Boss MT-2 Metal Zone

Easier to use than tha john providing you have grasped the basic functions of any pedal.

I see so many people writing in with these bloated praising reviews about the Metal Zone but I disagree totally. It sounds all tinny, weak, and treble-y. It just sucks. You can get the same style distortion out of just about any cheap DOD `metal` pedal. I only give it a 3 because I like how you can boost the mids up and make it sound fatter but it still sucks balls.

It a mudafukken Boss! I see used beat up EH, DOD, etc ...but you can't phase the Boss.

Hopefully it exists, I haven't checked.

Man, it sucks. If you like this pedal you are either a newbie or just love setting around in your tight ass Levi's bumpin' Megadeth. I'm mostly into rapcore/hardcore crossover hip-hop metal fusion (you know tha bands). This sorta reminds me of a Rocktron Rampage cuz of how you can boost the mids but the Rampage sounds a helluva lot better. It just has a bigger, fatter sound to it, and it doesn't have to sound predominately `metal` all the time.

If you know what your doing with an EQ, you can't fail with this pedal. Easy as hell. But if you don't know how to work an EQ you may have a little trouble but not much.

I use a Randall RG-100H and a Jackson Soloist with a string through body and an Ibanez neck and this pedal is just nuts. I heard a friend of mine use it and I went out and bought it. It rules because it has a mid control. Thank god for a mid control. The best.

Ok has any one used a DOD and a Boss? I don't think I have to say anything else

Never got to deal with them but I'm sure they rule.

I play everything from emo to hard rock and this pedal does it all. I've played on it for about 3 months and it is the best. I would not let it be stolen. It is like my child. It kills the DOD Grunge and all I have to say if you like tight distortion with shaped mids get up now and go buy this pedal.

With six knobs that are cleary labeled, (with real names, unlike another company I know) this pedal is extremly easy to use. Takes a little while to find that perfect setting, but it is well worth the time and energy.

I am currently using a Synsonics guitar ran through a really old wah pedal, into the Metal Zone, into a Rocktron distortion into a Fender Solid State amp. This thing makes a very small amount of noise, but what the hell else is it supposed to do! Not enough worth complaining about though. Other than that, this thing is a monster, with some of the deepest distortion settings I've ever seen. Perfect for the pimp rock kind of music I do.

I would defianitly bring this bad boy to a gig with out a back up and for two reasons; 1) I could never get a gig, so it doesn't really matter and 2) Even if I could get a gig, I couldn't afford another. But to be somewhat serious, I would bring a power supply or at least some batteries. As for dependability, which jackass out there has ever broken a BOSS?

Never dealt with them and if it broke I'd probably go to the place I bought it. Those butt-sniffers at the store I bought it were not helpful at all in helping me make a good decision. They wanted to me to get a Ibanez Black Noise pedal. Good thing I ignored them.

As I said before, I play pimp rock (Limp Bizkit, KoRn, Deftones, Orgy, hed(pe), etc.) and this pedal matches this style exactly. It's especially good at getting a Wesley (LB) style distortion. Mine is set at Level: Depends, High EQ: 3 o'clock, Low EQ: 3 o'clock, Mid EQ: 9 o'clock, Mid Frequency: 9 o'clock, Distortion: 2 o'clock. This setting handles everything I play, even when I tune down to A. If this were to get stolen, I would sit in my basement, letting my rage, anger, and hatred for the theif consume me until I could no longer stand taking no action. I'd grab the nearest blunt object and go relieve this culprit of living. Or I'd buy another.

At first the unit may seem hard to use, but once you find out what exactly the knobs do, you won't have problems. The sample settings in the manual can help a lot. The only thing I dislike is that you have to mess with the controls until you get out the racket off the sound.

I'm playing a YAMAHA RGX guitar with HSH pickup configuration, and it sounds great. I'm playing through a self-made solid state 50W amp and it rocks. But once I've played through a Marshall VS65R, and the sound was very muddy. The distortion can be set to many styles, but I recommend settings between 2 and 4 o'clock for metal, which is what I'm playing. My favourite setting (not meant to replicate any band) is: no corrections on amp, level: depends, bass: 4 o'clock, treble: 12 o'clock, mid: max, mid-freq: 4 o'clock, dist: 3 o'clock. It's got nice heavy sound, great for slow riffs, but for solos too.

It's very dependable, but I've managed to destroy the battery screw and I can't loosen it anymore (better don't jump on it.. ;) in 2 years. Anyway, this unit eats up batteries like crazy, so I'm using an AC adaptor with it. I use it on gigs without backup and I know it won't fail.

Never dealt with the company, but I don't think anyone has.

I play metal at first, but sometimes even jazz or so. If you tweak with the settings, it's unbelievable what sounds you can get. I'm playing for around three years now, and it's the only unit except a wah-pedal I've ever needed. If it were stolen, I'd have to buy another or I will die. I've got a ROCKSON DS-3 distortion, a korean replication of BOSS distortion and it was a piece of shit. I've heard a Ibanes TS-5 and it is nothing compared to this beast. I think that every metalhead should buy this, unless he's got enough money for a rack.

Boss!

I finally decided to write a review after reading so many recently... I bought it in january 92'. It was my first distortion box(sigh). The EQ section is one of the most powerfull and complete ever seen on a pedal, but it's pretty useless: you can set it up the way you want(OD,Fuzz...), its "Metal" origins will always stay there. It doesn't respond to your pick attack, wich is normal(2 gain stages)! It sounds the same whatever amp you plug it into! How does it sounds btw? Well think about a cross between Pantera and Metallica's "Master of Puppets" LP: built for power chords and palm muted riffs, pure transistor (wich is a compliment). Where this unit really shines IMHO is for lead playing: you can get Jerry Cantrell or Van Halen-like tones, even Santana or Gary Moore...Infinite sustain, very high compression, great for tapping or legato playing.

Boss!!

Boss!!!

It's not the best Box in the world and it won't replace a Mesa Dual Rectifier but for the price it's great. Perfect for leads and trash rythm...or bands tuning their guitars outrageously low! If you're looking for tube sound and expression: GO AWAY!!!

It's pretty easy to use, once you learn it. The manual had some good suggestions, and if you don't find anything good there, it won't be a big problem for you to do that by experimenting with the knobs.

I use it mainly with my Yamaha SG-200, because it's got humbuckers and it makes it less noisy than with my Maya. I use the maya with a big muff, or when I get one. I play mainly punk, grunge along with some metal, and this suits it all.

It's a boss.

I've had no problems.

Excellent for everything I play.

Not the easyest pedal to use, but it's a distortion box, so it's not that hard. It has six knobs instead of the usual three, so I guess I'll take one point off for that.

I must say, for a high gain box, it isn't all that noisey, but that is not the problem with this stomp box. The problem is it colours your sound too much. It seems no matter what setup you use with this thing, it will still sound the same. When I first got this box, I loved it cause it gave my the hifgh-gain sound I was lacking, but now I realise what it really is. A hunk of junk!

BOSS!

One thing I forgot to mention that was very importan (see previous review below). If you've been playing for a while, or have experimented with a variety of clean and distorted sounds (overdrive etc.) you'll know what I'm talking about... Sometimes, when you find the right sound, and you pick up your guitar and play...the strings feel as if they are electricized...where you get longer sustain, better crunch, and bending notes is easier...you sound crisper and you really stand out. It almost seems as if you want to bend strings higher than they are supposed to go, and your fingers move faster and smoother. This is definetly the case with the MT-2. I know that gear can't make you play better, but the sound that I achieve with this pedal really seems to make me play better! With such a large EQ, my tone doesn't get lost in one range. See for yourself!

This is a very easy pedal to use. You just have to experiment around to find your favorite setting. The only hard part is to figure out what the middle and mid freq knobs do.

I play a lot of stuff like KoRn and other stuff. this is a very good distortion pedal for almost any use. You don't even have to turn the distortion nob all the way up to get a very good sound.

Very well built. Comes in a metal case.

Never had to use customer support for any pedal

Great distortion pedal. I would recommend it to any one.

Level, gain, and a four band eq, pretty easy. I haven't had a probablem with anything yet and I haven't touched the manual.

My setup is as follows: Samick LS 450 into Boss Metal Zone into Dano Cool Cat into 10 watt Samick amp. it isn't usally to noisey unless you have the level or the distortion cranked. I play a lot of Metallica, Candlebox, Creed, etc.. and haven't had a problem getting the right sounds out of it.

the only way you could break this thing would be with a nuclear war head

N/A

I play mostly hard rock and so far this pedal does everything that I want it to. I have been playing for about one year and had this pedal for only about 3 weeks. It is already a very valuable part of my rig(without it I don't have any distortion because my amp sucks). If it were stolen or lost I might look at some other products but would probably get this again because I am familiar with it. The only other distortion pedal that I really compared to this was the Danelectro Fab Tone. This thing blows that out of the water! It has better controls and does way more. If you have the money and need a pedal for really heavy stuff this is a great one to consider.

Four knobs and 2 circle things but pretty easy

Of All the distortion pedals ive used this is the best and I mean the best. The sound is perfect and the diffrent tones is great, and hey im usin a fender strat squier and it sounds great

its a Boss. need i say more

i havnt needed mine fixed soo

Perfect sound- like a DS-2 big brother It sounds great on every guitar.

well its not too complicated but it takes a little while to get a good sound out of it. The mid knobs are plus in sound but a minus in time consumption.

I use a cheap 1x8 going through a Rocktek 6 band EQ. That sounds real nice. the only complaint is the bass. On low strings, it sounds real deep but once you hit the other strings it gets real buzzy. If you use a rat with this, the sound is crazy! It sounds kinda cool though, kinda like crazy train. The distortion on the MT-2 is great for metal but not for real deep fuzzy stuff.Or any old stuf whatsoever

Its pretty tough. I dont think i have too much to worry about as far as how long it will last

havent had to call boss

I like this pedal a lot but I like my Vintage rat better. I feel kind of ripped off because I payed 100 dollars for this thing and my main distortion unit, my rat, I only payed 50 for. Overall this gets a good metal sound but it loses the bass on high strings. real deep on low strings, real buzzy on high strings.

4 Knobs,..not as easy as it looks,..perhaps if you play around with it enough you can get a warm sound out of it but really, it's brittle. I had mine modified by SustainPunch Guitar Effects. http://www.smashing-pumpkins.org/sustainpunch/

If you have one of these pedals, they are very "Metallic" and high end sounding, kinda like the sound of someone banging there head on a garage door rapaidly. Thats when I decided to have it modified by SustainPunch for a warmer and crunchier distortion, they had it for a 1 weeks and when it arrived on my doorstep via a UPS dude it was AMAZING! Exactly as I asked for!

If I had the cash, I would by a backup for gigging, however I'm sure that it will not break, very strong little buggers.

Very happy with this company, extremely helpful!

Very impressed with it, I'm lucky to be one of the few who actually have one of these modifed MT-2's as SustainPunch is getting out of the mods to make way for their new pedals, the Creamy Dreamer certainly looks like my next investment!

This Pedal can have a nice sound, especially if you don't get too crazy with the gain knob. My setup is a dunlop wah, a boss flanger, the MT-2, then into a jackson tube preamp then into a crate GX-65. this pedal never gave me any problems until i added the tubes. It just has so much gain that I can't turn it up past halfway befor it just sounds completely fuzzy and impossible to decipher. The parametric mid eq is very nice, as it increases the number of sounds by a jillion or so...anything from a (kind of) soft buzz to full blown undecipherable fuzzy roar...oh well.

I use a Fender standard Stratocaster into a dunlop crybaby wah (i usually use the wah as a filter if im not soloing) into the boss BF-2 Flanger into the Metal Zone into a Jackson JX-2 Preamp into either a mackie soundboard or a Crate GX-65. I can pretty much imitate any heavy metal type distortion (especially Deftones) but can't get a good tube type crunch (that's what i have the preamp for). this effect really sounds best when the batteries are almost dead (it gets much better harmonic response then) but it really isn't that great for more than one type of music unless you want to be turning knobs all the time. Sounds pretty good, unless you have tubes anywhere in you effects loop, then you have to be really careful with the gain knob

Boss pedals never break...i dropped this one in a lake for 2 hours and it still works great.

N/A

I usually play soft rock type stuff, and it really isn't that versatile. it is only great for metal type applications, and then it can only get one sound. it's a good pedal, but not for the money. i would say, buy the DS-1 or one of their overdrive pedals.

Fairly simple. 4 parametric EQ knobs, a volume knob, and a gain (distortion) knob. EQ is for High, Low and two middle controls. One thing that I don't TRULY understand is the difference between mid frequencies. I usually play with full gain, High around 3 O clock, low at full, and mids somewhere between 11 O clock to 1 o clock. I give the unit a 9 only because of this discrepancy.

Very nice. I've had this for about a year, and it's gotta be my favorite distoriton pedal (I own Turbo Overdrive and MXR Distortion +). One thing you have to be careful about is that this thing has attitude to it. It's much more aggressive which suites to styles of 80's metal bands (my favorite) such as Ozzy, Metallica, Def Leppard, Scorpions, Motley Crue. It suites me fine. A few things I absolutely love are that it's got inCREDIBLE sustain! I thought my Overdrive pedal was nice? this thing blew it out of the water. I seem to play faster and with more punch/clarity. I also love the fact that you can dial in just about ANY sound you want esPECIALLY with an EQ!. Finger Tapping, and shredding also come easier (meant to say that 2 sentences ago sorry). My favorite thing to do is play (in A minor) G string 7th fret bended up a whole step and B string 8th fret. You get that raw, primal crunch that really gets the crowd roaring (Zakk Wylde's solo on Ozzy's Live and Loud album). With Chords though, I only reccommend playing like 2 or 3 notes at a time, cause they get lost in the confusion, and get a muddied up. But this is remidied with a Noise suppressor. The way this pedal accentuates my playing ability gives it a 9, with one point deducted from the muddy chord playing.

Well, whenever I get bored I like to go down in the basement and you know...smash it with a hammer, put it in the vice, run it over with my car etc. Seriously has anyone EVER had a problem with Boss? Hell YES I would use it without a backup. There isn't even a rating good enough for the reliability, so to honor BOSS, I won't even rate it (but for people who are slower, think of it as a 10)

never needed to call, hopefully never will. can't say anything good nor bad.

