Boss MT-2 Metal Zone

The MT-2 is, as all Boss pedals are, very easy to use. In less than two hours, you'll find yourself operating the knobs like if you had designed it. Besides, the manual has some presets that work well (especially the Heavy Metal preset), and it's way simple to adjust the low and high frequencies to get a better fit of your personal sound.

I was playing Metallica's 'Master Of Puppets' with this pedal in the Heavy Metal preset when I heard that the sound was kinda toughy. Well, by listening to the song, I got the exact sound of the band in one minute. This pedal's distortion is very good, though it makes a little bit of noise at a high volume or high distortion level. I have tried it with a small Crate combo and a big Marshall, and the sound is always great.

It's really a nice piece of gear. Reliable in all kinds of situations.

I've never had problems with any Boss pedal, so I haven't dealt with Roland yet.

I've been in this music business for only five yeras, but still I have dealt with many other pedals and stompboxes and never found a better gear than Boss'. I play all kinds of rock (progressive,mostly), and even though the MT-2 is for metal-kind distortion, I have used it with tunes of bands like Rush, Pink Floyd and Yes and it work really well, aproaching to their sound.

Pretty easy to use, simple, quick, 6 nobs basically.

Very good distortion from this. Just as it says. For Metal. It pretty much sounds great on any amp. It makes wussy amps sound mean, and SERIOUS amps sound BRUTAL. My practice amp (squier) sounds a bit more tolerable with this thing (even though squier amps suck) - but man, my Randall RG100SC really sings with this thing. Sounds best with a noise cancel/supressor pedal. Best of all you can scoop out the mids with this pedal which is essential for that heavy metal tone you need. Semi-parametric EQ built into the pedal (although it can't hurt to get a real Parametric EQ)

Reliable. Never once broken. Even if you're gonna smash your stuff on a daily basis - I have a friend who has kids who loved MY Metal Zone MT2 pedal so he got one from a friend of ours who had it too. Unfortunately, as I said, he has kids. They smashed the pedal's knobs. They still work though.. albeit bent. Built like a tank. Even if you have abnoxious kids who think they have to destroy everything.

Never had to call them for anything so no opinion.

I have been playing since I was about 9 years old. I'm 25 now. I really think this pedal is brutal. I crank it up on my Randall and devistate.
If it got stolen of course I would replace it because it is part of my sonic pallette, if I didn't have it, half my tone would be gone.
I love it because it is able to boost highs and lows, take out annoying mids while boosting the high mids. I love its explosive sound. Sounds so chuggy and crunchy.

If your going to do your homework to find the best tone for your set-up, this pedal will work great. Great control especially with the mid-freq knob. The gain is overwhelming, and with a little fiddling you can get the most saturated, chunky, menacing distortion you could imagine.

Absolute devastation. I'm using a Schecter Blackjack 7 string tuned down to A, Duncan JB and a 59, and a Paul Rivera Fender Concert Amp(Tube). The amp doesn't have the greatest low end capability, but I can get very near modern Cannibal Corpse tone. As far as I'm concerned, Cannibal Corpse is the holy grail for metal tone. If your a six stringer, then you can get close to Justice for All distortion(The other holy grail of metal tone), but not exactly unless you have multiple amps. The mid controls are key to getting the right punch. Here's my setting: Level- 2 o'clock, Low- 3 o'clock, High- 4 o'clock, Middle- about 9:30, MID Frequency- 10 o'clock, Gain- MAX. I also use a touch of reverb on the amp. You may have to vary the high/low eq, but the mid adjustments and gain are key.

You can't break this thing.

Have never dealt with them.

The ultimate distortion for metal, bar none. Unless you have a triple rectifier, but I believe the secret to Cannibal Corpse's tone is a hybrid of the two.

relativity easy to use given you know how to set you amp up right with it.

again this pedal can make any axe scream if you have a good enough amp and know to set it right with it.

not a problem yet. the metal zone is freaking tank!

no comment on this issue....ive had none with the pedal. Ive been using it for about 6 years now.

great build quality, great sound. if you can set this pedal up right with a good amp you can get some phenomenal sound out of it. my opinion the amp and your guitar pickups are more the key. if you have crap then thats how it will sound..plane and simple.

