Boss MT-2 Metal Zone

easy to use, seems to have a wde range of eq options.

yuck. sounds honky no matter how you set the eq on it. sounds very artificial.

reliable

i play rock music, 20 years. rock blues and heavy rock. i have Godin sdxt, ibanez rg 440, strat 62 reisuue

played it threw my peavey amp at home and also a marshal half stack in a reharsal studio. the other band members realy didnt like my sound with it, so did i.

get a different distortion, this one is just a bit above useless, i dont understand why would boss want to ruin their raputation with such crap. ive also revied a 2003 ds1 - also bad. im getting a tonebone trimode and donating these to the poor.

Although i spose you could consider this easy to use but not so easy to get a good sound since its quite sensitive and the controls are very interactive.

I didn't buy this, i borrowed it off a freind, who was actualy given it for free (and now i know why). Expect to see this on ebay soon.

I think this sounds awful no matter what setting you have IMO it sounds $%^&.

I'll be a bit more specific by saying that it is very harsh sounding, the tonal spectrum ranges from ear peircing to midless mush and white noise.

There is no point in rolling back the gain, it sounds exactly the same but just weaker and even more $%^& as it still sounds just as harsh and instead of giving you a lower gain sound it give you less attack. No matter how softly u hit the strings it will sound the same, when your pick hits the strings its almost as loud as fretted notes.

Notes do not standout with this and its hard to hear what you are playing as your riffs or solos are drowned out in white noise.

This would proably sound good to the uneducated ear, as i would proably see myself liking this pedal when i started out on guitar.

It seems sturdy enough

N/A

If you are searching for a high gain pedal with a good distortion sound for metal DONT BUY THIS, although some people like this, i know guitar tone is subjective but its just not very good at all. Also if you want your guitar to standout in the mix dont get this.

When trying to play metal on this its hard to actualy hear what you're playing, as you cant really hear the notes properly as there is this harsh trebly white noise that attacks your eardrums.

I can only think of one good use with this pedal, if you added some extreme corus, or maybe a flanger pedal and use it for noises and it will give you quite an interesting into/outro to a song so if you want something cheap that wil give u some noise (white noise can be used in cool ways ask tom morello) buy it.

Now i haven't used one but i'm sure the x series digitech metal master is far superior.

Also if you are after a good guitar sound stay away from the boss recording studios the amp modeling is awful.

It seems that some simpletons dont appreciate the difference between not understanding how to use the EQ controls and not LIKING the sound on any of the settings. The controls are easy enough to use and understand, its the basic sound of the of pedal thats at fault and that cant be salvaged in any way by 'tweaking'. If you think you can get a good sound out of this pedal then maybe its time to get your ears syringed.

I tried this with several guitars from Gibson, Jackson and ESP into Marshall and Hiwatt amps and its absolutely true that the MT2 makes 'em all sound the same. Anybody who says otherwise is lying or just plain stoopid. Dont believe all the garbage posted here about how 'This is the most brutal distortion ever'/ 'Its the only pedal you will ever need'/'Im always getting compliments on my sound' etc. etc. It doesnt add up when you actually hear the pedal in action.This has to be the worst, lamest excuse for a distortion pedal I ever heard (give or take some cheap Behringer units). Its thin, weak and fizzy at all possible setings and as far removed from a brutal, blistering metal sound as its possible to get. Bedroom players may disagree.

10/10 for Boss on that score.Sad to say, this pedal will never die. Except out of embarrasment if you stand it beside a Rocktron Rampage, DOD/Digitech Grunge or even a Line6 Ubermetal.

I dont own this pedal and wouldnt even consider it on the grounds of sound quality. If your some sheltered bedroom player who doesnt know any better, dont get upset and start telling lies because your belief system has been shattered by guys who know and recognize good sound. Just accept that there are better FX units out there and move on.

If you find a four band eq difficult to operate you do not have the skills required to get a decent sound from your amp.

I have played a number of guitars (Fender tele, Flying V, several customs) through this pedal into a 100w Marshall JCM 800, through 1 4x12 JCM800 cab.
Contrary to other reports on this page I find that even using the distortion all the way up the tonal characteristics of each guitar remain intact.
I use an old Boss ME5 for the excellent noise reduction without tonal loss (if youre going to use a lot of gain and distortion you need to pay attention to your sound and then take care of the background noise).
My sound is crunchy and super compressed metal- not strictly old or nu- elements of both.
I play downtuned to A (not some gay drop tuning, this is all six super fat strings).
I use the metal zone live and have recorded with it over the last 6-7 years and constantly recieve compliments on my sound.
I dont need to model amp/ cab setups but I find the controls help me escape the 'one Marshall sound' syndrome and allow me to find my own sound without getting bogged down with equipment or controls.
If you want to play Metal but want to keep your setup simple this box does it all with maximum crunch.

Boss stuff is indestructable. My only critisism here is that your sound cant be saved with these live controls which is a real pain when youre gigging or transporting your gear- hense the lower score here.

never used em

I have been playing for twenty years and have tried loads of different distortion pedals but found that the Metal Zone was like a new beginning for me.
I havent yet tried any of the hip new units that have taken over from the MZ but dont want to fix such a core part of my kit.
I would definately replace it if it were lost/ stolen.
One other thing about it that is a bit of a pain in the ass is having to use an external power supply/ batteries.
I've used this site many times when buying kit- its quality
Metal!

You have to be a spastic if you cant operate this thing..Bought mine second hand without a manual. In comparison to its rival the Digitech Metal Master, they both have there strong and weak points. I think the metal master suits hardcore more than anything and doesnt seem as versitile as a Boss Metal zone from my experience anyway.

Marshall AVT150 head thru a 4*12 cabinet - Rocktron Nitro - Boss Equilizer - Boss Metal zone - Crybaby waawaa - BC rich NJ warlock with EMG's and a Jackson Fusion pro.

I was able to get a meaty tone with this setup. The Rocktron Nitro is a vital part because im able to boost my tone for solo's live. But ide be dead without my metalzone. Perfect for the Death metal - Black metal even to punk. Its so versitle. I play mostly Death/black/doom with some Opeth there somewhere. The AVT150 head was an upgrade from a Marshall MG100h solidstate head which isnt as great in my opinion.

My main sound come from the Metalzone and Equilizer combined, for solo's I upgraded from a Behringer Pre-amp booster to a Rocktron Nitro and waawaa for Arch Enemy type solo's. I de-tune 1 step down for all my songs and it sounds so good. Even with my old MG100 head the metalzone sounds kickass for any genre. Truly one of the best. I do Believe At The Gates used a metal zone on the Slaughter Of The Soul album (swedish death metal).

Solid pedal... Nothing can squash this thing.

Never dealt with them.

I play from death metal - Doom metal. If you cant get a good sound out of this thing your retarded no doubt. Or you just own a $^%& amp or something like that. OR your just as spastic as DAN about 6 reviews down ... retard.. lol

Sounds awesome for low end riffing and high happy melody's and harmony's. For solo's i had to by a Booster for a better tone(didnt much like the metalzone for soloing that much ) None the less its a trustworthy little box full for the heaviest tones ever.

I can't understand why it's so hard for some people to operate with this pedal! Well 4 EQ kobs - whatever. For me it was a pleasure.

Jackson DK27 (dimarzio DP100) - Boss Mt-2 into a 10W marshall practice amp. with the boss PSA adaptor it's not noisy at all. The pedal is pretty much the best metal compact pedal. I used to own a marshall jackhammer and a zoom 707II - they didn't even came closer to the MetalZone. I can get any metallica sound with my setup although it isn't my favorite band :) It's Judas Priest and I can't get their sound because I don't own a 5000$ marshall valvestate amp ;) Well you can get pretty close... It's a 9

It's alive so far..

I asked for info about boss' pedal board once...never got it..

I play NWBHM (that's new wave of brittish heavy metal and it's not quite new by now ;), blues, jazz, AOR. I've been playing for a couple of years. For me the MT-2 is a must-have, I'd buy another one if it were stolen.

I'm a firm believer that you should be able to plug a pedal in, especially if it's distortion, and be able to get a good sound out. With this pedal, you can't do that. If I want to mess around with the EQ, I will use the equalizer on my amp, or an EQ pedal. I've had this pedal for about two years and everytime I decide to try it in my chain again, I always end up getting rid of it.

