My gigging board has changed a bunch over the years, but has reached its *final form for my metal band. I tried the chorus for a while but it wasn’t the vibe, so why not three drive pedals instead?

Gain staging == metal?

Bass – Sterling Stingray 24H – set up B-E-A-D with EB Beefy Slinky. Tone rolled off like 1% to help with string noise. Bass on the detent.

Compressor – Engineers Thumb v2 (modified for bass) – set up to add sustain without clamping down dynamics too much.

Fuzz – EHX Big Muff Pi 2 – barely on. Like, barely barely. Tone rolled to reduce harshness. Adds some dirt when I dig in, mostly clean when playing normal.

Overdrive – Way Huge Pork & Pickle – stays in OD mode. Not too aggressive. Used for boost and dirt during heavy choruses.

EQ/DI/Distortion – EHX Battalion – This is where the majority of my tone shaping happens. I keep all my amps dead flat. This helps me keep my stage sound and DI sound the same. The Distortion circuit is set up as a clean boost. Used rarely, but effective when needed!