Good guitar tone " Help ! ! ! "

[synysterguitargod]

I am having trouble getting a great Distortion/Overdriven tone. Trying to get a Gary Moore/Steve Vai/Mark Tremonti tones or like the old 80s hair metal. It has been a pain trying to get the right pedals and combinations.

I have:- Boss ML-2 pedal

Boss OD-3 pedal

Boss CS-3 pedal

Marshall Bluesbreaker

Running through a Mesa Boogie Subway Reverb & 112 Marshall Cab

My guitar is an Ibanez RG2550Z Prestige & an old school S Series...

Does anybody have and advice on how i would achieve the tones im looking for??

Thanks

[Guest davetherave]

tone

Try putting your compressor first, then running your overdrive into the metal pedal. Set the OD with about half gain and level the same. Then tweak the metal pedal with gain control till you get the distorted sustain your after. This article explains a bit more about pedal order, etc

BOSS Users Group - Order in the Court: Which Pedal Goes Where?

hope this helps

[synysterguitargod]

Thanks....

I shall give it a blast and hope it works...

[Pierre Von Mondragon]

or like the old 80s hair metal.

Dunno about the other stuff you like, but the key to that is to play most of the riffs on the 3rd & 4th strings, often paired with a chug on the A string, lots of gain, something like a RAT or an old DOD American Metal pedal, check the set ups of messrs DiMartini and Lynch, play with very little plectrum showing, for maximal artificial harmonic potential, Listen to 'Out of the Cellar' by Ratt, the 1st Enuff Z Nuff album, (then sack that and listen to the Sea Hags for the sleazier side of things) and 'Young Mans Blues' by Rock City Angels, the most underrated rawk album of the 80s. Now go forth and squeeak diddley squawkk.

(its actually all in the fingers and tweaking, you just need lots of gain for sustain)

EDIT some americans discuss...80's hair metal sound - Guitars101 - Guitar Forums

[The Sloth]

Try using the amp distortion and one of your overdrives as a boost. So set the amp distortion up with the gain rolled back a bit. Turn the gain on the pedal right down and set the level or volume on the pedal full. The blusbreaker should do this pretty well or the OD-3.

[Monk Rocker]

That link above sums it up pretty well - Marshall amps, Ibanez tube screamer/Dod American Metal/MXR distortion. Crank up the volume on the pedal to the max, and gain low.

[Soda Jerk]

If you're not using amp distortion, then I've always found the Marshall Jackhammer gets an 80's heavy metal tone quite well. So does the Marshall Shredmaster.

Mesa distortion should be achieving that tone on its own though. If you can't get it, then you might want to look at your pickups.