Not good. Maybe I have the wrong setup (Fender Powerhouse Strat, through a Fender amp). This might sound better if I had, say, an Ibanez through a Marshall stack. It could be my single coil pickups that are mucking the sound, but I just can't see the appeal for the people who like this pedal. It just sounds so tinny and thin, and destroys the bottom end of the signal no matter how high you set the low setting. I agree with a previous review when they said it would be the perfect pedal if all you're looking for is mean sounding power chords in drop-D. Bottom line, it just doesn't sound good to me.

It's Boss, so I know it's gonna be tough at the very least. I wouldn't gig with or without a backup because I would never gig with this pedal. I'll give it a 7 because it sucks batteries like no other.

OK I must admit that it is not a plug and play distortion, you'll have to spend some time to find the right sound. So if you are a bit lazy, this might not be the best distortion for you.

My setup is: Fender Statocaster american standard, Fender Twin Amp, Ibanez WD7 Wha, and a Boss ME-X looped with a Boss DS-1 a MT-2 Metalzone and an extra digital delay. The Pedal can be noisy at higher settings, but with the noisesurpressor set on one that is taken care of. It can sound great and even original, all you've got to do is find out how the equalizer works.

Like so many people said before, I still use my first pedal wich was also a Boss. I bought that pedal about 17 years ago. You could possibly drive a truck over it and brake the truck.

I play anything from soul and funk to Hendrix and Van Halen, it suits me just fine. It has got lots of drive and nice feedbacks and it can produce a fat rich sound(just make sure you don't take out all the mids).

easy to use i have no problem with the mid settings i don't even have the damn manual for it

this pedal only goes my wah...i use this pedal alone when i'm riffing or rhythm parts...i can pull of that lamb of god sound on a right setting....it is a bit noisy though i think it comes from the midrange...but weak point is when i do some solos it is a bit dry and dull so that is why i use my dunlop wah pedal to give color i use my pedal the way zakk wylde uses his

it is built like a tank i don't need a back up it doesn't fail

other that downloading the manual..i haven't dealt with them

i play purely metal which is a good match for this pedal...if this pedal were to be stolen i would get the same thing....i love the crunch and balls in this little box but i really don't like using it on my solos and i wouldn't use it on recording also

Not much to it, it's a distortion pedal. You twiddle the knobs until you get a sound you like and step on it.

Buzzzzzzzzzzzzz, fisssssssssssssss, buzzzzzzzzzz, squueeeel. I hate this pedal, fine at low volume if you want lots of saturated metal distortion, but usless if you turn up. This is the noisiest pedal i have ever used, it even makes a horrendous hissing noise when you turn the volume down to zero on the guitar.

I also find when using this pedal that it exagerates the sound of my pick hitting the strings until it's almost as loud as the note itself, which is pretty crap when doing fast alternate picked runs etc. this gets worse the louder it goes, and believe me, if you want to cut through the mix with this pedal you need to turn it up LOUD (i assume cos it scoops all the mids).

This pedal is probably fine if you wear your guitar round your knees and play 'chugga, chugga' type power chords in a new metal band or only play at bedroom volume. Otherwise I'd give it as wide a berth as possible.

It's a boss pedal, you could probably set fire to it and throw it off a tall building (and believe me it occurred to me) and it'd still work. It was very, very reliable and the batteries lasted well.

na

I play a bit of everything, but mostly hard rock - it certainly wasn't suitable for me. In the shop i liked the thick saturated distortion, it sounded great for playing solo's etc. but unfortunately it can't cut through the mix and the louder it goes, the worse it sounds. At gig volume it sounds lifeless, hisses constantly and produces difficult to control feedback.

I eventually sold this pedal enough on ebay and haven't regretted the discision. I've replaced it with a POD, which cost about #20 more, has many more effects, can plug direct to a PC for recording and can produce a similar sounding distortion without the inherent issues of the MT2.

Not allll too easy to use cuz it does have a parametric eq and other eq'ing options. Overall tho, well, its a 1-2 trick pony. Read Below.

I've been without an amp for a while but i felt like reviewing some of my old pedals. I had gotten this pedal very early when i started playing and.. well even then i wasnt its biggest fan. Through a marshal DSL combo with humbuckers it didnt sound bad: raging wall of fuzz for sure. Thing is there are only maybe 1-2 maybe 3 good sounding versions of this "raging wall of fuzz." As i remember it there was scooped mids, extra highs, and just all nobs at "11." It doesnt sound too bad but it has no depth, theres not more to it than what is advertised, you couldnt get some things out of this pedal that you could out of others.
For me at least this pedal was replaced by a sustain punch creamy dreamer. Now am i a hippocrite or what talkin about one trick ponies for a distortion pedal and using a straight up fuzz pedal?! Well here's the thing. The dreamer sounded better through the marshall and had alot of flexibility even tho you cant get anything quiet out of it. There's more out there than this pedal, and sure you dont havta lay down the money i did for an obvious boutique pedal, but i like the plain old boss DS-3 or the turbo distortion better than this one.

Psshh! It's a boss. Here's a scenario:
NUCLEAR WAR! BOOOOOOOM!!!!
Survivors:
1. cockroaches
2. fast food
3. boss pedals

never dealt with them.

At the time I played whatever was loud but this thing only really made me happy for a day. It made me happy to take it out and play with a friend of mine who like metal zones, he was so enthused he ripped into like 5 metallica solos in continuity. At any rate this thing is being sold shortly cuz i need the money and have been meaning to sell it for a while. It's good for well metal, but look at some classic metal heads. Zakk Wylde uses a super overdrive, Scott Ian uses a t.c. electronic boost/distortion, Dimebag... well what the hell did he use LOL. Bottom line if its your cup of tea cool, it just wasnt mine.

Definetly for metal. This pedal is sweet you can go from a Marshall jmc sound to a dual rectifier soud in seconds or plexi what ever you desire. The mid frequency is adjustable wich is what makes this pedal so sweet. Most guitar amps have a fixed mid frequency position wich is part of what gives each manufacturer their individual sounds. Usually set betwene 600, and 1600hz. With this pedal you can have total control over your tone. Try this set you apps mid control at 8 now cut the mids on the pedal now losten to the sound then do the reverse back and forth untill you make the pedal sound the same as the amp in the mid range. The setting on the padal is the same frequency your guitar amp has in the mid range.
Try this cut the mid range to 0 or -2 on your amp boost it to 8 on the pedal turn the frequency nob untill you find the sweetest sound. That mid range would be good for a blusey sound with the gain low.

Awesome tone, and flexibility. Also you can use the pedal to have less or more distortion in certian frequencies, and use it to blend with the band or stand out.

Like the energizer bunny and a timex, takes a licking and keeps on ticking, it just keeps going and going and going.

Boss is the best. They are always verry helpfull, and can abnswer any question.

This pedal is the best metal pedal there is for the money. It depends on the band and what is best for the music and the song.

Well there's not much to it really. Not hard to use. Just fiddle with the knobs and find a sound that you like. It's very delicate however, a slight move of anything can totally change the sound, thus the 9.

Many people seem to be unsatisfied with the sound the MT-2 produces, and I admit, it can produce some pretty dire sounds. I bought this pedal 3 years ago and just gave up on it within a week and it's been on a shelf until recently. When I got the pedal I had no idea of advanced tweaking of EQ. Since then I've become quite good at recording and production and have a good understanding of what produces what I would see as a good tone.

Many people who use this pedal seem to scoop the middle out almost completely. Being a metal pedal, the mid is already fairly low, so to get a nice sound just keep that up a little. And the mid frequency is very flexible, but the sounds of things you can get the mid frequency all the way from about 200Hz up to maybe 1.5KHz. Which gives you a lot of scope with tone that a standard amp distortion would not give you.

The MT-2 is renowned for its terrible sounds. However I just did a gig a few days ago, first time I've used the MT-2 at a gig. I was complemented on numerous occasions on my distortion sound. My band plays music similar to that of The Mars Volta, and the tones are anything but metal. However, I am very into metal and I know the pedal can produce amazing metal tones as well. I also play pop-rock from time to time, the soft distorted sounds are also brilliant.

Takes work to get this pedal to sound good, but it's definately worth it once you figure it out. It's like a distortion time machine (Future and present) in a pedal.

It's never gone wrong since I've been using it. And we all know how reliable Boss pedals are!

(Got a Boss delay from the 70's that I still use ALL the time)

I haven't had any experience with the customer support due to the reliability of Boss.

I play almost every style on music imaginable, from Latin american to death metal to east asian music to pop. And when ever I need distortion, I can always depend on the MT-2 to create the exact sound I want.