Well, I hate to rave on and on, especially cause they don't like to put up spotless reviews up, but in my opinion there's nothing wrong with this baby. Everything is good: Phenominal EQ, smooth as hell sustain, it's crunchy, yet tender to the tastebuds...whoops! My bad! Back to the MT-2! It really is the best distortion pedal Boss makes. I also like to use it in conjunction with a 7 band EQ, a Chorus, a noise suppresor, and once and a while a DD-5 (Boss also makes the best Digital Delays). THis is one pedal I wouldn't be without. I know Boss brags that their PW-2 or something sounds like a stack of Marshalls??? But this has a bottom end that can't be beat. If it wasn't so noisy, and if it didn't get muddy with more than 3 or 4 notes, I'd give it a 10, but if it could do all those things, there wouldn't be a need for so many other pedals other companies make. FANTASTIC VALUE!!!

You don't have to be any kind of rocket scientist to work this pedal, it has a 4 band EQ with distortion and level controls. Yes, my unit was upgraded/modified by SustainPunch Guitar Effects at: http://www.smashing-pumpkins.org/sustainpunch/

Excellent, Very smooth and musical. I have a MT-2 which was *not* modded and it is very brittle and "Metallic" sounding, perfect for the metal guitarist however my band requires a very smooth and sweet distortion for rock/alternative and blues tunes. That is why I bought a premodded MT-2 from SustainPunch.

Yes, All boss pedals are built wicked, little baby tanks... Boss has a 5 year warrentee on their pedals,....I guess the warrentee isn't covered on SustainPunch mods, however they repair their stuff... I don't think I would take a chance of using it without a backup, I play high profile gigs here in Chicago and need the security of a backup.

SustainPunch is very helpful,.one of the best companies I have worked with. They provide very helpful and interesting customer support. I have all good things to say about this catagory. Boss is good too, but I certainly don't get the "one-on-one" conversations I would like.

EXCELLENT!,.....The pedal is very smooth, the distortion is thick and warm. It sounds like a huge swarm bee's coming at you! I hope to get my hands on their new "Bottle-Rocket" Distortion Sustainer which is much better unit then the MT-2 mods.
Again, if you are interested in having your sterile, metallic sounding pedal modded, I certainly recommend SustainPunch Guitar Effects at http://www.smashing-pumpkins.org/sustainpunch/

Its a pedal.....you step on it and hopefully sound comes out

It is exceptionally versitle, In my opinion I dont think its noisy at all. Ive been playing for six years and I have a Gibson custom les pual, a dean ML phantom and a schecter A-7 plus, and it is very quiet, but ive heard it gets noisy with single coile pickups. The only problem I have with the sound is it sounds very 80's metal which is what alot of people are looking for but for me I like my guitar to sound like a monster dieing, I want it to growl, and knock people back and shake the ground, but honestly ive heard it on a couple of other occations and it did just that, so i believe it is my amp, i have a marshall valve-state head with matching cabinet and thats what i think does it but if you check out the pedal see if you can use an amp just like yours it makes one hell of a difference.

Its a tank

everyone ive talked to has been helpfull

Its a good pedal, and has alot of good uses like I said it may be to perfect for me but its also my amp so just try it out on your, or an amp like yours and then make your decition.

This pedal is a no brainer. All you have to do is put the level to match your current amp level, pick your distortion, and then smooth out your sound to your liking with it's EQ. Be patient, and your sound will come.

I'm actually using this pedal with a bass guitar, and i'm getting some great distortion sounds. You can get synth sounds by experimenting with your tone, pickups, and amp settings. It's best to hook this pedal up before an octave pedal so you can getsome reall bass overdrive sounds. Oh, did i mention it's phat on guitar too?

Man, c'mon, it's a boss. Who CAN break it?

Like I said, you couldn't break this if you tried.

I play alot of different music, and i'm a nut whenit comes to effects with tha bass. It definetly gives you that "metal-up-yo'-ass" sound. Buy it.

This is one of the easiest pedals everr to use just set the distortion at the level u want and fiddle round with the others until u get what u want. You can get any tone out of this box from the bad ass PanterA riffs to MetallicA. The setting in the manual are bull shit cause its gonna depend on what kinda amp... your using.

This thing has almost no naise at all compared with other pedals i have tried (HM-3).This pedal is toltaal awesome for playing heavy riffs. I play on an Ibanez RG470 and the pedals totally complements the guitar!!

I'd definately use this pedal with no backup. It drains batteries quick though so id need a few spair batteries.

Never delt with boss. but i guess theyre good.

With this pedal I cant get ANY distortion i want PanterA, Slayer, MetallicA anything it totally kicks ass! If this pedal were stolen id probably first kick the guys ass that stole it then cut him up into small peices, steal his monmey and buy a new metal zone.

Well, this box has 4 knobs, and 2 recessed knobs for a total of 6. It has controls for Level, Highs, Lows, Mids, Middle Frequency, and Distrotion. Let me just tell you now, you're not going to be able to find that "magical" setting right away. This is a very versitle pedal, and can produce a ton of sounds. To get the tone you're looking for, you're gonna have to fiddle with it for a while. The slightest turn of any of the knobs changes the entire sound of the effect. But once you have an idea of how it works, the Metal Zone kicks the ass of all other stompboxes.

This is where the the pedal excells. It puts out a sound I haven't heard in any other box. I run a Jackson PS-4 and an Ibanez RG450 into the MT-2 and then run that into a Crate GXT-212 amp and I can get sounds from Metallica and Slayer, to old British rock, to the metal and hardcore sounds of today. I was looking for a sound like Earth Crisis, but a little different, and this pedal delivered. I mainly play and listen to hardcore and metal, like Earth Crisis, VOD, Slayer, Life of Agony (old stuff), Shai' Hulud, Ignite, stuff like that. With the metal zone, I can atain sounds like all these bands, and much much more. The key to this pedal is the mids. Most metal player scoop the mids back and play with just the highs and bass. And that sounds good....but it's played out. If you boost up the mids on this pedal, you get a much fuller, thicker, fatter sound. The crunch you get is unbelievable. And the sound cuts through the mix of a band better so you stand out and get heard. By combining this with the Boss GE-7 equalizer you can get en even more tailored sound. I'm planning on getting one of those very soon. As far as noise goes, there is only the normal sound. It'll hiss and squeal if you get too close the then amp, or if you turn the distortion all the way up. I keep it half-way up and I get all the crunch I need with no feedback. And it doesn't click or pop when you turn it on. That's an excellent feature! A noise gate will help, but not entirely necessary. All in all, this is an excellent box for any metal head!

Been beting it around for a while and still works perfectly.

It's Boss. Do you really need me to answer this?

I know there are cheaper effects pedals out there, but if you're serious about getting a good sound, get this box! You won't be disappointed. Once you fiddle with this one a bit, you'll discover the many different tones it can produce. I'll admit, I bought this thing once a while ago when I didn't know anything about effects, but couldn't get ot to sound good at all. It kept screaming at me! But I read everyone elses comments and decided to try it again, and I'm glad I did. I love this pedal now! If someone stole this from me, I would definitely buy it again.

It's pretty easy to use- the eq knobs take a while to figure out but you don't have to be einstein to figure it out- then there's level, and dist.

I have a fender ultimate chorus amp and use a california strat and this pedal works great. I play anything from grunge to heavy metal and this has a wide variety of sounds so you can get just about any dist sound you want. All in all it kicks ass.

It's Boss. You could run it over with a truck and it'd work.

never had to deal with em

Like i said this pedal can do it all. I compared it to a ds2 cuz i'm into nirvana, but that didn't cut it. Mt2 can do anything. I've been playing for almost a year so i'm not an expert, but even so, i don't think i'd find a dist i'd like better. If it were stolen or lost, i'd definately get another one. I totally recommend this pedal to anyone who wants wide ranges of dist. I can even get a kewl fuzz sound out of it.

In my opinion, with the three-band eq and a parametric midrange, it is extremely easy to get a sweet sound out of it.

I use an Epiphone Les Paul Custom running into the MT-2. I think there isn't a better distortion to go with that guitar from what I've heard of other units. I can be noisy at extreme gain settings with lots of mids and highs. The distortion is HUGE. Sustain for miles.

I depend on it and it has never failed to deliver monster stack quality distortion. I've never had to use a backup and I've played a lot of gigs where that was my only effect on my setup (what can I say, I keep things simple).

With this pedal, I play anything from grindcore to classic Metallica. I scoop the mids for a seething sound and I back of the lows and raise the mids for a nice "hey I rule" sound. I've been playing for 2 years and I couldn't have lived without it. I also have a couple other guitars (the Les Paul is my mainstay) and a Boss BD-2 and a Danelectro Cool Cat Chorus. If my MT-2 was stolen or lost, I would do some serious deliberation between getting another one or just putting a pickup on my Chevy. I love that it can get any tone I want out of it because of the 3-band eq. I don't hate anything about it, I just wish it could clean up a little more than it does when I have the gain all the way down. My favorite feature is the sustain it can give at even the lowest gain settings. The only thing I wish it could have would be other effects along with it, but stompboxes are great. It helps me make music by giving me the "Holy Grail" of tone that gets me going and music flows easier when you have the "Almighty" tone.

Thing takes some getting used to but not hard. Who needs a manual? Past that you just stomp it and your guitar howls.

It kicks ass. It's definitely suited for metal and can do an awful lot of other music, too. Very versatile. A lot better than the weak, thin, shitty sounding DS-1.

It's a fuckin' Boss. Hell yeah I'd use it without a backup. I'd be shocked as shit if it broke.

I talked to 'em once when the jackboard on my ME-30 died. They were pissants. Damned assholes to be honest. I never bothered sending the pedal off to get fixed, but they were helpful.

It kicks some major ass. Hell yeah! It rocks. Marty Friedman uses the damn thing, that says something for it, right? If I lost it, I'd shit my pants. That's how much this pedal rocks. I've never heard anything that compares.

6 knobs- level, bass, middle, treble, middle frequency, distortion. Easy to find a good sound out of it if you play with it long enough. The manual is pretty comprehensive, even if the suggested set ups suck. Makes a huge variety of sounds, though it does take time and patience, and you have to know what you want first. The switch design is same as all boss pedals, big and easy to use. It has rubber grips on both sides. However, the knob-inside-knob design for the EQ is annoying.

My set up comprises of: Fender Dual Showman amp, Fender Jag reissue custom (ie h/b in bridge). The sound i get is so cool it hurts, nice n trebly with just enough bass and mids to balance out. There are so many useful sounds that it makes- from poweful ovedrive to all-out mental distortion. I even nailed the Cobain live sound with it, using a Hohner practice amp and SD vintage rail p/u. My current set up is the one i use in my band, and is also good for messing about at home. Has downsides, though. Much more than halfway on the distortion and it turns to fuzz and sounds crap. Getting a good balance between clean and dist sounds is pretty hard. My clean usually has slightly too much bass, and the distorted sound not enough. I can't fix it with the pedal EQ, cos it just makes a background rumble effect if you turn the bass up. Not major problem, though.

A boss is a boss. my bands' ham-fisted bass player threw it out of his car window by accident once, didnt even scratch it. it'll probably out-live me. I'd gig this with no back up, mainly because i can't afford another pedal.

Never tried it. Hopefully I never will.

I play grunge and metal mostly, with very brief excursions into classical stuff. It is ideal for anything, because it has such a versatile control method. I use it in a band and it suits perfectly, and it matches with our style really well. Ive only been playing 18 months but this is my third pedal, after a Korg multi effects and a Turbo Rat. The Korg sucked and the Rat didnt have the balls, especially with the weedy old stock Jag bridge p/u. It has been replaced now, and it really fires up the distortion. I use the pedal constantly, and I love it for its sheer in-your-facedness. Everyone should own this pedal.

Fairly Simple, The EQ gets a bit of getting used to. I'm not sure of the revision number, I know it was modded by SustainPunch Guitar Effects, their website is: http://www.smashing-pumpkins.org/sustainpunch/ My friend owns this pedal, we are in a band togther. I thought I would do a review on it while i'm here.

Excellent, Very smooth and musical. Since it was upgraded by SustainPunch, I should explain the sound differences. Stock Metal Zone MT-2 - Metallic, very harsh, boosted harmonics good but did have a "Sterile" feel. It pretty much nails heavy tunes by Pantera, Crew, etc. But useless for modern rock, alterative tunes that we play. SustainPunch Powered MT-2 - Much fatter, warmer and thicker distortion. Harmonics were defined better with much better note definition. Perfect for Chording and Solo's. I was also impressed with the smoothness of the pedal, very musical.

hrmmm, typical tank, probably not covered by Boss under warrentee after the upgrade however SustainPunch warrents the pedal free from defects for 5 years and repairs all thier stuff.

I delt with Jeff and Dan a few times, they are *VERY* nice people. I had my DOD Overdrive 250 and Flanger repaired by them, very quick and personable support. 2 Thumbs Up!

Overall, Pretty kickin! I'm so impressed with the tone that I may by a permodded MT-2 from SustainPunch for my Bass guitar. If you need more info on the SustainPunch pedal mods, I would suggest checking out the website:
http://www.smashing-pumpkins.org/sustainpunch/

Metal....When a bought this pedal I had the dist at its max. But when I boosted it Ive got the right sound

I use my pedal with an Ibanez Rocket roll with a Seymour duncan JB bridge pickup and a Marshall JMP 100w and a 4/12 and a 4/10 cabinetts. I play Death metal so it is great. I play with the At the Gates sound but you can get very many sounds.

Thats the only pedal I use and its the only one that I have on our gigs

I Play Death Metal and it suits me great. I have been playing since I was 10 years. I once owned a HM-3 and that one sucked. If it were stolen I defenetly buy a new one. You can get almost every sound you want.

I think the four buttons are realy easy to use, you gotta learn how to drive the mid boost well. The firsts month i owned it, i was sounding like real shit,i tried to create a jimi hendrix style fuzz but it wasn't cool. Now, i arranged it to give me a real good metal sound. The presets suggestions they give in the instruction manual are cool, if you don't want to spend time trying to find the perfect sound.

Some of my friends thinks it just makes your guitar sounds like a razor,but if you set it right,it can sound very good. The four bands eq can give you a very versatile sound from blues to hard-rock.I use it with a epiphone les paul guitar and a roland cube 60 amp and it gives me a real great sound. It can let you sound like vintage rock or even metal or even blues.It's realy nice if your doing a cover show and want to sound like 10 different guitarists in the same night, it's true i tested it.

The metal box gives it big durability,i let it fall down a couple of times and it never breaked. The paint is durable too, i always have it with me, on a gig or just for practicing.

I never dealed with boss.

It's a very good sounding machine with no trouble using and it's unbreakable if you're like me and plays prog-rock, metal and blues stuff, you will like this pedal.If it where stolen or loss, i think i would buy it again.I like the mid-boost but i ajust it at 200h so it gaves me a nice rythm metal sound.It's the first pedal i buyed and i recommand it to every medium-budget guitarists like me.

