crabstampede

if you're putting it all through a metal zone, the answer to your question is no.

anyone with tone maturity knows to keep the gain as low as possible to get the breakup and feel you want. a metal zone is going to respond the same no matter how hard you pick, which is with the finesse of a rhinoceros in pottery class. you will be constantly turning up your volume to cut through because they offer no clarity and are just all around awful to hear. any audience that has to withstand that sound for an entire set is going to cringe if they don't just leave first. that sound you hear is what is commonly referred to as "bedroom tone".

ps if you're no longer digging the hd500, going to a metal zone is a step backward in my opinion. you can find good used tube heads for under $600 if you look hard enough. i suggest you go to a few shops and try some out to get an idea.

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Dave_Mc

pedal stacking can sound really good, IMO. granted, you need to use pedals that sound together and roll back the gain a bit (and i'm talking about into a tube amp, so how it sounds into an SS amp, i dunno), but yeah.

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gerraguitar

if you stack an OD after a distortion, even a good sounding distortion, it will compress it even more than it was before. not to say it's bad but considering the metal zone isn't the best stacking any OD after it won't help anything, and like Dave mentioned this is all going into a SS amp, it's not gonna do the same thing as a tube amp. Doesn't the Randell have gain to it? I'm not familiar with those amps.

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Dave_Mc

normally if you put an od after a distortion (assuming you have it set up like a pseudo-clean boost) it boosts the amp more (i.e. it acts like an od pedal used as a boost normally does). if you put it in front of the distortion pedal (again, set up to boost) it compresses the distortion pedal way more. Again... personally I think that sounds pretty good. But I'd agree that the metal zone probably isn't the best pedal to use for that type of thing. a crunch box or a rat or something like that works pretty well used like that.

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gerraguitar

yeah i agree, i don't normally stack OD w/ dist i just stack 2 ODs...the whole clean boost thing is important to mention too, the few times I 've done it w/dist it might not have been setup that way, i don't remember, which is where i felt the compression came in.

regardless i feel that isn't going to get the answer you want TS, but definitely look into a Rat pedal for instance instead of the MZ, love that thing...a lot of folk do

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Dave_Mc

^ yeah it just generally gives you more options using a lower gain dirt box, and stacking dirt boxes means you can get the same amount of gain, and it normally sounds more like a high gain tube amp (to my ears, anyway) that way, too.

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dimesqeals

how's the metal core or mega distortion compared to the metal zone?

Dave_Mc

haven't tried the metalcore. the megadistortion is a bit meh, but it's probably more versatile than the metalzone.

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TheNameOfNoone

Metal Core is essentially Metal Zone without the mid knobs. I compared them on my amp not while ago, and the ML2 sounded...squashed. In a bad way. Like when you add too much lows to the highest gain distortion you have. And it doesn't have middle knobs, so Metal Zone > Metal core all the way.

EDIT: Everything else > Metal Zone > Metal Core

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dimesqeals

really? metal core is worse than the metal zone? damn. was planning to get a metal core. metal zone really does sound like a beehive.

just planning have one. just on of the three. so maybe i'll try the megadistortion then?

Deadpool_25

Wait, if you have an HD500, then just turn off the amp and cab models and use it for effects only. It has excellent effects, and a built in expression/volume/wah to boot. And even though people, myself included, tend to talk some crap bout the distortion models, they are actually very good. If you haven't tried this, then save a bunch of money and do so.

I was thinking an M13 would be a great choice, but the HD500 has all of those effects too. Now if you want to just simplify, you should try to find someone to trade with. Trade the HD500 for the M13. That's trading complexity for simplicty and makes some sense if you just want the effects. The Line 6 Distortion might work well for you, as might the Rat model (classic distortion I think it's called), and maybe a couple others.

Edit: FWIW, I went through exactly what you're going through now. I bought a bunch of pedals and built a really sweet board, but now I find myself mostly just using the M13. It just has insane flexibility combined with simplicity.

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jakey333

Just re the Metal Zone, it really does suck and is a one trick pony. I'd go for a Rat with the original chip (incredibly versatile) and an OCD, and stack them. The other option is a Timmy in place of the OCD, but the Timmy only does the lower gain half of the OCD.

Also, as mentioned, clones like SUF are excellent.

Cathbard

What you need is a new amp.

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CodeMonk

I was quite disappointed the the one I tried.
My bass player had one he let me borrow for awhile.
Personally, I thought it sucked. But maybe it just doesn't work well with an AC30.

The Suhr Riot gets quite a bit of love around here though.

The Metal Zone is a flaming pile of shit.

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Cathbard

The Barber Dirty Bomb would be worth a look too - but a good amp would be a better place to start.

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