I play a PRS Custom 24 and the amp I play through varies, although I favour Fender amps.

I would definately buy another if it broke or was stolen. I have it insured and everything :-)

It's tough to get used to and take a fair bit of tweaking to get the "perfect" sound but it's well worth it when you find the sound you're looking for.

I've used amp distortion for a long time, a few Marshall models, Fender, Peavy and Laney. I've also used Roland VG-88 which I was VERY VERY disappointed with. This pedal tops any of the VG-88's weak and powerless distortion sounds.

If you don't care too much, the pedal is very easy to use. There are some pre sets in the manual that are ok, I would consider them a great starting point. At the time I bought the pedal, 1992, I was into Ministry, KMFDM, Slayer, and the like. This pedal works great for the rythm parts. Very thick and heavy. If you care a ton about tone and noise, I would not recommend this pedal. It has a hum that will not go away... And it toatlly robs all the tone out of any instrument you put through it. Basic ease of use? It's a Boss pedal... Just fidget with it until you like it.

My setup changes frequently, depending on what I'm doing... But the main parts are American Strat with noiseless, Ibanez 350DX, Yamaha semihollow body, or Alvarez Koa acoustic though the pedal loop mentioned below into either my pc (SoundBlaster X-fi Platinum) or a Roland JC-120.

Here's the main reason I'm writing this:

1. The pedal has a hum to it that will not go away regardless of the settings. If you use this pedal, you will have a big background noise issue. I have a string of Boss pedals I play through: noise suppressor with loop, supershifter, chorus, compressor/sustainer, metal zone, and outside loop a digital delay. If you use the pedal, the only way to get rid of the hum is to turn the noise suppression all the way up, which kills some of the notes and all of the sustain.

2. Through this pedal, all guitars sound equal. It robs all the tone from them instrument. A $1,000 Gibson SG will sound like a Cort, a Cort like a Les Paul, and a Les Paul like a flea-market special. I have a couple of guitars, they all sound identical though the pedal, regardless of single coil pickups on the strat, EMG's on the Ibanez, a Seymore Duncan Acoustic pickup on the Alvarez, they all sound exactly the same. I only have one amp, so I would guess the effect is the same on the amps. These guys on here talking about how the've got a $3,000 rig... Don't try to put a $100 pedal into it... That's just lazy. Your rig is only as strong as the weakest link.

3. And finally, it really isn't that bad depending on what you are trying to do. I only gave it a five for the inscessant humming.

Had it for close to 20 years, never had a problem.

I read on here a guy said "cheap plastic knobs that come off if you pull on them..." Well... Yeah. You know, if I paid a $100 for a pedal, the last thing I'm going to do is try to destroy it.

Never had to deal with them.

It's great across the board with the exception of the background humming. Honestly, I'd play live with it, but I'm not sure I would record with it. This was one if the first pedals I ever bought, I've been playing for over 15 years, and the pedal is basically the same as it was the day I bought it. I love the thick distortion with lots of high squeals, low grumbles, background harmonics... I hate the hum. If I could, I'd add in a selector switch for some saved presets and a noise gate. The hum isn't that bad you say?
This is how it goes...
Me: "Hey, everybody, you all wanna rock out?"
Everybody: "Well, we guess so... But it better be rockin'!"
Me: "Great! Let me just turn up my axe..."
Guitar: "BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"
Guitar: "BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"
Guitar: "BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"

Just use patience and tweak. It has plenty of tweaking options.

Modified Schecter Classic (Duncan: Custom Custom & Alnico 5) -> MT2 -> Boss Flanger 2 -> Guyatone MD3 -> Roland Cube 30

Surprisingly, I can get a pretty fat sound with it. I usually add some reverb when I want a more overwhelming feeling. And it's quiet, as most digital distortions should be.

You can get quite a range of sounds out of this and it has a very tight feel to it and it can give you as open a sound as you need.

The problem with it, is that it has a lot of white noise when adding a decent amount of distortion. If you cut the midrange, you can reduce some of that, but you lose a some versatility as well.

On the same note, the distortion always has a sharp, metallic ring to it. There's absolutely no smoothness to this pedal. Its distortion sounds almost identical to a table saw and the more gain you push through it, the worse it is.

I used it non-stop for 2 years without a problem and it's been through practices, movings, being buried under other equipment and whatever else the poor thing had to suffer through. I wouldn't gig without a backup no matter what, though. So that's an unfair question of its reliability.

N/A

I mainly play fusion, metal and experimental with a wide variety of different genres that influence my playing. I've been playing for over 5 years.

And while the MT2 is a fun toy that gives cool thrash and industrial sounds, it's also quick to outgrow and find faults with. Once I realized what sound I was trying to achieve, I had to go shopping for a more useful pedal.

Takes a while to get a useable sound. The suggested settings are horrible.

After almost two weeks of constant tweaking, I tried it at a band practice and it sounded ok, but then I gigged with this pedal and it was a farce. It was the worst, fartiest sounding thing ever. It has since been replaced with a Rat, which is a real distortion pedal.

I use 5 other boss pedals so i see no problems here. batteries go down too quickly though.

at low volumes it sounded false, at high volumes it made people cry. I let my friend in another band use it, he hasn't spoken to me since.
I'd happily buy another boss pedal, just not a distortion, my rat and big muff cover everything i need there.

It's a friggin distortion pedal. The knobs are labeled. Doesn't get any easier than this.

It doesn't matter what amp or pickups your using. This is by far the crappiest distortion pedal EVER. I wouldn't cross the street to piss on this thing if it were on fire. Just let it burn. Yeah, I know alot of people who own one of these. They all have two things in common.
A: They are not professionals. Garage-band types who show up late for gigs and jam on busted up gear.
B: They sound like garage-band types. Forget parts and make up stuff on stage.

If you want a fuzz pedal with no balls, then step this way sir.

If want to experience the pits of hell and hear that which is dark and unholy, spend at least $500 dollars on your guitar HEAD and use its footswitch or spend about $100 on a Digitech X-series metal distortion. There are no other alternatives, period.

Constructively: This thing has alot of fuzz. You can dial in alot of lows but you can never get enough 2k mids to cut through. When people talk about distortion and balls, they're refering to about 800hz-3khz. This thing is all fuzz and no balls. Not worth your money or time.
Name a professional (famous) guitarist who uses one of these. Note that I said USE and not ENDORSE. Differnce being that alot of rockstars sell crappy gear they don't even play on.

Solid metal construction. Very reliable.

Never dealt cuz they are reliable

Play rock, alternative, metal, for about 8 years now. Been through alot of crappy gear in my time so trust me, I know crappy gear. This is definitely crappy gear. Using my Carvin V3 for lead and overdrive now. Run it through a 31-band EQ to perfect my tone. Metalzone doesn't touch it. It doesn't even come close. God, I'm so tired of hearing people play on or talk about one of these. They suck.

it's a distortion pedal. there are 4 bands of EQ, volume, distortion, foot switch, and in's and out's. no learning curve there. if you can't figure out how to operate that then maybe you shouldn't be playing music. ;) i will say it is easy to get many good sounds out of it if you know what you're doing. i don't have the "manual", but again it's a distortion pedal. not some intricate piece of software or anything...

i play an Ibanez RG guitar thru it and out into a tube amp. compliments my pickups well, and almost no noise compared to similar stomp boxes like the DOD FX86B "Death Metal" pedal. i play industrial-metal type stuff and i think this pedal will serve others well in that area. it can sound reminiscent of "Psalm 69" era Ministry if you know how to EQ it right and given you're using a guitar and amp that suit your needs. i also run synths thu it and the nice EQ feature really helped me shape my tone.i was looking for a pedal with plenty of low contrast between lows and highs, with plenty of mid-gain crunch, and so far this pedal has delivered the goods. really nice highs and squeals coming thru it and palm mutes and harmonics sound great as well. very sensitive in the highs.

it's tough and metal.

it's a Boss, mind you. they make the best pedals out there. i imagine if you chucked it at a concrete wall or threw it off a building, it might break. treat it well and it will serve you.

i would use it for a gig without a backup. just an adapter with a fresh battery. you never know.

never dealt with them.

for my needs, this pedal went all the way, mainly because it's EQ alloed me to get that distinct crunch that was lost thru other pedals. if it were lost or stolen i'd definitely replace it.

a lot of people that play jazz, blues, and funk type styles will say negative things about this unit, but again, it's called the "Metal Zone", so go figure. i think Boss has really met the needs of a lot of musicians with this one.

