I know this may be an absurd question regarding a genre that started out using any crap available, but what is people's favorite guitar equipment for playing black metal? I'm thinking of both the guitar, the amp and distortion effects/pedals. I'm using an epiphone black beauty guitar, a crappy hughes & kettner amp and a just as crappy metalzone pedal. I'm especially interested in finding a new distortion - the metalzone is very undynamic. I'd like a pedal that's more dynamic, and doesn't make the sound quite as "flat" - but still with the possibility of the extreme overdrive, that metalzone provides. Any suggestions for all this?

I use my GTD120's High gain with max distortion and the shape all the way up and put the low at 0, mid at around 4, and high all the way up.

You sir want tubes.

Mostly just guitar. Sometimes with a overdrive pedal (just stomp the shit out of it).

Distortion too!

No, never with overdrive pedal. Ever.

guitar, thick pick (0.88-1.5 my favourite is 1 and 1.14), cable, and amp (any with distortion) and/or my danelectro metal II pedal

nothing special, its just black (varg played on regular speakers with fuzz pedal ... have you ever tried ?? it sounds awesome )

Correct.

Ibanez xiphos, small marshall and Electro harmonix metal muff.

Overdrive Pedal? No way, what are you trying to sound like Zakk Wylde?

danelectro - haven't heard those, but they're VERY cheap, so I figured they might be bad?

Yeah, I was actually thinking of buying some sort of fuzz pedal, they sound really great - I like the piercing sound. Didn't know that was what Varg used though...

pretty cheap, but good for the price... they won some contest or what...

whatever goes, it distort better than amp itself... with high settings it can sometimes sound as happy days( dont know exactly,... didnt have chance to try it enough), i like it... but its my first pedal


and... i like "true" and/or UG bm... so no problem with lo-fi equip for me , i doesnt like questions like... "which pickup should i put on bridge... icebucker of X2N?? " this is for shreders

I use Boss OS-2, Marshall JCM-800 and EMG HZ pickups. I use amp's High input, bass around 9 o'clock, 0 presence, highs and mids around 12 o'clock, preamp aka gain around 10/12 O'clock. I keep the pedal's level relatively low - around 9 o' clock and gain around 1 o'clock.

An EQ, used correctly,
can help out a lot too.
Here's a link to some
cool pedals on sale at
PedalGEEK....
http://www.pedalgeek.com/cgi-bin/new_sh ... bmit=GO%21
I've bought some stuff
from him before and he's
always treated me right.

I've tried the T-Rex Bloody Mary.
It's pricey, but it sounds killer.