind of magic
Trey Azazthogoth's tone on covenant
Knut m Valle's on La infernal masquerade
guitar tone on 1349's liberation this tone may suck to a majority to people on this forum but it fits the insanity of the music so well and i love it


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## MF_Kitten (Feb 27, 2008)

slipknot´s The Heretic Anthem has a really insane satanic distortion in the intro, but it´s the kind of distortion where you can´t hear what´s going on when all the other things set in 

if you´ve got it handy, listen to the right-side guitar track when it kicks in... it´s so EVIL sounding 

it becomes a muddy mess when everything is playing though 

also, i really love the guitar sound on the new meshuggah album, on the song Bleed, and on Obzen, where they´re djenty-chugging away...

KoRn´s tone on Untouchables is sick too, Mesa Boogie Road King FTW 

Dino´s tone on Linchpin, on FF´s Digimortal... just works so brilliantly in that song 

Bulb and Tesseract´s tones are sweet as hell too, and make me wanna order the damn Engl cab for my power-amp/Pod X3L setup even more, but i gotta wait for that damn money that i should´ve had...


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## Splees (Feb 27, 2008)

Unknown Doodl3.2 said:


> James Hetfield's Mark IIC+ tone during Puppets/Justice is in my opinion, the ultimate distorted metal tone EVER.



and devin townsend's 5150s.


that's the main reason why I bought mine.


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## Loomer (Feb 27, 2008)

Matt Pike from High On Fire..

Hands down.


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## totaluntruth (Feb 27, 2008)

ok best tone is.....................

#1-Leeway---desperate measures cd
#2-unbroken---unbroken cd
#3-At The Gates---slaughter of the soul cd


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## Mastodon (Feb 27, 2008)

I really like the tone on Glass Casket's albums too.

even though one of the guys from Between the Buried and Me is the guitarist the tone is defintely different, and I love it.


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## ZeroSignal (Feb 27, 2008)

Clean: Anything by Dino Cazares

Distorted Rhythm:

(thanks Stitch!)

Lead: John Petrucci on Falling Into Infinity


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## Randy (Feb 27, 2008)

ZeroSignal said:


> Distorted Rhythm:
> [All Shall Perish]



Indeed. As chaotic as their material gets, you can still distinguish their riffs better than a lotta bands in their genre.


EDIT: However, I think the tone on "The Price of Existence" is better.


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## Thomas (Feb 27, 2008)

theunforgiven246 said:


> I personally love Opeth's Ghost Reveries tone.


Speaking of Opeth, I really loved the distorted tone on Blackwater Park. Combined with the great production, the guitars sound massive. The tone on Ghost Reveries, on the other hand, seemed rather average to me.


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## Randy (Feb 27, 2008)

Drew said:


> George Lynch DOES rule.



As far as 80's tone goes, the guy pretty much perfected it.


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## canuck brian (Feb 27, 2008)

I totally forgot about this though. The guitar tone on this album is pretty much exactly what I would want.

Overkill - Horrorscope


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## drawnQ (Feb 27, 2008)

i've got weird picks on this one:

the acacia strain - the dead walk
aborted - goremageddon
the haunted - made me do it

and i really like the thrashy sound of god forbid - constitution...


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## All_¥our_Bass (Feb 28, 2008)

For me it's a tie between Nevermore's Enemies(The original nu-metal-ish one), and Re-Nothing.



Zepp88 said:


> Oooooo can't forget Adam Jones!


HOW IN HELL COULD I HAVE FORGOTTEN THE MIGHTY ADAM!!


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## theunforgiven246 (Mar 1, 2008)

Thomas said:


> Speaking of Opeth, I really loved the distorted tone on Blackwater Park. Combined with the great production, the guitars sound massive. The tone on Ghost Reveries, on the other hand, seemed rather average to me.



Yeah Blackwater Park is amazing!


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## blackout (Mar 1, 2008)

levelhead86 said:


> Indeed. As chaotic as their material gets, you can still distinguish their riffs better than a lotta bands in their genre.
> 
> 
> EDIT: However, I think the tone on "The Price of Existence" is better.



Heh, funnily enough that was a track from the price of existence, guess the maker of the video just fucked it up.

I'm really digging Scamp's tone at the moment, if you haven't heard them, check them out, especially if you're a fan of meshuggah, threat signal etc...
MySpace.com - SCAMP - Ãrhus, DK - Metal / Thrash / Rock - www.myspace.com/scampdk


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## Hawksmoor (Mar 2, 2008)

As I watched Top Gun again the other day ( oh Cold War, why have you gone?) I was surprised to like Steve Steven's tone so much on the " anthem" part.


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## Spoongirl (Mar 2, 2008)

I like Arch Enemy's "Stigmata" guitar tone =)


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## ManBeast (Mar 2, 2008)

[/B]


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## CapenCyber (Mar 2, 2008)

I love the rhythm tone Vogg from Decapitated gets on "Nihility", it's really raw and brutal, reminds me of a chainsaw.

If I could get that I'd be a happy man.

YouTube - Decapitated - Spheres of Madness


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## Emperoff (Mar 3, 2008)

Lead: 
I'd say Gary Moore's on "The Loner" live


Mikael Akerfeldt's lead tone on live shows



Rythm:
Killswitch Engage in "Alive Or Just Breathing?" Fender Strat with EMG single coils all the way, amazing tone: 

Unearth in their "The Oncoming Storm" album. Brutal.


Machine Head in "Through The Ashes Of Empires"
 holy shit!


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## Hawksmoor (Mar 3, 2008)

Alive or just Breathing is a single coil strat???

Wow


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## Shawn (Mar 3, 2008)

I've always loved the Tommy Victor's tone on Prong's Cleansing. I also love the tone on Handsome's 1997 self titled album.

Handsome~


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## Randy (Mar 3, 2008)

Spoongirl said:


> I like Arch Enemy's "Stigmata" guitar tone =)



Everything the Amott brothers play on has amazing tone; most of which resides in the playing more than anything else.


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## Shawn (Mar 3, 2008)

Speaking of Amott, the tone on Carcass' Necroticism has always been one of my favorites as well.


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## Makelele (Mar 3, 2008)

I really like the tone on Opeth's Lamentations DVD. Especially on "Master's Apprentices". Porcupine Tree also has really awesome tone on both studio albums and on the live dvd. 

I also like Devin Townsend's tone on most his stuff.


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## Munky7Head (Mar 23, 2008)

Korn.


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## stuz719 (Mar 24, 2008)

Scott Ian had a killer rhythm tone on some of the early Anthrax albums (check out "I am the law").

Eric Peterson/Alex Skolnick on "The Legacy".

For lead - Brian May on "Killer Queen" has a really lyrical/vocal quality.


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## Gilbucci (Mar 24, 2008)

Petrucci's tone on ToT and Systematic Chaos (The Dark Eternal Night and Constant Motion especially) and Loomis' tone on This Godless Endeavour.


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## ibznorange (Mar 24, 2008)

The lead tone on tools parabola, during the second lead run. Its like back and forth between super saturated singing tone, which blooms into sawtooth waves, and back again


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## Blexican (Mar 24, 2008)

Soilwork's tone on Chainheart Machine and Predator's Portrait = 
I really love the lead tones on those records, too.

I also really like Behemoth's tone on Zos Kia Cvltvs and Demigod. Their tone on The Apostasy is great too, but overall too muddy for my taste.

Also, Petrucci's lead tone smokes, and I really like his rhythm tone when he downtunes/uses a 7.


----------



## zimbloth (Mar 24, 2008)

Say what you want about the band, but Slipknot's tone on Iowa is pretty cool. It's not how I would have dialed in the VHT (I believe Mick used a Pittbull on that), but it sounds great. 

I also really love Machine Head's tone on their last 2 albums, as well as on "The More Things Change...". Also a big fan of Behemoth's Mesa tone on "Demigod" as well.

In terms of classic rock guitar tone, it does not get any better than Queen or Blue Oyster Cult IMO.


----------



## eon_shift (Mar 24, 2008)

Pretty much anytone michael ammott has ever used.


----------



## Korbain (Mar 24, 2008)

adam jones, tom morello, dimebags, wes borlands, and jerry cantrell's distorted tones always tickled my pickle!


----------



## ghoti (Mar 25, 2008)




----------



## kristallin (Mar 25, 2008)

Here's one that no one has mentioned here: Martin Barre on Jethro Tull's Bursting Out album - that tone just screams classic British rock. Very underrated guitarist, too.


----------



## -K4G- (Mar 25, 2008)

these are my favorites:


----------



## FortePenance (Mar 25, 2008)

Hmm, actually I think my favourite distorted tone would have to be something like brown sound except slightly more high gain. Probably like the intro of About to Crash by DT.


----------



## progmetaldan (Mar 25, 2008)

Thomas said:


> John Petrucci on Dream Theater's _Train of Thought_. He used his Music Man signature models (and a PRS, I think) through a Mesa/Boogie Roadking. Absolutely immense rhythm tone right there.



Yes, definately one of my favourite tones right there. 



Edroz said:


> at the moment, Stephan Forte from Adagio. his rhythm and lead tone on the "Dominate" album is nearly perfection for me. his rhythm tone isn't overly gainy, but it just has this evil growl to it.
> 
> MySpace.com - Adagio - FR - Metal / Gothic / Progressive - www.myspace.com/adagioofficial



Stephen is awesome, also love his lead tone on Underworld, I believe he is currently using his custom LAG 7 guitar with 27 frets (  ) and with a H&K Triamp, or so I've heard... 

Another favourite distorted tone of mine is Michael Romeo's on the latest Symphony X album 'Paradise Lost'. Definately his best so far imo, he used his custom Caparison Dellinger with Marshall and ENGL amplification on that one...


----------



## Alien DNA (Mar 25, 2008)

Dimebag - Vulgar Display Of POWER.....nuff said.


----------



## Mattmc74 (Mar 25, 2008)

Alien DNA said:


> Dimebag - Vulgar Display Of POWER.....nuff said.



 Hell yeah! Dime sound on that album was great
Trend kill was bad ass also


----------



## dtrax (Mar 25, 2008)

GnR - Appetite for Destruction

Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time

Faith No More - King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime

Eric Johnson - Ah Via Musicom

Vai - pretty much all his shit...

Fear Factory - Soul of a New Machine (Dino's modded JCM800... heaviest tone ever IMHO)

Clutch - Spacegrass


----------



## Thrashmanzac (Mar 25, 2008)

from your grave- the absence


----------



## Mattmc74 (Mar 25, 2008)

Eric Johnson - Ah Via Musicom


----------



## rvoteary (Mar 25, 2008)

Buz McGrath, Zombie Autopilot, on the Dvd


----------



## PeteyG (Mar 25, 2008)

Quite simply, Paul Ortiz's tone on pretty much everything he's got recorded, check it out MySpace.com - Figure-Ground - UK - Metal / Progressive / Experimental - www.myspace.com/figureground all of the tones on that page are heavenly.


----------



## petereanima (Mar 25, 2008)

there are sooo many...the first ones which come to my mind are:

iron maiden - piece of mind (first little solo on revelations...THATS tone!)
slayer - reign in blood
carcass - heartwork
sunn O))) live

and finally:

me + 7420 + diezel herbert


----------



## Munky7Head (Apr 4, 2008)

Wes Borland on Limp Bizkit's Significant Other.

Amazing tone.


----------



## angryman (Apr 4, 2008)

Crowbar on Broken Glass, Odd fellows Rest & Sonic excess in its purest form.


----------



## newamerikangospel (Apr 4, 2008)

The tone from Evergrey on the "Torn" video teaser made me inspired. 

And rammstein from Reise, Reise/Rosenrot (they were both recorded primarily at the same time). Spring is a good example of a great tone imo.



ibznorange said:


> The lead tone on tools parabola, during the second lead run. Its like back and forth between super saturated singing tone, which blooms into sawtooth waves, and back again



Uh, I think I remember what you are talking about, but it wasn't on that song. I dont remember the name, but there is a point were its a sweel sustained/feedback bend on the guitar, then a bass swell with a bend (slide actually. I think justin played fretless on most of that album).


----------



## Shaman (Apr 4, 2008)

Here I go:

-Andrew Latimer's (guitar player for Camel) lead tone on Snowgoose
-Carlos Santana's lead tone on just about anything he has done
-Steven Wilson's tone on Fear of a Blank Planet
-Max Cavalera's rhythm tone on Nailbomb's Point Blank
-Jeff Loomis' rhythm tone on all the 7-string albums, especially the remixed EOR
-Carcass' Heartwork 
-Machine Head's The More Things Change

...goddamn, there are just too many of them...


----------



## Dr. Von Goosewing (Apr 4, 2008)

This is tricky because it's hard to differentiate between _tone_ you like and bands you like. I find the best tones turn up on albums that aren't particularly my favourite. Anyway:

The Vision Bleak's 1st & 2nd albums sound great (5150's?)
"Blackwater Park" sounds awesome.
Can't argue with Carcass's "Heartwork" either.
Rammstein always have a great tone too.
Sepultura's "Roots".
The nu-metaller in me likes Vision of Disorder's "From Bliss to Devatation" too.

The best tones are the always the ones which fit the material being played just right.


----------



## wes225 (Apr 4, 2008)

B.C.Rich V
+
Bb Tuning
+
Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier
+
Pat O'brien
=
most brutal distorted tone ive ever heard.
the first little bit.


----------



## zimbloth (Apr 4, 2008)

wes225 said:


> B.C.Rich V
> +
> Bb Tuning
> +
> ...




Well what you're hearing is the sound coming through the monitors after Neil Kernon's mixing/eqing and stuff, not what the amp is actually sounding like thru a cab. But yeah his Triple Rec boosted by a Metal Zone sound is pretty brutal. CC sounded absolutely amazing at last year's New England Metal Festival.


----------



## wes225 (Apr 4, 2008)

zimbloth said:


> Well what you're hearing is the sound coming through the monitors after Neil Kernon's mixing/eqing and stuff, not what the amp is actually sounding like thru a cab. But yeah his Triple Rec boosted by a Metal Zone sound is pretty brutal. CC sounded absolutely amazing at last year's New England Metal Festival.


so ur sayin i could get that tone with a 99$ pedal? (heart explodes)


----------



## zimbloth (Apr 4, 2008)

wes225 said:


> so ur sayin i could get that tone with a 99$ pedal? (heart explodes)



No, not at all. Metal Zones sound like shit normally. I'm saying Pat O'Brien goes guitar-->Metal Zone-->Triple Rectifier. He uses the Metal Zone as a 'clean boost' to give the Triple Rec more tightness, he's not using the distortion of the Metal Zone at all. 90% of pro metal bands do something similar, but just not with a Metal Zone as there are better sounding pedals to use as boosts out there.

All I was saying is the tone you're hearing in that clip is 100% from Neil Kernon's monitors, after the amp has been mic'd, processed, mixed, eq'd, etc. However, I've seen them live with the Triple Recs and they sound even better than that. When you're standing far away from a cranked Triple Rec, man they sound fucking amazing.


----------



## wes225 (Apr 4, 2008)

zimbloth said:


> . When you're standing far away from a cranked Triple Rec, man they sound fucking amazing.


no shitoki. my GC is a authorized dealer for the. they have an entire room full of mesa's didnt play any but i drooled over them for like 15 minutes straight.


how could i get that tone 4 cheap. aka mega uber brutal mesa tone


----------



## stuh84 (Apr 4, 2008)

wes225 said:


> no shitoki. my GC is a authorized dealer for the. they have an entire room full of mesa's didnt play any but i drooled over them for like 15 minutes straight.
> 
> 
> how could i get that tone 4 cheap. aka mega uber brutal mesa tone



The only way to get it cheap and close, is with a cheaper mesa. The other option is a POD, but still, its not going to get you that close.

The only guaranteed option, is save up and get a Mesa, or something that will take the Metal Zone equally as well.


----------



## hunter75 (Apr 14, 2008)

His metal zone is actually modified, I can't remember the name of the guy but their equipment on KILL is posted on there, The Wretched Spawn was just Mesa Boogie and nothing else although jack used alot more stuff, on part of the extra wretched spawn dvd you get to hear pat using the mesa alone with no producing and it sounded fucking insane most probably THE best death metal tone ever...and as for my favourite tones it has to be the lead tone off Whitesnake Crying in the Rain with John Sykesand for rhythm it just has to be anything done by Pat or Dino 



zimbloth said:


> No, not at all. Metal Zones sound like shit normally. I'm saying Pat O'Brien goes guitar-->Metal Zone-->Triple Rectifier. He uses the Metal Zone as a 'clean boost' to give the Triple Rec more tightness, he's not using the distortion of the Metal Zone at all. 90% of pro metal bands do something similar, but just not with a Metal Zone as there are better sounding pedals to use as boosts out there.
> 
> All I was saying is the tone you're hearing in that clip is 100% from Neil Kernon's monitors, after the amp has been mic'd, processed, mixed, eq'd, etc. However, I've seen them live with the Triple Recs and they sound even better than that. When you're standing far away from a cranked Triple Rec, man they sound fucking amazing.


----------



## 7 Dying Trees (Apr 14, 2008)

I absolutely love andy timmons lead tone.


----------



## Michael (Apr 14, 2008)

I really like Rob Johnson's tone on his song Nerve Disorder. ADA MP-1 goodness.


----------



## maliciousteve (Apr 14, 2008)

Jon Schaffer's live tone with his Larry's. Fuck it sounded awesome and so huge.

Andy Timmons on Groove Or Die

Queensryche when they play live.


----------



## deguello666 (Apr 14, 2008)

I don't think anyone has mentioned Satch (or is that too obvious?)
Billy Gibbons, Martin Barre (crest of a knave album)...

Sad but true has a CRUSHING sound!!!

But i'll always have a place for Dimebag, even his crappiest tone live is up there


----------



## angryman (Apr 14, 2008)

I Know it's Cheesy & egotistical but I was loving My Tone last night, Heavy & Brutal as fuck!!!!!!!


----------



## Hawksmoor (Apr 14, 2008)

hunter75 said:


> His metal zone is actually modified, I can't remember the name of the guy but their equipment on KILL is posted on there, The Wretched Spawn was just Mesa Boogie and nothing else although jack used alot more stuff, on part of the extra wretched spawn dvd you get to hear pat using the mesa alone with no producing and it sounded fucking insane most probably THE best death metal tone ever...and as for my favourite tones it has to be the lead tone off Whitesnake Crying in the Rain with John Sykesand for rhythm it just has to be anything done by Pat or Dino



Keeley mods MT2's, maybe that was it.

Kill me for bringing on the soft shit, but the Distortion tones of Closing Time by Semisonic are pretty tasty. Rat through Marshal, I believe.


