If anyone is interested, we have a roundup of distortion pedals at https://www.guitarsite.com/best-distortion-pedal/

or if you want a MONSTER METAL sound go Quadrophonic..

If you want a really big big metal sound go stereo

Just avoid those little Danelectro pedals, they suck the tone right out of your guitar and leave you forever twiddling with the knobs on your amp wondering where the heck it went..

Digitech makes great stuff .. IMO the Uber Metal by line 6 is better but either choice is good .. but then again we’re still speaking in generic, borad and vague terms here .. I still don’t know your setup or what you’re wanting to play or soundlike.

I’m not a fan of distortion pedals, but if u need one, id recommend the Digitech Metal Master, i played through it and its pretty sweet, def check it out…u can get a real big guitar sound out of it…metal up ur ass!

I could tell you more specifically what you are looking for if you give me more specifics .. like tell me if you gig or are doing sets what kind of covers do you play .. will you need a diverse pedal or just one for playing nothing but Metal .. what’s your price range .. what are you putting it in front of (I mean is it a power amp or something with its own preamp?)

Right off the cuff I always offer metal heads the uber metal from line 6 if all you’re wanting is a metal pedal you wont be dissapointed with lame gain… it’s got alot of toneshaping options and can go from massive saturated gain to slight tube overdrive sounds like a stomp gainer pedal like the IBZ T.S. ..

Gimme a little more to go on and I can be even more specific.

The problem with the trial in the shop is you cant play the pedals at volume, when you play in a band you find the guitar / amp / pedal you tried in the shop takes on a whole new sound, I use a ProCat turbo Rat pedal, if i play at low volume i dial in a lot of overdrive, but when i play through a valve amp in rehearsal or at a gig, i turn the Rat overdrive down and let my amp bring in it’s own natural valve overdrive, ive bought and played a lot of distortion pedals that sound good in the shop and then always end up on ebay, it would be good if the store owner would let you take them on a weeks trial, but ive yet to meet one! so for me it was recomendation – trial – error – ebay, until i found the Rat, we have now been happily married for 4 years, and i havent strayed once..

No, but it’s still better to try out what you can – use your own ears and not merely rely on a recommendation.

If you don’t like any of the pedals in the shop then don’t buy any of them.

But not all the shops stock all the pedals !, sometimes a browse over ebay is needed, i can highly recomended the Boss MT-2 metal zone pedal, im not into metal but ive played this and its highly versatile, does a whole range of sounds, but is best played with all the knobs facing Southeast.

Take your guitar into a music shop and try a whole bunch of them until you find a sound you like.