Very easy to setup, I just plugged it in between my guitar and amp. Didn't need the manual(it was all messed up anyways. It wasn't too difficult to obtain the sound I wanted.

I am using an Ibanez RG 270DX guitar and a Marshall VS100R combo amp. The guitar still has the stock pickups in it(Powersound) but that is no problem since this pedal will make any guitar crunch like no other. I haven't experienced any feedback or annoying buzzing sounds while using this pedal; that is surprising since most stompboxes have feedback written all over them =)Anyways, the Metal Zone is an EXCELLENT pedal to use if you're looking for a real heavy/thrash sound. As a matter of fact, it's easy to copy the tone of recognizable metal bands with this pedal.

I bought this pedal used and it was dirty and had a bunch of scratches on it, but I'm sure it will last forever.

Never dealt with Boss.

I mostly play metal and the primary reason for purchasing the MT-2 was to beef up my tone and rock the hell out of my neighbors hehe. I highly recommend this pedal for anyone who wants to add serious crunch, gain, and satan's voice to their guitar tone. If it were lost or stolen then I would get another one right away, but I would try out the DoD death metal effect just to compare it to the Metal Zone. I'm sure the MT-2 will blow it away. By the way, if you can get one used, then I think you'll be getting an excellent bargain because brand new they retail at $100 but a decent used one will set you back only $60-$70.

6 knobs; very easy to use. Turn the knobs, stomp on it, and you get that killer distortion. You get tons of different sounds out of this thing, but you have to work a little bit to get the exact tone you want, but I don't care, because i know that the sound that I want is there, so I only have to look for it.

I use the MetalZone with my Les Paul Classic, through a Marshall Valvestate 40 (clean channel). It just kills. I was starting to get used to the dist of the amp, which I thought was great (anyway, it is), but with this pedal you can get that metal tone you can't get with such an amp. VERY distorted sounds. You can nail a Sepultura type sound. This thing is good for every metal sound you want. Now I use the amp for a Led Zeppelin, Gun'n'Roses type of sound, and the metal zone for very heavy sounds (you can get that Master of Puppets sound). One thing: this is suited for hambucker pickups (anyway, who the hell is playing metal with a strat). The pickups I use are the Gibson 500t in the bridge, which is the heavier that Gibson makes, so the sound I get is in part due to this (I used to use a cheap strat copy with single coils, and even the amp distortion sounded weak, wich didn't when I bought the Les Paul). The thing is not noisy at all, seeing how it distorts the sound. It's the best thing you can buy for playing metal without spending tons of money in buying a Dual Recto, or a JCM. Buy it if you like metal AND only metal. The less distorted sound I've managed to get sounds like Led Zeppelin's Rock and Roll. I say this because some people have said that it is not versatile: OK, you can't play country with this. But why the hell you buy a METAL Zone if you want to play country or blues?. The knobs provide a very large range of sunds, from the scooped sounds of Death Metal (wich I love), to the first Metallica records. I haven't experienced the "rotary" side effect when you turn the dist knob too high. I never use it through the boost channel of the amp: you get quite a lot of distortion from it so you don't need any more. Very good box. I herad that it got a thin sound. It's not true. Turn the high knob a bit down.

It's a BOSS, so you oughta know

Never deal with them

I play everything from blues to metal, and I was missing a good metal sound. I bought a Korg's Pandora, but the distortion can't compare to this beast. It's the best you can find in a pedal. Of course, if you have money go buy a Dual Recto instead. I've been playing fo four years, and I thought I wasn't going to be able to find such a killer sound. It sounds very profesional, and it inspires me to play that sad black metal songs. I would buy it again with no doubt, if stolen (I'll kill the bastard who dares), or broken (very unlikely). It's the best choice if you play metal, better than the DOD Death Metal, because it hasn't that feedback problems. This is way better than I thought when I read the reviews; it really can get the sound I was looking for during four years. I'd also like to try it with some EMG pickups. Very good pedal, period.

The MT-2 is a little more complex than other distortion pedals. It's got knobs for Level, Low, High, Mid, Mid Freq and Dist. To get a good sound, you need a little tweaking by adjusting all knobs, but there are lots of different sounds available. The manual is OK, with good descriptions and sample settings.

I'm currently using a Kingsound Stratocaster copy (I'm gonna buy a better guitar soon) and a Philipson 15w amp. I've also got a Zoom 505, a Boss OD-2R and a Morley wah pedal. This pedal supplies exactly the distortion types not obtainable with the OD-2R and the 505. You can create anything from light crunch to really heavy metal distortions; it has got a WIDE range of sounds. I have found out that my little 15w amp has got a lot of muscle ... but only when the MT-2 is used :) . When using it with bigger amps at other places, the MT-2 is just marvellous - ven my cheap Strat copy sounds really fat and heavy. The minus sides: It can not make crunchy overdrive sounds (like Hendrix etc.), and wah sounds aren't very clear with the MT-2. (Considerably better with the OD-2R!)

As everybody else says, "it's a Boss". I have been using it at one gig, and I don't think I need a backup. It's really reliable.

Never dealt with Boss.

I needed a distortion pedal that could produce the sounds my 505 couldn't make. At the music store I tried different Boss dist pedals (XT-2, MT-2, HM-3, SD-2) but the MT-2 was, without doubt, the best. When I buy a new guitar, I'm probably gonna sell the 505 . . . but I shall NEVER sell the MT-2.

This pedal is easy to use! Only the setup for middle, treble, bas, etc. is sometimes hard to setup... The manual is good..

WHAAAAA!! This pedal blows you away!! I have a Marshall Valvestate and a Jackson Dinky (Seymour Duncan picks).. This pedal is THE pedal for metal-players!! You can get all the sounds you want (black, death, trash, heavy metal, etc)..

I have it for 2 years now, and it looks like new!!

Buy it!! no further comments on that!! A 10+

Four knobs, not the easiest at first.
Mine was modified by SustainPunch http://www.smashing-pumpkins.org/sustainpunch/
Very easy to get some real nice thick sounds out of it.

Excellent sound quality, My pedal was custom modded for a thicker, sweeter sustain, rather then a real "Metallic" "Brittle" sound like it is stock, don't get me wrong, If your into metal, this pedal is for you!

For sure,...I have taken gigging for a few months now with no complaints.

Boss, no.... SustainPunch, yes,....very kind and willing to listen.

Great pedal, although I wasn't real happy with it stock, it sure does kick ass now!,...very smooth,..better harmonic content, sweet and thick...best $60 I ever spent on guitar effects.. Again, if your looking to have your pedal modded, check out SustainPunch online: http://www.smashing-pumpkins.com/sustainpunch/

Harder than alot of stomp boxes, but it is a stomp box so there isn't much to it. Dead simple to get a good sound.

I use this with a Samick KRT-664 and a Gibson SG running into a Peavey Stereo Chorus 400 and a 15 watt fender practice amp. For a distortion that is this heavey there is hardly any noise. This is *THE* distortion pedal for metal/hard rock. You can nail any sound with it, from Metallica to Black Sabbath, Its great. Ive gotten the tone of Metallica almost perfectly, and you can nail that DimeBag crunch no problem, hook it up with a delay pedal and play the outro solo to floods, sounds amazing.

Its a boss

never dealt with boss, but they have a great warrenty on their pedals

I play in a 4 peice Metal/Punk band and its great. Ive been playing for about 4 and 1/2 years now and i own a Gib SG, a Samick KRT-664, Peavey Stereo Chorus 400, Squire Practice amp, DD-3 Delay and a Jim Dunlop cry baby. If it was stolen or lost id get it again in a second, its by far the best distortion unit out there. I love the EQ with 4 bands u can nail almost any metal tone. I compared it to the heavy metal pedals by boss and the death metal by DOD and the metal zone just kicked all ass. Wish it had a way to save patches, that would be amazing. I must warn the rock/blues players out there, this pedal is not for you, its an extreme distortion strictly for metal/punk/hard rock.

It only has 6 knobs to adjust so any moron can use it. I ran it through an ART FX-1 and can imitate pantera and metallica very well. It is the hardest pedal on the market and I have jammed on a bunch of others.

I have a custom ESP with an EMG active humbucker in it (i believe it is the 81 but I could be wrong). Right now money is tight and all I have is a crate GX-30M, heck all I do is jam for fun anyway, but when I was in the band Impact I ran it through a Crate 4 by 12 100 watt halfstack. It still preformed quite well. It Does create some noise so it is not a good studio application (a noise gate may stop it but I haven't tried yet). All in all you won't hear a sound like this out of any other pedal.

I have owned it for at least 6 years and just beat the crap out of it. One of the knobs is bent and the AC adapter input is crooked. It smells like beer and ashes and still sounds just like the day I bought it. I have been through 3 radio shack AC adapters since I have owned it and also destroyed the Boss adapter. I trust this thing to the end.

Never even talked to the company.

For the most part I play Metal and Lead style stuff, You can also with some chourus and reverb do a very cheap imitation of Van Halen. It isn't exact but panama sounds really good. I have been playing for about 10 years and this is only the second pedal I have ever owned. As stated before I have a custom ESP, a Crate GX-30M, and untill it broke I used the ART FX-1. That is all the gear I have for the moment. I would defanatly buy this gear again. Unless I was currently in a band that was on it's way somewhere and needed super quality sound I would not buy anything else. I think most of Boss's other Distortion pedals are extremely weak but when I hit this pedal it dropped my mouth on the floor. I tried all the Peavey and Ibanez not to mention hundreds of those no name pedals, even the old over-rated RAT pack can't keep up. It does however tend to steer your playing into an all out thrash fest. This is not a good pedal for playing weene rock like Weezer or Oasis stuff. However if you turn down the Distortion to about 1/4, and mix in some Crate reverb it makes for some cool blues solos (you may need to tweek the other knobs a little also). For the price you pay as compared to what it takes to get that sound out of a rack mount, you can live with a small amount of noise, and for the folks who have a tight buget (like me) this is a good investment towards that rippin' ass metal crunch you are looking for.
ps. Also try out mixing it with a small amount of amp distortion, I do it on my Crate GX-30M and it does make a ton of noise but the lead sound it creates is immense and fun to play with.

If you want alot of fuzz it is easy to use but it is very hard to get the sound I'm looking for. The manuals gives 8 samples but they suck. Technically it has 8 knobs which adds to the frustration.

I'm using a strat and only go through the one pedal to my amp. Not much feedback but certain settings give excellent harmonics. I can't get a Nirvana, etc, sound and it is impossible to play open chords because of the fuzz

I wouldn't gig with it as I can't get the sound I'm looking for but it is reliable

Spring replaced cheaply and without fuss. Guy on the phone was a dickhead.

Still can't get the alternative sound out of it. I want to get a DS-1 or a Big Muff. Would be great for metal if I played metal. I know it's a metal pedal but everyone was saying that it is so versatile and you can get any sound from it but I can't.

All you have to do is fuck around with it for awhile to get the ousnd you want, i took me about 10 minutes and now its the sound i use for my punk band "a?k?a" which you might hear of some time in the near future.

this pedal has very good sustain and no feedback for my setup. I use a Fender Strat, Gibson SG, Ibanez RG550. I use the guitars thorugh a Marshall JCM800 100 watt Master Volume Lead series head and a Marshall 4x12 cabinet. This pedal gets the best fucking sound out of all my guitars, even the single coil Strat. I get the sound of Green Day and Nirvana with the Strat and when i use the other guitars, i get the full sound of NOFX, MxPx, No Use, and a lot of other punk bands. Its pretty good sound for punk, especially if you have an Ibanez.

I could depend on it, just need alot of batteries

nope

i play punk music, it is perfect for metal and all that stupid shit but good for punk and when you blow it through a Marshall stack, it sounds fucking amazaing, i will never need any more equipment for the rest of my life, i have a Digetech RP6 but i use it as a paper weight cause it blows

The Manual has a few settings that sound okay, the rest all sound sorta identical. Just tool around with it for awhile and you'll be able to get the hang of it. It can be difficult to dial in the exact sound you want.

I've got a damn Peavy Rage 158 with my Jackson JS-1. I don't know how the MT-2 sounds on a better amp, but its pretty good even on my Rage. There is some noticiable noise when I turn it on, but its not much of a problem. I haven't been able to exactly duplicate the Metallica "crunch" sound yet, but I can come pretty close. I've only been playing about year and a half, but this is the best distortion I've ever heard. It absolutely spanks the amps distortion.

Looks solid. Feels solid. Everyone talks about how much Boss kicks ass. I've only had this pedal a few months, but so far its all good. As was mentioned in other reviews, this thing sucks up batteries at a pretty good rate.

I play Metallica. Its my goal to get a sound like Hetfields rhythm from the pre-TBA era. This does a pretty good job of it. I'm giving it an overall 8 because I haven't been able to find the exact sound I'm looking for, but again, I'm relatively new to this guitar stuff. I've tried some other sounds, like Offspring-ish punk and Nirvana-ish distortion. It does an okay job with those, but again I don't know if I'm dialing in the optimal sound. If anyone has any good settings for the metal zone, please E-mail me!

i give the metal zone a ten for how easy it is to get great distortions.editing the equalizer is a snap.manual is easy.

no it is not very noisy.the only background noise i get out of it is a hum but it doesnt bother u if u set it up right.the distortion out of it always sounds great.if u are a metallica,megadeth,ozzy,player like me than u can get all the good distortions from them.i use the metal zone with a peavy studio pro 112 65 watt amplifier with built in reverb.my guitar is a yamaha pacifica 112 guitar.it sounds great.

of course u can depend on it because it is a boss.yeah i would trust it in a gig without a bakup.

naa never had any problems with it.

i play heavy metal and this pedal screams it ,hence the name metal zone,duh.i have been playin for a 1 1/2 years with my yamaha pacifica and peavy studio pro transtube 112 65 watt amp.if it was stolen or lost i would buy it again cause it roxxxxxx!i love the distortion and how compact it is.the parametric mid equalizer is my favorite thing.makes ur amp sound like a tube amp even if it was a solid state.yes,i did compare to a zoom 505 but the distortions on the 505 are really horrible.the effects were kewl but the distortions and the bakground noise,geeeeese.i chose this because i heard it was the best.its fine the way it is.it helps me write music better to because when i first got it i had already made up a badas* riff.i would strongly recommend buyin it if u are in to heavy metal.