I have been playing, and building my own guitars, and effects pedals for over 15 years. I am an idiot, so in this category, I was amazed how difficult it is not to find a good tone. The key with this pedal is learning your amp, and this pedal's eq. Its as easy or as difficult as you want it to be. The manual is helpful, so there is no way you can screw it up, unless you dont work with it and your amp. If you are one of those kids that wants instant gratification without working for the tone, go buy a line 6 head, and sound like every one else. if you want a fire breathing dragon this is your pedal.

ok here is my rig

les pauls, and jackson soloists going into 2 mesa boogie nomad heads

in my signal path,

Guitar - - - - mt2 - - - boss 7band eq - - - boss chorus----wah pedal

all hooked up with monster cables, for cabs i use marshall 1960 a and b's stock. i used to like the vintage 30's but they were crazy money for a tone i dont like. Pickups are in all guitars this way, les pauls, and jacksons, 59 in the neck, jb in the bridge. i like my action low, and i tune to Eb. My sound is like cannibal corpse, with clean passages. This pedal is amazing for this. If you go through a tube head, this pedal gets a lot more character, and you lose that harsh hiss that you get when you dont know how to eq, more on that later. Amazing pedal, as long as you want metal. if you get a metal zone and you want a rock tone, you are the weakest link. this pedal is for gain heads, not for vintage tone. go get a boss sd1 or a od 2. great pedals for that

its a tank. i have 3 of these pedals and i havent broke out the other 2 ever, except to make multiple pedal boards for touring. always go with a back up. it might cost you more, but you always can get your tone

dealt with boss before going on tour, or doing the local thing, and they are always helpful. emailing them is key, and they get right back to you

I might sound like a tube snob or whatever, so I will also recommend this for solid state heads as well. I heard a guy get a killer tone out of his avt 50 head, and i hate marshalls. so to me its all personal preference. I was lucky to have a good job to get the gear i love. i also build my own stuff too, so you always want to make sure that you learn. thats the biggest benchmark. not all the 10000 worth of bullshit gear, its getting used to what you like.

sit and play with your tone, know what factors are in your tone, and stop spending stupid money on stuff. a 3500 dollar head is just a piece of shit if you dont know tone. my heads were like 600 bucks, and everyone thinks that line 6 is great. they are ok, if you want a les paul, a strat and a tele to all sound the same. thats a weird thing, but the mt2 is an amazing pedal for METAL. graphic eq's also help

Should be easy to use, but can be a bit hard to get a good sound out of and I think I know why - see below.

It's a bit fussy about the eq settings and how you set up the amp it's going into, but it is possible to get some great sounds out of this unit, especially for palm muting.

I still might sell it eventually though, as the 'Natural Speed' preset on my GT-8 is THE sound I have always tried to get with the MT-2 and never quite nailed.

I think everything that can be said on this subject in relation to Boss pedals, has been said!

Never dealt with them.

OK, this is why I am writing this review. I think I have discovered why it can be difficult to get the tone you want from this pedal. Try this: plug a 'free' lead into the input (i.e. one with the other end not plugged into anything) and a pair of headphones into the output. Press the pedal so the LED lights up. Now max out the Level, High, Low, Mid and Dist controls. Leave the Mid Freq control around the middle. Put the headphones on. The pedal should be self-oscillating - loudly enough to drive a normal pair of headphones! Move the Mid Freq control and the oscillation changes note.

Now set the Mid Freq control back to the central position, and play with the High and Low controls. Again, the oscillation frequency changes. This leads me to believe that the tone controls somehow affect each other! No wonder it's hard to set up if all the eq controls are inter-related.

Roland have done this before - ask any synth fan about the TB-303 and they'll tell you part of its unique quality comes from the fact that the controls are inter-related in a way they aren't on other synths.