----------



## Seedawakener (Apr 14, 2008)

Sacrifice unto sebek says it all. Nile's tone on Annihilation of the wicked is the shit! I love Bulbs tone too.


----------



## ZeroSignal (Apr 14, 2008)

Seedawakener said:


> Sacrifice unto sebek says it all. Nile's tone on Annihilation of the wicked is the shit! I love Bulbs tone too.




Oh dear. Someone appeared to have MP3'd the sound...


----------



## Shawn (Apr 14, 2008)

When I first heard this album, I thought that was the heaviest guitar sound ever. I love it to this day. It's Handsome, the members of Quicksand and Helmet.


----------



## Kakaka (Apr 14, 2008)

This is a close example: Petey Graves has thrown a new vid on youtube.com, and there you can hear Nolly with his new Black Machine through Framus Cobra plus two other guitars through ENGL's Invader and Powerball.
I can't really tell where the ultra-tight-mamoth-heavy sound comes from, but I dug the background song tone a lot.


----------



## Metal Ken (Apr 14, 2008)

My favorites are probably Sodom's M-16 album (was done with Engls -- Bernemann rules!) and Eric Peterson's on The Gathering/First Strike Still Deadly.


----------



## kristallin (Apr 14, 2008)

After going on a bender today and listening to Ommadawn on repeat all morning I have to add Mike Oldfield's lead tone, I've always had a soft spot for it.


----------



## JerkyChid (Apr 14, 2008)

Hevy Devy, Richard Z Kruspe, Jesper Stromblad, Mark Morton, Jon Schaffer, Jaymz Pappa Het (James Hetfield), and Reverand Billy F. Gibbons.


----------



## Fionn (Apr 14, 2008)

Wow what a post 16 pages strong! Just a few albums (bands) i can think of that haven't been mentioned. I do feel that Slayers Divine Intervention and God Hates Us All are supreme tones, can't believe I said that about a Marshall! JP rocks of course ToT is sick. Oh Lamb of God, love that tone! Biomechanical tone on Empires is sick too! Well Brutal! Ah Hatebreed tone on Perseverance! Arch Enemy=sick! Sikths Death of a Dead Day! Ziltoids tone is sweet too!

Lead well, Guthrie Govan is defo top! Gilbert up there too, May = smooth! Vai's Blue Powder! Even thou its a Zoom (I think), Satch Boogie is sick! Romeros Paradise Lost tone! I actually really like the Messhuggah lead tone too! Check out an album by bassist Brian Bromberg called Metal, its one crazy Piccolo Bass (shredded!) tone! 

Ahh the list is end less, but one more before I go, the tones on the Roadrunner 25th Anniversary album are well brutal! All of em!!!

Holy shit forgot Gilberts tone, guess thats mainly in the fingers but still clean as fook!


----------



## Blood Tempest (Apr 14, 2008)

Fionn said:


> Wow what a post 16 pages strong!



 I sure as hell didn't think this topic was gonna explode like this.


----------



## PeteyG (Apr 14, 2008)

Kakaka said:


> This is a close example: Petey Graves has thrown a new vid on youtube.com, and there you can hear Nolly with his new Black Machine through Framus Cobra plus two other guitars through ENGL's Invader and Powerball.
> I can't really tell where the ultra-tight-mamoth-heavy sound comes from, but I dug the background song tone a lot.



Haha, that's just my recording tone, which is sounds completely created by Garageband, the sound from the practice (which was way loud) was just indecipherable, and so I had to over dub the song itself. But thanks, hehe, it really means alot that you like it.

There'll soon be recordings with all of us playing out specific parts through our specific setups once we've got some more full songs on the go too (and maybe with vocals and all )


----------



## Jeff (Apr 15, 2008)

Nuno.


----------



## darren (Apr 21, 2008)

I don't think i've ever heard a massive ROAR anything like John Sykes' tones on the Whitesnake (1987) album. Those guitar sounds still get me off.


----------



## FYP666 (Apr 21, 2008)

Well, this must one of the sweetest sounds produced ever:  

Okokok now seriously

All That Remains' guitarists Oli and Mike has sweet tones on This Darkened Heart and The Fall Of Ideals. The guitars just sound... What ever metals should sound! Anyway, All That Remains - Not Alone:  

Also Meshuggah's new ObZen albums guitars sound great, especially Bleed:  

And Paul Gilbert never sounds bad!


----------



## DrakkarTyrannis (Apr 21, 2008)

I have two..and an odd mix it is. For leads it's Prince's guitar tone, check out songs like Pink Cashmere, Peach and most notably Purple Rain. For rhythm and all around metal chunkery, Fallon Bowman mainly on songs like Choke, Johnny, and Brackish.


----------



## Bobo (Jun 7, 2008)

darren said:


> I don't think i've ever heard a massive ROAR anything like John Sykes' tones on the Whitesnake (1987) album. Those guitar sounds still get me off.




Gotta bump this post  One of my favorite guitar songs ever....plus a little Tawny Kitaen? We have a winner


----------



## TheHandOfStone (Jun 7, 2008)

For a lighter bluesy sound, it's gotta go to Kenny Wayne Shepherd on "Trouble Is...".

For heavier distortion, I'm really into Behemoth and In Flames as of late.

Chuck Schundiner's chorusy leads stand out to me for some reason (and alas, an 8200 is on the way ).


----------



## NiCkMiLnE (Jun 7, 2008)

rhythm - petrucci's tone on "in the presence of enemies", trivium's on crusade, opeth blackwater park era, bloodbath, necrophagist and ihsahns solo stuff 


lead - petrucci NO DOUBT, and necrophagist's for the pure clarity!


----------



## S-O (Jun 7, 2008)

I am loving Necrophagist's tone right now, but for 7 string mayhem, all Nevermore slays.


----------



## amonb (Jun 7, 2008)

I thought Billy Corgan's tone on "The Everlasting Gaze"was amazing. I also thought the rhythm tone on Machine Head's "Ten Ton Hammer" ruled.

I completely share Shawn's love of the self-titled "Handsome" album... it is absolutely brilliant and has some of the heaviest tones I have heard still to this day... speaking of which Tom Capone's lead tone is consistently amazing with Quicksand as well.

But my rhythm tone idol is still Page Hamilton. His tone is huge


----------



## GuitarG2 (Jun 8, 2008)

This thread is officially over. Andy's solo tone WINS!


----------



## Zepp88 (Jun 8, 2008)

Dr. Von Goosewing said:


> This is tricky because it's hard to differentiate between _tone_ you like and bands you like. I find the best tones turn up on albums that aren't particularly my favourite. Anyway:
> 
> The Vision Bleak's 1st & 2nd albums sound great (5150's?)
> "Blackwater Park" sounds awesome.
> ...



The Vision Bleaks tone is fucking kickass.

I commend you for being aware of them!


----------



## dream-thief (Jun 8, 2008)

NiCkMiLnE said:


> rhythm - petrucci's tone on "in the presence of enemies", trivium's on crusade, opeth blackwater park era, bloodbath, necrophagist and ihsahns solo stuff
> 
> 
> lead - petrucci NO DOUBT, and necrophagist's for the pure clarity!



That's pretty much exactly what I would have written


----------



## CooleyJr (Jun 8, 2008)

For me its a tossup between Jeff Loomis' tone on "Nevermore - The River Dragon Has Come"
Or Dino Cazares' tone on "Divine Heresy - Soul Decoded (Now and Forever)"


----------



## Trespass (Jun 9, 2008)

Most people are going to disagree with me, but I love this tone:


----------



## AVWIII (Jun 9, 2008)

I generally like tight, clear, powerful tone. No scoopy muddiness for me.
Neuraxis - The thin line (and this is only basing it off of one song)
Necrophagist - Epitaph
And, oddly enough, Nuno Bettencourt's tone on "waiting for the punchline". I don't even like Extreme, but the tone he got with his Washburns -> boosted vibroverb is awesome!


----------



## FredGrass (Jun 9, 2008)

The perfect metal tone, to me? Unearth - The Oncoming Storm. Every tone on that album speaks volumes to me in its raging voices. These motherfuckers came to London in Feb. '07 and changed my life. At some point during the show everything cut out and it sounded like the bass just slid down the low B from like an F#... coulda been up from the next B, or could have been anywhere for that matter, cause I don't know anything... but that shit rattled all that was left of my soul. Then Kerry King absorbed the remains shortly thereafter.

Also, as simple as it is, the first riff I ever learned on a seven string was the closing breakdown from This Lying World.


----------



## Cancer (Jun 9, 2008)

The rhythm tone on the first Disincarnate album. Best Murphy tone ever IMO.


----------



## DefinedInSilere (Jun 9, 2008)

Necrophagist for lead tone, Iced Earth for everything else.


----------



## Unknown Doodl3.2 (Jun 9, 2008)

AVWIII said:


> Neuraxis - The thin line (and this is only basing it off of one song)



+ 1 to that bro 

Augury's tone yesterday night was :O:O:O Both were playing 2 channel dual rectos too


----------



## AVWIII (Jun 9, 2008)

> Augury's tone yesterday night was :O:O:O Both were playing 2 channel dual rectos too


Really?! I always wondered what Pat used. He had that weird rack setup and I swear it mainly consisted of a rackmounted mark III w. no actual head cab. I'd love to hear them now!


----------



## Seven (Jun 9, 2008)

The intro guitar on GN'R's Black Leather, probably Slash > Les Paul > Marshall.


----------



## metalmonster (Jun 9, 2008)

BLOODBATH ! entombed , dismember ... that boss HM-2 plus marshall sounds so evil \m/ 

the cannibal corpse sound 

and this guy sounds nice too ... eq'ed metalzone sounds real fine . tight , i think as a clean boost (like cannibal corpse) in front of a fat-sounding amp it just rocks  
YouTube - Random metal riffs on BC Rich Bich Baritone and Metal Zone.


----------



## Scali (Jun 9, 2008)

Two of my all-time favourites are Gary Moore on Still Got The Blues (the song in particular), and Kee Marcello on Europe's Superstitious.


----------



## metalmonster (Jun 9, 2008)

iron maiden's tone is pure sex too . kiko loureio's tone is hot as hell too . 

mastodon tone , on march of the fire ants \m/ nile tone also . fuckin' brutal \m/ but not too tight and i hate looseness when talking about MY tone ... love when everything is tight and clear-sounding even with huge bass and ungodly distorted \m/


----------



## Mattayus (Jun 9, 2008)

i dunno if this has already been mentioned (too many pages to trawl through!) but dimebag's tone on Far Beyond Driven is heavier than the earth times two. it just slices your face off, it's razor sharp, ultra scooped, dark as fuck, and just sick. the intro to 'slaughtered' is just pure brutality.


----------



## Metal Ken (Jun 9, 2008)

i didnt realize i had posted here twice, but i'll post a 3rd time. Sodom, M-16 \m/


----------



## Mattayus (Jun 9, 2008)

haha so did i! woops! just caught myself on the first couple of pages


----------



## metalmonster (Jun 9, 2008)

my tone is not bad too ...

heavy as FUCK \m/ (tried bi-amplification with my lil' vox with the HM-2 and my randall side by side ... not a lot of gain , a brutal playing and that's it ! pure meshuggah-like awesomeness ... )


----------



## soldierkahn (Jun 9, 2008)

i know im gonna get mocked for this, but ive always loved Mark Tremonti's (Foremerly of Creed) distorted tone in the song "What If". That song and that tone was the reason i even started playing guitar!


----------



## Mattmc74 (Jun 9, 2008)

I loved Dimebags tone on The Great Southern Trendkill album! That was some serious shit there!


----------



## metalmonster (Jun 9, 2008)

huh yeah

i love is stephen carpenter's tone too . and mershuggah tone . i believe i also love tesseract's sound to death (these guys rock \m/ )

i love the sound of a 5150 boosted with TS9 w/ some good ibanez in front (love laney amps too) ... the sound of all brit' amp (they all share the same sound and feel but each has his own sound ... love that ... between the richness of an orange to the classic warm and a little fuzzy marshall tone to the warm crunch of a vox ... )

dime's tone ? that why i have a randall at home 

plus it was a good , lively and cheap tube amp . love his sound , really nice , needs an eq a 4x12 and to be modified into a amp head to really sound at it best and to look better lol (yah , some tweed head case should look nice with a custom engraved metal plate saying "RANDALL" ...)
i think i can do awesome things with that lil' fucker ... plus it has a bit of USA-highgain flavour , handles the lows well ... one thing , the sound should be tighter but with better pickups and an eq and a 4x12 ... ) i'll make it run with a laney into a stereo 4x12 with swamp thang from hell (300w each side should be sufficient for two 50w heads lol) ... this will seriously kick balls \m/


----------



## st2012 (Jun 10, 2008)

Mattmc74 said:


> I loved Dimebags tone on The Great Southern Trendkill album! That was some serious shit there!


----------



## Crazy German (Jun 10, 2008)

Gojira their tone is so heavy yet tight, I totaly love it.


----------



## sepherus (Jun 10, 2008)

Opeth on MAYH (SGs, Jackson RR1, Gibson LP -> 5150, Powerball, and there is a Boss HM-2 some where on that album)
Marty Friedman and Jason Becker in Cacophony "Speed Metal Symphony"
Paul Gilbert when he is doing the Racer X thing (look it up on his website, always Ibnez though)
Frank Zappa, you pick it, it rules. Carvin amps mostly, and what ever gutiar he could mod the hell out of.
Camel. Sweet sweet leads
Mountain because Leslie West rules
John Scofield on Uberjam
SRV is a DUH
Ulver on Bergtatt
My Dying Bride on The Dreadful Hours
Ephel Duath on RePhormula

Wow I have a lot


----------



## metalmonster (Jun 10, 2008)

yeah ^-^

gojira sounds good because they're french . french metalheads sound better and lourder and fuck harder  

the good ol' carcass one is awesome too . (on heartwork ... aaah ... so much unheartly fatness ... ) 

hum ...

what cab opeth uses with their laneys ?

yaw , HM-2 was used by opeth oO 
[i'd love to have a laney VH100R and an ENGL blackmore on an orange cab ... huuuh ... pure awesomeness ... )


----------



## The Trooper (Jun 11, 2008)

I like lots of different tones actually. I liked:

Metallica's on MOP, TBE, and Load (three distinctly different sounds). Lots of IIC+, Triaxis, ADA MP-1, etc...scattered out there.

Iced Earth on Alive in Athens, EMG 81 loaded guitars into Larry amps.

Alice in Chains Dirt, a mix of a Bogner Fish, Mesa Recto, and Rockman.


----------



## UGH (Jun 11, 2008)

Chris Poland's tone on "Row Of Crows" from Return To Metalopolis. PRS into what, I'm not sure, I'd have to check. Crystal clear crunch. And I don't even like PRS'.


----------



## Metal Ken (Jun 11, 2008)

metalmonster said:


> french metalheads sound better and lourder and fuck harder



Only if they're from montreal and have been in bands like Quo Vadis and Neuraxis.


----------



## Joeywilson (Jun 11, 2008)

ANIMALS AS LEADERS

I've also always loves bulb's tone in the video of him playing Icarus Lives with a JP7 through an ENGL Invader 150 and an Orange cab it just sounds so "pillowy" (I geuss thats the word) and thick. I get like a giddy school girl whenever I watch that video.


----------



## darren (Jun 12, 2008)

Kind of a cheesy ballad, but shimmery cleans and an absolutely fluid, singing lead tone.

John Sykes had his sounds completely pegged on that album.


----------



## Jongpil Yun (Jun 12, 2008)

sepherus, you actually _like_ the tone on Speed Metal Symphony? Some of the worst mixing I have ever heard.


----------



## awesomeaustin (Jul 30, 2008)

for rhythm: Unearth's The Oncoming Storm-favorite tone EVER!!!!
VHT Pitbull UL i think 
Ibby S series with EMG's, I heard somewhere that they used an EMG 60 6 string in the bridge of their 7 strings, I know Buz uses a Maxon OD808

for lead: Mikael Akerfeldt's tone on A Fair Judgment, or the little jazz solo he does in Ghost of Perdition.
Laney, PRS, SD Full Shred's


----------



## FYP666 (Jul 30, 2008)

Petrucci on DT's Train Of Thought was to die for! 

Also Hevy Devy's SYL stuff like City was 100% Hevy!


----------



## metalmonster (Jul 30, 2008)

meshuggah's on OBZEN !! 

but fuck yeah mine too . good guitar playing ... i want my engl blackmore and my ENGL 4x12 (and a D-activator) , will rock sooooo hard \m/


----------



## M3RC1L3SS (Jul 30, 2008)

I really like the tone on the new The Black Dahlia Murder album, "Nocturnal". It's a badass tight, crunchy tone. Oh, and the tone on the new Chimaira album, Resurrection.


----------



## EMG33 (Jul 30, 2008)

Dan and Pin's guitar tone from Sikth's Death of a Dead Day. You can hear every single note. Not only that, but the tone still stays tight when they play in G#.

Yeah, the guitar tone on Obzen is pretty sickening as well!


----------



## Stealthdjentstic (Jul 30, 2008)

Necrophagists rythem/lead tone dominates anything ever.


----------



## Carrion (Jul 30, 2008)

The tone used on Obituary's Cause of Death.


----------



## auxioluck (Jul 30, 2008)

Yeah, Dan and Pin from Sikth.

I still think Mikael Akerfeldt's tone is the best I've heard all around though.


----------



## metalmonster (Jul 30, 2008)

yeah , classic opeth tone 

and , sikth you say ? i should give it an ear (and a look to their gear) , i'm looking for serious tightness for my drop G ...


----------



## your_mum (Jul 30, 2008)

Definitely Adam Jones.


----------



## All_¥our_Bass (Jul 31, 2008)

Tool, Meshuggah, Nile, Nevermore, Necrophagist, David Gilmour.

EDIT: also Opeth


----------



## Despised_0515 (Jul 31, 2008)

Despised Icon's tone, anyone?


----------



## Mattayus (Jul 31, 2008)

VicerExciser said:


> Despised Icon's tone, anyone?



no thanks  i think it's really bland tbh, its almost like a smooth classic rock tone, but in a deathcore context. it works though i spose



metalmonster said:


> yeah , classic opeth tone
> 
> and , sikth you say ? i should give it an ear (and a look to their gear) , i'm looking for serious tightness for my drop G ...



Blackmachine B2 guitar with Bareknuckle Nailbomb (or warpig, cant remember) pickups, and a PRS Custom 22, not sure about the pups in that one though, and i THINK they both play Diezel amplification


----------



## dougsteele (Jul 31, 2008)

I'll say Meshuggah NONE.


----------



## metalmonster (Jul 31, 2008)

> Blackmachine B2 guitar with Bareknuckle Nailbomb (or warpig, cant remember) pickups, and a PRS Custom 22, not sure about the pups in that one though, and i THINK they both play Diezel amplification


 wow f*ck ! 
blackmachine , diezel ... hmm ...