It is not hard at all to get a great sound with the MT-2. The manual explains very well everything this pedal does. Just hook it in between your guitar and amp, and you will be good to go.

I play a Gibson SG Special with a Tom Anderson H3 humbucker in the bridge. I strive for an open (not eq'ed) tone of a mahogany (dark/full) guitar. I use Monster Rock cables into a Boss MT-2 Metal Zone pedal. I basically use this pro-quality pedal as an overdrive not a distortion. Into a Randall 300w Titan head [dirt channel: Gain 8.5, Mid 4, Mid Freq 4, High 4, Bass 8] I have a BBE sonic maximizer in the effects loop of the amp. The Randall titan runs to a Mesa Boogie Standart 4x12 rectofier cabinet. The secret to the Boss MT-2 is how you set it. [Drive-10, Eq-Flat 12:00 on all, Distortion-0 (zero). I promise if you have a good amp, this thing (without dist knob turned up) will make a good amp, super. Crowbar all the way!!

No need for a backup, all Boss pedals are very dependable.

I have not had to deal with them. Been using Boss products for 15 years.

This thing is great for metal and that is why I bought it, but I know countless other musicians that use it too. This pedal shouldn't be called metal zone in my opinion, because it is pro-quality distortion that can be tweaked for any style of music.

Pretty straight forward, just don't get carried away with the eq settings...

I tried it at the store first with a solid state fender... sounded pretty good! So, I figured it would sound even better through my classic 30. Took a while, but now it does! I run a fender highway 1 fat strat through it, btw.

See, the key is to barely touch the eq. I like the classic 30's distortion to begin with, I just wanted more gain, more oomph, and a bit of a treble boost. So, I plugged the thing into the amp, tried it out with the dirt channel. DON'T DO THIS. This thing doesn't layer well at all. It just turns into a muddy mess... unless that's what you want...

I then tried it through the clean channel, and tried a few tips I got from some of the other reviews here. I decided that the eq works best to slightly alter your amps tone. In my case, I always thought the classic 30 sounded kind of "muffled", so I added a tiny bit of a treble boost, and a bit of a bass boost to keep things even, and voila! It sounded like I had taken the amp out of the invisible sytrafoam box it came in!

So, my settings are as followed:

Level: match volume
Treble: 1:00
Bass: 1:00
Mid: 12:00
Mid-freq: 12:00
Dist: 2-3:00

Then on the amp, I have the eq pretty much flat (everything maxed out), and reverb at about 11:00. The amp is nice and middy to begin with, which I like, so I have to have that maxed out on the amp, and left flat on the pedal. The amp is reasonably bassy with the low maxed out, but it needed a bit more to get into metal territory, so I compensated a bit with the pedal. The amp sounded kind of muffled even with the treble maxed, so I again compensated with the pedal.

This gets you a pretty smooth and polite, but still decidedly heavy distortion.

If you want to get into some pantera style stuff, just scoop the mids on the pedal, boost the bass and treble on the pedal... and ofcourse dime the distortion control ;)

Overall, this thing can sound very good... or very bad. If you have a half decent amp like I do, let it do most of the work, and use the pedal's eq to tweek it. I know I've said that several times already, but I can't stress it enough. If you use pedals eq any more than just to tweek it, you'll generally get mud, unless you've after a dimebag kinda tone. I generally play stuff like Dream Theater, Joe Satriani, bit of Zakk Wylde era Ozzy, Hammerfall, ZZ Top... yeah. You won't get a rectifier kind of tone out of this pedal unless you actually have a rectifier, but you can get close. I don't need the pedal for the classic rock though, as my drive channel is optimized for just that.

So, I'm giving this section an 8. It takes a lot of tweeking, but once you get the sound you're after, you'll know, and you'll be happy.

It's pretty heavy. I suppose that means it's durable.

...

This pedal is designed for metal, but it can do slightly less heavy stuff... think shred. It's more versatile than you'd expect as well, but don't expect to get mild distortion out of it... you won't. You can get a very tasteful but heavy distortion out of it, which is what I've been shooting for.

That said, this pedal is still no replacement for a 5000 dollar mesa boogie head and cab. You will most certainly get a better distortion out of something like that. This pedal will get you in the ballpark for much less $$, but don't even bother comparing the two. The metal-zone is great for what it's designed to do, but will obviously suck at things it isn't... go figure.

The Boss Metal Zone IS NOT a pedal for people who haven't got the patience to fiddle with tone knobs. The MT2 offers a large spectrum of tones, and can be used for bluesy sounds, to death metal. The manual is very helpful, and easy to understand, like all good manufacturers. I've had my unit for almost 2 years now. Oh, and the settings in the manual sound pretty shit.

Im using an Ibanez sz520, into the MT2, into an Ibanez 10 watt. However when I practice with my band I use our PA. I have an amazing crunch (to my ears) which keeps me playing my guitar over and over. Here it is:

LEVEL- 12'o'Clock (this doesn't matter though)
LOW- 12'o'clock
HIGH- MAX
MIDDLE FREQ- MAX
MIDDLE- MAX
DIST- 12'o'clock

Now it may be that im a treble freak, but this is great for ever-lasting sustain, and seems to make everything I play sound good!

-REMEMBER-
Every one has their own taste, you may all hate this setting, but I can't get enough of it!

-ALSO!-
This wont cut too well with a band live, the notes will be unclear, however it varies with different amps, to heal this simply turn the dist down, and also turn the treble to 3'o'clock, and the middle Freq down slightly, this is a clearer tone!

This pedal, along with all of BOSS's stompboxes, is built flawlessly, with a thick metal casing it would take continual beatings, and will have to be thrown many times at walls. I have only given this a 9 for two reasons:
- The knobs are quite easily broken and..
- I would only trust it in a gig if I was using an adapter, WITH a 9v inside it aswell.
The reason for that is so in the middle of a song the battery doesn't run out, and if our clumbsy bassist kicks the adapter cable out of the end of my pedal, I wont be chasing leads etc around just before a solo. But other wise its a 10.

Never dealt with yet, and probably never will.

I play from grunge, to punk rock(forced into it), also some metallica. This peal is great, and will never leave my pedalboard. I have been playing for about 4 years, however I am picky about tone, and I love this setting. It helps me write songs because I love the tone im getting and also stops me from putting my Axe's down!

Pretty easy to use. You've got to have somewhat of an understanding of EQ'ing before you go playing with this thing. Having all of the knobs turned up all the way will not give you a nice tone no matter how hard you try. Other than that, its basically 6 knobs- Level, High/Low, Mid/Mid Frequency, and Distortion level. Drop in a 9 volt battery, do some tweaking, and play....

I'm currently running an Ibanez Artcore and an ESP LTD-MH-201 through this pedal into a Classic 30. As you can tell by my setup, the sounds I get out of this thing are quite interesting at any given point at any given day. I have tried using this thing for a couple of live shows. The sad thing is, is this pedal just doesn't sound that great at loud levels. It sounds very harsh and cold, almost to the point of hurting your ears. However, at lower levels, this pedal sounds damned good. I've just found that even though theres 6 knobs, it's pretty hard to find a right sound for this pedal, especially since its called a Metal Zone - a pedal designed for playing higher gain metal stuff. In the end, I've had better luck using my Classic 30's on board dirty channel, then using the MT-2, with levels turned down, as a sort of booster/over drive for the dirty channel. I can achieve pretty good leads with this, and using the pedal alone I can get somewhat decent tone for rythym. The pedal certainly has enough gain, thats for sure. The pedal just happens to sound awefully fuzzy as well.

One thing about it, it's freaking reliable. How could it not be?

n/a

The pedal sounds good for bedroom use.
The pedal sucks for live playing, mine can't handle higher levels.
Despite everything, you can get a couple of different decent tones out of it, depending on your amp.