Easy to work with,..maybe a little tricky at first.... No Manual, Mine has been upgraded by Jeff Doucette @ SustainPunch Guitar Effects - http://www.smashing-pumpkins.org/sustainpunch/

WICKED! I use this pedal with my Laney LC30, Peavey Classic and Marshall JCM800 head...Very sweet and sustaining tone,..lots of tonal range and character....Before it was modded it was harsh and brittle,...It had too much of a Metal sound,..I personally like a thick, smooth and fatty distortion tone...

Oh Yeah,..since the warrenty is void now that Jeff modded it, I guess that it will have to be repaired by SustainPunch, Thats ok because they warrent these things free from defects for as long as you have it...:)

Can't say anything but great, they stand behind the product and provided me with the info I requested before I bought the mod... I'll be back again, Thats for sure!

I am very happy with the pedal now, It is going to be with me for a long time,...It is my main distortion/fuzz Pedal..
Check out SustainPunch, they have custom pedals and mods for your taste...

It's extremly easy to use. 6 knobs, Level, High, Low, Mid, Mid Freq. and Gain. It's easy nail the perfect sound, the manual has only 2 settings that sound good, all the others seem to sound the same. This is like the most "developed" distortion boss has right now. I think it's like an upgrade of the HM series (heavy metal and hyper metal)

It has the perfect distortion for metal (metallica, pantera and other metal bands) it's nails the old 80's Metallica when they had that intense metal sound. The reason i gave it a 5 was it gets the worlds worst feedback, and quickly. Don't get me wrong, it has to be the worlds best distortion but it's feedback problem is insane. Even with my guitar muted with my hand it still squels. It's so bad that it squels between chords! The second you stop playing it squels and makes an awful buzz. But in no way is this distortion weak, it screams. On my peavey amp it's really really bad with feedback, but is powerful, on my friends' marshall it's even worse with feedback but still sounds mighty. With the new Boss chorus's (CH-1 and CE-5) it sounds really good and really smooth, it has great sustain. With my Squier single coil strat it sounds intense but still feeds back, on a Les Paul i tried its big but feeds back just the same. My friend also has a metal zone and he has the same feedback problem. Also it seemed to sound just like the DOD TEC 4 distortion.

i think this is the world most protected pedal, the only thing those boss pedal cases are for really is just for a pedal board, not protection. Though i have seen cases where knobs break and fall off (my HM-2 has a knob thats has fallen off but i put it back on and it seems to stay put, but it will still come off with a tiny pull.

never needed to call them with this, but i have called them in the past, they charge like $7 for a 30 cent piece of plastic.

I play heavy stuff like Deftones, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Metallica and Pantera and this nails the Metallica and Pantera very well but then again squels like crazy. If it were lost i'd look for the person who stole it and steal the money that it cost back, i would take the pedal back because it's a pain in the ass. I would use the distortion in my amp but the distortion in my amp sucks. i really like the Parametric EQ, it can really nail those great metal sounds that i wish i had. I compared it to my Boss HM-2, the distortion in a Fender amp and a DOD TEC 4, it sounded smooth compared to the HM-2, alike to the distortion in Fender amp, and had the same screaming sound as the distortion in a DOD TEC 4 processor. I choose this cause my HM-2 distortion isn't metal enough. the Fender amp is too small and the DOD TEC 4 just plain (in my opinion) sucks. I wish it had a build in noise suppressor so it didn't feed back so much. Though, this pedal did bring out my creative side, I made up a lot of songs that didn't sound right with any other distortion pedal. If you want a reliable distortion use the one in your amp, if the amp's distortion sucks than get a ProCo Rat, from what i hear they are really good. I got a refund for this pedal and i used the credit for a wireless which i am picking up soon.

First, I have been a musician for more than twenty-five years, I teach guitar, piano, drums, and bass guitar, and I have a degree in music. I'm including this information because most of the reviews of this product that I have read are written by people who have been playing for five or less years and, in my opinion, usually lack the experience to give an unbiased review. The pedal, however, is quite simple to use.

The MT-2 has alot of good sounds -- all of them being metal or someother version of metal (hard rock, grunge, whatever...) It's greatest strength is its low end -- this is where many other distortion effects fail. It adds a low end punch similar to a hughes and kettner attax 100 amp. There is plenty of high end as well, of course you never hear someone complaining that their distortion pedal lacks high end -- they all do this well. The only problem I have with the pedal is the sound of the mids. First, it is not a matter of the controls. One boosts or cuts the level, and the other dials in the frequency that is boost or cut. Anyway, the MT-2 mids sound like there is a wah pedal on and it is backed off about half-way -- the MSG tone. It does not sound bad -- in fact, it sounds very good -- the only problem is that it seems that one can not AVOID this tone. Of course, an eq could be used to help shape the sound, but that would be reviewing the MT-2 plus an eq. Also, I've read some reviews that claim this pedal to be noisy. It is, in my opinion, one of the least noisy pedals I've used -- and for that much gain, to not be noisy is pretty impressive. Of course it will be noisy if all of the knobs are turned up to 11 -- no noise gate necessary.
I played this pedal into several amps -- a Carvin X100B, a Carvin SX100, a Gallien Krueger MLE206, and a Trace Elliot Velocette. It sounded good through the Carvin amps and the Trace Elliot (through a 2-12 closed back cabinet), but it didn't agree well with the gallien krueger -- too cluttered a sound (also through a 2 12 cab).
I rate the sound quality of this an eight, for in order to get a ten, this sort of pedal would have sound as good as a Mesa Triple Rectifier or a Hughes and Kettner Tube 50. The fact is, it is not THAT good, but still the best stomp box for metal tones that I have encountered.

I own several boss products, including an SD-1, a CS-2 plus some Roland equipment (A - 90 keyboard, GP-8, and I have never had anything fail on me. The only thing that bothers me a bit is that the newer bos pedals are made in Taiwan instead of Japan.

Since none of my Boss or Roland equipment has ever failed, I can not comment on how I would be treated in the case that it did, indeed, fail.

Of course nothing will make a horrible amp sound great, but if your amp gets a good clean tone, but poor or no gain, and you want a heavy sound, this is the least expensive way to get it. If money is no object, get a Tube 50, a Triple Rectifier, or whatever, and then get a MT-2. I use mine for rehearsal situations where I do not want to bring a big rig, yet need a big, heavy sound.

Piss easy. plug in, stamp, and youll be in fuckin' heaven (or hell). BUY ONE NOW!

FUCKIN' AWESOME. No other pedals come close. from metallica, to ac/dc to nirvana, back thru sex pistols, this can do anything thats even related to distortion. Sustain that lasts for hours, perfect for marshall hotrodded sound.
BUY THIS PEDAL NOW!

Good Idea: Buy 2000 BOSS pedals, stack to form a large. incase of nuclea attack, climb in. safe. No joke, i HAVE driven over this thing. (left my gig bag behind car and forgot about it!) The only damage was to the Digitech pedal that the boss was on top of. (there bullet proof, a friend told me. hes the sort of friend who'd try it out!) BUY ONE NOW FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY!

Yeah, right.

BUY THIS NOW BUY THIS NOW BUY THIS NOW, repeat after me: BUY THIS NOW BUY THIS NOW

You got to be a retard if you can't use it, i got my punk sound in a matter of seconds

I use a Les Paul copy and a fender strat with this pedal with a CE-5 chrous through a Yamaha 200 watt twin amp. Through the Les Paul guitar, i get the perfect punk sound for any punk band, NOFX, Millencolin, etc. When i use the strat, i get perfect green day , nouseforaname, histandard sound and even nirvana on some days. ITs the best fucking pedal to date. I put the low on 3:00, the one on top at 4:00 and the other bottom knob at 7:00 and the one on top at 2:00 and i get wicked fucking sound. I do recommend you get a chorus pedal for this also.

sure, its a fucking boss, not some cheap DOD or something

N/A

This pedal kicks ass and im the lead guitarist for my punk band, the other guitarist uses an old BOSS Heavy Metal and they sound great together. If it were stolen, i would look for it

This was my first pedal, and I'm used to a 3-band eq on my amp, so I thought it was fairly easy. The mid frequency control wasreally confusing at first, however. It just takes some time to get used to it. The manual only provides 2 usable settings inmy opinion (hard rock & heavy metal)

I use some cheap strat copy going into the MT-2, then Crybaby wah original, then a DOD Grunge into a Peavey Envoy 110 and even with this crappy guitar & amp I get decent sounds out of it. Non-headbangers be warned: this is meant for metal/hard rock, andif you don't like those styles then look elsewhere for distortion. I play Metallica and Pantera mainly, and this pedal does just what I want it to most of the time. If you set the mid real high and cut or boost the mid freq. just slightly you get alot of feedback. Only a minor annoyance. If you're a banger you can usually get the sound your looking for. Whatever you do, boost the dist all the way. The more you cut the dist, the more muddy it sounds.

I would definitly use it without a back-up simply because the only pedal I stomp is my wah. However, my treble knob is bent slightly, and I don't know if it came like that or if I bent it, but that's why this is getting an 8.

They were real nice when I called about my knob, so....

I love this pedal; its near-perfect for heavy metal and I say near-perfect because most bands I listen use all-tube distortion so it never will sound exactly like The Offspring, Metallica, Pantera, etc., but its close. If it were stolen I would miss it but probably save up for a MESA/BOOGIE Triple Rectifier and just reminise.

Boss pedals are usually extremely easy. This one is relatively easy, but I personally have a problem with the 4 band equalizer on it, in particular both mid controls. I wish there was a better explanation of what is the difference between both mid controls...if anyone knows, I would greatly appreciate an explanation. Other than that, the pedal is simple to set up.

In the immortal words of Eric Cartman, this thing Kicks Ass! I use this pedal 2 ways; one as a straight distortion without using my amp's overdrive channel and as a overdrive for solos when I'm using my amp's overdrive channel. As a straight distortion, this thing is perfect for Pantera, Metallica, Black Sabbath etc. I usually keep the distortion knob at about 3:00. It gets a bit muddy if cranked all the way but it's not bad. When I use it as an overdrive I crank the level all the way and have the distortion at about 20%. It is great for solos and also to give my amp more of a metal sound. My amp is a Fender Ultimate Chorus which I think has a good distortion for pop rock, blues, classic rock applications. But when I play punk and metal, it needs a bit of a boost. The MT-2 does an excellent job of that.

A boss pedal could withstand a Patriot missile or a Mike Tyson upper cut and come out fine. I'm trying to be humorous.

I haven't needed any customer support because this thing is so very reliable.

I have been playing for just about 2 years and when I first bought it, I was a straight metalhead which is why I bought it. These days though, I play everything from ska, blues, classic rock, punk and of course heavy metal and this pedal along with my amp give me all the sounds I need. It's great to use as an overdrive for solos when I'm playing non-heavy music. As a straight distortion for Metal or Punk, this thing cannot be beat. Turn the distortion up halfway for a good punk sound and turn it to about 75% for a kick ass Pantera, Metallica style sound though. Experiment with the EQ though. I personally don't like all the mids scooped out of it so I turn the mids up a bit. If you're one who likes that scooped Rob Zombie/Marilyn Manson's earlier guitar sound, do yourself a favor and buy this.

Although the manual is good (and short) it's useless, it's always better to learn just by using the pedal. The Pedal is good to get a nice sound but it's quite difficult to copy the distorion from a record (but it's not imposible)

I use a Stratocaster and a ten watts amp and it works great, I can blow away the entire building. It sounds great. it's a bit noisy but it's not terrible. It has 6 knobs so it's difficult to get a particular sound that you heard from a record, but I'm not saying that it can't it's very versatile.

Yes it's wonderful, it makes your guitar sound as 2 at the time.

I play metal and this is a great pedal, I think it's the best of this kind. If you play metal it's very useful because it can make the super thrash distortion and grunge and the rock and roll from the 50s

So many sounds to choose from, takes a while to find one, which is a good thing and a bad thing. you can get total Metallica, Satriani, Pantera sounds easily. just start playing around with the dials, and youll find good sounds all over the place. simple.

You can get total Metallica, Satriani, Pantera sounds easily, which is primarily what i play. It totally compliments the amp you use; you can get a good tube sounding distortion with a tube amp. It makes me disgusted with all other distortions. GREAT SOUND!!

you could chuck this guy off a building and still play it at that nights gig. come on, its a Boss.

GIFT

I play mainly Metallica and Nirvana, and this pedal is the epitome of metal. Ive been playing for about 5 years, and ive had this for most of that time. I have never found anything close to it. my favorite feature is the 6 dials to get that perfect sound. although, i would like it to have a better accented low end.

all you gotta do is play around with it to get your fucking sound!!i give it a 9 because it was kinda hard to find a sound i was perfectly satisfied with but the sound you can come up with are still hard as hell!

i am using a pice of crap crate gx15r and it blows up the speaker. at lower volumes, anyone can sound like metallica. there is a constant hum when not playing but you'll constantly be playing with this pedal on. put a ge-7 graphic eq after it and you can even get a "orion" intor tone from it.

it will never break. earthquake and tugboat can stomp on it at the same time and it will still work

dont need it

i play metallica and if anyone out there plays metallica, get this damn pedal because you can sound like hetfield.it sucks the life out of batteries so get an adapter!

I guess it's pretty easy to use but Ive had it for about a year now and I still havnt fooled arounf w/ the mid controls on it yet and ive probobly kept the same setting on the other tone controls too and i most likely put 'em there the day i got it so right on.

at first when i tried this in store it didnt do much for me but then i got and emg 81 humbucker and i tried again for some reason and it blew me away, the sound can be a little cold sometimes w/o some kind of chorus to fatten it up or something like that but then again maybe thats just the 81. overall, excellent sound.

Being a BOSS pedal and all I'm sure i could do my worst and have it come out w/o a scratch and i havnt had any problem w/ anything failing on it yet. The batteries have decent a lifetime too compared to say... my DD-5 which eats batteries almost daily. Once again- excellent.

Never dealt w/ 'em.

For metal its a godsend and its suprisingly versitile given the name, if it got stolen or lost id most likely buy another one. I've also found it beats the tar out of ampo distortion- which just kind of falls out of the amp but w/ this box the sound explodes out the amp. Definatly has my approval.

Turn dem dials and shape dat tone baby.

Take it form cartman when he says "KICK ASS"

Makes my RP-7 seem pretty fragile.

