HT Drive or HT Metal?

Discussion - HT Pedals. Heavenly Boxes.
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JackOfBlades
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu May 17, 2012 12:00 am
Location: Panama

Thu May 17, 2012 1:52 am

Hey guys! I'm in love with all the Blackstar products, they're awesome!
But to cut to the chase, I'm trying to decide between the Drive and the Metal.
The sound that I'm looking for is an alternative metal tone, a la Mark Tremonti in Alter Bridge.
It seems the Drive can do that but I'm a little afraid that it may not have that much gain.

I'm going to be using a Peavey ValveKing 112 with everything stock (for now).

What do you guys think? Drive or Metal?

PS: I live in Panama, Latin America, so I have no chance of testing them out.

I Wanna Rock
Posts: 67
Joined: Sat Feb 18, 2012 1:00 am
Location: Nanaimo BC Canada

Thu May 17, 2012 6:30 am

The drive is really nice, but it doesn't have what I'd call a metal tone. It has quite a bit of gain but it's more smooth overdrive.
It also has very basic controls that doesn't lend itself to much tweaking.
I'd consider the Dist or DistX.
I just got a DistX in and compared it to the drive side by side.
With the extra eq and the ISF on the DistX you can dial in a lot of good tones. You can even back the gain off enough to get close to the drive tone.
When you want it to get real heavy it does that too.

Of course if you went for the Dual it would do both. After trying them all, I suspect the Dual is the Drive pedal on channel 1 and the Dist or DistX on channel 2

JackOfBlades
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu May 17, 2012 12:00 am
Location: Panama

Fri May 18, 2012 7:05 am

Thanks for your reply, but it really doesn't answer my question completely. I watched the demo video of the Drive in YouTube and I loved
that sound, it sounded really close to Tremonti's tone, which I want to get close but then along the way tweak it to my personal likings.
I'm afraid that the Dist or the DistX will be just that: distortion. Whereas the Drive is overdrive, which is the one I prefer the most.
If you tell me that the Dist or the DistX are overdrive distortion, then I'd go with that. But pure DISTORTION, I don't like.
Again, I'm thinking Alter Bridge. Thanks for your help!

I Wanna Rock
Posts: 67
Joined: Sat Feb 18, 2012 1:00 am
Location: Nanaimo BC Canada

Fri May 18, 2012 6:24 pm

Tremonti uses Fender Twins for Clean, Mesa Rectifier for Crunch rhythm and Bogner Shiva for leads with a Michael Angelo T-Rex overdrive, so which tone are we talking about? His solo tone?

You're also trying to decide between the Drive and the Metal? Those 2 pedals couldn't be more different.
Have you seen the Blackstar youtube video of the Metal pedal? If you prefer overdrive to distortion, then I can't see you liking the Metal.
The Metal is also 2 channels, and both are pretty high gain.
Like I said before, The Dual pedal does the both drive and distortion. It also does a clean boost.

Blackstar pedals go in order of least to most distortion like this- Boost-Drive-Dist-DistX- and then you have the 2 dual pedals -dual and metal
In my opinion the dual is like the first 4 pedals in one. The metal is like the last 2 pedals plus more gain.

JackOfBlades
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu May 17, 2012 12:00 am
Location: Panama

Sat May 19, 2012 1:53 am

I'm talking about his rhythm tone. I know he uses Mesa and that I will never sound like him, but I'm trying to get close to that.
By the way, this is the first time I'll be using a tube amp (the Peavey Valveking 112) since I can't afford a Blackstar for now.
Anyways, when I watched the demo video of the pedal on YouTube, I knew that was the sound I was looking for. The pedal was on the "Hot Drive"
settings and it was great. Now, I don't know if the Dist will have that sound that the Drive has. As I said before, I prefer overdrive than distortion.
If you could help me with all the pertinent details of this matter, I would be eternally grateful. Thanks!

I Wanna Rock
Posts: 67
Joined: Sat Feb 18, 2012 1:00 am
Location: Nanaimo BC Canada

Sat May 19, 2012 2:24 am

If I wasn't taking off for the weekend I'd post a video on youtube of the Drive, DistX and Dual. I've got all 3 right now so I could compare them.
Perhaps early next week I can do a quick comparison video.
do you have a link to an Alter Bridge video with the tone you're describing?
By the way, I think Myles Kennedy is one of the best vocalists around right now. I bought tickets to see him with Slash in July!

JackOfBlades
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu May 17, 2012 12:00 am
Location: Panama

Sat May 19, 2012 2:42 am

I can't seem to find ONE good video to the song that has the overdrive that I'm describing (Shed My Skin), but maybe this will help:
Go to YouTube and look for Brand New Start on their Amsterdam concert. It seems I can't post external links for 7 days ¬¬
As for the tone, you can listen the small nuances of the open strings yet it sound powerful, warm and big.
I believe I can get close to that sound by using one of the Blackstar pedals. But yeah, Alter Bridge ROCKS. Image

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