----------



## Weirdbeard (Aug 4, 2008)

AC/DC - Jailbreak


----------



## Piledriver (Aug 4, 2008)

sikth tone is great,they play also through a peavey 6505...


----------



## maliciousteve (Aug 4, 2008)

Iced Earth - Horror Show
SYL - City
Megadeth - Countdown To Extinction
Nevermore - Politics of Ectasy
Eric Johnson - anything that's distorted (not super saturated but still distorted)
Opeth - Watershed
Queensryche - Eyes Of A Stranger (rhythm tone)
Fear Factory - Obsolete


that's what first comes to my head.


----------



## The Hoff (Aug 4, 2008)

For Lead tone I really like Petrucci (especially on Images And Words), Muhammed Suicmez, David Gilmour and Guthrie Govan.

For Rhythm tone I can't really say much, I know what I like I just can't remember anyone who has that specific tone. I guess it would be sort of similar to Megadeth's tone on Rust In Peace only warmer and fuller if that makes any sense.

I guess it would be closer to the tone on Countdown To Extinction than anything.


----------



## FortePenance (Aug 4, 2008)

Mattayus said:


> Blackmachine B2 guitar with Bareknuckle Nailbomb (or warpig, cant remember) pickups, and a PRS Custom 22, not sure about the pups in that one though, and i THINK they both play Diezel amplification



They used Peaveys on the first record I think and apparently Pin used a Dimarzio Evolution (2?) on that disc too, not the Nailbombs.

Anyway, I don't remember what I posted in this thread but my ideal tone has to be... well fuck if I know. I really like the crunchy brown soundy tones and low-middy dm tone. Used to be a djent fan but eh. Clean tone would probably go to like Smells Like Teen Spirit's intro. Really like those sort of edge-of-od cleans on a strat. SRV anyone?


----------



## ilyti (Aug 4, 2008)

darren said:


> Kind of a cheesy ballad, but shimmery cleans and an absolutely fluid, singing lead tone.
> 
> John Sykes had his sounds completely pegged on that album.


Yep, that's my vote too. On top of that, he was the best sound pinches and smoothest bends of any player.


----------



## datalore (Aug 4, 2008)

For metal, my favorite sounds are on the Strapping Young Lad City and Alien records. For more rock stuff, Nuno Bettencourt on Extreme's Waiting for the Punchline would be one of my favorites. I also love Devin Townsend's tones on Accelerated Evolution and Terria.


----------



## jrf8 (Aug 4, 2008)

slayer, "live decade of agression"- both cd's, every song


----------



## tequila_sauer (Aug 5, 2008)

Always been partial to No More Tears, personally.

Hard to argue with anything Meshuggah or Nevermore have done as well. As an aside, I also love Darkane, Hate Eternal, and anything Anders Bjorler is apart of as far as tone is concerned.


----------



## Diogene303 (Aug 6, 2008)

I'd say fav tone is down to three players / bands 

George Lynch on the Wicked Sensation album , Alex from Testament on the Souls of Black album the sound on machine heads first album. 

Diogene


----------



## Sang-Drax (Aug 7, 2008)

Dream Theater, A Perfect Circle, and Opeth.

I do like Smashing Pumpkins' and Placebo's tones in some songs for lighter stuff.


----------



## shadowlife (Aug 7, 2008)

Ty Tabor from King's X- the "Dogman" album for rhythm tones

Allan Holdsworth for lead tones

There was a band called Shrine in the mid 90's- the guitarist Steven Hufsteter got the best sound i've ever heard from a dual rectifier.


----------



## Scootman1911 (Aug 8, 2008)

FortePenance said:


> They used Peaveys on the first record I think and apparently Pin used a Dimarzio Evolution (2?) on that disc too, not the Nailbombs.
> 
> Anyway, I don't remember what I posted in this thread but my ideal tone has to be... well fuck if I know. I really like the crunchy brown soundy tones and low-middy dm tone. Used to be a djent fan but eh. Clean tone would probably go to like Smells Like Teen Spirit's intro. Really like those sort of edge-of-od cleans on a strat. SRV anyone?


Wow I wasn't expecting you to say Smells Like Teen Spirit at all. 

For me, Adam Jones, Jerry Cantrell, David Gilmour, and Billy Howerdel. And +1 to whoever said Parabola. The tone on that song is epic. Same with Ticks And Leeches.


----------



## Mattayus (Aug 8, 2008)

shadowlife said:


> Ty Tabor from King's X- the "Dogman" album for rhythm tones



Hell yes! The tone for the actual track 'Dogman' is unbelievable! Although i'm pretty certain it has a lot to do with the bass. Sounds like he's got some heavy distortion on it, but it's so holly and chunky it sounds kickass!


----------



## march (Aug 8, 2008)

this



I put it on 11 in the car ... usually after 30s I hit back, then 30s, then back, 30s, back, 30s, back and then I make it through the song. 

Then as it ends, I hit back again a few more times.

And when I arrive wherever I'm supposed to be, I'm deaf.


----------



## GuitarG2 (Aug 8, 2008)

http://www.metallized.it/public/recensioni/Martyr-FeedingtheAbscess.jpg

http://www.gorguts.com/images/download/obscura.jpg

Disagree. Go on. I dare you.


----------



## FortePenance (Aug 9, 2008)

Scootman1911 said:


> Wow I wasn't expecting you to say Smells Like Teen Spirit at all.
> 
> For me, Adam Jones, Jerry Cantrell, David Gilmour, and Billy Howerdel. And +1 to whoever said Parabola. The tone on that song is epic. Same with Ticks And Leeches.



Dont care for SLTS's distorted tone at all, but that clean tone is pretty cool.


----------



## DaemonSvek (Aug 9, 2008)

my Engl puts out the best distortion, fuck famous peoples


----------



## Scootman1911 (Aug 9, 2008)

FortePenance said:


> Dont care for SLTS's distorted tone at all, but that clean tone is pretty cool.


Yeah I guess the clean is really good. I still wouldn't have expected it from you


----------



## 7slinger (Aug 9, 2008)

when I was 13, my 18 yr old brother took me over to his buddy's house where all the metal guys hung out, and his pal let me plug into his crate stealth 50 half stack with jackson SL1. 

we cranked it up, the metalheads gathered round, I administered metallica slayer megadeth and sepultura riffs, they all headbanged, and I was forever hooked

that was the best-distorted-tone-I've-ever-heard (though I'm sure the actual tone was horrible )


----------



## Distortion (Aug 20, 2008)

I'd have to go with Trey Azagthoth's tone on Formulas Fatal to the Flesh... Thick and swollen is how I'd describe it 
Has a bad ass growl to it too!


----------



## sami (Sep 24, 2008)

The Absence - Riders of the Plague


----------



## tequila_sauer (Sep 24, 2008)

Christofer Malmstrom in general. Amazing tone on his Darkane stuff and the incredible Non Human Level album.


----------



## cow 7 sig (Sep 24, 2008)

rob flynn/machine head-blackening,love that tone


----------



## sami (Sep 24, 2008)

i wonder if Rob still uses a TS808 into a 5150/6505. That's how they got their tone in the past.


----------



## UTSC (Sep 25, 2008)

I can't believe it took 4 pages for "Heartwork" to pop up. Crazy.

That was a 5150 AND a Marshall of some sort.


----------



## -Nolly- (Sep 25, 2008)

UTSC said:


> I can't believe it took 4 pages for "Heartwork" to pop up. Crazy.
> 
> That was a 5150 AND a Marshall of some sort.



Call me a blasphemer, but I've never seen the amazingness of the _Heartwork_ tone. It's nice, but there's sooo much high end fizz.

I still think Killswitch Engage's last two albums have such incredible tone. The new Textures album has a fucking excellent guitar sound. 
SikTh had one of the best live tones I've heard.


----------



## kmanick (Sep 25, 2008)

Live the best guitar sound I ever heard was on Van Halens first world tour opening up for Black Sabbath.
I had never heard anyone rip like that before (especially live) and his tone was intense.
Petruccis tone on the most recent G3 with his Mark IV's is a close second.
His sound was huge that night here in Boston.
Studio wise Petrucci on (TOT) Loomis (on anything basically)
Early Van Halen, Lynch on wicked Sensation is a good one.
John sykes from the "Whitesnake " album. The first tiem I heard "still fo the night" I just went "whoa"
tht sounds gooooooood!
I also Like Brian Mays tones on the first 3 Queen albums (especially his lead tones)
Blotted Science -Machinations of Dementia- ron gets a great tone on this CD.
Greg Howes lead sound on the Parallax CD is also one of my favorites.


----------



## sami (Sep 26, 2008)

UTSC said:


> I can't believe it took 4 pages for "Heartwork" to pop up. Crazy.
> 
> That was a 5150 AND a Marshall of some sort.



Can't agree more. Fucking LOVE Heartwork's tone



5150 with a TS808.
Marshall 30th Anniversary head.


----------



## burst (Sep 26, 2008)

The best tone I ever heard was anything but the norm. A toilet, a sound, the drop and it was all over. No distortion, just Baby Ruth and its glistening delight. Pure distortion of thought.


----------



## Harry (Sep 26, 2008)

-Nolly- said:


> Call me a blasphemer, but I've never seen the amazingness of the _Heartwork_ tone. It's nice, but there's sooo much high end fizz.
> 
> I still think Killswitch Engage's last two albums have such incredible tone. The new Textures album has a fucking excellent guitar sound.
> SikTh had one of the best live tones I've heard.



I only like a few KSE songs, but fuck yes, their last two albums have some damn awesome tone indeed


----------



## sami (Sep 26, 2008)

Thank their framus heads for that. It's great tone but too clean IMO.


----------



## MrJoe815 (Sep 26, 2008)

I think it would have to be a tone bone. That thing produce a great sound!


----------



## Esp Griffyn (Sep 26, 2008)

Metallica on Reload, speciffically the rhythm tone on "Where the wild thing are", the thick, chunky but not muddy chug tone is amazing. Devin's rhythm tones are always amazing. Almost Djenty, but not harsh at all, a very rare thing.

As for the single greatest distorted tone ever, its gotta go to Steve Vai, but he has far too many to choose from.


----------



## kristallin (Sep 26, 2008)

I'm very fond of Robert Fripp's current lead tone, especially when played on top of his soundscapes. It's got a bit of a bite, while being smooth and creamy... bliss!


----------



## Variant (Sep 26, 2008)

shadowlife said:


> Ty Tabor from King's X- the "Dogman" album for rhythm tones.



A benchmark for me as well, I dare anyone to crank up the end of 'Black The Sky' and not shiver with delight. Unfortunately, if you want the Dogman/Awake recto sound you have to buy an old one as Mesa 'tightened' the Recto's sound sometime in the mid 1990's and they sound too compressed in their current form.  

As lead tones go, Criss Oliva's (R.I.P.) icy, precise lead tone from the 'Edge Of Thorns' albums is great, and Arjen Lucassen always has great lead tones, epically on the 'Ambien' album, it's like midway between great shredder tone, and an atmospheric Gilmour-esque tone.


----------



## zimbloth (Sep 26, 2008)

Black Sabbath at Ozzfest '01. He had about 20 Laney stacks up there, the tone was unbelievable. The best I've ever heard by far. Death metal wise, Cannibal Corpse at the NE Metalfest '07 was incredible. I think they had dual Triple Rec stacks.

In terms of recorded tones, the tone on Behemoth's "Demigod" is up there for me. Machine Head always has great tone as well. I also like the tone on In Flames' "Clayman" and Slipknot's "Iowa".


----------



## Esp Griffyn (Sep 26, 2008)

Jesus how could I forget Mick Thomson's Iowa tone, such a fucking good sound!


----------



## zimbloth (Sep 26, 2008)

Esp Griffyn said:


> Jesus how could I forget Mick Thomson's Iowa tone, such a fucking good sound!



VHT Pittbull


----------



## Piledriver (Sep 26, 2008)

Sikth,so clear and crushing...
and vai for lead tones


----------



## Moloch (Sep 27, 2008)

as far as metal goes meshuggah owns all, Fred and Martin really know how to both tweaks their amps(i.e pre nothing) and thieir pods (nothing and onwards) to have a nice full distorted "metal" tone with just enough distortion.
For "rock" music the tone on In Utero pwns all.
Apparently kurt made steve albini use a metric shitton of mics, inorder to get the "room" sound, something he was trying to do like forever but none of them would actually listen to him.


----------



## jufob (Sep 27, 2008)

Tony Iommi


----------



## stuh84 (Sep 29, 2008)

I found a new love, and its in......probably the most expected of locations for me 

Evergrey's Torn album, holy SHIT is that good tone. Fear has the absolute best heavy yet clear tone I've come across in my entire life. 7 string tone, using an Engl Savage 120s preamp fed into the output section of a 5150 (Tom Englund confirmed this on the Evergrey boards), and its just pure amazingness. All of a sudden, Evergrey have not only become my obsession musically, but tonally and in their gear too


----------



## Scootman1911 (Sep 30, 2008)

Piledriver said:


> Sikth,so clear and crushing...
> and vai for lead tones


I can't believe I forgot SikTh! Man their tone is unbelievably amazing


----------



## FortePenance (Sep 30, 2008)

I think it sounds great for what they do, like the notey, groovey, complex stuff, but it doesn't great for the sort of "RAWR, SLAM CHORD PAIN" stuff. For instance, Bland Street Bloom, tone on the opening riff is amazing, that low A is so growly but then the outro riff, the breakdownish styled chords just don't hit hard IMO. Their lead tones sound great though.


----------



## holtoid (Nov 4, 2008)

Deftones - Selftitled (Love the opening song Hexegram nice clean distorted sound)
Pantera - Far Beyond Driven (Ultra Meat)
Meshuggah - Ultra Crunch and clarity 
Machine Head (Burn My Eyes and the More Things Change, very crisp sounding)
Vai - Sex and Religion (Superb tone from the man)
Dream Theatre - really like the tone on Awake

Also great call on Sikth really nice tone they had.


----------



## Hawksmoor (Nov 4, 2008)

stuh84 said:


> I found a new love, and its in......probably the most expected of locations for me
> 
> Evergrey's Torn album, holy SHIT is that good tone. Fear has the absolute best heavy yet clear tone I've come across in my entire life. 7 string tone, using an Engl Savage 120s preamp fed into the output section of a 5150 (Tom Englund confirmed this on the Evergrey boards), and its just pure amazingness. All of a sudden, Evergrey have not only become my obsession musically, but tonally and in their gear too



Hell yeah, its a great sounding album!


----------



## SteveDendura (Nov 4, 2008)

You know who I think has killer tone is "Echoes of Eternity". I've got "The Forgotten Goddess" and I've seen them twice in Detroit. They play ESP guitars through ENGLs. I don't know what amp model it was, but it was my first time ever hearing an ENGL and was like, whatever that is, it sounds bad ass. Then after that I heard Loomis was using ENGL, and now everyone's talking about ENGL. Seriously though, the E.O.E album sounds great, as does "Zero Order Phase". The two albums sound way different in tone, but really cool.


----------



## Daemoniac (Nov 5, 2008)

Eric Powell (16volt) - Happy Pill/The Defect people 

Fucking crushing sound. From everything ive heard, it's still my favorite guitar tone of all time, huge, slightly metallic in an industrial way, but really thick and massive. Also the tone that got me into heavy music....


----------



## Uroborus (Nov 5, 2008)

Decapitated's tone on Nihility
Meshuggah's tone
Opeth's tone on Deliverance
Sikth's tone
Hetfield's tone on Ride The Lightning
Devin's tone on_* Accelerated Evolution
At the Gates tone on *__*Terminal Spirit Disease
Dimebag's tone on The Great Southern Trendkill
*_


----------



## Harry (Nov 5, 2008)

I forgot about that one actually (GSTK).
Dimebag's rhythm gone absolutely crushed on that album.


----------



## Jerich (Nov 5, 2008)

In no order...
Evergrey"torn" has the sickest r tone..but crappy solo tones
" 
andy timmons
Jon Schaffer "gettysburgh"
Guthrie Govan
steve Vai "solo tones but not anything else"
Novembers doom THE NOVELLA RESERVOIR
My dying Bride "A Line of Deathless Kings"
Arcturus "La Masquerade Infernale"
Carl a tidemann..anything he plays he has a amazing tone.
Santiago Dobles aghora "his lead tones are killer"..Madisons
Eric Johnson - anything distorted..I hate his clean tones..strats sound like poop clean to me.
Stephan forte-ANYTHING
Vinnie moore "Defying Gravity "
John Perez "the other JP"..."alone" man his tone is slow and crushing...
Mike wead- his solo tone on many cd's is just killer..King diamond,Abstrakt Algebra ,Momento mori,Hexenhaus,Kryptillusion
Chris Broderick- on the new megadeth not even out yet!! His solo tone will be insane~


----------



## abysmalrites (Nov 5, 2008)

I could name a lot, but off the top of my head:

Beneath the Massacre
Decapitated on O.H.
Emeth on Reticulated


----------



## guitarbuilder93 (Nov 6, 2008)

The Absence- any song off "Riders of the Plague"

Meshuggah- any song from any album


----------



## m3ta1head (Nov 6, 2008)

Leper Messiah by Metallica (and MOP in general)-one of the most ballsy, chunky guitar tones around. Love it. 

And on Ghost Reveries by Opeth. Brutal gain and yet completely articulate.


----------



## Totem_37 (Nov 6, 2008)

Clydefrog said:


> Jon Shaffer on Something Wicked.



I definitely agree with that. Schaffer's tone is insanely raunchy.

Aside from him, I would have to go with Dimebag Darrell


----------



## holtoid (Nov 7, 2008)

Enslaved have a great tone.


----------



## Unknown Doodl3.2 (Nov 9, 2008)

Gorguts on From Wisdom To Hate. The tone is extremely clear and you can hear all the wacky stuff Luc Lemay and Dan Mongrain do with their guitars


----------



## Mattayus (Nov 9, 2008)

As much as I like to convince myself I don't like their music - Suicide Silence have a very brutal tone. Not my cuppa tea personally, as I'm not much of a death metaller, but it's one of the most guttural death metal tones I've heard in a long long time.


----------



## noodleplugerine (Nov 9, 2008)

SiKth had it down to a tee. Greatest tone ever imo.


----------



## TMM (Nov 11, 2008)

Blood Tempest said:


> I just would like to hear what all of you have to say on the issue of the best distorted tone you've ever heard. Who was it? What band (if any)? If you know, what kind of amp and guitar was used?
> 
> For me, I have a close call between two tones. I think Patrik Jensen from The Haunted has the best distorted tone, specifically on rEVOLVEr, where he used a Peavey 5150 and either an ESP Viper Urban Camo or his custom ESP EX Urban Camo. IMO, fucking amazing tone.
> (For the record, the tone on The Dead Eye is fucking killer too, but rEVOLVEr's seems to stand out to me more)
> ...