Ok, yesterday I went out and got a BOSS metal zone and a DS-1. These are the first non processor type effects I've ever owned (or played through for that matter). Back when I first started playing I bought an RP-1 and I got the RP-7 when it hit the market so I haven't really even ventured out of the digitech realm until now. Here are the results so far: The BOSS DS-1 IMO is a pitiful little piece of crap and I can't see any use for it in my arsenal. It is very weak, thin, and lifeless so I took it back and threw it through the store window where I bought it, striking the sales person that sold it to me right in the head (hehe, just kidding, I wouldn't really do that, would I?). ***I know some people really love this pedal so I bet I get flamed for this review*** FLAME ON BABY :^)
Now here's my preliminary review of the Metal Zone: This pedal totally kicks ass!!! It is in your face, dark, meaty, metal tone that had to have come straight from Satan himself; Thank You Satan!!! (just kidding boys and girls, Satan is just a myth designed to put fear in your little hearts and I don't advocate belief in fairy tales) :?. I tried this pedal alone (into my Roland mini stack) and it melted the walls. Then I plugged it into the RP-7 and guess what? NUCLEAR TONE!!! The Metal Zone is surprisingly quiet too; I never use the noise gate on the RP-7 so this is a great thing for me.
Bottom line: The DS-1 might serve as a good jack stand for the next oil change on my 68 GTO but I would not subject my ears to it's horrid tone again. The metal zone is a must have for any metal or punk fiend (or anyone wanting a meaty distortion for that matter). Just be very careful, I've been told the metal zone can cause spontaneous human combustion :?

The unit is incredibly easy to understand although the parametric mid control is kind of gay since i use a scooped mid sound anyway, but anything that offers more tonal control is fine by me.

When i first tried it out i had the stock humbucjers in my epiphone SG and it didnt do much for me but then i got and EMG 81 and the metal zone blew me away, I've found that the dist. control doesnt really control the amount of gain so much as it controls the sustain level coming from the box. Overall-kick ass.

Obviously, being a BOSS pedal its dependable so i guess i wouldnt really need a backup

never dealt w/ them

for a variety of sounds, metal, blues, its awesome.

F*ck, 4 knobs (Actually 6). Set them up the way you want, You get the tone you want.

I use a Yamaha RGX421D (soon to have a Dimarzio MegaDrive in the bridge area) the Metal Zone, The BF-2 Flanger, an original CryBaby Wah Wah, A Profile CHR-5 Chorus Pedal and a Peavey Bravo 112 (25watt tube) The Pedal gets ALL the distortion you could ever want. It does Metallica (Old and new) Perfectly! It does Slayer, Testament, Fear Factory, Pantera, Manowar, Van Halen EVERYTHING!!!!! Its the BEST distortion box in the world! you want Heavy? GET THIS PEDAL!

I could run this damn thing over with a Mack Truck. Not a dent. I've dropped down 3 flights of stairs, a little nick in the black paint. Its a Boss.....nuff said.

Never had to call them...Why? Cause its build amazingly! Better than that DOD Shit

As I mentioned. It gets all the tone EVEN BLUES IF YOU BACK OFF THE DISTORTION SETTING! I play mostly Metal and Van Halen, and this think Honks! GET ONE NOW!!!! STOP READING!! GO!!!!

It's a frikin stompbox you retard. hey, can you set you toaster too? Figure it out... I got it used so I don't have a manual, but i would guess it would have suggestions to get you started, but if your that stupid you couldn't even read the manual.

I play this nifty little thing through a home made ukle with ibanez V8 humbucking pickups and a custom marshal stack. It adds a nice distortion tone to "wipe out" now i can rock with metallica and the rest of them! Sounds radical man!

Well.... once I took it in the shower but it started making wierd noises and stopped working.... that really sucks.... what good is singing in the shower if you can't play guitar too? I suppose if you put it in a plastic bag it would work just fine though...

Once I crank called them... but they were cool about it and thought it was funny...

I tend to play classical and hawiian style music.... the metal zone really ads a nice screach to mozart or even Surfin USA...

there are 6 controls: level, bass, treble, mid, mid frequency (to select to cut/boost the low mids or high mids or anything in between), and distortion. it takes a while to find YOUR sound or whatever sound you are looking for at the moment, but once you do you will be satisfied. it's really easy to replace the battery and to operate it (you step on it once, it turns on, you step on it again and it turns off). The best way to find your sound is to set the bass to the level you want, set the treble to how much bite you want (there's a lot available here), and then decide whether you want to scoop the mids or boost them to achieve either a thrash sound or hard rock sound. once you do, then select which frequency you want to cut/boost. it may take a while but that's cause there is a lot of sounds here for you to choose.

this thing is VERY versatile, but is best at producing what it is made to produce: METAL. if you want light overdrive like Steely Dan (which hopefully nobody does), you made the wrong selection. let me put it this way: i have been on a quest since i first stared guitar (4 years ago) for the HEAVIEST TONE POSSIBLE (beyond metallica and pantera). Along the way i have chosen several things to help me (pick-up change, strings, etc.) and this is one that i feal is essential. Since i currently can't afford the Dual Recto, i use this. I use a yamaha piece of sh-t guitar with 10-52 strings and a duncan invader, and a fender roc-pro 1000 1-12 combo. The settings i use for the amp are bass 10, mid 1.5, and treble 7.5, gain ten. now this is a heavy enough set-up for most people, but this can be taken further with the metal zone. for the thrashcore band i am in, i set the bass on the metalzone all the way up, the treble finda up, cut out all the mids, and set the frequency to 2 o'clock. this provides distortion beyond metallica. i use this usually when i have the distortion channel selcted on my amp so i turn the mt-2 dist. up about half way, which reduices noise and preserves tone. however this is noisy cause i am in fact using a bit too much distortion throughout my whole set-up. when you distort the clean channel, you can get super-long sustain here if you turn the distotrion all the way up on the pedal. the tone is different cause you are not obliterating the pre-amp of the amp's dirty channel but on the clean channel it sounds clearer and quieter, good for solos so you won't get unwanted feedback and noise while playing individual notes. Bassically, this can take you beyond Cannibal Corpse and Napalm Death and even produce the Sex Pistols and the Misfits very nicely. just don't puish it too far, or else you might drive yourself braindead

these pedals made by Boss are CAST STEEL. not put together by some overweight woman with a soldering iron. These can take a beating and are also really good at giving one. I once used it to beat someone's face at one of our shows cause he said we sucked. Now he's the one that sucks (babyfood through a straw while in the hospital. unfortunatly, DO NOT TRY THIS CAUSE YOU WILL GET IN FUCKING LOADS OF TROUBLE WITH THE COPS!!!. anyways, these will not break. if yours does, here's my address: 159 broad avenue, leonia, nj so you can come here and call me a liar to my face. let's suppose they do, boss offers a 5 year warranty on all their pedals, so don't worry.

you will never have to deal with the company cause you will never have trouble with these.

good for any kind of hard, aggro music from punk to industrial-rock to grindcore

Unusually difficult, for a Boss pedal, to get a good sound out of it. The manual sucks more than the usual Boss ones. Although it takes a while to get a good sound out of the Metal Zone, believe me, it's worth it.

i use this as the last pedal in my setup, to distort the whole signeal. i do not use any loops or anything. I use this pedal with a vintage univox 1x12 combo. if you turn the level on the pedal all the way up, it gives a ton of bzz and feedback, so i usually keep the level up halfway. To make my guitar louder, i just have to turn the volume on the amp up.
This pedal is very _______ (put your own adjective in). In other words, it can reproduce just about every distortion effect that you want, weak, or heavy, thick, or crunchy. This effect is great for Creed, Metallica, Korn, and Tool.

What's the brand name again? What else can I say. hehe

never had to use customer service.

Great for all styles of music. Sounds great with a light chorus pedal, like a cool cat.

The Mt-2 Metalzone is quite easy to use, though it takes some practise. The examples given in the manual are a good start for finding your own sound.

I think this pedal goes with any guitar, but especially with humbuckers, of course. If you boost the distortion too much, the sound can get mixed up, but that's not a big problem, 'cause in any setting, it gives great sound! My amp is a simple 40 watt Samick SM-10, so even with middle-quality amps, it sound good. Of course, the distortion especially fits metal music, like Metallica and Fear Factory and so on and so on.

The battery will last quite a long time, and it works good with an adaptor. If you have this pedal, you will never leave it again, because it treats you and your listeners well. I don't think you need a backup for this one, except of course a spare battery.

Never had any problems!

I've been playing with this pedal for about a year, and it goes great with my metal-style music. I would, without a doubt, buy this pedal again if I'd have to. Great Sound! If you have the choice, BUY THIS FUCKIN' GOOD PEDAL!!!!!

Quite difficult to find the sound youre looking for. In has 4 knobs but technically it has a total of 6 knobs..

I use this with no name guitars(one strat clone and one les paul clone) but with brand name pickups...For metal, this is "THE" Pedal so i give it a 9. Absolutely perfect for metallica and other hardcore trash metal bands...Excellent for the chugga chugga riffs...This can also do fuzz, hard rock, and other styles but they all sound so fake...But for metal, this is it...chuga chuga chuga...

Built like a friggin tank..Had this thing for almost a year now and havent had any problems..But i still think the danelectro stomp boxes are much tougher and looks cooler and would last longer..

Unfortunately, i also like to play hendrix,zeppelin and other classic tunes and this pedal dissapoints...I mean this thing is great if you want to duplicate hetfield riffs all day... If you tweak this pedal, you could get some other settings but it just doesnt sound right. The other setting either sound so fake or horrible..But like i said, for metal, trash , hardcore tunes, this pedal wont dissapoint..

this machine is a work of art. it isn't the easiest of things to use but once you get the hang of it, you can get super mid crunch and ground shaking bass lines going. anything from fuzz to heavy metal. um, well i havent bothered to read the manual yet but it has about 8 sample settings in there.

i use a marshall 100W valvestate, a morley bad horsie wah, and a jackson performer or an ibanez iceman. it is a little bit noisy with its feedback but you got expect that from any pedal. the sound i get out of this baby is great. it is so versatile with its sound. with my marshall i get the sweetest metal punch ive ever used. once i get a better guitar my perfect setup will complete, im looking at getting an ESP M2. i can get the sound of many metal bands which i like, metallica, slayer, manson, megadeth, pantera, fear factory. the effects you get from this are brilliant

this thing is as reliable as anything. if i dropped this of a building and had to use it that night i'd still rely on it without a backup it is that tough. one thing though, it chews up batteries pretty bad

never had to deal with them. its been built like a rock and support aint needed

i play many types of metal and this machine can play them all. ive only been playing for about a year and a half and i love guitar playing and metal. it has grown on me like hair on your head and ive gone to upgrading my gear from quite average to top quality stuff. i dont want any in between equipment, i wanna go straight to the top. ive got my amp, marshall 100W valvestate, my pedal metalzone, my wah pedal, morley steve vai bad horsie and all i need now is a better guitar, ESP M2 and pickups, emg 81 and emg 60 or 85. i would defineitely buy this again if i lost it. i love the versatility of the sound which you can get out of this. i dont like how it eats up the batteries fast though, but with the power it uses up its worth it. i compared this with every other distortion pedal on the market and nothing compared to it.

It is pretty easy to use most settings sound good.It has six knobs so you have to mess around with them for a while.The manual is ok.

Im using it with a fender duo sonic a dod flanger into an older crate g40c.It is very power ful and has many options.I play alot of punk and Nirvana stuffand its good for everything.

If you break it you must be a moron.I would use it on a gig without a backup.

It sounds good and it is very versitile I've tried many other pedals but this was by far the best.If someone stole it I would track them down and beat them to death with thier own shoes.

This pedal has six knobs, a level, four eq's and a distortion. That is simple enough.

This pedal is the most amazing distortion pedal i've played. I recently owned a Digitech RP-6 and that with all the effects doesn't even come close to this pedal. I run this through a Crate GX-15r and an old all tube 200 watt twin amp made by Yamaha using either a Gibson Les Paul standard or a Ibanez RG550 and it sounds fucking amazing. I play punk music through this pedal and it is perfect for palm muting. Its for metal or punk.

Its a fucking BOSS.

Never had trouble, yet.

I bought this a month ago, for $70 bucks off my friend, who only used it three times so i got an amazing deal on it. I read all the comments on this pedal and everyone says its good for metal, but is not just metal. As a fellow punker I have to say if you are in a punk band, this is the pedal for you.

It's easy, after only two days, I was playing with the same distortion of many death metal bands.

I use a Samick guitar and a Randall amp with 36 watts. Before I bought this pedal, my amp was making a bad overdrive, it's sound like an old radio. When I try the metal zone, I found it very impressive because it's a REAL distortion, the same that you hear in the metal songs. With high output pickups, it's sound great. I play Death(the Symbolic album),Sepultura(Roots album),Metallica. To play death I set the dist knob to the higher level, high knob to the higher, low at the 3/4, mid frequency at the 5/8 and the mid-level cut completely. It's really like death. For Sepultura, if you are tuned like them, it's the same adjustement than Death but set the mid-frequency to the 1/2.It's sure that it don't sound better than a mesa-boogie triple rectifier amp, but,it's really good. IF SOMEONE CAN EMAIL ME SOUNDS OF DIFFERENT DISTORTION PEDALS, DO SO.

Really solid, I often play baseball with it. Anyway, it's a METAL zone.

No problem.

I play anything that can be called METAL. Death, Sepultura, KoRn, Deftones, Metallica. But I like Death because the music is really special, complicated. I play guitar since the april 98. If someone stole my mt-2, maybe I'll kill him and after I'll try to make money to buy a Mesa-Boogie head with a Marshall 4x12 cab(THAT'S MY BIGGEST DREAM).I love the mt-2 because I don't need a killer amp to play something good. But I'd like to have a distortion that sound more like djinnnng, the pedal sound like djonnnng with a little bit of djinnnng, anyway, compare it with big amp and you'll see. It's really help me to play GOOD music. I put 9 for the rating, because nothing is perfect, even the amp that I want.

Getting a good sound is no problem. Simple knobs with wide frequency bands

Very wide tone frequencies allow awesome range of sounds.

Boss metal stomp box, they're made for use..

never used it

The real beauty of this pedal is that it compliments my Marshall overdrive. That is to say that I use the overdrive in my Marshall 25/50 watt head for a song like Roadhouse Blues and I can kick the Metal Zone in for the solo and the thing just sings!!! Just have to kick it off in any quiet part becuase it goes right off, however smooth controlled feedback is easy to achieve. I was lucky enough to try 10 pedals all connected side by side and this one was by far the best for smooth and variable distortion.. GET ONE !!

Well, four knobs with two as doubles, not too complicated here folks. Mine didn't come with a manual (used), so I had to rely on exp. After a few hours of tooling around with it, you can get a nice variety of sounds (although I'm still NOT quite sure how the midrange (top knobs on the doubles) work. I guess it's supposed to cut/boost the midrange, but it just doesn't sound like it.