For the price, I don't think this is worth it. Maybe if Boss would have sold this for a somewhat more decent price, I could justify its value, but I just can't. I would have been better off with a Tube Screamer. All in all, just don't let the "Metal Zone" part fool you, you may want to try out something else before you buy this. And if you do buy this, don't be afraid to experiment with the EQ's, it will help your sound drastically.

pretty simple, the parametric eq took a little getting used to, it's my first pedal with one of those. The manual set me straight though

I've found this pedal a little hit or miss so far, the mids have to be dialed in just right or it sounds really digital, to like the eXtreme. It is a pretty insane distortion though so i guess transperenacy is low on the priority list. My favorite setting so far is dist. to max and High to max and the rest of the eq turned to min. It's treble/ white noise heaven! It's a little noisy on high gain, but it does have an insane amount of gain. I'm just playing super-modded strat into MT-2 into a peavy transtube solid state. I haven't used it with my amin setup yet. It's awesome for just metaling it up, I'm more of a mellow rock or Neil young style grunge guy. Contrary to what others are saying on here, you really can't get the distortion down to an overdrivish gain, even with the eqs. It's just got too much searing awesomeness. My Blues jr. and Blues driver can do mellow overdrive tbetter than this little guy, but that said, you can really back off the distortion a lot on this guy. It's a sweet pedal for doing crazy runs and stuff with, fun little box, no big complaints about the sound. says Metal in the name, you get metal in the sound. sweet. Can be digital sounding though.

it's a boss, I've never had a boss crap out on me yet, but be careful with the AC jack, they have a tendency to break off the board if you're not careful with them.

boss has always been nice to me and their website is a lot better than the likes of Electro Harmonix

It's sweet little pedal and I got it for a good deal from a friend. It's not a great match for what I play, but it's fun for a bit of metaling out. I wish it had a parametric eq for all the ranges, that would be wicked awesome. I play a bit of everything but I'm starting to down grade my gain these days, so I don't think this has a place in my setup. Pretty sweet to just jam with friends though and jump around ya know? sweet little pedal congratulations boss, I'm now short of beer.

Once you work out the parametric EQ, very easy to use.

I used to use this pedal before I bought my Mesa Dual Rectifier. This pedal doesn't actually sound as bad as some people complain. to my memory, this is the most popular effects pedal in history, (a good number of my friends own one) but I rarely come across anyone who has set their EQ correctly.

Yes, this pedal is digital and harsh and cold sounding but it can be a functional sound. When I usually hear people playing through it, they set it up to make 'scooped' sounds but this truly sounds awful on this pedal. The midrange needs to be accentuated or the pedal sounds like a piercing fizz sound (with strange low end).

So, my advice to anyone who's interested in this pedal would be... do you play death or 80s metal? if so, you may like this pedal. You could use this pedal for Rock etc but other musicians will be able to spot the harsh tone.

IF YOU ARE TRYING THIS PEDAL THEN SET THE CONTROLS AS FOLLOWS:
LEVEL - (set to bypass volume)
LOW - Around 1-3 o'clock
HIGH - Between 11-2 o'clock
MID FREQ - 10 o'clock
MIDDLE - 1-3 o'clock
DIST - Never more than 3 o'clock

The distortion control just creates extra noise beyond about 2-3 o'clock without much gain increase.

I gave a 6 in this category because it isn't amazing sounding but it does the job for metal.

My experience of Boss pedals is that it could be broken when you buy it. But other than that, they are strangely invincible. but always use an adapter with the exact current figure (it's a good idea to use a boss one but they're expensive) or you can get noise or incorrect functioning.

Apparently they aren't very good... but i haven't ever tried them.

I have long since departed with this pedal but I just wanted to defend it against the many MT-2 haters.

When played through the clean channel of a warm tube amp, it is a palatable sound.

Having said that, this pedal is pretty good for aggressive metal but NOTHING else.

Pretty simple, you just plug it in, and scoop away as you like. Its not hard at all, I don't see why people complain about complexities. 6 knobs. Wow, difficult.

It sounds wonderful - dependant on your amp's tone and settings, that is. I play at home with a 45 watt Squier amp, and it makes it sound like its a beast (with both gains turned almost all the way off on the squier and volume turned up). I also play it on a 120 watt Crate, and it sounds beast on a Crate under clean. I've had the chance to play it on a 175 watt Ibanez head, and it sounds weird. But its not the pedal's fault, the Ibanez head sounded weird without the pedal anyway. The pedal improves tone regardless of the amp though, you just have to dial in the proper settings on your amp and on the pedal, and some people are just too damn lazy to do that.
Layering distortions usually sounds too muddy.
This pedal probably won't sound too good if you have a beast amp turned on full distortion all the way up and you turn this pedal's distortion all the way up. Sorry to say that, but thats because you're an idiot. Play clean on the amp, use this distortion pedal by itsself, or use very slight distortion on your amp at least.

I would use it for everything I need distortion for.

Don't need it, it won't break, its in a metal casing. Bosses don't break anyway. If they do its a rare occasion.

I play groove metal, thrash metal, death metal, doom metal, blues, classical, and all the tones I want come from this pedal. I've been playing guitar for 13 years now and I've not yet found tone like this. I'm glad I bought it.
The tone is great if you're going more for a transistor style / solid state distortion (Dimebag Darrell like Vulgar Display of Power sound) However if you're wanting tube distortion you might be disappointed a little bit, but it can still drive pretty good on tube amps on clean. I preffer cold sounds rather than warm so thats just my personal opinion.

i think at first the EQ is a little mad, but then you find a settin you like and then you can just mess with it slighly for different sound.
its awesome, my freinds envy it so i dont know why people talk crap about it.

hear this pedal in action
i use it in my band
www.myspace.com\shottopiecesband

there you can hear it live and in recording :)

its great
crunchy as you like
pinch harmonics rip out of this thing
solos are clear and smooth
sustain is great
chords bite you back as they scream out of the amp, i love it :)

threw it at a chav as they walked past my house saying metal is shit
and he bled
still works
its strong enuff 2 last
light enought to carry
but heavy enought to be stable and to be used as a weapon

never had to
will not break

its great
perfect for metal and rock
and no im not danish, i bought it on holiday
screaaams metal
i love it
the only pedal i need live
other than a wah sometimes
not very noisy

and what the hell are half you guys talking about
have you try checking your other equipment before blaming the pedal???
it seems everyone with good experiance likes it
maybe the rest are n000bs!
i love it!

It's easy to use, but hard to dial in a decent setting.

Not a very noisy pedal by any means, it just sounds so cold and digital. Not much tone produced by this little stomp box. They say it's great for metal, I can't find any justification in that.

Well, we all know the reliability of Boss pedals. Nothing can break 'em.

Never needed it before. Probably never will.

This is a very compressed and cold sounding pedal. I'm sure this is somebody's "perfect" sound out there, but it is far from being mine. It's only use is for dirty/clean switching on my practice amp so I don't have to lug my other equipment around.

It is really hard to find a config that sounds right

I think it is the best distorsion for playing metal. It is a very common error to forget that it is only a pedal. The best distorsions have to be created with tube amps like 5150, etc. But if you want to obtain a cold distorsion (with the most distorsionated sounds) you will need it

Yes, it is a part of my sound, playing every kind of music. It only need to know how to use it.

I bought it in sales...

I play from blues to heavy metal, and y can alwais find a place for it sound (with differents configs...)

I love this pedal.
for the music i play this pedal does the trick.
If you want a dry, crunch sound, this is definately the pedal for you.
I never use the manuels so i dont know about them. It sounds even better when you run it with an EQ.
Alot of people give this pedal shit, but hey if your playing hendrix, DONT GET THIS PEDAL!!!!
This pedal would more likely appeal to those who listen to cannibal corpse or like 80's metal.

Jackson DK1, Ibanez RG7321> Boss TU2 tuner> Digitech Whammy> PH 3 Phase shifter> Boss MT2 Metal Zone> KFK 10 band eq> Crate 220 watt solid state head.
The pedal has a strong crunch especially with an EQ. For me it almost always sounds great. Im not sure how it sounds through a tubed head though. I think this distortion is very good.

Hey its a Boss.
those things are nearly indestructable.
Ive had mine for 5 years.

Hey its a boss.

I play Thrash/Death/Black metal so this pedal does it for me.
if it were stolen, lol id probably steal someone elses.. hahaha
but yeah id definately buy another one.
Like I said this pedal sounds good, But it sounds soooo much better with an eq.

Not the easiest one, but u can do it after 3 or 4 months angry with it. lolol..

I play with two amps.. One Marshall in the rehearsal studio and a Hughes & Kettner at home.. I'm considering switching them, 'cause the Marshall simply won't do... Though I turn and turn the knobs, it simply sounds like crap.. Back at home, with my Hughes, it sounds just amazing.. Can't explain that, it just does! Never understood Marshalls anyway!

Don't know, haven't start giging yet..

the problem with this pedal doesn't look to be the pedal itself, but with what are you playing it. Sometimes it sound great, other times U wish to throw it at your dealer's face... thing I wouldn't buy it again if I lost it, I'd prefer to have one more versatile, one I could play anywhere and maintain the same sound quality I get with my hughes..