Sorry if someone already said this, but I wasn't going to read through 15+ pages. FWIW, Loomis's tone on This Godless Endeavor is 90% Line-6 PODxt-Pro direct, although the live tone is Krank.


----------



## Shaman (Nov 12, 2008)

TMM said:


> Sorry if someone already said this, but I wasn't going to read through 15+ pages. FWIW, Loomis's tone on This Godless Endeavor is 90&#37; Line-6 PODxt-Pro direct, although the live tone is Krank.



Dude, Andy Sneap (the guy who actually mixed and engineered the album) stated that it was a mixture of a Mesa Rectifier and a Krank. On the rhythm tracks it was 2 tracks of Mesa and two tracks of Krank.

Where have you heard that it was a POD, since my information comes straight from Andy Sneap.


----------



## TomAwesome (Nov 12, 2008)

I had actually heard that it was a POD XT as well, though I've heard more since then that it was the Mesa/Krank combo. I think it may have come from some confusion with Jeff using a POD in his home studio.


----------



## Shaman (Nov 12, 2008)

TomAwesome said:


> I had actually heard that it was a POD XT as well, though I've heard more since then that it was the Mesa/Krank combo. I think it may have come from some confusion with Jeff using a POD in his home studio.



Yeah, people often think that the gear that the player uses on tour or is endorsed by, always gets used on the albums.

I remember when people were sure that Loomis used a Peavey XXX on TGE, since he was endorsed by Peavey and you could see one in the video they shot at Sneap's studio.







This is what got used, the old rackmount Rectifier and a Krank Revolution.(the amps on the right on top of each other)


----------



## Munky7Head (Dec 4, 2008)

The best distorted tone I have ever heard has got to go to Wes Borland on Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water. That's a recto used at its best!


----------



## elrrek (Dec 4, 2008)

Scott Hull from Pig Destroyer had an amazing tone when they recorded "Terrifyer".

Andy Sneap did an amazing job on the remaster of Nevermore's "Enemies of Reality".


----------



## killiansguitar (Dec 4, 2008)

I've always been a fan of Adam Jones' tone on Lateralus and 10,000 Days. Awesome tone.


----------



## poopyalligator (Dec 4, 2008)

When it comes to a cd that i have listened to that has awesome guitar tone. I wanna say i liked Deliver us by Darkest hour. That cd sounds insanely good. For playing, I love my engl fireball. It has the exact sound that i was looking for.


----------



## Meldville (Dec 5, 2008)

Decapitated - Organic Hallucinosis


----------



## Misanthropy (Dec 5, 2008)

Killswitch Engage-nice meaty tone

The Haunted's tone on the "The Dead Eye" wowwww


----------



## Adamh1331 (Dec 5, 2008)

I really like Adam Jones' tone off of Ænima & Lateralus


----------



## the unbearable (Jul 31, 2009)

fuck, 29 pages and nobody mentions

Page Hamilton of helmet (godfather of drop d)
Josh Homme of queens of the stone age (heavy tone = tube bass amp, no brainer)
scooter ward of cold on their s/t (sg + rat + vox, wow)
any of the rotating guitar players for american head charge
wayne static of static-x
fuckin jucifer (when all else fails do it all by yourself!)


----------



## shotgunn (Aug 1, 2009)

Drew said:


> I seem to remember a track Vai recorded for Inteview with a Vampire that had a really cool rhythm guitar tone, sounded vaguely marshally but crystal clear and smooth at the same time. I heard it once maybe 6 years ago though, so take this with a grain of salt.
> 
> I like a lot of Devin Townsend's Strapping Young Lad tones, on the heavier side of things - Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing has some great metal tones on it. And JP's live tone from his first G3 tour was to DIE for.




Love Blood. Awesome song. I wish Stevie could have played Lestat. Instead stupid Tom Cruise got to play the part. No talent hack job.



Mattayus said:


> i dunno if this has already been mentioned (too many pages to trawl through!) but dimebag's tone on Far Beyond Driven is heavier than the earth times two. it just slices your face off, it's razor sharp, ultra scooped, dark as fuck, and just sick. the intro to 'slaughtered' is just pure brutality.




I like this guy!!! Slaughtered, slaughters me EVERY TIME!!!!!!! I was just listening to that today.

Distorted Lead Tone: Steve Vai 'For the Love of God' G3 CD (not DVD) '97.
Recorded in Chicago I might add. That had something to do with it for sure.

Metal Rhythm Tone: PanterA - VDOP, Metallica - The Black Album
Fear Factory - Demanufacture, 

Bluesy Distorted Lead Tone: SRV - any song

Bluesy Creamy/Fuzzy Lead Tone: Led Zeppelin - 'You Shook Me'

I love distortion, it's what I love most about playing the electric guitar.

shotgunn


----------



## vontetzianos (Aug 1, 2009)

Andy Timmons off Resolution. Really smooth and thick.


----------



## BrainArt (Aug 1, 2009)

Vai (in general), Petrucci (in general), Chris Broderick, Fredrik Thordendal, Devin Townsend. In that order.


----------



## lefty robb (Aug 1, 2009)

John's tone on the new album is about as tight as I've ever heard it with the new DiMarzio pickups. I love that dry Mesa crunch.


----------



## BrainArt (Aug 1, 2009)

lefty robb said:


> John's tone on the new album is about as tight as I've ever heard it with the new DiMarzio pickups. I love that dry Mesa crunch.



 I think I like JP's tone a little more than Vai's eek because it's more attainable. Because, even if one was to own all of the same gear Vai has and set it up the same way, it's not going to really scratch the surface of his tone. It's in his hands, as is 80% of every guitarist's tone.


----------



## Cyco Nino (Aug 1, 2009)

I really like the tone Machine Head used in The more things change, I like Pantera's Far beyond driven tone too.


----------



## hypermagic (Aug 1, 2009)

dougsteele said:


> I'll say Meshuggah NONE.



YES!!!

Best from Meshuggah Imo.

Others:

Sludge:
Hum 
Acid Bath
Crowbar
Gaza

Tremolo picked Palm muted stuff:

Psycroptic
Ion Dissonance
Car_Bomb 
Nile

Cleans and Leads:
Holdsworth
Frank Gambale
Fredrik Thordendal
Cynic


----------



## Esp Griffyn (Aug 1, 2009)

Vai is in a tone class all of his own, Devin is also good at getting a lot of cool sounds, but the ultimate in distorted tone is without a doubt Rammstein.


----------



## EliNoPants (Aug 1, 2009)

honestly, the first time i ever heard i guitar rig that made me go "i want to make THAT sound" it was my buddy Joe Profitt from the band Lethe the second gig after he got a Mesa Stiletto and had time to set everything just right...the Fluid Gain setting on that amp is exactly what i think a lead/solo tone should be...until i heard that, i was more than content to just work on bass, after that, all bets were off and i decided that guitar was something that i should put some real effort into aside from learning just basic chord riffery


----------



## Scali (Aug 1, 2009)

The solo in this:


----------



## distressed_romeo (Aug 1, 2009)

Wow...can't believe I haven't replied to this yet. Here's a list of favourites, as I couldn't really narrow it down...

Andy Summer's clean tone, especially when he kicks in his flanger.
Any of Alex Lifeson's tones, especially on the 'Permenant Waves' album.
Queensryche's tone on 'Mindcrime', especially on 'Waiting for 22'.
Vito Bratta's lead tone with White Lion.
Allan Holdsworth, especially the baritone guitar sounds on 'Wardenclyffe Tower'.
My Dying Bride's rhythm sound on 'Songs of Darkness, Words of Light'
Tom Warrior's rhythm sound on Celtic Frost's 'Monotheist'
Lamb of God's tone on 'Ashes of the Wake'
Any of Eric Johnson's tones.
George Lynch's tone on 'Sacred Groove'.
Any of Dave Gilmour's tones.
The JC120 + Gretsch sounds on The Cult's 'Love'
Tim Donahue's harp guitar sounds.
Keep of Kalessin's 'Armada' and 'Kollossus' albums.
Petrucci's tone on 'Black Clouds...'; a really nice balance between all eras of the band.
Ty Tabor's early tone.
The Bass VI sound on the Cure's 'Disintegration', and the swirly tones on 'Bloodflowers'
To-mera's rhythm tone on 'Dillusions'
Scar Symmetry on 'Holographic Universe.


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## ShadyDavey (Aug 1, 2009)

A lot of what Mr Romeo said to be honest - and a couple more:

Chris Poland's tone on RTM
Uli Jon Roth on "Beyond the Astral Skies" before it started to sound too clean. 
Steve Stevens laid down some awesome tones on Atomic Playboys
Gary Moore in his "Loner" period for sheer thick and sustaining lead tones. 



> Any of Eric Johnson's tones.
> George Lynch's tone on 'Sacred Groove'.



Good lord Yes!!


----------



## Hawkevil (Aug 1, 2009)

I've always loved Killswitch's rhythm tone. 

Also love Opeth's lead tones...


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## -TheWickerMan- (Aug 1, 2009)

i love chuck schuldiner's tone especially on "symbolic"

dismember have an awesome tone too for their leads.

oh and psycroptic have a pretty unique tone on the scepter of the ancients.


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## jam3v (Aug 1, 2009)

Black Album rhythm tone (kirk's ada pre-amps always left much to be desired). Though their sound has a lot more to do with multi-tracking and phasing than it does with the actual amps they use.

Nile's tone on Sacrifice Unto Sebek single-handedly caused me to buy a JCM2000.

I really liked Petrucci's tone up until Scenes from a Memory. I think he was using Mk. IIC+'s still? Not sure.


----------



## JeddyH (Aug 1, 2009)

The rhythm tone on Megadeth's Kill the King is pretty decent


----------



## Bleak (Aug 1, 2009)

Aside from the obvious Petrucci votes, for me I'd say Gus G's tone on Firewind's most recent, "The Premonition" is quite tasty.


----------



## BrainArt (Aug 2, 2009)

Esp Griffyn said:


> Vai is in a tone class all of his own, Devin is also good at getting a lot of cool sounds, but the ultimate in distorted tone is without a doubt Rammstein.



 I totally forgot about Rammstein.


----------



## elhantiri (Aug 5, 2009)

megadeth's countdown to extinction, youthanasia& cryptic writings
jon schaefer's tone on all iced earth albums: i think he used larry dino& also engl blackmore
deicide's serpent of the light: boosted jcms & rectos


----------



## Scar Symmetry (Aug 5, 2009)

Bloodbath - Resurrection Through Carnage


----------



## DrakkarTyrannis (Aug 5, 2009)

Scar Symmetry said:


> Bloodbath - Resurrection Through Carnage



It's okay...just take your pills and lay down for a while.


----------



## Forresterc (Aug 5, 2009)

Worst Distortion Tone: One Way Mirror

Best Distortion Tone: The Faceless. (close call with Opeth as well)
both are very strong. When i saw Faceless live i was surprised that they used Line 6 Vettas into Randal Cabinets. They two guitarists use ibanez S series and some type of Washburn.

Off note a bit, best bass tone was Between the Buried and Me on their album Colors. It is just awsome. Didn't dig their guitar sound though, but it doesn't suck.

P.S. for seven and eight string, only Meshuggah for me.


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## Dyingsea (Aug 5, 2009)

If we're talking anything beyond straight clean I'll go with Eric Johnsons overdriven lead any day.


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## TheSymphony (Aug 9, 2009)

*The Project Hate MCMXCIX* - _The Lustrate Process_

Best guitar sound ever !


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## TomParenteau (Aug 9, 2009)

=vH= all albums through Women & Children First


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## liamh (Aug 10, 2009)

Yeah, I'm in agreeance about Jp's Train of Thought tone.
My friends, listen to "In the name of god" and let your jaws drop


----------



## Excalibur (Aug 10, 2009)

Ty Tabor, Greg Howe, Brett Garsed, and Allan Holdsworth.


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## theglue_aka_me (Aug 10, 2009)

Adam Jone's tone in Flood is pretty killer.


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## Rashputin (Aug 11, 2009)

JP on their latest album _Black Clouds and Silver Linings_. His tone seems more alive and organic than on some of their other studio albums like i.e. "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence". 

I love the sound on _Scenes from a Memory_ though, and his live sound on _Live scenes from New York_ was the shit. I saw them live in Oslo on that tour back in '01. They played at this really small venue here called Rockefeller. Like 1500 people there, but its two floors, so everyone gets real close to the stage. I was like 5 meters away from his rig. Holy crap.. that was the shit.


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## brick (Aug 11, 2009)

either tool's guitarist's tone on the song jambi or a number of petrucci's different stuff from different eras


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## Scali (Aug 11, 2009)

I must say I'm surprised how often Petrucci's name comes up in this topic.


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## liamh (Aug 11, 2009)

I love Rons tone in Blotted Science's Machinations Of Dementia.

I love that band so fucking much.


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## matty2fatty (Aug 11, 2009)

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the new slipknot album, I like it because it sounds a bit different from what you hear on 99% of metal albums. 

The first track off of Beneath the Massacre's Dystopia is probably the heaviest tone I've heard (in the breakdown sections), although I think that has more to do with the bass.

But, as has already been mentioned, Slaughtered is the best metal tone ever recorded. Just put it on and try to disagree.


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## BrainArt (Aug 12, 2009)

Scali said:


> I must say I'm surprised how often Petrucci's name comes up in this topic.



He's got some sick tone, that's why.  Clean or distorted it sounds amazing.


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## Scali (Aug 12, 2009)

IbanezShredderB said:


> He's got some sick tone, that's why.  Clean or distorted it sounds amazing.


 
Perhaps I'll have to check out some more of his work. I mainly know him from the Rock Discipline video, and I bought one DVD some time ago to check out Dream Theater. And ofcourse I have the G3 DVD that he's on.


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## XeoFLCL (Aug 12, 2009)

Said it before and I'll say it again. Best tone IMO is The Absence's Riders of the Plague. I absolutely LOVE the guitars on that album.


Make sure you click HQ. Big difference.


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## mattofvengeance (Aug 15, 2009)

I really really love the guitars on After the Burial's Rareform. IMO some of the best distorted tones captured on record


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## 8Fingers (Aug 15, 2009)

Petrucci - Home.
The best heavy rhythm guitar ever.
He probably would never get that tone again.
Angry and powerful!


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## Metalus (Aug 28, 2009)

Im sure its been mentioned, but my favorite tone of all time is and forever will be Killswitch Engage on the End of Heartache album. The tone is just...PERFECT. Massive, clear, tight, punchy as hell, barely fizzy, and the pinch harmonics just SCREAM. I get off every time i hear it. It is literally the tone of my dreams as i try to achieve it everyday. Hopefully I will someday...


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## skeeballcore (Aug 28, 2009)

Sikth - Death of Dead Day - killer tone throughout the entire album

Spitfire - The Dead Next Door - little known record, with just a seething tone

(that's two "dead's" in two albums)

Converge - Jane Doe


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## Metalus (Sep 3, 2009)

every time i think of Sikth i get sad...at least we got Dan and Pin's side projects to look forward to


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## sami (Sep 3, 2009)

XeoFLCL said:


> Said it before and I'll say it again. Best tone IMO is The Absence's Riders of the Plague. I absolutely LOVE the guitars on that album.
> 
> 
> Make sure you click HQ. Big difference.




  

First time I heard this album, the music and tone hit me at the same time. I was astonished!!


Also, Vader's Impressions in Blood CD is one of the best distorted tones on my list.


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## Mattayus (Sep 3, 2009)

TBH, i'm totally digging Whitechapel's tone on This is Exhile at the moment. It's got so much power and presence, and is grindy as all fuck, but without the super super scooped sludgy death metal malarky. In the interview with them on this site they mentioned using 6505 (thought as much) but through a 2 x 12, which I was really surprised about.

Also, I recently discovered ss.org's very own Sacha (Enditol) and his band Divinity have an astonishingly nice tone



Sacha's the dude on the right with the JP7 and the Diezel stack I believe


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## Korngod (Sep 3, 2009)

probly wont have many people who agree with me on this... and im not just saying this because i am an avid Korn fan either, but the best distorted tone ive heard was from Korn's untouchables album where they used alot of the octave blending on the whammy pedal. especially in the song Here to Stay.


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## toolsound (Sep 3, 2009)

Metalus said:


> Im sure its been mentioned, but my favorite tone of all time is and forever will be Killswitch Engage on the End of Heartache album. The tone is just...PERFECT. Massive, clear, tight, punchy as hell, barely fizzy, and the pinch harmonics just SCREAM. I get off every time i hear it. It is literally the tone of my dreams as i try to achieve it everyday. Hopefully I will someday...



5150 + Maxon OD808 + EMG pickups will get you in the ball park.


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## liamh (Sep 3, 2009)

I fucking love the tone on meshuggah's ObZen.


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## metalmonster (Nov 23, 2009)

well , obzen's tone , but also i really dig stephen carpenter's tone on the "deftones" album , i love nile's tone on in their darkened shrines album , as well as bloodbath's tone ! as well as lacuna coil's one on some album i can't remember . And carcass tone , too , no love lost ... good ol' metal  anthrax's tone was always a must to me , too . 

if we are not that much "metal" , i can tell i like opeth's tone a lot , and i'm a whore for jimi hendrix's one . and dave navarro's one on his solo albums is always cool ... 

oh and i'll sound narcissic , but i really like my tone . it is simple to get , it didn't costed me a kidney to get , but that's a hell of a tone , sweet deftones-to-vai sounds with the 7620 , and sweet hendrix tones with the telly ... i just need a good overdrive pedal and to forget the existence of the "overdrive" channel of my JCM900 though 'cause its a bit of a joke even if actually it sounds pretty decent ...


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## Necrophagist777 (Nov 23, 2009)

Favorite Rhythm Tone:

Dude from Feared, the legendary youtube Savage 120:



Favorite Lead Tone:

Troooooch:


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## metallidude3 (Nov 23, 2009)

necrophagist hands down idk if anybody said it already but my favorite tone in the world is there solo tone 
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0KRCP5ezRLs&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0KRCP5ezRLs&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

sorry bout the last post guna try to fix that


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## Opeth666 (Nov 24, 2009)

Rhythm: Blackwater park- Opeth

Lead: shit idk...TGE Nevermore, BCWSL Dream Theater...hell if know haha


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## Loomer (Nov 24, 2009)

Dyingsea said:


> If we're talking anything beyond straight clean I'll go with Eric Johnsons overdriven lead any day.



Oh god yes.