Well, if you bought it for blues you are probably an idiot. The key word is METAL, the pedal's name is METAL zone. Even when the Distortion level is like 1/8 of an inch up, you can still tell that it's aggressive. Just emphasizing on the last sentance, this is one aggressive pedal! If you're not careful, it will kick your ass! I absolutely LOVE IT when playing Ozzy Osbourne (although Rhoads used an MXR distortion + from what I hear) stuff. I also have a Boss OD-2r, which isn't bad, but when I finger tap, it doesn't quite get those high range notes (like on Crazy train when it's single finger tapping). When I switched to the MT-2, it kicked ass for me, since it is a VERY aggressic pedal and did have the sensitivity to pick up faint notes. This pedal is perfect for playing power chords, like 2 or three strings since more sort of sound like mush. Although it's mush, it's very clean cut, and cutting edge mush. I would give it an 8 for this quality, but because the pedal in GENERAL kicks more ass than I ever could I'd give it a 9 1/2.

I have a serious question to whoever reads this. Is there ANYBODY who has ever broken a BOSS pedal? Seriously, E-mail me if you have, and tell me your story. Sometimes when I have nothing better to do, I like to smash it with a hammer, throw it against walls, and even shove it up my ass. It STILL WORKS! (obviously I was only joking, but you get the jest of my exagerations)

Never had to deal with em, never will as long as they keep cranking out the same quality pedals they have been for years. I have another question, how the HELL does BOSS make something that's only about 5 inches or so at MAX x 4x 2 or so, TAKE SO MUCH ABUSE??? Really, these things LIKE to get punished.

First off, I listen to just about anything PRIOR the 90's. Today's stuff sucks the hair off my gonads. I LOVE Pink Floyd, Van Halen, and Ozzy. This pedal would be good for Ozzy and a little Van Halen, but not much else, remmeber this is a Metal or hard rock pedal. If it was stolen I'd: 1) find the guy who DID steal it 2) cram the MT-2 unit in his mouth 3) kick him in the left nut 4) punch him in the right nut 5) burn out his eyes with hot pokers Then I'd buy another I love how sensitive and how aggressive it is. The only thing I don't really like is the midrange settings. I'm still not 100% confident that they cut/boost midrange, so I leave them at 6 o clock. A little more fooling around would help but seriously if any body knows what they do please Email (mine never came with a manual so...). I love it also how you can have the distortion level at like 9 o clock, and it STILL kicks ass. The only thing I suggest you do when thinking of getting it is compare your style of music to what this is used for. I'd NEVER use a backup, although I would DEF. use my Overdrive pedal in the chain only cause sometimes I want a more laid back distortion sound, such as nice classic rock sound (Skynyrd etc.)

The manual isn't especially helpfull, but the pedal only has three four knobs, so it is real easy to figure out on your own. Plus this is such a high quality pedal, it is honestly difficult to produce a bad sound. So no matter how you have the knobs adjusted, it's going to sound pretty good.

I'm using this pedal with a bandit 112 peavey amp (a very nice amp in my opinion), and a samick telecater clone (piece of junk). Even with my rather crappy guitar this pedal makes you think you are listening to a CD. The distortion is very smooth and you can tell as soon as you hear it the very first time that it's a winner. As far as what kind of metal I play, I am very bias to old school metallica. And believe me, this pedal delivers. It only took me about 10 minutes of fooling with this pedal before I had James Hetfield's sound almost perfect. Actually it's almost better than James' distortion. The palm mutes are very clear and are best described as a punch in the face. Slam down on an E chord and your lucky if you don't fly out of the room. I really can't describe the way the distortion sounds on this pedal, it's so full and heavy, I can't imagine that anyone wouldn't love it. As far as Kirk Hammet goes, his lead tone is hard to duplicate on this pedal, for his sound you are better off with a power lead pedal of some kind. However playing lead with this pedal does sound pretty good, but it was basically designed for the bone crunching rhythm associated with heavy metal. As far as back ground noise there is hardly any. I was in my basement and had that sucker really loud and the distortion on max, this did create some feedback, but for as loud as I had it, feedback is only to be expected. When playing at normal volume levels it is impressively quiet. As far as versatility goes, it's not that great for anything but metal. You can get a pretty cool lead tone out of it with the right settings. However, it's lack in versatility is nothing to worry about. You can get a lot of different cool sounds out of it. To put it simply this is the best distortion pedal I have ever had the privelage to play. It has to be heard to be believed. Any metal fan that tries this pedal out for the first time will be in shock and sell their first born just to own one. It is a MUST HAVE.

Socrates could spend his whole life pondering how to destroy a boss pedal and not come up with any ideas. I can't imagine any possible way to break this thing.

Like I said before this is a must have for metal and hard rock fans. Let me put it this way, if the Grim Reaper played guitar, he would use this pedal. It is pure heavy metal, no if's and's or but's. I've only been playing for a couple of years now, but believe me, I have tried so many distortion pedals. This one just kills them all. And for around 100 bucks, I'd bet there isn't a better pedal anywhere out there. I'd be surprised if there were a better pedal out there for 5 times this price. The closest thing I've ever heard was a built in effect on a "line 6" amp, however it's distortion wasn't as clear and heavy as this one. Though the metal distortion sound in general is often affectionatly described as "choppy, loud, and grainy". You will be surprised at how warm and smooth the distortion on this pedal is, but don't get me wrong, it will still blow your head off!

Its a stomp box for god's sake!!!! It has six knobs, figure it out! The suggested sounds are good. The thing hogs 9v batteries every two days.

ESP into a Randall Solid State end. Its really noisy if you turn the effects all the way up. I can get GREAT distortion.... great mids. Its perfect distortion!

Well, i should get a power adaptor, but its a stompbox, and boss makes them like those black boxes on the airplanes.

dunno

Best distortion ive ever played. Best.

the metal zone is a pain in the ass at first but after a week or so u can find the best thrash/death metal tone, manual is useless, if u need it u got problems

best distortion pedal ever made, use it with a jackson kelly performer and a fender princeton 112. tons of low end scoopedmid crunch. can get slayer and sepultura wiht this thing. using 4 eq knobs u can get almost any sound

its a boss. threw it, dropped it just a few marks.

they have one?

one of the most expensive pedals, but it kicks all the others assesmust have if u play metal. had it for a year or so now,,,buy lots and lots of batteries!!!!!!it takes 'em pretty quickly,,(adaptors give too much fuzz)

This unit is pretty easy to use. It might look confusing at first but once you get passed that stage it is really easy to get a good tone out of it.

This being my second effects unit I love its sound. The first unit I had was a zoom 505. The MT-2 blows it completly out of the water. You can get a really good Metallica sound out of it or any other kind of tone you need.

Being a Boss you can pretty much pound the shit out of it and its just gonna laugh in your face and ask for more!!!!!

Never dealt with them.

I play mostly harder stuff like metallica, but a little pink floyd too. This unit will get you whatever sound you need to get.

Uh, I bought this pedal recently expecting a good pedal for playing Heavy Metal music. Boy was that a mistake!! How could I have been so stupid as to actually think this would be a good pedal when in fact it's a GREAT distortion pedal that will kick your ass and make your ears bleed. I have found THE ultimate distortion pedal that isn't programmable. When I first got it home and plugged it in to my amp I turned everything on full blast, set the knobs to what people are referring to as Hetfield's 'GOD' sound and I almost pulled a 'Back to the Future' when dude flew back. Anyway, uh, pretty good pedal - BUY IT RIGHT NOW!!

um, read what I said above

Hahahahahahahaha, what kind of question is that? IT'S A BOSS!!!

If you ever need customer support, you are too dumb to own this pedal.

Very straight forward. Plug it in and play like any stomp box. All the knobs give a wide variety of eq possiblilites. You can get the metal tones your looking for.

I play an Ernie Ball Music Man Sillouette (w/two DiMarzio single coils and a DiMarzio PAF Pro humbucker)through a Fender Hot Rod DeVille 410 (all tube amp and pre-amp, of course!). From what I've read some guys love this pedal, and some guys hate it. HERE IS THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TONE OF THE METAL ZONE!!!!: The Metal Zone give you fat, balls to the wall metal sounds, but, it drastically alters the tone of your guitar. You'll noticce that if you turn the distortion as low as it goes (almost but not quite clean) that the basic tone of your guitar sounds far away, muddy, and totally undefined. If you don't mind the totally porcessed sound, you'll probably like it. The tone is not very versitile either. If you want metal, or distortion from hell you got it, but the overpowering mush doesn't work for much else. When you turn the gain down, it just sounds like mush w/less distortion.

I have had this pedal for almost three years, and have used it a fair amount. The only significant problem I've had is with the jacks. Sometimes if it gets kicked or knocked something in the pot comes loose and my sound cuts away so I can barely hear it. If I twist my cord or metal ring on the pot I can usaually fix it quickly. I have been playing it aat shows and band practice without a back-up and that's only happened a few times. If I got it looked at and made sure everything was tightened before I play I would probably have fewer problems.

If never dealt with Boss.

I play the blues, all stlyes of rock from classic, to grunge, to metal. I love Soundgarden, Rage Against the Machine and Stevie Ray Vaughn. The only other effect that I have is an old MXR Phase 90 that was given to me my a friend who used to play. I'm almost 18 years old and I've only been playing since I was 15 but been obseesed with the guitar since I picked it up and would like to think that I sort of know what I'm talking about. When I first bought the Metal Zone, I loved it. But that I am really starting to open my ears I have been shying away from it and beginning to use the distortion channel on my amplifier (it's an all-tube Fender amp so it does not have that high gain levels, but when I can I crank it to full on the "More Drive" channel, it get the job done). I'm looking for good multi effects uniit so I probably wouldn't buy it again if I lost it. There's nothing wrong with this pedal, however, but before you buy it you should just know what it is. It processed your guitar sound into fat, hair-reanging metal, and it totally shapes the tone of your guitar to do that. It isn't very versitile and really only works for extreme metal and grunge. If you're a begginer, and you're looking for this type of sound, hey you might love it. One thing i used to love is that you can totally sound like you're shredding by just throwing your fingers violently around the fretboard because there is so much gain that much of the dynamics are disguised ( if ur using a humbucker and maybe even if you're not). But if you're a pro and/or a guitar tone purist it will probably bug you how much it shapes your tone.

It took awhile to dial in the best tone possible, it took about a week or so of messing around with the controls to get "MY SOUND" but the amazing sound comes with a price of complication

Im using really shitty equipiment (Aria Pro II guitar and a Crate 30 watt practice amp) and i am using a digitech rp-6 and can get anything from new iron maiden, megadeth, metallica, or new misfits (american psycho rulez).. basically with shitty equipiment, all you need is a metalzone and an eq, and mabye a chorus if you want.. all bow down to the metalzone god =)

I opened it, dropped it down concrete stairs, and stood on it. no problems at all.

I will probably die before this thing does..

It took awhile to get to sound good, but now ive got a rockin heavy blistering eardrum popping death grunt screaming out of my speakers =) everything your next door neighbours asked for plus more. youll really enjoy this bad boy, take it from me. If you have any questions, feel free to mail me.

It might look complicated, but finding the sound you like can be found within 10 minutes. The manual gives setting for certain sounds, they're good setting, but you can always customize your own. Unless you're stupid, its pretty simple.

I use an Ibanez guitar with a Peavey Bandit 112. It gets pretty noisy when you have the distortion all the way up, but who cares. I was using a crappy Ibanez Black Noise Soundtank, so when i got this pedal, it blew me away. My equipment sound 10 times better than they used to. I can get sounds anywhere from Metallica to Korn. The distortion on this rocks.

Well I treat my pedals good, so i wouldn't know how durable they could get. It's seems solid, and it's metal I guess it could last forever, well at least the body.

never dealt with them

I play metal, and this pedal is perfect for metal. If it were stolen, i would set the guy who did it on fire, get it back, then buy another Metal Zone.

this pedal has got the basic knobs every other pedal has: volume, treble, bass, and drive. it's also got a nice extra two stacked knobs for midrange stuff. it's kind of hard at first to get that 'perfect' sound you're looking for, but with some messing around, you'll find it.

this pedal sounds great. i have two ibanez guitars: a custom made rg and an s classic. both guitars sound very different, and so i sometimes have to adjust the controls on the pedal to get the sound i want. i've been using an ampeg svt (yes, the bass amp!), and wow, it sure sounded great with this amp, due to the nice low end. i'm getting a 5150, so the svt's out now. despite what many people may say about this pedal, it IS possible to get a wide variety of sounds out of this pedal. of course, it's obvious that it was designed for the heavy stuff, just look at it's name! i've found that i can dial in great sounds, from blues and up. if you can't find a non metal sound, why don't you try using the tone controls and not just playing with the distortion knob?!?! i've found that i can even get a tone very very similar to the boss ds-1, which i love also. i actually haven't heard that much noise from this pedal, but i don't usually crank the distortion all the way up, just to about 3 o' clock. i also keep the level primarily at halfway, which eliminates some noise.

of course this thing is dependable. it's in pretty bad shape, with tape all over it, rust, and dents and scratches, but it still maintains that 'out of the box' quality. i've dropped it, kicked it, and even left it in a storage place with a tin roof in the middle of texas all summer!! my stereo was screwed up, but this thing is perfect!!

i don't know

i've been playing for over 6 years now, and i've gone through many guitars, amps, and pedals. i play a lot of styles, including metal, rock, blues, i guess alternative, and other stuff. this pedal can fit all those styles nicely if you know what you're doing. some people even compare it to the danelectro fab tone, but it's waaaay better. save up a few extra bucks and go for this one.

Just takes a few minutes to find the right tweaking.

This pedal is too thin. I read all the reviews and decided to try it, but it just doesn't appeal to me. It has a mid scoop knob, but I just can't get a good sound out of it. I even tried running it through a boss equilizer, but I just couldn't find a setting I like.

It's a boss. You can use it as a wrecking ball and it might scratch the paint. Just get a power supply, boss pedals eat batteries.

Never had to deal with them.

I give it a 4 because Boss pedals are built tough. I tried this one along side a DOD DeathMetal and the Death Metal just handed MT-2's ass to itself. Maybe it's just my taste but if you are limited on cash, get a DOD Death Metal.

It can be tricky to get "your" sound out of it. The tone controls are extremely active. I have a basic eq setting which I almost always use. At a show, I can alter it to eliminate feedback or add/subtract bass, treble etc. For this it's incredibly useful.