Setting the mid eq seems to be a real chore for some people. Just leave them straight up is my advice.

With an old Les Paul Standard or Custom and an old Marshall Super Lead or Mark II this is my favorite pedal, for over 15 years, now for anything from Judas Priest to Megadeth.

I play live and loud and I never have had a problem "cutting through the mix".

Nu Metal players will not like the Metal Zone as much as say a Line 6 "Ubber" pedal which really cuts the mids but is horrible for solos.

Even at ear bleed levels I still have no problem at all with feedback or noise. Just don't turn the gain all the way up.

I've tried dozens of "metal" pedals over the last 20 years. This is still my favorite. It's tight as all hell and my solos are fast, tight and well defined.

15 years old and still sounds like new.

A perfect pedal is all the support I need.

I play 70's and 80's metal and if Boss made not this Metal Zone I would maybe use an old style Marshall ShredMaster pedal. The old Zoom TR-01 would be my 3rd choice.

I see a lot of people don't like the Metal Zone but decline to say what they use instead. Why is this?

People talk crap about God as well...

Go figure....

The MT-2 is very tweakable. I have tried many other distortion pedals and have not beeen able to scoop the midrange as easily as I have with the MT-2.

The MT-2 has thick,fat and smooth distortion. I use a Gibson ES-335 though a Roland Jazz Chorus 120 and it sounds spectacular. However, I must keep the volume "level" down on the pedal or I will geet some feedback. Others have commented on this problem and say that the MT-2 is not designed for playing live. I dissagree. If you mike your amp through a PA you will not have feedback or noise problems with the pedal. I do not try to emulate any guitar god. Mysound is my own.

I may use this pedal at a gig, depending on the accepted genres of the venue. The construction is solid enough.

N/A

I play Jazz, Rock, Blues, ect. I have been playing 27 years. If it were stolen i would replace it. I was going to get the Big Muff, But this pedal was better harmonically. Its great when I palm muffle my strings. The highs are clear and intence. I also use a Tube Screamer clone (Arion) for overdrive. With these two pedals I have all the bases covered.

Very straight forward, more knobs on it than some distortion/overdrive pedals i guess, but overall it's pretty intuitive

This is where I whole heartedly agree with a number of other reviewers. This pedal is the bees-knees at bedroom volume through a practice amp (which is the sort of setup i was using in the music shop when i tried it and brought it) but don't *ever* think you can use it live. This pedal will not cut through the mix at all unless you crank the volume to ludicrous levels, in which case it'll hiss uncontrollably, deliver ear-bleeding uncontrolable feedback and create an aweful percussive 'thudding' noise as you fret notes. I've not been able to get a tone from this thing that'll sound good *and* cut through the mix - and it seems other people have this problem too, utterly, utterly frustrating. If you never leave your bedroom and want a nice satisfying heavy metal distortion pedal then go for it. If you want to use this pedal live, with a band - just forget it!

Solid as a rock

Great for any 'bedroom eddies' out there, but utterly useless in a band situation - especially if you play lead and need to cut through the mix.

This beast is kind of hard to get the sound you want it within the first weeks of use. After you get the hang of the thing you can get virtually any kind of heavy metal sound with it.

I use Meteoro(Brasilian Brand) amps and Bc Rich guitars and the sound is simply awsome. Palm muting with this thing is simply jaw-dropping. The only problem this pedal has is that it CAN get noisy and produce a lot of feedback.

Jumped on it quite a few times, never broke. Even droped water on it once by accident nothing happened. Boss=Tank for real I guess.

I play mainly new metal and combining this pedal with my B.C.Rich 7-string Warlock it simply sounds awsome. Played live quite a few times and people simply gazed at the guitar and the awsome metal sounds I got from this pedal.

bloody difficult to get anything that sounds even remotely good-then you find something n go yeah thats cool..........but then u realsie what a big pile o shit it is

ok i use a peavey wolfgang->weeping Demon->peavey 5150 with an FX loop consisting of nobels preamp booster->boss Ns-2->EHX holy grail..............ok so ur probably thinking-why the hell has he bought a MT2 when he has a 5150???good Q really-i used to have a fender tiwn reverb and needed to expand it slightly-got rid of the twi but the pedal stayed in a drawer somewhere-recently got it out n thought-yeah ill give this a go-sounded piss poor ahahah

i remeber the day when i got rid of my twin and thought im never usin a fckin boss pedal again.....played a gig and before the gig i was pretty happy with the tone i had-it had balls and was pretty decent really-took me ages but i found the tone i liked out of it.....so we played this gig and my frined recorded iton his vid cam-the other guitarist in my band was using a JCM900 SL-X which i thought sounded shit at practice and thought my MT2 was the shiz....so we watched the vid back and as i thought one guitar sounded shit and one sounded freakin amazing...i started to take the piss outta te guitarist in my band n then a part came where i play somethin different and the amazing sounding rig played daves part and the mingin fuzz i could hear was actually my rig.......basically it sonds great for bedroom players but as soon as u et it into a gig the only thin that ppl can hear is some mingin trebly fuzzy overtone that sounds like u arent even changing notes.....and then for tapping.........pleh it reacts the same way to ur playing as ur clean would....pathetic-im gonna give it a 3 coz it sounded pretty good in my room and at practice-when turned up tho-OWCH p.s JCM900 SL-X cranked-holy crap-sounds terrible at ear friendly volumes-cranked its awesome-i prefer the 5150 tho

didnt break once-still isnt broke

N/A

i play in a metal/punk sorta band and i love my meta guitar tones.......but this.....well i personally am ashamed to say that the music i like can be associated with this p.o.s.i rate the boss MT2 along with a zoom 501 and hmmmm, i think possibly a behringer V-amp may possibly equal this in terms of tone...........hated it-live it sucks-i used to use it in prac but no more-i use a HK tube factor now for practice-the MT2 started to soun bad in practice too....once that frequency presents itself u continue to hear that and many more mingy fuzzy overtones and u realise that it sucks bigtime-dont buy this pedal if u wanna do gigs........seriously now u might aswell buy a zoom 501 coz they sound pretty much the same live-the only thing ur audience can hear is a proper nasty fuzz-its shocking-get a 5150 or infact just buy a fairly decent amp......then use a HK tube factor-and use ur EQ to give u the "heavy tone"...u will see wha i mea if u ever try one-its not obviouly over fuzzy and over distorted but instead ois clear-crunchy AND has plenty of sustain-its an extra 100quid but if ur gonna do gigs and cant yt afford a mesa/5150/TSL then go with the HK preamp...its awesome

3 coz its ok for bedroom guitarists who dont know any better

It's a very versatile effect, you can get a good range of sounds out of it, covers anything, maybe not perfectly but gets the job done. Maybe it takes some time for you to learn how every knob affects the sound but once u've got it, you can play with it and find your sound.
The manual has some nice settings, but i've never used it.

I usually take both mids to 9 o' clock, bass almost full and treble at 4, i play a lot of metal, specially TOOL and even if this will not give me the mesa distortion, sounds pretty well for me. But i also play punk, and soft rock and this little fucker has all covered.

When mixing it with other pedals.... + crybaby? U can get virtually the same sound of Kirk Hammet, let's say for example in Fuel. + flanger? a lot of crazy sounds, but don't expect to get the Adam Jones Sound just by mixing this 2 guys, it's pretty hard. + delay? the basic stuff, but if you have a DD-3 or any other with a Hold function you can create a "virtual" rythm guitar and start soloing.. amazing.

If it wasn't for the reliability...

Ok ok... everyone's like "yeah boss = tanks" etc etc but i disagree...well it lasted like 2.5 years, but now i'm getting a new one, because the input and output jacks are all screwed. I get this terrible fuzz and even a loss of signal if i move the cable. Even if it was by mistake, and just a little push, this shit can go mad. Last saturday, in a gig, happened. I couldn't take it anymore, so it's now dumped in my house. I opened it and checked the soldernig, they were so irregular, so i covered them well, but the problem persisted *and* the switch didn't work anymore... ok the switch problem's for me maybe, but the jacks are the same, i can't rely on this one anymore for live play.

Before this failure, and not that important, the switch wouldn't stay on or off when depressed. I think because of so much use. I just opened and sticked a piece of sponge so it would be pressed harder, and problem solved.


I bought it new, i took good care of it, always carrying in the box, using good cables, one or two falls, but i'm dissapointed this happened.