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## Hypothermia (Nov 24, 2009)

For heavy rhythm riffing and stuff: Meshuuga, espesially the tone on the reissue of Nothing.

For leads and post rock-ish delay melodies: Cult of luna, the tone on the Adrift album is superb


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## jymellis (Nov 24, 2009)

i like 216/mushroomhead




the tone during the song eli cash vs. the godless savages by iwrestledabearonce is pretty fuckin massive also

go to the 1:40 mark


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## Sliggy (Nov 25, 2009)

Gonna go with the "popular" (but for good reason) option of Nevermore's This Godless Endeavor. So fucking thick and heavy.

And Sevendust's Animosity had a fucking MONSTROUS tone.


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## IamOthello (Nov 25, 2009)

Meshuggah's Catch 33 > tones


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## FMG (Nov 25, 2009)

Opeth's tone on the Ghost Reveries, and Linkin Park's tone on Hybrid Theory are some that spring to mind!


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## AdamMaz (Nov 28, 2009)

I'm a fan of the Swedish DM tone a la Boss HM-2.

Obituary's Trevor Peros' rythm tone is killer.

Master's self-titled album as well.


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## troyguitar (Nov 28, 2009)

Blue Murder - Blue Murder.


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## headibanez (Nov 28, 2009)

+1 for opeth, live they use prs through laneys


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## HeavyMetal4Ever (Nov 28, 2009)

I've really been digging the guitar tones on Kreator's Coma Of Souls lately. Tight and defined, but still crunchy. Imho, it's the perfect thrash tone. 

Rock on!


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## AdamMaz (Nov 28, 2009)

HeavyMetal4Ever said:


> Imho, it's the perfect thrash tone.


As much as I like that album, I would give that honor to Dark Angel's "Darkness Descends".


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## scottro202 (Nov 28, 2009)

Petrucci-Train Of Thought, Dark Eternal Night
Satriani- Anything he's touched
Arch Enemy-Dead Eyes See No Future
Tool- Anything, especially "Hush"
Rush-Limelight
Periphery- Anything they've ever touched, or thought about touching
Clapton when he was with cream (Woman tone FTW)
Van Halen-Van Halen I


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## Alone Dragon (Nov 29, 2009)

Architects "Early Grave" first riff

Tony Danza's new song "Yippiekayay Motherfucker" - I mean the last breakdown with E sound! ohh fuck... it blows up my brain


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## turdwrangler (Nov 29, 2009)

Hank Shermann on Don't Break The Oath.

Squire Strat into a boosted plexi 1987


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## nihilist (Nov 30, 2009)

IamOthello said:


> Meshuggah's Catch 33 > tones



+1234


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## Necrophagist777 (Nov 30, 2009)

Some people will probably disagree but the tone that starts at :40 when you can hear the guitar by itself is amazing IMO. SOOO THICK and CHUNKEE


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## includao (Nov 30, 2009)

scottro202 said:


> Petrucci-Train Of Thought, Dark Eternal Night
> Satriani- Anything he's touched
> Arch Enemy-Dead Eyes See No Future
> Tool- Anything, especially "Hush"
> ...




thisss


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## sol niger 333 (Nov 30, 2009)

WHY GOD?


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## mattofvengeance (Nov 30, 2009)

scottro202 said:


> Periphery- Anything they've ever touched, or thought about touching



This is so true. Those dudes have immaculate tone


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## Koshchei (Nov 30, 2009)

Uli Roth, Devin Townsend, and Shawn Lane are my top three. Eric Johnston is fourth of three.


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## Absaloms Axe (Dec 2, 2009)

There is no "best"

but that one is pretty massive:


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## xmetalhead69 (Dec 2, 2009)

I gotta go with Petrucci on BCASL. I don't think its possible to get a much better tone than that. 

that said I also love Suicmez's lead tone on all of Epitaph....


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## jymellis (Dec 2, 2009)

sol niger 333 said:


> WHY GOD?




 there is an iwrestledabearonce video on you tube. its titled something like "studio diary 1" , "studio diary 2" one of the vids has their guitarist plugging his guitar into one of those little squire sp10 ams. he cranks it and plays something and its like BUZZZZZZFIZZZZZZZZZZZZ and hes like "LOOK GUYS I JUST FOUND JACK WHITES TONE" 

the jack tone starts at 213 but the whole vid is super funny!


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## Hendog (Dec 2, 2009)

Probably Van Halen I.


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## onefingersweep (Dec 3, 2009)

Allan Holdsworth, always.
Brett Garsed, always.
Scott Henderson, always.
Yngwie Malmsteen on "Marching Out"
Guthrie Govan on "Erotic Cakes"
John Petrucci on "A Change Of Seasons" and "Scenes from a Memory".
Vinnie Moore on "The Maze".


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## MerlinTKD (Dec 4, 2009)

I think I might have replied to this last year... but these are the tones that keep me coming back:

Bulb
Scale the Summit
SikTh
Cynic
KsE on "End of the Heartache"

It's that gain-y, smoothly distorted but still aggressive tone, not too crunchy or scratchy but not too clean. Vai/Satch/Tom Scholz are _too_ clean a distortion, most metal is too crunchy (for me); the five I mentioned seem to be nicely in between.


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## Loomer (Dec 4, 2009)

I think I'm gonna have to go with Matt Pike again here, actually. Goddamnit High On Fíre is the most badass thing ever.

If there was an award for MANLIEST tone ever, it would be this, no doubt.


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## -mouse- (Dec 4, 2009)

I love 311's tone, especially on "Come Original"... Sounds delicious and it makes me want a better amp ;_;


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## Euthanasia (Dec 5, 2009)

Meshuggah, Obzen


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## TooDead (Dec 5, 2009)

I bought Astro Creep 2000 when it came out and to this day it is one of the best sounding albums ever. Along with Static-X's Wisconsin Death Trip, I'm pretty sure, and I stand to be corrected, that it's a basic Marshall/downtune combination. I know Wayne Static came in to record the album with a high end Marshall tube amp, but was talked into using a VS100 valvestate (I used to have one, recorded a lot with it). I recall him talking about how much better it sounded.


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## cob (Dec 20, 2009)

Petrucci's tone on the newest album is pretty good.

The haunted has a BRUTAL tone but it's not what I would consider the best because I look for a certain... sonority that I don't hear in their sound.


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## Thin_Ice_77 (Dec 20, 2009)

Parkway Drive, no competition.



Beat that.


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## FearFactoryDBCR (Dec 20, 2009)

I'd say Dino's tone on Demanufacture is really brutal. 
And Metallica's tone on ...And justice for all is fucking evil.
And lastly i'd have to say Dimebag's tone on Vulgar Display of Power. Really hardcore stuff.


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## Hawkevil (Dec 20, 2009)

The tone that sticks out for me is Killswitch Engages tone on 'End of Heartache'. Especially 'Breathe life'. I also love the arch enemy tone on 'Doomsday Machine' album.

You can't go wrong with anything Andy Sneap has been a part of really.


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## distressed_romeo (Dec 20, 2009)

I've probably already answered this, but Chris Poland's lead tone is just incredible. In terms of rhythm...

Keep of Kallessin
Roy Z and Adrian Smith on 'The Chemical Wedding'


----------



## phatfil (Dec 20, 2009)

Hawkevil said:


> You can't go wrong with anything Andy Sneap has been a part of really.



no doubt about it. he produced one of my all time fav tones on Stock Mojo's Raise The Deadman. great, great tone. and at about 2min in, it gets even better.


----------



## Inertialgrind (Dec 20, 2009)

Aeon-Bleeding the False
Psycroptic - Scepter of the Ancients
Metallica - And Justice for all
Necrophagist - Epitaph
Jeff loomis`s solo album sounded pretty good.


----------



## Variant (Dec 20, 2009)

TooDead said:


> I bought Astro Creep 2000 when it came out and to this day it is one of the best sounding albums ever. Along with Static-X's Wisconsin Death Trip, I'm pretty sure, and I stand to be corrected, that it's a basic Marshall/downtune combination. I know Wayne Static came in to record the album with a high end Marshall tube amp, but was talked into using a VS100 valvestate (I used to have one, recorded a lot with it). I recall him talking about how much better it sounded.



Astro Creep was a tri-amp setup with (2) VS-100 and (1) Randall RG100 solid state head all running at once (not layer-tracked). That said, the old Valvestates were awesome.


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## Prydogga (Dec 22, 2009)

I wouldn't really label this distorted tone, but oh my god it sounds delish. Just listen to Electric Gyspy at the start, the distorted tone later on is really nice too.


----------



## Daemoniac (Dec 22, 2009)

Thin_Ice_77 said:


> Parkway Drive, no competition.
> 
> [video]
> 
> Beat that.



 Ok...














/subjective


----------



## Imalwayscold (Dec 22, 2009)

It would have to be Dinos tone on Asesino. Most of his albums have been my ideal stance on distortion, but this one especially (not to mention the rest of the album);



The intro riff is crushing!


----------



## liamh (Dec 22, 2009)




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## Guitar GeeK (Dec 22, 2009)

MESHUGGAH!!!!!!


----------



## CrushingAnvil (Dec 23, 2009)

Children Of Bodom (Something Wild, Hatebreeder, Follow The Reaper, Hatecrew Deathroll)

Marshall power amp/preamp plus Lee Jackson preamp and a 1960 is one of my favourite tones...I think they used Lexicon reverb/delay units too.


----------



## Andrewsonfire (Dec 23, 2009)

I like Symphony x tone... anything from nocturnal/deflorate by the black dahlia murder... and deftones tone. If stephen carpenter knows anything about guitar its tone.



Inertialgrind said:


> Jeff loomis`s solo album sounded pretty good.


Yeah i really like that also


----------



## carbons2k (Dec 23, 2009)

Anthrax - Persistence of time


----------



## xplorer (Dec 23, 2009)

Hawksmoor said:


> Keeley mods MT2's, maybe that was it.
> 
> Kill me for bringing on the soft shit, but the Distortion tones of Closing Time by Semisonic are pretty tasty. Rat through Marshal, I believe.



Re: Pat O'Brien Cannibal Corpse tone wit MT-2 clean boost

I do the same thing with my MT-2. I modded it to have a switch that can effectively remove the clipping diodes for a clean boost mode. I leave the semi-parametric mid alone (12:00 settings), turn the dist to zero, and cut a bit of bass and boost a bit of treble (very slight boost/cut). I'm playing through a 6505+ dimed into a THD hotplate. Sounds massive 

I also have a modded TS-9, and I actually prefer the MT-2! It's got mor of the 'crushed glass' edge, but it's probably because of the improved tonal controls of the MT-2. You have more detailed control of your EQ curve with the MT-2, tonally it is different as well.


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## caughtinamosh (Dec 23, 2009)

Dream Theater - Black Clouds and Silver Linings

In my opinion, the rhythm tone is just incredible. 

As far as lead tones are concerned, I think that Alex Skolnick's on "First Strike Still Deadly" is the best.


----------



## Deadnightshade (Jan 4, 2010)

hard to decide..so many bands..anyway i'm gonna go with the last band that really crushed my ears with their amazing tone: Aeon...

also hard to decide about lead tone...so i'll give you an outsider: Samantha Escarbes of Virgin black ( also for her rythm playing it's the excellent tone for their genre)


----------



## Abstract_Logic (Jan 4, 2010)

Rhythm tone : Necrophagist-Epitaph

Lead Tone : Shawn Lane-Powers of Ten


----------



## JoshuaLogan (Jan 4, 2010)

Definitely a huge fan of Andy Sneap's production and that whole modern metal sound. Most everything Sneap works on has awesome guitar tone. Nevermore's Dead Heart In A Dead World and This Godless Endeavor are good 7 string examples... The lead tone on This Godless Endeavor is just amazing. 

He also makes bands I don't really care about all that much worth listening to because of the guitar tone and production. I'm not a huge Arch Enemy fan, but all of their stuff has awesome sounding guitars... Killswitch Engage's The End of Heartache is the same. Chimaira's Resurrection is another with awesome mix and guitars.... but don't care about the band.

I've recently been digging Sneap's work on Despised Icon's The Ills of Modern Man a lot... absolutely fucking awesome guitar tone and really powerful and clear mix. Incredibly heavy.

Jason Suecof and Mark Lewis (Audio Hammer Studios) have been putting out some REALLY good sounding albums lately too. I like a lot of the stuff they've worked on.


----------



## MaxOfMetal (Jan 4, 2010)

Steve Vai - Bad Horsie



I laugh and get a big dumb grin every time I see this vid.


----------



## Arsis (Jan 4, 2010)

I love Whitechapel's tone on This is Exile album.
Nevermore on This Godless Endeavor was also very great.

Lead tone I have not really decided, different tones support different playing/musical character. Off the top of my mind I am rather fond of Boston's lead tone.


----------



## Variant (Jan 4, 2010)

MaxOfMetal said:


> Steve Vai - Bad Horsie
> 
> 
> 
> I laugh and get a big dumb grin every time I see this vid.




 Steve used Bogner Ecstasys on this album. Like this sound *WAY* better than his Carvins. 



Another one that I've been listening to of late is Sybreed's albums. Their mix is so huge and punchy. POD 1.0 FTW!


----------



## MaxOfMetal (Jan 4, 2010)

Variant said:


> Steve used Bogner Ecstasys on this album. Like this sound *WAY* better than his Carvins.
> 
> 
> 
> Another one that I've been listening to of late is Sybreed's albums. Their mix is so huge and punchy. POD 1.0 FTW!



+1 To that!

I love my Carvins, but his best tones are his Bogner and Soldano ones. A ton less processed.


----------



## shockerate (Jan 4, 2010)

The rhythm tones on Meshuggah's None EP really stand out to me. 

IOU era Holdsworth clean tones are just out of this world.


----------



## Daemoniac (Jan 4, 2010)

Love 'em.


----------



## btnation (Apr 12, 2010)

CAFO


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## ittoa666 (Apr 12, 2010)

I'm a big fan of As I Lay Dying's rythym tone on Shadows Are Security. Nice and deep. Treys tone on evry morbid angel album kills me, and his lead tone.....what can I say?

My favorite lead tone has got to be david gilmour's. Nothing sounds as good as his strat through a good thick muff.


----------



## pink freud (Apr 12, 2010)

This is slightly OT, but I  this distorted Bass tone:


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## matt397 (Apr 12, 2010)




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## ry_z (Apr 12, 2010)




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## ittoa666 (Apr 12, 2010)

Per's is my favorite metal lead tone.


----------



## ry_z (Apr 12, 2010)

ittoa666 said:


>




The tone/production on Wavering Radiant is a little smooth for me. I prefer the raw, more organic tone on Oceanic. Wavering Radiant is still a fantastic album, though.


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## ittoa666 (Apr 12, 2010)

ry_z said:


> The tone/production on Wavering Radiant is a little smooth for me. I prefer the raw, more organic tone on Oceanic. Wavering Radiant is still a fantastic album, though.



You have to agree that the tone is amazing from a non-Isis standpoint though.


----------



## noob_pwn (Apr 12, 2010)

my favourite rhythm is the black dahlia murder's tone on nocturnal.
BMTH's tone on suicide season is pretty godly as well.


----------



## gangaman (Apr 12, 2010)

I would say dime`s tone ,VoM ,meshuggah (pretty much all they have done) ,and the one that i havent see a lot on this thread BULB!


----------



## MorbidTravis (Apr 12, 2010)

i just saw bulb live a few weeks ago, what ever he was using, i want.


----------



## ittoa666 (Apr 12, 2010)

After much deliberation, absolute favorite tone has to be eric johnsons cliffs of dover tone.


----------



## ry_z (Apr 12, 2010)

ittoa666 said:


> You have to agree that the tone is amazing from a non-Isis standpoint though.



Oh, it definitely sounds fantastic, I just don't think it fits their music quite as well.


----------



## ittoa666 (Apr 12, 2010)

ry_z said:


> Oh, it definitely sounds fantastic, I just don't think it fits their music quite as well.



A bit OT, but the clean tone on that album, especially on that song is great.


----------



## ckh (Apr 14, 2010)

Jeff Loomis from Zero Order Phase.


----------



## HumanFuseBen (Apr 14, 2010)

Meshuggah's tone (rhythm, lead, and clean!) on the NONE EP is mindblowing. the perfect blend of tight lows, bristling highs, and enough mids for maximum clarity. fuck yeah.


----------



## Andii (Apr 14, 2010)

Rhythm: Meshuggah's Catch 33 tone.(does anyone know any details about that tone other than it being line6 stuff?) Beneath The Massacre's tone on Dystopia.

Lead: Fredrik's tone on the Alive DVD solos. Simply unique.


----------



## CatPancakes (Apr 14, 2010)

53 seconds in. sounds amazingly huge


----------



## ittoa666 (Apr 14, 2010)

Thin_Ice_77 said:


> Parkway Drive, no competition.
> 
> 
> 
> Beat that.




I bet that sounds like fuzz when you're actually there.


----------



## DjunkDjunk (May 10, 2010)

Lessee...

Bulb's tones on the Periphery Disc are pretty exceptional. I want to hear him live, though.
Meshuggah-obZen, also the "Alive" DVD. They're using the Axe FX's now.
Pin and Dan Weller on "Death of a Dead Day"...not teh brOOtalZ, but very cool, nonetheless. Clarity and definition is not lost on me these days.

Check out Nevermore's Politics Of Ecstacy. Pat O'Brien's mid 90's Mesa Boogie Rig.
I don't know what Loomis was using, but I believe the bulk of the rhythms are Pat's rig.
Tight, focused, saturated. Fantastic.


----------



## guitareben (May 10, 2010)

ckh said:


> Jeff Loomis from Zero Order Phase.



I gotta agree with you there, Jeff Loomis's rhythm tone there is monstrous, defo my favourite metal tone. His lead tone is also really good to, but not the best.

My favourite tone would probably Steve Vai's tone. I just can't get enough of his smooth slick tone . His tone in where wild things are (his live DVD) was incredible, specifically in Now we Run and Building the Church, and as for his studio tone, Its all amazing (except flex-able heheh).


----------



## youheardme (May 10, 2010)

Carcass - heartwork album.... Deadly crushing... 5150 madness


----------



## Antimatter (May 10, 2010)

Steven Wilson has some really interesting tones in his guitarwork with PT. A lot of them sound really manufactured and mechanical, which kind of fits the dark, bleak mood of the music. Hatesong live was really good.



Also the best lead tone ever is Vai. No contest.


----------



## soldierkahn (May 10, 2010)

i think my favorite tone of all times would be from Chimaira's - Inside The Horror ... i think that tone along with Flaw's - Medicate gets me freakin pumped!!