I use a Marshall JCM 900 with a Marshall 1930 2 12" cab, and either a Gibson SG '61 Reissue or a LesPaul Classic 1960. I set the Preamp on the amp about halfway, with the gain about 9 oclock, in order to push the power amp section. If you can get the amp Master up in between 7-8 (the point at which it goes completely berserk), with this pedal, whooooeeeee!!! The ultimate sound! For less ecstatic (lower volume) situations, the pedal is simply awesome. I never attempt to emulate anyone else's sound, but it happens, and the MT-2 can help to keep the hounds of imitation at bay, because of the eq versatility. One of the great things about it is its power. It's like an amp unto itself. Rhythm guitarist drowning out your solos? Just crank the volume on the Metal Zone and forget that they ever existed. The rhythm distortion sound is very grindy and cool, too. One last thing: It's not a crazy fuzz sound, but rather a smoother sounding pedal. It's not too rude.

It's rock solid, but you have to watch the batteries. It has a pretty ravenous appetite.

I've never had to call Boss even once.

I guess what I play is original alternative, somewhat like Jane's or Killing Joke. The MT-2 works well for this style, but I'm investigating other distortion pedals because after five years as my main distortion, I need other flavors, as well. All in all though, when I bought Metal Zone, I tried every other Boss distortion too, and the Metal Zone just ate them all up. It's a monster. Right now I have a Big Muff that's in the shop that I haven't heard yet. I'm hoping that it will be the Metal Zone's sick sister, evil twin, demented uncle, etc.

I'm giving this pedal a 5 for ease of use simply because it takes a while to figure out the intricate workings of the mid-range controls. But don't get me wrong -- this is a nice "problem" to have because you can dial in exactly what you want once you figure out how!

I'm using my MT-2 on an SKB pedal board that has 8 other effects on it, so do get signal loss all over the place (not just from the MT-2). The MT-2 is no noisier than most other distiortions. The real deal is this -- THE MT-2 IS ONE OF THE BEST DISTORTION UNITS I'VE EVER HEARD. I've played all of them, including the "boutique" pedals, and the MT-2 can dial in precise tones that none of the others can (e.g., original Boston tones with the nasally midrange).

I got mine used at a pawn shop, and I have no worries about breakdown. After all, it is a Boss!

Boss support is not good at all, IMO. Every time I've called them I've gotten the same guy, and he basically knows nothing! (Still, you never really need to call Boss . . .)

If I ever lose my MT-2, I will replace it without thinking. However, I'll try to find one that is pre-"CE". I've noticed that any pedals with the CE label on them don't sound as good, for some reason. (Example, I bought a Boss DD-3 with the CE on it and it sucked. I then bought a used non-CE Boss DD-3 and it sounds great! And both units were made in Taiwan.) BOTTOM LINE -- if you have not tried out the MT-2, do so today. You will not be disappointed (especially once you figure out the midrange controls).

Anyone could use this. It's got four knobs. Just use the examples in the manual to get started. After about 10 minutes of getting used to the controls, start playing around. Simple.

This is the best distortion pedal I have ever heard! It has got sweet distortions and maintains those at high levels. I am using it with a Mexican Fender Strat(added seymour-duncan strat hot rail HB's at the bridge and neck), and a peavey rage 158(peice of shit!). But this pedal makes my amp sound like a high quality performance amp minus the power of course. I also have a Boss GE-7 seven band graphic and this majorly helps the sound.

BOSS. 'nuff said.

Never had to deal with them.

I play mostly grunge. Before this I bought a DOD grunge pedal and took it back the next day! I also like to play metal, alternative, and some blues. I have been playing for 3 years(one year of lessons). If this were stolen I would definately buy this again! I compared this to the tube works real tube overdrive pedal (which I also bought) and I found them both to be incredibly awesome but uncomparible. The real tube pedal had a really good vintage rock sound and this had the awesome metal distortions that I was looking for.

Very ease.Controls are level,low/high,middle/mid freq,gain. There are some sample settings in the manual,but I think it's better forget it and trust your ears.

I (don't)use it with a Fender Strat Plus Deluxe into a GK amp.I don't use it very much,actually,because I play blues,rock,jazz,and yes,it's a metal pedal.It's as noisy as most distortion pedals.If you play Metal,and you are going to play live,and you have the right guitar and the right amp,you probably won't need this pedal.Because a guitar with a hot pickup and a big tube amp,at high volume,already gives you an autentic metal sound.On the other hand,if you are going to play/jam at home at low levels,it can be very usefull.The one thing that I really dislike about this pedal is that it's not sonically transparent.It alters too much the sound of the guitar.It makes every guitar sounds the same.But anyway,it's a metal pedal.

Boss is 99% reliably.

Never had to deal with them.

I don't know why I bought this pedal.If stolen or lost I woudn't buy it again,because it doesn't suit my style.But it's not bad.Think about it :right guitar and amp.Or you'll all going to sound the same.

IT is hard to get a good sound out of it cause it sucks. The manual is 'ok' but no matter how good a manual is, it can't make a crappy pedal a good pedal, it is just the way it is.

IT sucks. I sold it and bought a big muff, best decision ever. The muff wipes the floor with this, it is bigger badder and uglier. The metal zone is thin and tinny, i am using it with a marshall valvestate which is really bassy, which proves it is a thin distortion.

BOSS. NO MORE TO SAY.

Never talked to them.

I play new metal (korn, deftones, limp bizkit etc), and this pedal ain't for it. If you want a thick distortion, go for the muff, it kicks ass.

This pedal is totally fucking amazing!! You can get anYthing from phat heavy metal tones to thrash metal and punk. There are a few knobs you have to fiddle around with until you find the sound you want. Nothing too complicated though. I got mine used so it did not come with a manual.

I use a Peavy Bandit 65 amp with an Ibanez guitar and I get no feedback whatsoever. It tends to get really fuzzy past the halfway point on the level knob. The only problem I have is when i use my wah, but you can hardly even tell. The distortion is very prominant and beefy. Very clear and crisp. i play a lot of Manson, Sepultura, and Siz Feet Under and this pedal is great for anyone who plays metal or punk.

Very reliable. No backup needed here.

Never had to deal with the people at Boss before and I probably never will.

Great all-around pedal. Sounds great. A must-have for any metal or punk enthusist.

Although the tones from this pedal are great, it takes a little while to find the sound you want. Once you find the tones you need it's really simple to operate.

I don't think I'll ever use any other distortion pedal for Rock or Metal other than this one, there's nothing that even compares to it (seriously). You will obviously get some noise when the pedal is on, you know the sizzling noise. I personally believe the EQ saves this pedal from feeding back too much. I use a Strat with and EMG 85 in the bridge, and I get an awesome metal rhythm sound and a slightly thin lead sound but it's pretty damn good. I play in a basement and get almost no feedback at all and I use a halfstack. So I think in a more open area there would be no problem.

It a Boss, enough said.

Haven't needed it, probley never will.

This is the best metal pedal there is in my experience. I would buy another if it were stolen. Or I would buy a Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier. I think the Metal Zone is a damn good value though. I Dual Recifier is $1200, a Metal Zone is about $90, think about it. If I find a better metal pedal I'll probley have a heart attack. I think I'll live a long life.

There are 6 knobs so you'll have to read the manual and mess around with the knobs but I'm not complaining. It will keep you busy for a while.

This is the ultimate distortion pedal. I can't see how someone would not like the sound of this sucker. It is so versitile. The manual comes with a whole bunch of great suggested settings and you can find so many on your own. It can do: Heavy Metal, Brit, Rock, hard rock, rock'n'roll, comes with two rock settings, and can also act as an overdrive or Fuzz. The Overdrive and Fuzz are nothing special, that is what you buy pedals spicifically for that, but it is an amazing metal pedal. BOSS has out done themselves.

It's a BOSS. The only thing you have to worry about is batteries but I suggest you get an adaptor.

Never delt with them. I've heard they're great and I've also heard they suck.

This is a wicked pedal. It kicks all ass. I play Metallica, Pantera, and stuff like that. A guy that wrote in about this pedal before me claims you can get a James Hetfield sound out of it. He gives all of the settings to put on the pedal and your amp. I haven't tried it yet but I wouldn't doubt it.

blah, it's got 6 knobs which make it easier to get the perfect tine than with 3....blah

the greatest distortion pedal bar none. it even has a nice shallow overdrive setting, but for the best sounds, screw around with it and it sounds better than the presets, although they sound good too. actually, everything sounds good. the only people who complain are the ones who can't read and think MT-2, sounds cool...(but they don't see the word METAL(stupid people)). the people who play blues and stuff...you know...they complain about everything though.

Boss pedals are like my favorite ink pen, no matter how many times you chew on them, they don't sever until they run out of ink. okay, so maybe they're not like my pen...they don't break ever.

I bet they have a single egghead answer phones and he goes home every night lonely because noone ever calls him at work or at home.

the best stompbox that costs less than $200.

The unit it self is pretty straight forward (level, 3-band EQ, distortion) but it does take a bit of time of tweaking to get 'your' custom sound.

I use an LTD EXP through a Crybaby 535, MetalZone, then a Marshall VS65R amp, the only this doesn't get a 10 is that at high volume/distortion settings, it can get a bit noisy. I listen to Metallica, and I found if you (on your amps clean channel) crank the bass, set the mid around 3 o' clock and set the treble at around 5 o' clock, than on the pedal set the bass just below max, set the treble about 9 o' clock, cut out the mid, and set the mid freq around 11 o'clock, and set the distortion just below max, you can get a sound identical to James Hetfield's 'god' sound.

If the known universe collapsed on itself, all that would be left would be Boss pedals.

Never dealt with Boss

This is a perfect pedal for hard rock/metal. If this pedal was lost or stolen, I would either get this or a Boss GT-5, which basically has this programmed into it.

Level, gain, 4 EQ knobs - simple as hell but no so over-simplified that you can't play screw around with it a whole lot.

I have an American Std. Strat with a Crate GX-15R and a Marshall 8040. I've always loved the sound on the small Crate, as it's thick and tight and crunches better than any rack I've ever heard. On the Marshall, though, it always sounds weak and tinny and after 2 years I still haven't been able to fix it. (It does the same with the AxSys Line 6 too) Also, it doesn't really work well for leads unless you mess around a lot with the dials - most of the time it sounds to trebley and thin.

That little rubber grommet around the thumbscrew always seem to tear after a few years and...aw, what the hell, this thing will be around long after the cockroaches

Never had to deal with BOSS

I started 5 years ago and I was all metal, probably the reason I loved this pedal so much. I still think it's a great pedal, but I recommend checking it with your amp and guitar first, as a lot of people I know I are unhappy with how it sounds through amps with big 12'' speakers in them.

Super easy. Level, Low, High, Middle, Mid. Frequency, and Distortion. However, small adjustments in the knobs make for big tone changes.

Sound quality is top notch. It's very quiet through my Seymour Duncan Full Shred and Marshall Valvestate, but when the Distorion is all the way up, noise is noticable. Works best when your amp is on it's clean channel (DUH!). Feedbacks terribly when you have the Overdrive channel on your amp on. Can achieve a great Pantera/Metallica sound.

Very tough. I think they make tank armor out of surplus Boss pedals. No backup needed, but batteries do wear out...

Never dealt with them.

Best distortion pedal bar-none. Works great for heavy, saturated distortion, but back off the gain and you can get a decent blues-rock sound. If somebody stole this, I'd dedicate my life to tracking him down. When I find him, I'd gut his intestines out and rub them in his face, then I would take my beloved Metal Zone and crush his skull with it, cook his brains, and use his skull fragments as a necklace. I love this pedal!!!

This pedal is somewhat tough to get the hang of (when messing with the EQ knobs) but after a couple of minutes you are able to get great sounds out of it with little work.

I have played this pedal with a fender strat (single-coil), ibanez RX (single-coil and humbuckers) and a gibson LP (humbuckers) through tube amps and solid state PA's. It sounds wonderful. The distortion goes from Zeppelin to Metallica in a flash with little noise. The onboard EQ is a great touch.

My friend has had his for 3 years and it has gotten beat up like hell, but it still sounds as good as it was when it was new. I sold mine to my friend and bought another the next day. No other pedal comes close. It is probably the only pedal distortion I would ever use by itself.

Boss' never break

I have played many styles including classic rock, punk rock (70s + 90s), grunge, alternative and death metal with this pedal. It can get most any sound out of it. I would buy it again in a flash if it got stolen. The first time I tried it out it almost played itself.

Very Easy to use. Three band EQ (with Middle doubled as a parametric) is extremely straightforward. Seems intimidating at first, but fool around with different settings and you'll find a few that you like. The manual gives 8 sample sounds which you might want to try.

I use a Samick strat copy with a Samick 10 watt buzzbox , and also a Crybaby Original. It gives tonnes of feedback and distortion if you crank DIST and /or LEVEL, but for me that's a plus. It can get REALLY noisy, especially with a crappy amp like mine, and single coil pickups (like mine). Because you can get so many different sounds, there are lots of good settings, but also some crap ones. Setting anything to MAX usually results in a crap setting. Especially good for anything heavy (Metallica, Pantera, etc) but turn the distortion down and its good for Hendrix/Clapton and SRV.

Built like a reinforced tank. This would have survived Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the French nuclear tests, one after another. It would also survie BB King playing a ten hour gig with it.

Never dealt with BOSS

Perfect for my sound, and unlike many other people, I reckon it's the most versitile Distortion avaliable. Gives you a chunky, ballsy high gain sound (unlike the piss-weak DS-1)

When I first saw this pedal it didn't look very impressive. If you know how to work with the Low/Mid/High knobs on your amp, then this pedal should be a cinch.

On *every* guitar i've used this on it sounds great. You gotta have at least a GX-20 or so to make it sound good as far as amplification though...
This pedal is easily associatied with the "ChuggaChugga" sound of Metallica and Megadeath. This is an absolutely amazing pedal. Its such a kick ass pedal, that when i first heard it, it was almost like the pedal was playing itself for me, not me playing through it. Absolutely awesome pedal.

True Story: My friend and I were working in the garage for a practice and we left all our gear out and went back inside for a while to get something to drink. My parents came home and my mom didn't bother to check what was in the garage and she pulled in and ran over the pedal with her car. She realized what happened and pulled out, what happened was the pedal got caught under the wheel and ened up rolling down the driveway into the busy street where a number of cars ended up running over it and dragging it along with it. -- The pedal came out of it all with a couple scratches, and that was it. Nothing else bad happened. We haven't noticed a *single* difference in the sound of it since.

This is Boss we're talking about! who's ever *needed* to call their customer support!?

