What to Do If Your Guitar Isn't Metal

This guitar was never meant for metal. The pickups? They're literally called Country Boy - the lowest output Tele-style pickups I could find on the Bare Knuckle site. But could I still make this guitar scream like a metal beast?

Today I’ll show you how I used my pedalboard to turn this twangy, bright Tele into a riff-ready machine - even when plugged into the clean, polite Fender Blues Junior. If you’re working with non-metal gear, this might be your cheat code.

Step 1: Give It Gain

We started clean. Way too clean. The first big step was adding the Friedman BE-OD - a preamp-style distortion pedal that runs on 18V and feels super amp-like. It instantly took things into rock territory, but it wasn’t quite heavy enough.

Step 2: Boost the Signal

Low-output pickups need a push. The MXR Dyna Comp set to zero compression but full output gave us that push - a clean volume boost to hit the Friedman pedal harder.

Still not enough? Enter the Tube Screamer TS808. It added midrange bite, more aggressive harmonics, and that tight feel that makes metal riffs pop. Huge difference.

Step 3: Sculpt the Tone

Now we were rocking, but we needed to make it metal. The trick? A V-shaped EQ. I used the MXR 10-Band EQ to scoop out the mids and boost lows and highs. Boom - instant aggression.

This EQ was probably the most drastic change of all. It took the saturated tone and turned it into something tight, chunky, and way more modern.

Step 4: Tune It Down

The final piece of the puzzle? Drop D tuning. Just dropping that low E to D added a heavy, grinding vibe that sealed the deal. Combined with the EQ and drive, this turned a country guitar into a metal chug machine.

What I Learned

You don’t need high-output pickups to play metal. In fact, I prefer low-output pickups - they give you more dynamic range and let your pedals do the heavy lifting. You can always add gain. What you can’t do is bring back lost dynamics after the fact.

So skip the metal pickups. Keep your clean, responsive guitar - and invest in good pedals instead.

Thanks for hanging out - Kris