----------



## soldierkahn (May 10, 2010)

Hawkevil said:


> The tone that sticks out for me is Killswitch Engages tone on 'End of Heartache'. Especially 'Breathe life'. I also love the arch enemy tone on 'Doomsday Machine' album.
> 
> You can't go wrong with anything Andy Sneap has been a part of really.




I agree, also with My Curse, they just really had a fuckin tight yet huge sound.... loved it!


----------



## Variant (May 10, 2010)

Andii said:


> Rhythm: Meshuggah's Catch 33 tone.(does anyone know any details about that tone other than it being line6 stuff?).



Well, they're Vetta II's direct to board, and from what a few people on here who've spotted their settings backstage, it's the Screamer stomp model into the Big Bottom amp model. Not sure about the cab/mic settings. Its not tough to get pretty much on the mark with an XT or later POD with the metal pack, really. 

Keep in mind that a big part of their sound is the bass tone which fills in a lot more space than you'd think. If you take a listen to the interview where they're demoing songs, you can get a pretty good idea of how thin the actual guitar tone is, and what role in the bottom and the upper mids the distorted bass plays. 

It'll be interesting to see what they do with the Axe/Fx, as the "artificial" nature of the POD was a bit of the magic, IMHO (this is also the Porcupine Tree thing as well, as Wilson switches back and forth between the Bad Cats for the organic, softer sounds, and the POD/Variax for the heavier stuff) as the Fractal has more of an "realistic" sound and feel to it.


----------



## Daemoniac (May 10, 2010)

Manson's tone on "mOBSCENE" is pretty fucking awesome IMO. Really "metallic" sort of grind which is nice as.


And of course old faithful...


The opening for Ministry's "No Glory" is fucking insane too. I have a thing for high end 


ALL of Poweman 5000's stuff has insane guitar/bass mixing too, so while it's probably not my favorite "tone" it's up there as my favorite mixes



Ill Nino have pretty slick tone as well, god damn saturated which is awesome



They may be pretty lae now, but Linkin Park had some pretty fucking awesome tone going...



Stonesour had a couple of pretty amazing tone moments for me too.


Kidneythieves too...



That's all I can think of... Did I mention I like nu-metal tone a whole lot? 

EDIT: Thought of more...

Breaking Benjamin's tone on Phobia (specifically "Evil Angel")


Disturbed on "Stupify"


Mushroomhead on most of XIII, but specifically on Becoming Cold


 That will do...


----------



## espman (May 11, 2010)

or


----------



## metal_sam14 (May 11, 2010)

John petrucci's tone on Black clouds and silver linings, with train of thought a close 2nd.


----------



## Bungle (May 11, 2010)

The dudes from Falconer on their "Northwind" album. I can't explain how crystal clear the leads are.


----------



## -One- (May 11, 2010)

Petrucci's tone on _A Nightmare To Remember_ is mindblowing. Gotta love the tone his JP6 Baritone gets.


----------



## The Somberlain (May 11, 2010)

Ron Asheton of the Stooges or Electic Wizard's


----------



## BlackMetalVenom (May 13, 2010)

Joe Kataldo, (may not be fast, but his tone is amazing and organic) Christian Muenzner on the Epitaph album by Necrophagist, Marco Sfogli, Shawn Lane, (something about it makes me listen to him over and over) the guys from Scale the Summit, Guthrie Govan...
I don't want to go on anymore, but you get the idea.


----------



## MFB (May 14, 2010)

In terms of tight and thick :

Devin Townsend (really like "The New Black"'s tone)
Lamb of God (more so from "Ashes..." onward)

Other general distorted tones I love :

Mastodon
Electric Wizard
Sleep


----------



## TruthDose (May 14, 2010)

Demoniac said:


> Manson's tone on "mOBSCENE" is pretty fucking awesome IMO. Really "metallic" sort of grind which is nice as.
> 
> 
> And of course old faithful...
> ...




Like Nu-Metal eh?


----------



## TruthDose (May 14, 2010)

MFB said:


> In terms of tight and thick :
> 
> Devin Townsend (really like "The New Black"'s tone)



Townsend's tone on Infinity is godly imo


----------



## Variant (May 14, 2010)

TruthDose said:


> Townsend's tone on Infinity is godly imo



This what I put way back at the beginning of the thread, because it's true.


----------



## bioniczero (May 14, 2010)

As far as straight crushing heaviness - the entirety of the Cover Your Tracks album by Bury Your Dead is just about perfect I think. I loved Petrucci's lead tone on his solo album. As far as tones with less gain, I love the tone on the first couple of Skynyrd albums. It fits so perfectly.


----------



## Gitte (May 14, 2010)

Machine Head's "Ten Ton Hammer" allways kicks every other sound in the balls...
I also love all the guitarsounds on the new Periphery album! 
Oh and I forgot D.L.'s (T.A.S.) guitarsound on their split with war from a harlots mouth!! Freaking KillerSound!!!


----------



## Jay Jay (May 14, 2010)

The part where he plays Jetpacks, and when he talks about purring, I'm addicted to that right now.

Also the tone on the Periphery album is awesome.

+1 to the guy who mentioned Linkin Parks tone, that tone is still amazing!


----------



## MFB (May 14, 2010)

TruthDose said:


> Townsend's tone on Infinity is godly imo



I can't really get into Infinity, not to say it's because of the tone but I got into Devin and SYL really late in their careers so it's so weird to hear that kind of stuff and think it's the same guy from SYL

However, _this_ has a killer tone as well :


----------



## sentagoda (May 14, 2010)

Dimmu borgir - Puritanical has a great tone.
I think Chimaira on Ressurection has a good tone and always Dive heresy


----------



## Krullnar (May 14, 2010)

Finntroll 'Jaktens Tid'

Ballsy.


----------



## liamh (May 15, 2010)

Phwoar.


----------



## shogunate (May 15, 2010)

Children of Bodom- Are you Dead Yet?
Black Dahlia Murder- Deflorate
A Perfect Circle- Thirteenth Step
Mors Principium Est- The Unborn
Alice in Chains- Dirt
Dark Tranquillity- Fiction
Sybreed- Slave Design
Gojira- The Way of All Flesh
Mnemic- The Audio Injected Soul
Insomnium- At the Gates of Sleep
Meshuggah- Obzen
Slipknot- Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses
Trivium- Shogun
Unearth- The Oncoming Storm


Paul Gilbert-Anything
Tom Morello-Anything with RATM
Buckethead-Anything
And lately I've been hooked on M F kitten, if that counts


----------



## the red rocket (May 16, 2010)

the mesa boogies on wrath


----------



## JacksonKE2Shred (May 16, 2010)

For me the first song that comes to mind is i, voyager by nevermore.


----------



## Knossos (Jul 18, 2010)

I know this is going to get shot down by somebody, but I've gotta say Trigger The Bloodshed's tendancy to take it a bit too far gives me a hard-on.



For lead it's got to be that singing tone on Joe Satriani's 'Flying in a blue dream'

2cents


----------



## graciouspatty (Jul 18, 2010)

Just listen to Opeth's "Baying of the Hounds". As soon as the song starts, you're immediately hit with the thickest wall of guitars you've ever heard


----------



## gr8Har V (Jul 18, 2010)

gotta be JP on systematic chaos or keith merrow on lonestar transcend


----------



## -METALIEN- (Jul 19, 2010)

i´d say Meshuggah Obzen.
And if anyone knows Fuzz(not around anymore)
they had a killer tone, too.
But i like my tone, too


----------



## Duke318 (Jul 19, 2010)

Pretty much any chimaira album...


Earth Crisis, to the death album, FJA modded 5150



Nonpoint's tone.


----------



## astaroth (Jul 19, 2010)

For me the thickest great sounding distortion I've really liked was from Nile's Annihilation of the Wicked album.


----------



## Chiba666 (Jul 19, 2010)

I really liek the tones on Amon Amarth With Odin and Twilight.

The lead tone on Tyrs by the light of the northern star is really nice


----------



## Defsan (Jul 19, 2010)

Michael Romeo's tone on Divine Wings of Tragedy sounds very heavy, especially for power chords and chugging.
But yeah, overall Petrucci has the best tone for me, and perhaps Cannibal Corpse, in their "overly technical" era, like Gore Obsessed and The Wretched Spawn.


----------



## Variant (Jul 19, 2010)

MFB said:


> I can't really get into Infinity, not to say it's because of the tone but I got into Devin and SYL really late in their careers so it's so weird to hear that kind of stuff and think it's the same guy from SYL
> 
> However, _this_ has a killer tone as well :




Dude, you've got unlock you're brain from that mindset... you'll miss out on _*so*_ much stuff if post-Alien SYL is your benchmark for what Devin does... because i changes from album to album (even the ones under the SYL moniker)!  Terria is one thing... Ocean Machine is another... the first SYL record is very different yet (even though it was written at the same time), The Hummer is something else entirely. He's been moving around from the outset of his career, which is why things like Ki and Ziltoid should never come as a surprise to anyone.


----------



## cwhitey2 (Jul 19, 2010)

Blood Tempest said:


> For me, I have a close call between two tones. I think Patrik Jensen from The Haunted has the best distorted tone, specifically on rEVOLVEr, where he used a Peavey 5150 and either an ESP Viper Urban Camo or his custom ESP EX Urban Camo. IMO, fucking amazing tone.
> (For the record, the tone on The Dead Eye is fucking killer too, but rEVOLVEr's seems to stand out to me more)


 
the tone from that album is one of my favs as well 


other than that i like older As I Lay Dying tones...nice middy punch to them. I think they were using Dual Rec if im not mistaken with Ibby's


----------



## AbstractAsylum (Jul 19, 2010)

The leads on Planetary Duality.

The rhythm tone on the song Dead Heart in a Dead World.

The solo to Alien Hip Hop by Planet X.


----------



## misingonestring (Jul 25, 2010)

The rhythm tone on Megadeth's Peace Sells album.

And I'll probably get alot of disagrees on this but Burzum's Filosofem album.


----------



## dclayton1388 (Jul 25, 2010)

Between the Buried and Me. Their alaska tones were absolutely phenominal. The crunchiness had a perfect blend when it came to it's bite. The cleans were so rich and melodic and at times jazzy. Colors tone also was amazing, just like silent circus..and..everything else Paul Waggoner has ever done haha.

But yeah. Between the Buried and Me, Best distorted tone in my opinion.


----------



## Murmel (Jul 25, 2010)

I never really find one tone that I like so much that it becomes my favourite forever. I jump between different tones.
Right now, I'm really into the tone of guitarist Miya from the Japanese band Mucc. I eeked like a little girl when I saw them live, because I hadn't heard any of their 7-string songs, and there he is, with a seven 

They're probably my favourite band atm. They play different styles. From metal, rock, alternative, funk and probably some more. I love how they incorporate all of this into their writing. It makes for some really awesome variety.


----------



## Daemoniac (Jul 25, 2010)

TruthDose said:


> Like Nu-Metal eh?



 Aye, Nu-Metal tone and Industrial metal tone  I just find they have more of the sizzle and grind that I like in a guitar tone


----------



## TheSilentWater (Jul 25, 2010)

It may not be my favourite, but Porcupine Tree's tone on Anesthetize, specifically the part in the instrumental of the second section that alternates between 21/16 and 23/16 (at 9.34) is really smooth but also reasonably fuzzy sounding, whilst retaining clarity... If that makes sense... AFAIK, PRS into a Bad Cat amplifier, but they might not have been using Bad Cats back then.

[P.S. Yes, I am a bit of a PT fanboy.]


----------



## revclay (Jul 25, 2010)

Here are some of my favorites.

Jesu - Silver
Opeth - Blackwater Park
Boris - Heavy Rocks
Katatonia - Night is the New Day
Dimmu Borgir - Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia
Tool - Lateralus


----------



## josh pelican (Jul 26, 2010)

Gary Holt - Exodus
Mille/Sami - Kreator ("Enemy of God" had awesome distortion)
Fredrik Thordendal - Meshuggah
Ryan Waste - Municipal Waste
Devin Townsend
Paul/Dustie - Between the Buried and Me
Kurt Ballou - Converge (specifically "Jane Doe")
DL - The Acacia Strain (the first time I heard "The Dead Walk", I thought I was going to kill someone)

There are other honorable mentions as well, but these stick out for me.


----------



## Polyformic (Jul 26, 2010)

In Flames - Soundtrack To Your Escape has the best rythm tone IMO.
Also a lot of nu-metal and industrial-metal has good tone. For leads, I love Darkest Hour.


----------



## mr_rainmaker (Jul 26, 2010)

my fave tone was the ADA MP1


----------



## Petar (Jul 26, 2010)

Metalica


----------



## josh pelican (Jul 27, 2010)

Kerry King live. Normal riffing and leads.


----------



## shanejohnson02 (Dec 25, 2010)

Even though I'm a metal fan through and through, I have to say Breaking Benjamin always seem to have some seriously thick guitar tones. 

I've always like Nevermore's sound, ESPECIALLY when it was Loomis/Broderick. Loomis gets some sick tones on his solo album as well.

It's hard to pick an overall best, but if I had to sound like someone the rest of my life, Jeff Loomis would be hard to beat. He also has good taste in guitars.


----------



## ry_z (Dec 25, 2010)

revclay said:


> Boris - Heavy Rocks



This. Holy shit, this.


----------



## lookralphsbak (Dec 26, 2010)

Triptykon


This tone is evil, dark, and heavy... Clench your butt cheeks because Satan will sodomize you while you're listening.


----------



## kamello (Dec 26, 2010)

Rammstein tone 
System of a down tone 
Dream theater's tone In Images and Words
Train of thought, and Systematic chaos
James LaBrie solo album with marco Stofgli, best 7 string tone ever


----------



## davis1234 (May 2, 2011)

Edroz said:


> at the moment, Stephan Forte from Adagio. his rhythm and lead tone on the "Dominate" album is nearly perfection for me. his rhythm tone isn't overly gainy, but it just has this evil growl to it.
> 
> MySpace.com - Adagio - FR - Metal / Gothic / Progressive - www.myspace.com/adagioofficial




what does he use for gear?


----------



## Shadowspecced (May 2, 2011)

Drew said:


> I seem to remember a track Vai recorded for Inteview with a Vampire that had a really cool rhythm guitar tone, sounded vaguely marshally but crystal clear and smooth at the same time. I heard it once maybe 6 years ago though, so take this with a grain of salt.



Die to live?

And for me, it's probably something like Alter Bridge-Blackbird for a fat rhythm tone
For a really heavy, death metal-ish sound, I always really liked these walls shall be your grave by brutality.

For leads, I really like too wide of a variety to even say.. I love Brett Garsed's solo album tone, as well as Holdsworth's tone around 16 men of tain. Andy Timmons always has amazing tone, and Guthrie Govan's tone is always fantastic. I also love most 80's hotrod marshall/soldano lead tones like such as reb beach, but eddie van halen around VH1 will probably always be my favorite.


----------



## NovaReaper (May 2, 2011)




----------



## The Somberlain (May 2, 2011)

James Williamson's on Raw Power


----------



## Dunloper (May 2, 2011)

The best tone I've ever heard is MY TONE. Yeah right. 




dclayton1388 said:


> Between the Buried and Me. Their alaska tones were absolutely phenominal. The crunchiness had a perfect blend when it came to it's bite. The cleans were so rich and melodic and at times jazzy. Colors tone also was amazing, just like silent circus..and..everything else Paul Waggoner has ever done haha.
> 
> But yeah. Between the Buried and Me, Best distorted tone in my opinion.



I have to agree with you on this one. Only complaint I have is their low end seems a little muddy. Other than that their tones really stands out. 

Also I really like the tone on planetary duality. But some of my friends' opinions are different about that. Apparently the guitars sound too compressed? Not for me haha.


----------



## JosephAOI (May 2, 2011)

As I Lay Dying- The Powerless Rise
Born Of Osiris- The Discovery, The New Reign, A Higher Place
Veil Of Maya- [id], The Common Man's Collapse
Scale The Summit- The Collective
Protest The Hero- Kezia
Periphery- Periphery, other Bulb stuff
Children Of Bodom- Are You Dead Yet, Blooddrunk, Relentless Reckless Forever.


----------



## -42- (May 2, 2011)

I personally love imperfect tone, as gritty and hellish as it may be. It has a certain masculinity to it.






Haters gonna hate...


----------



## evolusean13 (May 2, 2011)

hmm. this is a hard question if you're asking "of all time". i wouldnt even know where to start looking. ive been through so many musical phases but really stayed heavy throughout. AT THE MOMENT it would have to be #1 with Emmure's Speaker of the Dead and #2 Rings of Saturn's Embryonic Anomaly. i was surprised with rings of saturn's tone considering they paid for it themselves and all that pre-label stuff. dudes have got some serious gear though. but Emmure's tone is just so heavy. they're both in drop A so big up to the both of them.


----------



## evolusean13 (May 2, 2011)

-42- said:


> I personally love imperfect tone, as gritty and hellish as it may be. It has a certain masculinity to it.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




WORD dog. you gotta love that gritty stuff.


----------



## Monk (May 3, 2011)

After searching for almost 20 years, I have 2 favorites:

My Les Paul Custom (PAF pickups) --> Mesa/Boogie Rect-O-Verb

My Ibanez JEM7V (Evolution pickups) --> Line 6 Toneport GX (L6 Big Bottom panned hard left; Diamondplate panned hard-right)


----------



## JakSchitt (May 3, 2011)

This for rhythm. The whole album is awesome sounding but this song stands out for me.



Joels lead tone is so good...


----------



## CrownofWorms (May 3, 2011)

Morbid Angel Formula's Fatal To The Flesh has a great tone imo


----------



## metal_sam14 (May 3, 2011)

Pretty meaty


----------



## Blind Theory (May 3, 2011)

Pretty much anything that After the Burial does...I want to make sweet love to their guitar tone on the albums and live for that matter. It is really trebley but awesome at the same time...I don't know how to explain the way I perceive it.


----------



## ZEBOV (May 3, 2011)

This is saved in my favorites.


----------



## cyril v (May 3, 2011)

ZEBOV said:


> This is saved in my favorites.




heres a new one..


----------



## BlackWinds10 (May 3, 2011)

Best tone Ive ever heard was from the new Angel Vivaldi stuff


----------



## matt397 (May 4, 2011)




----------



## Dvaienat (Jun 21, 2011)

1. 



^ Marshall DSL 100, boosted. 

2.



^ Marshall 2205/Orange Thunderverb, boosted.

Both perfect examples of Marshalls doing metal.


----------



## I Voyager (Jun 21, 2011)

I don't know about studio, but live, Petrucci takes the cake. Incredibly heavy.


----------



## BucketheadRules (Jun 21, 2011)

NatG said:


> Both perfect examples of Marshalls doing metal.



You mean...

 MARSHALL METAL?