Anyways I have fuzz, delay, flanger and chorus, all BOSS and they don't have problems... yet... i hope they last more than this one.

I'm not from the u.s. so i can't get official support.

The time this one lasted, everything was perfect, was my core sound, cuz i cannot afford a nice amp like a mesa boogie or marshall.. (well i do have a 15 w. marshall :P) and i will replace it as soon as possible, i cannot live without it... (musically speaking), so i'll give it an 8 cuz the reliability. It fucked up the gig... the song... damn!

Generally Boss pedals are exceptionally easy to setup, but that's not quite the case with the Metal Zone. It takes a good chunk of time to find the best EQ settings available. After that there's a simple on/off switch. Bought my Metal Zone used, and without a manual. Doubt that a manual could help much with EQing though.

I ran this pedal through my Fender Blues Junior with a low-end Washburn upgraded with Duncan Designed pickups from a C-1 Classic. I've used it with other pedals, and by itself. Either way I could not get a great sound from this pedal.
I will admit, I haven't found a pedal better suited for palm-muting, but playing chords, even power chords, doesn't sound good.

Thin. Lifeless. Those seem to be words that best describe the sound. I thought this pedal would own, but it just bores me. Obviously, you can't quite expect a Mesa in a box, but this just wasn't great. Compared to the thickness of the Big Muff pi, this is weak.

If there's one thing Boss gets right, it's definitely reliability. I don't think that this pedal actually _could_ break. I've used it live many-a-times.

Never talked to Boss. Never needed to.

4 knobs, 2 are split into 2: level knob, Low and High EQ, Mid EQ and Mid Frequency, Distortion. It takes some fiddling to get the right sound but once you get the hang of it you'll be dailing them in no problem.

I use the following set up:
Epiphone Supernova>Loooper>Vox Brian May Special (Treble Booster)>Boss GT-3>EH Double Muff>Boss MT-2>EH Small Stone>Fender Twin Reverb 65 Reissue
Many people seem to hate this pedal but I can't understand why, I can only think they haven't spent enough time tweaking the sound and getting used to the quite sensitive EQ. With just the pedal on straight into my amp I can get some great distortions ideal for thrashing the guitar a bit. I usually only play rhythm but stick some reverb and delay on and there's a lot of potential for a meaty solo. When I use the Vox Brian May as a treble booster it changes the pedals sound completely, I have to compensate by altering the EQ but the growl I get is immense. Palm muting it will rattle all the windows in the immediate vicinity and make you want to chug along all day. It is a little noisy but nothing excessive for the type of pedal it is. Give this one a chance and it won't let you down. You do need a good amp though.

I've had it ages, it's built like a tank and I'd happily jump on it all day and be confident it would last me through a gig.

N/A

I play many styles, this is really only useful for getting BIG distortion, don't try to get a light crunch out of it. It needs a bit if patience and a good amp to makle it sound it's best but it's a very useful tool for any rock guitarist, the only pedal I'd replace it with is the Robert Keeley modded version (if only I had the cash!!)

its quite easy to use. if you can't figure it out... then my friend... you have a problem. the manual is good, as are all boss manuals, the sample settings are kind of hit or miss.

here is where i have mixed feelings. the sound quality... where do i begin? when i first got this pedal, i loved it. and part of me still does. for a small amp, or playing at low volumes, this pedal is amazing. it has a great distortion tone, and a great sustain. but when you play this at high volumes... then you run into problems. there is so much hiss, and high end... that its almost unbearible. also.. unless you almost max out the lows at high volumes... this thing has no guts at all. its rather a weak hissing machine. so if you are a bedroom, or basement hero... get this thing. you can get many great distortion tones, and you can emulate your heroes. but when you try and gig with it, or use it seroiusly... you get a weak, hissy tone.

its built like a tank.. like all boss pedals. but you do run into problems if you dont keep everything in check. if the inputs get loose or anything such as that.. .there is horrible noise. but take care of your gear and you wont run into that problem.

never had to deal with them. but i hear good things.

i play classic rock, jam rock, blues, Christian contemporary... ect.
this pedal... would work if it had guts at high volume. some really cool tones are created. ive been playing for almost 10 years now. i own many high end guitars (g&l, gibson) bottom line, if you are going to gig with it, look elsewhere...

Okay this pedal is slightly more complicated to use that others but it ain't rocket science. Ten minutes is all it should take for you to get used to the set up (unless you decided to go and dive straight into it without glancing at the manual).

Okay here's where people are going to have different opinions. Sound is subjective, ussually by comparison to what other things you've heard and used. Granted I've only been playing a year and don't have much money to spend but it does exactly what i want it to do for the price. METAL. Maiden to Metallica to Pantera it handles really well. I've read a lot of reviews by people playing for 15+ years saying its crap. Well thats because you have had time and money to buy all the end gear like Marshall DSL 100 stacks!!! A $100 pedal won't replace that.... OBVIOUSLY. But it wasn't designed to. This is not the best pedal ever meade but it is the most suited to metal in its price range. If you want a great Metallica sound and your on a budget... this is for you. However, if you can afford big ass valve stacks and $5000 guitars, buy them instead, I would.

It's damn near indestructable.

n/a

This thing is great FOR METAL. Now yes there are better ways to go about it.... but not for $100. If you've been playing for only a few years buy this.... if yoour a veteran... get the real expensive stuff.

First off, the controls are marginally complicated, and the manual is not all that helpful.

I'll give you some backround on my situation. I'm in a band that plays alot of Sabbath covers, but we can be anywhere from Neil Young to Zakk and I'm playing a Gibson SG through a Marshall 60W Combo. The built-in over drive on the amp is great, but it is more classic rock-ey, and I needed the Iommi tone, so I decided to pick up a distortion pedal. The guy at the store said he uses the Boss Metal Zone and with a bit of tweeking it can go anywhere from Zeppelin to Dimebag, and should have no problem getting Iommi like tones, AC/DC like crunch or Hendrix like fuzz. I tried it out and got some so-so tones, but he reminded me that it needs a lot of EQ tweeking to get the right sound. I bought it and messing with it for hours and coulden't get anything. The manual had some examples of tones like Metal, fuzz, hard rock, British Rock, Classic Rock, etc. but it only really gets two tones: a wayyyy to distorted metal plam-muteing rythem with and unbearable, ear splitting treble, or, when the distortion is redused on the hard rock and classic rock settings, a ball-less still ear splittingly trebaly noise that is to weak to even listen to. I have spent hours in the past week trying to find my own tones, but I'm still just getting these two in various forms. When the bass is turned up anywhere past 12 oclock the amp sound like an elephant taking a dump, and the cringe-indusing treble still sounds like fingernails on a chalk board. All in all this effect sounds nasty, tinny, and weak.

It's a Boss, you can run over with a semi and it would be fine. It gets a 6 because the folks at Boss decided to play it cheap and use crappy little brittle plastc tone knobs that you can literally pull right of because they didn't even bother to glue them on. If I were to gig with this (god forbid) I would gig without a backup and consider it a miracle if the thing fell apart.

Never had to deal with them.

Completely useless for anything other then cut-mid chugga-chugga nu metal. If you want an Hendrix, AC/DC, Zeppelin, Sabbath, Metallica, Megadeth, Maiden or Priest like tone, this will not help you at all. I have been messing with the controls for 6 months and gotten nothing listenable. No matter how much you mess with the mids they still sound completely cut. If you try to do tapping solos you may as well play unplugged, it has little to no sustain. If you use a wah, chorus, flanger, etc. forget it, any kind of wave changes through these effects will be completely lost. I recently gave up and sold this on ebay and bought a Musician Sound Design "Paranoid" Iommi Fuzz Box, which will be arriving shortly. I can already tell you that if you want a CLASSIC metal tone along the lines of Sabbath, Metallica, etc., the Paranoid will be better because nothing can be worse then the MetalZone. If it were stolen I would thank the person that took it and laugh at their frustration while trying to get a tone out of it. I may seem to be too harsh on this box, but I am merely telling the truth about my experience and trying to save you from my fate. This thing is a piece of crap, unless you want a nasty, thin, digital, tinny tone and a waste of good money.

Its simple... fiddle knobs and step on it :P

Obviously this is the section everyone cares about (and seems the bit with most disagreement)... so lets sort out some basics :

1. If you want an insane metal sound that rivals hammet or king... go by a Gibson, make sure it comes standard with EMG81/85's, run it into a $4000 mesa boogie recitifer or top end marshall and start smiling! - but dont start comparing that setup to a stompbox!