This is an amazing pedal. The moment i heard it its my favorite pedal. I prefer it more than some of those Preamps and advanced EQ's.. yeah, even the ones with footswitches. Its ease of use and everything about it is perfect when it all comes down. I've bought this pedal for Christmas presents to friends that are just starting guitar and they've never had a reason to replace this pedal. Its amazing, and I'll always make sure I have it in my collection. (Try putting two of these pedals together! you'll really get a kick out of it!!!)

Well it is definatly not like most distortion pedals, it has six knobs instead of the usual three, but it is still fairly easy to get a good sound out of it. The mid frequency knob is interesting, I don't really know what it does, but it does give you more sound shapping options.

I'm using a Yamaha Pacifica 112 through a Crate GX-212X, and the sound is real good. The unit can get noisy a extream gain settings, but what doesn't? The only reason I gave this unit 9 is because it is not very versitille. If you like loads of distortion, then you will love this pedal. If you like a little overdrive, forget it. I come from the former school, and I love this pedal. But look at the name, Metal Zone, if you play the blues, you won't be buying this pedal. That being said if you want some nice Metallica tones, and you don't own a Mesa Boggie, buy this pedal.

Its a Boss, need I say more.

Never had to deal with Roland/Boss, and looking at their track record, I probably never will.

Its a 10 if you play metal, and if you don't, then you won't look at it anyway. If it was stolen, and I had the same rig, than yea, I would buy it again in a second. My dream is to own an amp that I won't need a distortion pedal, but untill then, I'll stick with the Metal Zone. In my opinion, one of the best stompbox values out there.

The distortion rules compared to all the other ones that i have heard. Nothing else comes close to the sound.

Somewhat noisy, but what do you expect? You can play with it and get it to sound like any artist you want.

It's a tank.

I have never dealt with the company so i cannot rate this one.

This is a great pedal for a metal head guitarist like myself. Without it, you will just play around with clean sounds, and that gets boring after a while. Boss makes good pedals. i would have to get another somehow if it were lost or stolen. Simply put, you can't live without it and be a metalhead guitarist.

This is a very complex pedal with six perimeters rather than three like on most distortions. It is actually surprising how easy it is to get a good sound out of it. The six controls are easier to use than they look.

I'm using a crappy fender strat with single coils and it still comes in fat and crunchy.I don't here much noise until I crank this bitch to 7 on my fender frontman 25r.Everything from nirvana to white zombie can come from this puppy.

I recently threw it 50 feet in the air off of a friends roof at a gig and it still works fine.(its got a shit load of scratches though). Its built as tough as they come.

never dealt with em'.

If I must be a critic for you and label the music I will say hard rock and punk rock.I've been playing for 4 years and this is the best distortion on the market. I would get another if it got stolen.It has the thrash of a marshall and the low end of a boogie. Thats what I like, the versatility.

ues, I love this pedal it sounds great it will take you 5.mins to get a good sound it's got a whole lotta treble so some amps may have to turn on the pedal then adjust the treble on the amps EQ and just fiddle with your amp then the pedal then the amp and eventually you'll unleash the beast with a killer distorted tone, your clean may suffer a little.

I use a gibson epiphone with a steve's special in the bridge and I use a Music Man 1973 HD 130 Reverb/Tremolo, this pedal always sounds great time and again I use a boss adapter. the only problem is its almost to saturated sounding notes lose there clarity and it's hard to distinguish for single note stuff and solos

yep it trust this pedal completly i Stomp the shit out of it at practices at shows and it always works(controls are a little bent) but none the worse for where.I want to have two i like the way this pedal sounds with the distortion at zero.

never dealt with the company, never had to this tank is indestructable i literally stomp on it all the time nothings went wrong yet. never had it repaired.

I play this new brand of metal mixed with flowing ligt melodic quiet parts and crushing heavy parts. I have been playing with all the same equipment for about a year(gibson epiphone, dimarzio steve's special, boss metal zone boss distortion boss chorus,Music Man HD 130 and I use adapters for all my effects. if stolen i'd have a heart attack this is the basis of my sound I would replace it a.s.a.p if it was stolen or broken, the only thing i don't like is I had to alter my clean to get rid of the wicked high end treble.

insanly easy. The manual gives you 8 sounds to try so i could start straight into my playing with a great sound. only band thing would be that there are so many knobs that you have to fiddle a bit to get a sound you want.

On my peavy audition this pedal sounds beautiful, until you turnit past a bout 8, then is starts to get a crackle in the back ground. other than that the sound is great, very bassy, so if you love your palm muting. But be warned, if you play with someone with a dod pedal, esp. a muti fx or death metal dont, they a re very conflicting, two ends of the scale

Well, the only problems i have had with this pedal is that every now and then (very rarely) the volume goes down to almost inaudible (may be bad live but it hardly ever happens) but other than that i would have no fear of going live with it

never had to deal with boss, they have such great quality

I play Heavy Metal (Metallica, Korn etc) so this pedal is perfect been playing a year, teaching myself i have a death metal pedal (crap!) i would kill whoever stole it then buy another i love the sound longer sustain, my pickups have crappy sustain i helps me make music!!!

Many knobs (for a pedal). But more knobs = more sounds (for this pedal, at least). How long it'll take you to get the "right" sound really depends on your other equipment, but somewhere between 5 minutes to 6 months (assuming you upgrade your gear). Come to think of it though, I've had this pedal for a long, long time...and the manual's never been out of the box...

Kickass distortion!! It's ungodly heavy and diverse.
The only downsides are that : it's a little noisy, depending on how much distortion you dial in (not really a problem though), it's always got a harsh, metallic edge to it (although this is also what makes it great, you'd think with all these knobs that you could get rid of it..), and it sounds thin when you try to solo.
I put an EQ in front of it (DOD FX40-B), and now I can really get ANY sound out of this pedal (phat, bluesy (!), rock, etc.)! It also helps to turn your guitar volume down, to clean up the extra noise, and it sounds great with your guitar tuned down a note or two (awesome korn sound). Personally, I get the best sounds out of it when all the knobs are somewhere in the middle - nothing turned all the way down (except maybe distortion) and nothing cranked all the way up. This is mainly because I like to sound very harsh when I'm palm/string muting.
Another handy thing about this pedal is that it boosts your signal enough to be heard through headphones - my only pedal that can actually do that. Unfortunately, you've got to have distortion at least half-way up w/ level at max.

This is THE pedal for anything hard rock/metal/thrash. Any sound from metallica, pantera, korn, slayer, deftones, machine head, or anybody that rocks. If it were stolen, I'd buy it again. I practically live at the local music store, so I sample every pedal that comes through, and nothing compares.

Using the manual at first made finding your way pretty easy. The manual is pretty cheesy though...you would think a big company like Boss would have someone review it before it was printed...but there is no trouble getting their point. The sounds I have gotten from this are very nice. I just switched from a rack unit and the distortion is much better than I expected.

I am playing a LP Studio through a Carvin VM-100 head into a 4x12 slant cabinet. The pedal seems pretty quiet...although you can tell it puts out a bit of noise when you add a noise gate at the end of the chain and listen to the difference. I think it sounds good on the metal settings they give you...but it sounds better yet when you add an e.q. and just punch up 100Hz a few dB...at least to my ear.

Seems sturdy...from everything I've read about it here, I guess it would be safe to gig it without a backup if you ran it on AC power or were careful to put in a fresh batt before your gig.

I play everything from old rock to Pantera, or at least try. I think it works well for all of them despite some of the things I have read. If you turn the distortion all the way down to "zero" you can get a believable, and not thrashy, rock tone. I have gotten it to work well also by turning down my volume knob...it tames it really well. I have only has this for a month or so...but really do like it. I didn't compare it to any other pedals...I just read the reviews on this web site on all the ones I was interested in and decided to take a chance...and it paid off well...
Boss says to use their PSA series of AC adapters...I tried using a regular one that matched their specs, close anyway, and the pedal worked fine, the only thing it did that was strange was when you click the pedal off, the light would stay on, but it would be noticeably dimmer...so I tried the PSA-120 adapter that I had had for an old drum machine and it worked fine...I think it's safe either way...but to be sure I will probably stick with the PSA...too bad tey cost 20 bucks!

There are so many different sounds that you can produce from the pedal with ease. There is a book inside the package with sample distortions for different styles of music. I have found that this pedal never fails in activation. I used to play with an Ibanez Tube Screamer and had trouble with activation. And when I did activate it there was a loud beep. The Metal Zone has no sound when activated.

I use an Ibanez RG470 and I play into a Crate amp. I am in love with the sound quality. Now, if you want a really distorted sound without noise, I recomend Ernie Ball strings. STAY AWAY from usine D'Addario strings with this unit. Your clean tone is excelent but the strings also kill your distorted sound, forcing you to cranck up the dist. level to max. And even then, the palm muting is aweful. But, with the right setup you can produce ANY sound desirable. I can get a fuzz type tone that matches Offspring. Or I can get a "bassy" sound to replicate Pantera or Metallica. If you don't want the in your face loud distortion, I encourage you to stay away from this product.

I have used this pedal for about a year now and it sounds like I just bought it. I throw this thing all over the place and it preforms. I can (and have) jumped on it and it still has a sturdy feal.

I have never had to deal with the Boss company and don't expect to have to any time soon. I have no experences with the company so I can't judge how they responded.

I play mostly metal style music and it is perfect. I think this is the best distortion I have ever heard. I have played for about 4 years and this is the best. If I had somehow lost this ( I don't know how because I never let it out of my sight ) I would buy it again without a thought of buying another model or brand. I love it ease of use and it sound. If I had to be picky and say what I hate, I can only say thaty it eats batteries. Buy the adapter and save yourself some cash.

The tone controls are coarse (to me), but have a dynamic effect that makes your tone easy to ballpark, but hard to exact. Still, it shouldn't take much time if you know what you want. I think the recommended settings in the instruction manual were good to start off with, but I lost the manual four years ago.

Like I said, the EQ has a pronounced effect on your tone. It's great to dial in chunky bass with the Metal Zone on an otherwise bass-less amp. Truly, the bass/midrange you can get is limited only by your speaker cabinet configuration. The distortion is very gainey, and it would be great to use this pedal with a good clean sounding (Fender) amp to get a pseudo-Boogie channel switching effect. The pedal adds an audible hiss and metallic edge to your signal, but the tone (Kirk Hammett, Vernon Reid, all the other metal shredders) could be worth it to you. I used a Fender Ultra with this amp through a Peavey Classic 4x10 with mixed results. The pedal works great on the clean channel, but it pulpifies your signal as a boost for the overdrive channel. This pedal obviously sucked with every hollowbody guitar I used (Gibson, Rickenbacker) and I doubt it would work as well with single coil pickups as with HB's. The MT-2 worked well with my wah and rotovibe.

After ten years of playing BOSS pedals, I have decided to contract the people at BOSS to build a nuclear fallout shelter in my backyard.

Actually, I had a different BOSS pedal that was run over by a freight train in Lynchburg, so I called the BOSS people to get advice. They told me to replace the battery (which had fallen out during the incident), and now the thing works fine again. Go figure!

While the Metal Zone does a good job at a fairly low price, I've lost the desire for high gain tone and the MT-2 no longer serves my puropses. This pedal is absolutely no good for anything but high gain lead and power rhythm sounds, where it works very well. But, it's either on or off--adding its characteristic scooped metal sound even at low distortion levels. I have been playing for ten years, and I've not heard a stomp box do such a respectable job emulating high gain tube amp tone. It beats all the cheaper BOSS models and anything DOD ever made. If it were lost or stolen, I'd wax nostalgic about it on my way to buy a whup-ass tube amp. I loved the bass you could roll in with the MT-2, but didn't like the metallic undertone of the pedal, so it almost cancels out. Although this pedal doesn't suit me, folks looking for a good Marshall-type gain box good for lead and heavy power chords should check the MT-2 out.

This thing is really easy, and its just like most BOSSes, knobs. The EQ adds a couple more knobs than a normal BOSS, so that makes it a little more difficult to use, but its not bad. I'd say there is a slight learning curve with this pedal, but once you know your controls, look down.

Best distortion EVER. I have a Epiphone strat copy and an AriA Explorer copy, which run through either an Epiphone 15-watt practice combo or a Marshall VS-100R combo. The unit has to be the most quiet distortion unit ever!! It still gives off a Buzz, but only if you are playing around lots and lots and lots of lights, then you get that 65hz crap. The effect is STRONG. My settings are: LEVEL-depends BASS:max TREBLE:MAX MID:half way MID2: 1:30 DIST:MAX
The setting I have it on gives you an AWESOME MetallicA type sound, and if you cut of on the mids and bass, you can get a good PanterA sound. This pedal is good for only metal, because it is too powerful to be used as a fuzz, and too punchy for grunge. Use this with any pedal, cause the distortion blends in with any effect.

BOSS, blah, blah

Never dealt w/ them

Simply the best distortion at ANY price range. Its perfectly suited for my playing style, and is great on fast shredding and pantera solos. I dunno, its really your opinion that counts for you, so id suggest trying it out at your local music shop before you buy, and really spend time fooling with the settings.

Extreeeeeeeeeeeeeeemly easy to use, and very configurable! Such a wide range of sound.

The sound is really crisp and powerful, there just is nothing like this out there.

I bought my first Metal Zone back in 1992 and it worked flawlessly until a couple weeks ago when it just quit. It worked perfectly for almost 6 year, and I really abused it, it got kicked around, and a lot of beer spilled on it.

I have been playing guitar for about 11 year, mostly hard-rock and Metal, and nothing compares to this pedal. I had my first one for almost 6 years, and then it crapped out. When it died I thought it was time to invest in rack gear in the $500 - $800, I was so disappointed, I ended up buying 2 more of these, they almost seem too cheap when you shop around and hear what is out there.

The metalzone is a very easy to use pedal, no tricks, and very simple to adjust. But because of the wide range of tones that can be produced, it may take a bit of fiddling and experimenting to get the sound your after.

I have an Ibanez RG-470 with EMG-89 pickups. I play doom/death metal mostly and are tuned to B with 54-12 gauge strings. It took me 2 months to finally get a tone I was happy with. For playing metal the extensive midrange EQ is pretty pointless because is just makes the distortion muddy. But The Metalzone is by far the best and most brutal distortion available in a stomp box. The signal to noise ratio is very good for a distortion especially when using active EMG pickups. I personally think, for the range of tones available probably about 80% of them are totally useless. Basically for me the best settings are with the bass and treble up max and the midrange cut to zero. That will give a nice crunch and plenty of drive.

Boss Pedals just don't fail!

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Well if I could afford a Mesa then I wouldn't need a metalzone....but for the money the metalzone is probably the best stomp box around for extreme metal.