----------



## Gryphon (Jun 25, 2011)




----------



## BucketheadRules (Jun 25, 2011)

There are so many! Here goes...

Gary Moore had a wonderful tone, exemplified here:



Steve Lukather has a great sound as well, in this short and sweet solo at 3:09:



I think this is Obscura from before Christian joined, but the tone at 0:12 is one of the best metal rhythm tones EVAH.



At the minute I really like the jangly sound in the intro to this great old song as well:



The ever-awesome John Petrucci, bringing the freaking house down with his rendition of a classic Pink Floyd solo at 3:07:



This guy has a very Petrucci-esque tone to my ears, but it's awesome nonetheless. His playing is exemplary as well, like if Satriani and Petrucci slept together and created a freaking awesome kid:



This is a great tone at 0:31. Combined with the ferocity of the drum beat, it becomes "music to knock down buildings to":



This next one isn't a conventional metal sound by any means, but the fact that it's just one or two guitars that sound huge enough to fill a cathedral, and inspire pure dread, is something special. Plus, think how fucking loud they must have cranked their amps in order to get that much distortion...



And one of the tightest, most brutal and massive-sounding amps I've ever had the pleasure of hearing, the DAR Forza Quattro, in the very capable hands of Ola Englund (playing some of the best riffs I've ever heard, too)



This is probably gonna get some stick from people, but you can't deny that Zakk Wylde gets an amazing tone, and I reckon lots of it is in the way he plays. He isn't known for his lightness of touch, let's say that... but he's almost like a blues player in that he absolutely wrings the notes out of the guitar, like he's fighting with it. See 1:43 for details:



And then, to finish off:



I swear, first time I heard this and the fuzz pedal kicked in at 1:30 it was the closest I'd come to shitting myself for a long time. It's just gut-wrenching in its sheer heaviness. It could reduce a skyscraper to rubble.


----------



## Sikthness (Jun 25, 2011)

Insackclothandashes said:


> Pretty much anything that After the Burial does...I want to make sweet love to their guitar tone on the albums and live for that matter. It is really trebley but awesome at the same time...I don't know how to explain the way I perceive it.


 
I have to agree with this. Although I gotta give the edge to Rareform, In Dreams has really been growing on me and it's mainly due to that tone. God I fucking love it esp on Pendulum and Your Troubles... Their tone makes more straightforward riffs like the main riff in To Carry You Away sound so good.


----------



## Sikthness (Jun 25, 2011)

matt397 said:


>




had to double post after seein this, sorry! The guitar tone, as well as every other imaginable aspect of this CD is flawless. One of the best metal CDs released, of all time.


----------



## Blasphemer (Jun 25, 2011)

At about 4:40 in. SUCH good tone...

and of course...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7TqPyJXyPk

And one more, for good measure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAP4xSYLc84


----------



## PyramidSmasher (Jun 25, 2011)

Four Year Strong - Enemy of the World
Dream Theater - Train of Thought
Protest the Hero - Kezia


----------



## ayambakar (Jun 28, 2011)

After learning, listening and playing the guitar for 5 years, my favorite so far:

Leads:

Pat Metheny's tone (his trumpet synth sound). Been listening to that since I'm 1. 


Paul Gilbert (Get Out Of My Yard, Fuzz Universe). Very attack-y.
Marco Sfogli.
Eric Johnson.
Allan Holdsworth, Fredrik Thordendal, Tymon of Exivious, and the like.
the recent Santana tone (I hate his brittle old tone, although it may be the recording technology at the time).

Rhythm:

Meshuggah, Periphery, Vildhjarta and the like. My goodness... mindblowing then, mindblowing now.
definitely Train of Thought. It's so crushing.
Nevermore.
I used to love Metallica's recent rhythm tones before I got dragged into the sevenstring realm.


----------



## InTheRavensName (Jun 28, 2011)

Bungle said:


> The dudes from Falconer on their "Northwind" album. I can't explain how crystal clear the leads are.



Bungle, you total hero!


----------



## DLG (Jun 28, 2011)

Gryphon said:


>




preach!



when the palm mute comes in at 0:07 and makes your speakers crumble in defeat >>>>> all your axefx


----------



## sojorel (Jun 28, 2011)

BucketheadRules said:


> some stuff and DEF LEPPARD


The drummer really does have one arm!

I did not know this.


----------



## Goro923 (Jun 29, 2011)

Tommy T. Baron's solo tone on the las couple Coroner records is incredible:


----------



## BucketheadRules (Jul 5, 2011)

Sorry to resurrect this thread again but everyone needs to hear Steve Clark in the intro to this song:



OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD.

He sounds fuckin' enormous, fills a whole massive arena with ease. I want to sound like that.


----------



## ArtDecade (Jul 5, 2011)

Jeff Beck. His lead tone is amazing. Any album, any era. Jeff's tone is the end-all, be-all for me.


----------



## Mordacain (Jul 5, 2011)

ArtDecade said:


> Jeff Beck. His lead tone is amazing. Any album, any era. Jeff's tone is the end-all, be-all for me.



Seconded for truth. His tone on Emotion & Commotion is just ungodly. 

Gilmour's lead tone on "Time" is probably my all-time favorite stand-out distorted tone.

After that would probably have to be Andy Timmons' just over the edge of breakup tones you hear tons of on "Resolution."


----------



## metalheadblues (Jul 5, 2011)

Epic distorted tone imo


----------



## Curt (Jul 5, 2011)

Mine.

Because the main one I have dialed in is everything i've wanted in a tone..

Thickness, but still relatively tight, punchy, throaty mids, but not honky, cutting/biting high end, but not too harsh.


----------



## CrushingAnvil (Jul 5, 2011)

I've probably said this already but it's Pat O'brien's tone on 'Evisceration Plague'. 'The Wretched Spawn' has an equally awesome tone.


----------



## tjrlogan (Jul 5, 2011)

The frist time I heard Dino Cazares' machine gun riffing on Fear Factory's Demanufacture I was blown away. Years later...I still love it. He's probably not the most technical player, but it definitely helped me bridge the gap from poppy rock/metal to the heavier stuff - hence it will always be special to me.


----------



## Panacea224 (Aug 6, 2011)

My favorite has to be Jeff Loomis on DHIADW and Obsidian Conspiracy. 

Other favorites would be Metallica on And Justice for all, Lamb of God, Petrucci, Trivium on Shogun, and Arch Enemy.


----------



## Sikthness (Aug 6, 2011)

For pure heaviness, without a doubt Ion Dissonance's tone on Solace. No band has even come close to approaching the scathing and corrosive guitar tone on that CD.


----------



## rjnix_0329 (Aug 6, 2011)

For really great rhythm tone, I loved Levi and Werstler's tone on Daath's "Day of Endless Light" and the tone on Becoming the Archetype's Dichotomy record, though that was probably as much Devin Townsend's production as it was their tone. Speaking of Devin, the swirly, dreamy, distorted tone he uses when he starts playing his big arpeggios is kind of hard to beat!


----------



## TheDjentlman (Aug 6, 2011)

Hands down.


----------



## lemeker (Aug 6, 2011)

for pure aggression and brutality......I'm goin with anything of Misery Index's Heirs to Thievery cd. I like the tones Stephen has on the newest Deftones cd as well. My favorite tones actually comes from Overkill's Horrorscope.


----------



## BucketheadRules (Aug 6, 2011)

NatG said:


> 1.
> 
> 
> 
> ^ Marshall DSL 100, boosted.




Holy fucking fuck.

That's a superb tone. I'm used to Grave sounding really muddy and undefined, which always put me off (though to be fair it was probably the production that did that and not their playing) but that, that is fucking amazing.


----------



## SenorDingDong (Aug 6, 2011)

Ty Tabor on any album, or Petrucci on six degrees. Really love the sounds he gets out of his Mesa's, and not a big fan of all these new bands with blaring mids and whatnot.


----------



## Curt (Aug 6, 2011)

I already posted but this one also does it for me:

[Youtubevid]edVbz_uXJd0[/Youtubevid]

Everytime I watch this, I have Cornford GAS. I just simply cannot get that lead tone out of my mesa...


----------



## Curt (Aug 6, 2011)

Jstring said:


> Ty Tabor on any album, or Petrucci on six degrees. Really love the sounds he gets out of his Mesa's, and not a big fan of all these new bands with blaring mids and whatnot.



I love using a good bit of mids. but I am not really a fan of the way a lot of bands now have this overly honky sound to their riffing because they crank the mids on mid heavy amps...

I have mine turned up a fair bit, but that's on a recto...


----------



## Joeywilson (Aug 6, 2011)

1:15


----------



## Lagtastic (Aug 6, 2011)

The Eyes of Medusa - Symphony X. There's just something special about that tone...


Also the rhythm guitar tone on the Master Puppets album for old school stuff.


----------



## tribalfusion (Aug 6, 2011)

Allan Holdsworth on so many recordings and Scott Henderson also on so many but especially the self titled Tribal Tech album


----------



## CrownofWorms (Aug 6, 2011)

CrushingAnvil said:


> I've probably said this already but it's Pat O'brien's tone on 'Evisceration Plague'. 'The Wretched Spawn' has an equally awesome tone.



My fave Cannibal tone has be Gallery of Suicide tone. Its warm and dark and fits the atmosphere on that album


I also love the tone of Immolation on the Harnessing Ruin album


----------



## datalore (Aug 6, 2011)

Probably not the best distorted tone in the world, but when I was 12 or 13, I got this Embodyment record and sat around spinning it constantly, marveling at the precision of the guitar playing and the heaviness of the guitar sound. I don't care for the message of the band anymore, but this still forms the core of my representation of a heavy guitar sound:



Other very important distorted guitar sounds to me:
-Nuno Bettencourt on Waiting for the Punchline
-John Petrucci on SDOIT
-Gordie Johnson's big fuzzy Garnet Herzog sound
-Devin Townsend's many distorted sounds
-Kurt Ballou's many distorted sounds
-The guitar sounds on the Cursed records
-The guitar sounds on Bloodbath's Resurrection Through Carnage


----------



## thedarkoceans (Aug 7, 2011)

The Ocean on Aeolian,Meshuggah on last albums,War From A Harlots Mouth on MMX,Converge,Cult Of Luna,Ion Dissonance.


----------



## Dead Undead (Aug 7, 2011)

I have lots of favorite different kinds of distortion.




I also like Gojira's tone on From Mars to Sirius.


----------



## unclejemima218 (Aug 7, 2011)

I love Cannibal Corpses tone on the Kill album. Chunky monkey!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFNEV55ra14

for some reason I'm too stupid to figure out how to get the video up. But you get the jist.


----------



## Santuzzo (Aug 7, 2011)

I'll say Andy Timmons!


----------



## Kurkkuviipale (Aug 7, 2011)

Joeywilson said:


> 1:15




That's not distorted...


----------



## Sofos (Aug 7, 2011)

/thread


----------



## ittoa666 (Aug 7, 2011)

The tone on Stabbing the Drama is pretty damn good. Soilwork just has good tone overall.


----------



## Ikiharmaa (Aug 7, 2011)

In no specific order:

Callisto - True Nature Unfolds
As They Sleep - Dynasty
Amorphis - Magic & Mayhem - Tales From The Early Years
Akercocke - Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone
Trivium - The Crusade
Tribulation - The Horror
Sonata Arctica - Unia
Soilwork - Figure Number Five
Mokoma - Tämän Maailman Ruhtinaan Hovi
Masterplan - Aeronautics

So many great tones come with punchy mids


----------



## MetalBuddah (Aug 7, 2011)

for brutality...the tone on Emmure's album "Speaker of the Dead" is pretty damn perfect.
for leads...Petrucci's tone on "Images and Words." Especially on the "Under a Glass Moon Solo."


----------



## refried bean (Aug 7, 2011)

For instrumental music...Allen Hinds' tone is gorgeous. Guthrie has that nice intense searing lead tone. Love Robben Ford's 70's fusion tone as well. Tom Quayle, Greg Howe, and Marco Sc. have kind of the same sound goin on and that's coo. 


Heavy/prog metal I would say....anything Nolly comes up with. Love the tone on Sikth's Death of a Dead Day. Killswitch have tones that are utterly thick as hell. Periphery's is of course awesome. Petruccis tone on Train of Thought is massive!


Rock/Hard rock: Paramore, UnderOath, AC/DC, Racer X (post Mr. Big)...and probably more I can't think of!


----------



## Cabinet (Aug 8, 2011)

Animals as Leaders
And Yngwie's tone on Rising Force and Trilogy
Obscura has a beastly tone too


----------



## Santuzzo (Aug 8, 2011)

Cabinet said:


> Animals as Leaders
> *And Yngwie's tone on Rising Force and Trilogy*
> Obscura has a beastly tone too


----------



## Scruffy1012 (Aug 8, 2011)

I was and still am the biggest Tony rambola fanboi out. That tone.... jizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


----------



## Scruffy1012 (Aug 8, 2011)

Thin_Ice_77 said:


> Parkway Drive, no competition.
> 
> 
> 
> Beat that.




I like PWD and everything, but that was... . Maybe it was just the recording or something but...


----------



## xtothx (Aug 8, 2011)

1:02


----------



## indrangelion (Aug 11, 2011)

My most memorable WTF moment was when I heard Meshuggah's Bleed tone for the first time.

But more recently:


----------



## Alimination (Aug 11, 2011)

Petrucci's off the Score dvd. Epsecially when he played raise the knife. Damn.. love his tones.


----------



## Grolli (Aug 13, 2011)

Don't really have a certain favourite among tones, but in general I tend to like Mattias IA Eklundh's rhythm tone. Plenty of low end, dry and beefy. Awsome!  Laney GH100L or Laney VH100R in 99% of the cases 

Henke Danhage's lead tone on the "A Night To Remember" CD/DVD is also something I really, really dig! It has that.. Bite I just love  Peavey 5150 if I'm not mistaken.


----------



## Sikthness (Aug 14, 2011)

It may have been mentioned already, but Corelia's tone, on everything they have released. ugggh its so good.


----------



## -42- (Aug 14, 2011)

Well, now that this thread has been revived, let it be known that Matt Pike has tone denser than tungsten.


----------



## fps (Aug 14, 2011)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVQOUUVmI48

the clip itself distorts a touch, but i just don't care. the tone is amazing, so perfect for the song, and the performance is mindblowing.

Oh yeah, it's Crowbar, and I can't embed stuff.


----------



## pineappleman (Aug 14, 2011)

Petrucci on Train of Thought has the perfect balance of distortion and scoopiness for maximum heaviness, but without being so scooped that it's retarded (see Dimebag or Puppets-era Metallica).


----------



## Roon4me (Aug 14, 2011)

Mesa Boogie Mark IV - Metal (Raw Guitars only) - YouTube


----------



## skeeballcore (Aug 14, 2011)

datalore said:


> Probably not the best distorted tone in the world, but when I was 12 or 13, I got this Embodyment record and sat around spinning it constantly, marveling at the precision of the guitar playing and the heaviness of the guitar sound. I don't care for the message of the band anymore, but this still forms the core of my representation of a heavy guitar sound:




Seconding this awesome tone and album. That sound is courtesy of a Marshall Valvestate, as are several other records recorded at Poynter's Palace (CD's from the golden age of Solid-state Records). 

My contribution


Especially at 1:39


Hideously under-appreciated band


Probably posted umpteen hundred times, but i love the tone


Another example of Valvestate being awesome


----------



## BIG ND SWEATY (Aug 15, 2011)

DL from The Acacia Strain on all the albums but especially on wormwood


----------



## Rapture (Aug 15, 2011)

Angelcorpse - Inexorable
Morbid Angel - Formulas


----------



## Xplozive (Aug 15, 2011)

Alimination said:


> Petrucci's off the Score dvd. Epsecially when he played raise the knife. Damn.. love his tones.


I agree with this. The tone he gets on that whole dvd is amazing. Althought Raise The Knife really is amazing, especially the harmonics he gets out of that intro riff.


----------



## Captain Shoggoth (Aug 15, 2011)

rjnix_0329 said:


> For really great rhythm tone, I loved Levi and Werstler's tone on Daath's "Day of Endless Light"



<3

Rhythms on the Wintersun songs Jari didn't use the Tokai telecaster   on (Death and the Healing springs to mind) were beastly, beefy and badass, and to this day the reason that I think Mesas are the best tube amps (his lead tone is cool but eh nothing special) 

Sylosis's new album (Edge of the Earth) has probably the best balance of rhythm and lead tones I've heard in a while, latter-day SYL came pretty close too, and BTBAM are probably the closest I have to ideal thanks to them having beautiful clean tones (Jeff Loomis has cool rhythm tone but by god are his cleans cheesy). Oh, and The Black Dahlia Murder's album Deflorate, also awesome. 


Damn, how much do I pimp out Wintersun and Sylosis on these boards


----------



## Gamma362 (Aug 15, 2011)

maybe not the very best, but I have always loved the tone of this album


----------



## kamello (Aug 15, 2011)

^ Yeah I love Daron's tone for rhytm, but his leads sound so fucking empty D:



I heard this thing yesterday and was pretty impressed by the tone


----------



## Gamma362 (Aug 15, 2011)

kamello said:


> ^ Yeah I love Daron's tone for rhytm, but his leads sound so fucking empty D:


Ive seen a few fan shot videos of stuff from their recent reunion tour and honestly I thought his lead tone sounded quite good.


----------



## Sicarius (Aug 15, 2011)

Has Prince done anything with some gain/ distortion?

if so, then Him.


----------



## kamello (Aug 16, 2011)

Gamma362 said:


> Ive seen a few fan shot videos of stuff from their recent reunion tour and honestly I thought his lead tone sounded quite good.


 

I really hope so, im going to see them this september


----------



## Twiggyay (Aug 16, 2011)

What a silly question, my own of course.

lolno, it's shit.


----------



## jsl2h90 (Aug 31, 2011)

The tone of the final solo of the Cacophony song "Go Off!" It's so saturated with distortion but still perfect, i don't even know how to describe it. I've been trying to emulate it for years to no avail.


----------



## Samarus (Nov 10, 2011)

I love Petrucci's on SFAM, Govan's, and AAL's on Weightless!


----------



## Selkoid (Nov 10, 2011)

Rhythm: The Contortionist - Exoplanet

Lead: Paul Wardingham - Assimilate Regenerate, Christian Muenzner - Timewarp/Cosmogenesis


----------



## USMarine75 (Nov 10, 2011)

^ Ditto to Cacophony! I thought I was the only one that likes Jason's tone. There was another thread on SS.org about worst tone and a bunch of people brought Becker up.

Big fan of Engel's rhythm tone. Heavy but not too distorted. 

EVH on Balance and FUCK.

Hendrix on Electric Ladyland, Bold as Love, and live at Woodstock and Monterey.

