New Member, Mark V Metallica Tone, Questions and Recording

[BrownieD2W]

Hello fellow Boogie owners I have had my Mark V Combo about 2 months now and overall I really love it. I mainly bought the Mark V because I wanted a good all around Amp, good for everything from pristine cleans to massive thundering distortion. I also bought it because they of course stopped making the Mark IV's and I couldn't find a new one with the warranty intact, something that was and is important to me since this was really my first high end amp purchase.

- Anyway, when I first had it in the house and was messing with it I really wanted to try and get a good Metallica Tone on the Mark V, and at first I have to say I was frustrated and disappointed I just couldn't dial in the sound I wanted to. So I tried, adding a Tube Screamer (TS9) to the front end, and throwing a MXR 10 band in the EFX Loop,(I'm not to big on pedals) anyway these two things helped tremendously, the tube screamer enabled me to get a good saturated sounding tone without having to strip the paint off the walls trying to push the tubes or blowing my speaker. Admittedly this is really my first heavy use of Graphic EQ's so I can't really say I know what I am doing, I kind of just adjust until it sounds good to my ears, anyway the 10 band really helped to further scoop the mid's, and boost the bass a good bit, I actually have the frequencies between 240 and 2.2k almost completely scooped and so far it sounds really great to me but I would like to get others opinions on it, especially from people that would be able to record the sound well, since I am unable to, and people who could compare it to the sound of a Mark IV or even better a Mark III or Mark IIC+ and tell me if they think my tone is anything close to what a Mark IV or IIC+ could accomplish. To my ears my tone sounds pretty **** good for songs like Leper Messiah or the distortion parts of One, some tweaking is necessary for other Justice album stuff, like lowering the Presence, things like that. Anyway here's the settings before you guys get sick of me before I even get started.

http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/2694/dsc05541g.jpg <-- Mark V Knob Settings, Mark IIC+ Setting, 45 Watt, EQ On, Triode

http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/6666/dsc05543.jpg <-- Mark V Graphic EQ

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/1616/dsc05540r.jpg <-- TS9 In Front, placed on my Epic custom card board and duct tape Pedal Board, wiring hole's hand carved, wouldn't have it any other way.

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/9500/dsc05544.jpg <-- 10 Band EQ in EFX Loop

- As far as the guitar goes, I have a ESP LTD EC-1000, and I primarily use the EMG 81 in the Bridge, my friend ironically has a Dave Mustaine VMNT that comes stock with his (Mustaine's) signature Seymour Duncan Pickups, both sound great, oddly enough I think the Mustaine sounds better with these settings, but I imagine people could just tweak to their liking.

- Anyway hopefully if someone out there has a similar setup and has the ability to record, I would really appreciate some demo posts of the tone, and other than that I would really appreciate some feedback on my settings. I want to know if you guys think I am in the ballpark or way off, or even if you think I am a dumbass because of my EQ settings, constructive feedback in general would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Heritage Softail]

I had a similar question when I got here. Someone shared with me there is a Metallica Tone entire thread... Very long with days of reading. I am a decent Metallica fan and like to cover a few of their songs from the Marshall days, Mesa start-up, not so much the St. Anger anything, current tone with mutliple amps blended and a sh!tload of mixdown. All that said, after seeing them in Oct in Phillips Arena in Atlanta, the ran from old to new song with not much of a tone change. It all sounded good.
So for my new era Metllica sound I use two amps, a MKV - IIC+ moderate gain and not scooped much, the REC on Vintage w/gain close to dimed, using the solo boost for whatever the moment demands. Using the channel selector on the V to change the overall tone and using the REC to provide the grind. Reading posts here on recording, it seems lots of layering/doubling is used for CD sounds. Stereo amps, stereo modulations, (read Petrucci interview in Guitar Center montly flyer) make everything sound a little better. Your mileage may vary.

I was reading yesterday on montyjay where Metallica used 10 or so clean amps blended for clean tones. Someone on here will know the link.

 

[Elpelotero]

http://forum.grailtone.com/viewforum.php?f=35

somewhere in that section is loads of studio settings pictures.

 

[th0rr]

Not sure if this helps but sometime back I posted a link to Flemming Rasmussen's studio notes on recording Master of Puppets and Justice for All. It shares mike settings and EQ settings as well.

http://web.me.com/fwrproduktion/FWR_Produktion/Notes_1.html

Hope it's useful.

 

[eudaimonia02912]

Let me second the point that Metallica didn't have the gain pumped on their amps when they record. The supersaturated sound you hear on the albums comes from layering multiple tracks.

If you want the most saturation, try using Mark IV rather than the Mark IIC+ mode.

 

[ryjan]

Metallica's tone isn't that saturated. You definitely shouldn't need a booster. The V should get you there all on its own. Dont try to get the tone you hear on the cd. That sound has been mixed, eq'd and mastered to death.

 

[Oldschool]

Closed back cab...

 

[BrownieD2W]

Well thanks for the reply's thus far, I wasn't really intending on asking people for tips on the Metallica tone although they are appreciated, I was more or less wondering if people thought my settings sounded in the ball park for Metallica's tone. I have no recording equipment to speak of and that's why I posted my settings hoping someone with a similar set up could post some recordings of that tone if they felt like it and liked the tone, since I am unable to record and therefore couldn't just post a recording of my tone. Was also kind of hoping some people with Mark V's and other Mark's could give me some feedback on how my tone was sounding. Anyway, I have a feeling my post was a little to long so from now on I will try and keep them short.

 

[Heritage Softail]

Try adding a second amp to your MKV to add some width and depth. Any old scooped POS amp will do for that. The way everything is multi-tracked and heavily eq'd, mixed down, it is hard to feel one amp/one track sounds close. Just my two cents.