So, either learn to love its quirks or give up and try something else, it's up to you. I'm still undecided...

Very easy

I've got a lot of metal pedals-most of the popular ones and this pedal is hard to beat-it has the right tone and sits in a mix very well. I recorded a song with it and you can hear it if you go to www.myspace.com/lightsounds it's the first track. It won't give you the sound of a top shelf tube amp but for a pedal it's hard to beat.

You know what they say about Boss pedals

You know what they say about Boss pedals :-)

For a pedal this baby rocks-instant gratification. And by the way-what kind of idiot would spend good money on a pedal without knowing the pedals capabilities and wether it's right for him or not! This baby delivers exactly what it promises-nuff said!

Pretty easy man, normal pedal setup. Easy to use "double" knobs for mid,bass etc..

This pedal is def (as the name says) for metal players, it has that real cold harsh scratchy sound. The tonal possibilities are pretty diverse and the sustain is wicked and you can smash solo's with it..
BUT, it just was'nt the pedal for me. It sounds WAY too fake, like ur playing a midi or keyboard sounding tone. I prefer the warm full tubey sound e.g led zep,hendrix,t-rex

tank

I would'nt buy another if mine got stolen. It just was'nt the sound i was looking for. If you like cold metal sounding tone then GREAT! But if you prefer the vintage warm tube sound SWERVE this pedal!

Somewhat difficult to use but the reason for this is a good reason - the amount of tweakability, especially in the mids, can give you so many different but excellent sounds that it can drive you nuts trying to decide on your main setting. This pedal is capable of many, many different types of distortion, even a heavy fuzz if you set it right.

Excellent sound. It is amazing how a pedal that gives an almost infinite amount of gain and is capable of the deepest and heaviest crunches that you have ever heard in your life can also have such tone, string separation, and bite. Most any time that you hear a sound this heavy and that sustains as long as the MT-2 does it is usually compressed far beyond the point of any personality. But this one doesn't. I don't know how Boss managed it, but I'm glad that they did. There is no other pedal in the world that can match this one for mind blowing heavy heavy distortion plus useable tone and personality.

Also, as far as people who say that they can't get a good sound out of it - I've been playing for 27 years. There are good sounds in this pedal. Check your amp or your guitar because it ain't the pedal.

And as for the people who claim that it must be modded to sound good - well, I prefer mine stock. Boss knows what they are doing. Just because something has been modded does not mean that it is better. Modding is making a LOT of money for the people who are doing it. Five bucks worth of Radio Shack stuff and they sell the pedal for double or more than what it costs. nice fat, easy profit. Modding is easy. If you can handle a screwdriver, a pair of pliers, and a soldering iron then all you need are the instructions that can be found all over the Internet for free. Stop putting all of your hard earned money towards buying these guys a new house - mod your own pedals! But leave this one stock imo...

It has never given me a problem and it's been around.

No opinion, never needed any.

Really simple to use and to get a decent sound.

It sounds good if you use it mainly for EQ and blend it with your own amps gain and use mostly your amp gain and keep the pedal dist. low along with the level. Other wise I think it sounds really cheesy and processed sounding, especially on the clean channel.......just horrible in my opinion. I use it with a Marshall VR100 and a 1960 Lead 4 x 12. It can be noisy depending on your settings.

Built tough and I have been stepping on it for about 10 years.

Never dealt with them.

This is good for metal/hard rock not much else, of course I suppose that is why they call it the metal zone. I have been playing for 14 years and bought this when I was a teenager cause my friend had one and I thought it sounded good, it is still OKAY I guess but if it were stolen or lost I would definetley try other overdrive/dist. boxes before buying this again just to see what else is out there. This isn't a negatvie review by any means but this pedal can sound really good or really bad depending on who's using it. If you use this through the clean channel only, you are not using this thing right. When mixed well with amp distortion it adds some nice punch and the extra eq is good too. I haven't tried many other dist. boxes but I would garauntee there is something better out there.