And I love Gilbert's tone on Fuzz Universe.


----------



## wayward (Nov 11, 2011)

I'm really loving Michael Keene and Steve Jones' tone on The Faceless' Akeldama album.
Especially their lead sound.


----------



## Thor_ (Nov 11, 2011)

For me it's the guitar sound on the last 3 black dahlia albums. It's just so punchy and brutal.


----------



## Don Vito (Nov 11, 2011)

Lead- Yngwie

Rhythm- August Burns Red


----------



## HeHasTheJazzHands (Nov 11, 2011)

Rammstein. Reise, Reise and Rosenrot albums. 28 layers of pure 2-channel blackface Dual Recto done. 

Also gonna throw out there Dino's tone on the first Fear Factory album, Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime, and any Scorpions album released between 1980 - 1993.


----------



## sahaal (Nov 11, 2011)

This tone right here


----------



## awesomeaustin (Nov 11, 2011)

Been listening to the new Blotted Science and love Ron's tone


----------



## celticelk (Nov 11, 2011)

Generally, Warren Haynes. There's just something incredibly *right* about his distorted sound. I'm also a fan of Tom Morello's and Sonny Sharrock's Marshall tones.


----------



## skoatdestroy (Nov 11, 2011)

for me the rhythm tone goes hands down to vogg of decapitated off of organic hallucinosis its just fucking brutal as for lead tone john petrucci for sure


----------



## DLG (Nov 11, 2011)

anyone know any specifics on the Carcass - Heartwork tone?

I've heard that its basically 5150 and Marshall Guv'nor. Also read that Steer used a marshall 10 watt mini stack for some stuff (??)


----------



## UnderTheSign (Nov 11, 2011)

This one right here. So sweet.


----------



## rectifryer (Nov 11, 2011)




----------



## Electric Wizard (Nov 11, 2011)

Thor_ said:


> For me it's the guitar sound on the last 3 black dahlia albums. It's just so punchy and brutal.


I agree. Especially on Ritual, both the rhythm and lead tones are some of my favorites in metal.

Whenever I think of Brian's rhythm tone, the adjective that most comes to mind is "beefy."


Outside of metal, I like Govan's tones the best. He just finds the sweet spot with warmth and crunch, plus the really beautiful, smooth and glassy neck pickup work.


----------



## FarBeyondMetal (Nov 11, 2011)

Also outside of metal, I really dig Bucketheads tone on Pepper's Ghost...shhhuuuwwwing


----------



## Metalus (Nov 11, 2011)

My fav rhythm tone of all time has to be Killswitch's End Of Heartache album. Fav lead tones are The Faceless' Planetary Duality, and Born Of Osiris' The Discovery.

Although I gotta admit, Ryan Knight's lead tone on Deflorate is tasty as fuck.

The best live tone I've ever heard is Born of Osiris with Periphery coming in a close 2nd. I also saw Tesseract recently and their tone is ridiculously good


----------



## Cheesebuiscut (Nov 11, 2011)

Corelia. 

Nuff said.


----------



## mortality (Nov 12, 2011)

I'd have to say Blotted Science, best tone period.


----------



## Thor_ (Nov 12, 2011)

Electric Wizard said:


> I agree. Especially on Ritual, both the rhythm and lead tones are some of my favorites in metal.
> 
> Whenever I think of Brian's rhythm tone, the adjective that most comes to mind is "beefy."
> 
> ...



I personally like the rhythm tone on Deflorate the most, for whatever reason. Unfortunately for me, I think they mix 3 amps together to get the sound they use. I may be wrong--in fact, I hope I'm actually wrong on that, because I'd like to copy their tone.


----------



## Koop (Nov 12, 2011)

Gojira's The Way Of All Flesh has the heaviest tone i have ever heard...it's so thick and ballsy.


----------



## Electric Wizard (Nov 12, 2011)

Thor_ said:


> I personally like the rhythm tone on Deflorate the most, for whatever reason. Unfortunately for me, I think they mix 3 amps together to get the sound they use. I may be wrong--in fact, I hope I'm actually wrong on that, because I'd like to copy their tone.


I thought Ryan had posted here a while back that it was all 6505's with Maxons. Maybe I'm remembering wrong and he was talking about their live rig, but I could swear it was a thread about their studio setup. 

Edit: http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/gear-equipment/116877-black-dahlia-murder-amps.html
Nevermind, 5150 rhythm, uberschall for leads


----------



## CTID (Nov 12, 2011)

I absolutely hate the band, but Bullet For My Valentine's distorted tone on The Poison was awesome, in my opinion.


----------



## BucketheadRules (Nov 12, 2011)

CTID said:


> I absolutely hate the band, but Bullet For My Valentine's distorted tone on The Poison was awesome, in my opinion.



Yeah. I'm liking them less and less but they always have an amazing sound. Really thick and crunchy. They do have some really cool riffs and some good, well-written songs, but it just isn't my thang any more.


----------



## thedarkoceans (Nov 12, 2011)

i must add Ion Dissonance /thread.


6505/thread.


----------



## gunshow86de (Nov 12, 2011)




----------



## -42- (Nov 12, 2011)

It may be sloppy, dirty, and rough around the edges, but I'm still in love with Red Fang's tone.



Kyuss should probably be mentioned in any serious discussion regarding distortion.



And Disma sounds positively tectonic.


----------



## simulclass83 (Nov 12, 2011)

Selkoid said:


> Rhythm: The Contortionist - Exoplanet


THIS.
Definitely my favorite tone so far.


----------



## stevo1 (Nov 12, 2011)

IMO, the tone on Nocturnal is the best for me. They took something that wasn't really death metal sounding (like scooped mids, etc.) And made it sound so evil. Their tone is very middy to me, and I had never heard that on a death metal album without it sounding... wrong. Most people equate death metal tone to the whole scooped mids, and tons of gain. Plus the attack of their tone in Nocturnal is sickening.


----------



## JStraitiff (Nov 12, 2011)

Big fan of the tone on Avenged Sevenfold's "Waking the Fallen" album. Specifically on the song radient eclipse. Its obviously a pretty standard dual rect tone but it sounds absolutely killer and the peak delay just came out cool as hell in some of the parts. I imagine back then it was probably through either a les paul or a schecter c1.

I also enjoy john petrucci's tone in systematic chaos. Im a huge fan of that album and it came out particularly heavy i think.


----------



## Thor_ (Nov 12, 2011)

Electric Wizard said:


> I thought Ryan had posted here a while back that it was all 6505's with Maxons. Maybe I'm remembering wrong and he was talking about their live rig, but I could swear it was a thread about their studio setup.
> 
> Edit: http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/gear-equipment/116877-black-dahlia-murder-amps.html
> Nevermind, 5150 rhythm, uberschall for leads



Hey, thanks for that! I wanted to believe it was some enigmatic studio tone but I guess it's just another 5150/6505.


----------



## Azure (Nov 13, 2011)

I like the aggressive tone from Chaosphere a lot. Blackwater Park also had some really good distortion (The beginning riff in The Funeral Portrait sounds huge).


----------



## Dan_Vacant (Nov 13, 2011)

Queens of the Stoneage's sick sick sick tone
and Dweezil Zappa's


----------



## Dan_Vacant (Nov 13, 2011)

JStraitiff said:


> Big fan of the tone on Avenged Sevenfold's "Waking the Fallen" album. Specifically on the song radient eclipse. Its obviously a pretty standard dual rect tone but it sounds absolutely killer and the peak delay just came out cool as hell in some of the parts. I imagine back then it was probably through either a les paul or a schecter c1.
> 
> I also enjoy john petrucci's tone in systematic chaos. Im a huge fan of that album and it came out particularly heavy i think.


or a esp, carvin or even parker


----------



## wowspare (Nov 13, 2011)

lol its pretty funny about a fifth of the tones listed on this thread come through a peavey 6505/5150


----------



## JStraitiff (Nov 13, 2011)

Azure said:


> I like the aggressive tone from Chaosphere a lot. Blackwater Park also had some really good distortion (The beginning riff in The Funeral Portrait sounds huge).



You know i always thought that was a huge riff and it was just the thickest song i have ever heard until i listened to it through my studio headphones and it seems kind of empty when you hear it clearly. Isnt that weird? Still love the riff. Awesome song.


----------



## Alimination (Nov 14, 2011)

gunshow86de said:


>




lol Interesting that band is like a 50/50 blend of Pantera and Black Sabbath.


I dig the tone though, can totally hear the tubes, and doesn't sound extremely compressed like every other band nowadays.



> Been listening to the new Blotted Science and love Ron's tone



Totally agree


----------



## Loomer (Nov 14, 2011)

-42- said:


> And Disma sounds positively tectonic.




If agreement were strawberries, you and I'd be drinking a whole lotta smoothies right now. 

That whole record is just heavy as balls. I love it!


----------



## jsl2h90 (Nov 15, 2011)

USMarine75 said:


> ^ Ditto to Cacophony! I thought I was the only one that likes Jason's tone. There was another thread on SS.org about worst tone and a bunch of people brought Becker up.
> 
> Big fan of Engel's rhythm tone. Heavy but not too distorted.
> 
> ...


Hendrix's tone was brilliant on everything, but if I had to pick a single song I'd go with Peace in Mississippi, even though everyone thinks of the Crash Landing album as an abomination.

Becker's tone was amazing! I think some of those guys might have been on some mind altering drugs to think of him as having the "worst" tone 

Now that Becker's been repped I've gotta bring up Shawn Lane. I loved his tone on Powers of Ten.


----------



## Louis Cypher (Nov 15, 2011)

Mick Marrs on any Crue release but especially Dr Feelgood & the Self Titled album with John Corabi on vocals. 

And I am sure he been mentioned a million times but worth it again, Sykes on Whitesnake's 1987...


----------



## -42- (Dec 28, 2011)

My latest obsession, Tweak Bird, has some of the coolest tones around.


----------



## Hemi-Powered Drone (Dec 28, 2011)

Why has John Frusciante not been posted?





It's not a heavy distortion, but it's still a really nice tone.


----------



## Grimbold (Dec 30, 2011)

the best distorted tones aren't neccesarily heavy

i've always thought the way jack white uses distortion is really cool


----------



## Seventary (Dec 30, 2011)

I think Cradle of Filth's distortion on Midian was pretty good. Sort of an organic, vintage sound and heavy as hell.


----------



## IAMLORDVADER (Dec 30, 2011)

Fredrik tone, espicially at the start of this vid is godly


----------



## Genome (Dec 30, 2011)

The Black Album, naturally.

Train of Thought is good but a little bit overdialled for me and they pushed a bit too hard. I preferred BC&SL, a little bit smoother, and my god, those chords at the beginning of Nightmare to Remember.



Starts around 25 seconds.


----------



## New Age Moron (Dec 30, 2011)

The Black Album, Eric Johnson on Ah Via Musicom


----------



## Into Obsidian (Dec 31, 2011)

Type O Negatives's Kenny Hickey on the album October Rust.
Listen to the power chords in the intro..dat tone


----------



## SenorDingDong (Dec 31, 2011)

Ty Tabor's tone


----------



## Arryn (Dec 31, 2011)




----------



## Rapture (Jan 1, 2012)

Stevie Ray Vaughan - Anything off Couldn't Stand the Weather.


----------



## Wolf ov Fire (Jan 2, 2012)

Gojira, Behemoth on the Apostasy


----------



## BucketheadRules (Jan 2, 2012)

Into Obsidian said:


> Type O Negatives's Kenny Hickey on the album October Rust.
> Listen to the power chords in the intro..dat tone




This, oh god this.

Does anyone know what amps Kenny used?


----------



## Moltar (Jan 2, 2012)

CrownofWorms said:


> My fave Cannibal tone has be Gallery of Suicide tone. Its warm and dark and fits the atmosphere on that album




I have always loved the Gallery tone. Listen to the crunchiness of the song "From Skin to Liquid" it just floors me every time. So thick and crunchy and brutal and dark.


----------



## Josh_Conlee (Jan 2, 2012)

I'll probably get tons of shit for this, but I love this tone and I guess you could say TAS is one of my not-so-guilty pleasures. 

The Acacia Strain-The Carpathian (Lyrics in Description) - YouTube


----------



## Into Obsidian (Jan 2, 2012)

BucketheadRules said:


> This, oh god this.
> 
> Does anyone know what amps Kenny used?



It was just an ADA MP-1 with an Alesis Quadraverb for FX into a Mosvalve 500.


----------



## Bones43x (Jan 2, 2012)

Some of my all time fave distorted tones are from Soundgarden: The Day I Tried To Live, Spoonman, My Wave...basically the entire Superunknown album. Badmotorfinger was awesome too.

Underoath's "Define the Great Line" has some cool tones.

My favorite lead tone would have to be Petrucci on "Images and Words."


----------



## Nile (Jan 2, 2012)

Ola Englund, Cannibal Corpse. Aeon has a great rhythm tone that goes really well with drums.


Edit: Forgot Nile, cannot forget Nile. Fucking Nile.


----------



## s4tch (Jan 4, 2012)

This:



The whole Cleansing album by Prong is killer tone-wise. Best metal sound ever for my taste.

As for a softer tone, Andy Timmons FTW:


(You may want to check part 2&3, too.)

So f'in tasty.


----------



## blaaargh (Jan 5, 2012)

For me The Angelic Process has always had the most compelling tone. I always feel like the guitars are the sonic equivalent of a black hole.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNu9JuURXL8&feature=related
The Angelic Process - The Promise Of Snakes - YouTube


----------



## GTailly (Jan 5, 2012)

Here are some of what came out at first thought. Might add more later.

Cleans:
AAL - Weightless
Heights - From sea to sky 
Karnivool - Themata and Sound Awake

Crunch:
Heights - From sea to sky
Circa Survive - Blue sky noise
Paramore - Brand new eyes
Karnivool - Themata and Sound Awake

Heavier distortion:
AAL - Weightless
The Kymantica - 2011 EP
VoM - Our commun man's collapse
Vildhjarta - Masstaden
Monuments - We are the foundation

All of those listed are in no particular order but I must say all of Heights' tone are giving me eargasms. So perfect tones!!!!!!1


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## pineappleman (Jan 5, 2012)

Greatest non-metal distorted tone ever


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## dNate (Jan 5, 2012)

Vildhjarta - Love the punch to their sound. You can definitely hear the smack of their pick through their tone which is what I tend to lean toward with distortion tones.

I dig Psycroptic's tone too. Kinda parallel to LoG's tone which compliments their technical styles.


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## Wolf ov Fire (Jan 5, 2012)

Nile said:


> Ola Englund, Cannibal Corpse. Aeon has a great rhythm tone that goes really well with drums.
> 
> 
> Edit: Forgot Nile, cannot forget Nile. Fucking Nile.



The doom of Ra is upon you!!! 


That being said, I have another addition. Meshuggah on ObZen. The distortion is so tight, the low end so pronounced that it is unbelievable. And not overproduced either, just a natural, pure, tone clearly emphasizing the bass and establishing the overtones well. I think it's due to their use of 29.4" scale. I mean really, that's gotta be the best tone ever.

And the clean tones on TesseracT's EP, Concealing fate. The distorted tone is too similar to circa-Chaosphere Meshuggah meets Obscura to be notable. But their clean is so well defined, the attack pulls through to well and they have well defined dynamics


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## Phrygian (Jan 5, 2012)

Best tone ever!!


And of course periphery!


And Aliases' tone kicks ass!


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## Perplexed-Perception (Jan 7, 2012)

this tone is the best thing i have heard in a very long time i tried to get a similar sound not sure whats going on exactly to get it


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## Domkid118 (Jan 8, 2012)

Recently played with a band that used Diamond heads, these things have some serious chunk behind them, i though my 6505 sounded sweet 


Guitar Amps by Diamond Amplification


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## The_Mop (Jan 8, 2012)

First few seconds. That is all.


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## soliloquy (Jan 8, 2012)

for heavier shit. i love the wall of sound: 



for softer shit:



for a mixture of both:


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## alexandreleme (Feb 16, 2012)

pig walk... compressed and dirt....


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Feb 16, 2012)

BucketheadRules said:


> This, oh god this.
> 
> Does anyone know what amps Kenny used?



I believe he used either an ADA MP-1 or Dual Recto, not too sure.
But the thing about ToN's tone is that the tone of the bass usually overpowers the guitars. Pete loved his MT-2 pedal.


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## teamSKDM (Feb 16, 2012)

I think my favorite rhythm/riffage tones, are the tones used is born of osiris's discovery album. for leady tones, i really like between the buried and me, or even human abstract. their lead tones are too sick. i also really love marc okubo of veil of mayas tone.. its like, so dark and gritty and nasty.. in a good way! petrucci has my favorite "soulful" tone, so to speak. Petrucci probably has my favorite overall tone.
I sometimes like cooley and loomis's lead tones. but i feel their own tones are often changing, for the mood of the song i suppose. And of course after the burial i believe has an overall good tone on the in dreams album. and we cant forget about periphery too! theres just too many good tones in this world. all really defined by the overall feel and groove of the songs too.


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## PyramidSmasher (Feb 16, 2012)

Destrage, SikTh (DoaDD), and Misery Signals (Controller)


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## Contra (Feb 16, 2012)

Not necessarily the best or my favorite, but when I heard In Fear and Faith's rhythm guitar on their album "Your World on Fire," it stuck out to me. It sounds a lot bigger and more powerful than you hear with similar bands. I thought that whole album had really nice production, actually.


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## xeL (Feb 16, 2012)

Dustin/Teppei's JCM800 tone on Thrices Vheissu/The Alchemy Index.


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## nickgray (Feb 16, 2012)

Fat, rich, with lots of mids with as much definition and possible.


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## no_dice (Feb 16, 2012)

Some of my absolute favorite distorted tones are the Graf Orlock records, and Carcass - Heartwork


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## pattonfreak1 (Feb 17, 2012)

Dont know if he's been mentioned and I dont intend to read thru all 26 pages to see but I've always thought Ty Tabor's (king's X) tone was unbelievable:


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Feb 17, 2012)

pattonfreak1 said:


> Dont know if he's been mentioned and I dont intend to read thru all 26 pages to see but I've always thought Ty Tabor's (king's X) tone was unbelievable:




Knew how to make a notoriously bad amp sound unique and amazing. 

And the tones he could pull from a Dual Recto.


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## Lirtle (Feb 17, 2012)

Decapitateds tone is incredible. Spawn of possessions is also great... It took me a long time to get into it but it matches their sound so well.


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## 7stringDemon (Feb 17, 2012)

(specifically in the riff at 0:36)



 Not to mention that intro is such a solid rhythm.

It's an ever-growing list. Ola's FBM100 playthrough vid was the shit too (when he plugged in the RGD2120Z anyway).


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