2. If you just wanna have fun in ur own bedroom or impress ur mates at a small gig with an otherwise weaker amp/guitar then this pedal is perfect...

I have recently stopped revolving my world around metal, sold my les paul and ibanez and picked up a fender stratocaster USA so i could get the most out of ripping off gilmore and knopfler.

but i still find myself recording a heavier type of music (not metal anymore though) and jamming along with my metallica and guns'n'roses cds and of course softer metal i can play without drop tuning my guitar... for this purpose i needed something to give the fenders single coil pickups more balls... and the pedal hasnt let me down

It does require a bit of tweeking to get a good sound and is very noisy unless i use 2 pickups at once (as is normal for SCP's) but it improves the sound quality at higher volumes a lot (my amp is the Roland Cube 30Watt).

I also cant play leads on this pedal as all the tone is lost in the process...

I have managed to get a decent sound for playing along with Opeth, In Flames, Metallica etc but ONLY rythym parts and I now think this pedal is better suited to hardrock sounds rather than metal...

So overall if you think u need the MT-2 pedal to improve the sound of a $10,000 rig maybe u need to accept its more a talent issue and thats why the MT-2 isnt doing what ud hoped!

BUT if you need to improve the power in a smaller solid state amp or give some balls to SCP's than buy this pedal!...its cheaper than a professional set up and perfect for what it was built to do!

those ppl who rated the sound of this "1" have probably tried to break it in a fit of rage... so im sure they'll agree tt this thing is built like a tank!

that said it eats up battery power quickly and got marked down... so make sure u unplug the input lead!!!

Never needed help

This pedal was built to improve the distortion of an amp or guitar that wasnt designed for metal... it wasnt built to be a substitute for the real tube amps nor for the talent of kirk hammet...(like some reviewers here tend to think)

so if u just need to boost the power of a guitar/amp or remove the static or oscillation from the distortion of a crappy amp than this pedal is perfect and should leave u impressed.

It is easy to get a decent sound out of it, thanks to their handy literature, however, to get a good or great sound requires a much more substantial investment of time, patience and endless knob-tweaking. It took me somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 minutes to get a sound I could live with, but then again, I was trying to use it to make a Crate GFX-212 sound like a Fender Roc Pro 1000, no easy task regardless of the equipment. I am getting closer, but expect another 9 or 10 solid hours of doing nothing but tweaking in order to get there. No idea about Editing patches or mods or firmware, but the manual is somewhat useful for a starting point. The only issue I have with the dials is that they turn too easily. I wish there was some way to lock them into position or that the pots turned with more resistance, like the DOD Ice Box, for instance.

This is with an Ibanez RG470XL and a Crate GFX-212 amp. The pedal is not particularly noisy, though it does send the amp into gales of feedback, which is kind of interesting. This pedal runs the gamut of sounding like complete thin needly crap to razor sharp tones, but I have found it sounds better with the distortion turned down to about 60% and a great deal of tinkering with the EQ knobs. I keep Level on about 75%, which seems to work out ok. I have to account for the slight modeling I am doing with the amp itself, because this stompbox will be the on and off switch for clean w/chorus+reverb to distortion and it also has to mask the chorus+reverb and somehow get it all to sound together similar to my Fender Roc Pro 1000, as this is my backup gear and I don't want to stray too far from the sound. So far, it is getting fairly close, but I still have a ways to go.

It is a Roland, which means that anything short of a nuke dropped directly on it will not harm it. I hope I never have to use it for a gig, but if I do, I know, just like the Crate, that I can rely on it.

Roland is not the easiest of companies to contact, but their equipment is usually so great that it doesn't matter. Their manuals and videotapes are usually very helpful, but when you start getting in-depth, the internet will be your best bet.

I play metal, blues, rock and punk and it takes an unreal amount of playing with those shifty EQ knobs to get a sound that works well for all of them, but I'm here to tell you that it can be done. Sure, in conjunction with the Crate GFX-212, it will never sound as good as the Fender Roc Pro 1000, but it is making a fair simulation and as a backup, that is all I ask for. This pedal sounds better than every other pedal out there, at least all the new ones and is the only thing that even got close to the GP-100, the sound of one of the settings of which I was trying to find. If it was lost or stolen, I would get another because I know it will be reliable and consistent and behave as I would expect it to behave. As I said, I hope never to need it, but if I do, I know I can count on it.

I find it pretty easy to get a good sound out of this pedal.
Sample sounds get you started so you can tweak from there.

I play a 1988 Les Paul Custom Shop Showcase Edition eith EMG 85's. I converted them to run on 18 volts for more headroom when I am playing clean.
It's pretty quite for a distortion pedal.
I use it with a Peavey Classic 30.
It is easy to dial in classic rock, older metal al Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, etc... wtih this one. Generally speaking i run the level to match the clean channel when I switch it off. Bass between 2-5 oclock, High about 12 oclock and both mids near 12 oclock. I run the drive between 7 and 9 oclock. The louder I am playing the more towards 7 I go. Anything over 11 or 12 oclock on the drive even at low volumes and it gets to buzzy for me.

Bullet proof. My brother has one of the originals and it is still going strong nearly 20 years later.
No back up.

Never had to deal with support.

I play rock, blues, surf, and oldies.
I have been playing 25 years.
I would replace it. For the money I have found no better.
If you are looking for a soft distortion that will even out uneven playing technique while articulating the notes look somewhere else, if you are looking for old school Marshallesque tones for the seventies and early eighties that force you to develop your playing dynamics and accuaracy, this is for you. If you look at the guitarist that are most admired for their tone they have higher actions, bigger strings and a cleaner signal. Until i can afford multiple plexi's and a place to play them cranked ala Angus Young I will stick with my MT-2.

Easy. For some reason mine didn't come with a manual, so it took me a while to figure out how to use the "MIDDLE" and "MID FREQ" knobs. But I downloaded the manual from their website... Turn bass, highs to taste, you don't really need to turn distortion past 12 o' clock. Turn level so your distorted volume matches your clean volume. Then step on it. That's it.

I love the big heavy rhythm sound I get from this pedal! I use this with a strat with EMG DG20 pickups. Bridge pickup, with SPC set all the way up, and EXG set all the way down. I get the best sound when I send the mt-2 directly into my amp's effects return. Understand one thing: this is a metal pedal. I wouldn't call it versatile. Some people say you can use it for blues and stuff, but I don't know, I only get one sound from it: metal rhythm. If you expect to get good lead tone suitable for different styles, don't get this pedal.

You know what everyone says - It's a Boss. Oh, by the way, DON'T expect to use batteries, it kills batteries quick. You need the Boss PSA power supply - and get the PCS20A power cable and the TU2, NS2 or LS2 pedal so you can power multiple (up to 7) pedals from one power supply.

don't know, but I like that you can download their manuals.

Great pedal! But again, it's not versatile: it's a metal pedal (duh). I also considered the Digitech DF7 Distortion Factory, but I impulsively just bought this one. My solid state 50w amp has really really bad distortion, so this definetely helps, BUT.. I'm still searching for the right lead/solo tone, and I'm wondering if you can actually achive good tone from pedals (v.s. a good/tube amp). Anyway, Enjoy!

easy to use just twising the nob's make a big difference to the sound so you know what yer working with.

great pedal i runned it through a marshall AVT 100 and it sounded like a full valve amp...ever better i still think the only bad thing about the pedal is it has so much gain it give's off alot of feedback, but a boss NS-2 should fix that i would think, other than that gr8 metal sound. i play (metallica, pantera, trivium, killswitch, machine head,....anything metal get my drift)

good soild pedal like all boss pedals

One great pedal never had much of bother with it except the feedback, give me the metal sound i wanted through a pre amp.

It's a little harder than most distortion pedals, with the parametric EQ knobs instead of the usual three. The suggested settings are good to start with, if you know what you're doing you start with everything at 12 and spin 'em back and forth.

I'm using primarily humbuckers, in parallel and split. I find humbuckers in series sound great clean, but muddy up when the distortion is applied. All Mesa Mark amps. I like speedy runs, and the Rectos are not for shredding. Sorry, kids.

I originally bought this trying to get a pedal setup for a small Mk II combo that would duplicate the searing lead tones I get from my Mk IV. The distortion channel on the Mk II just doesn't do it (although I think I can get it modded by Mesa to Mk IIc+ specs, just more cash). But it didn't work, just a cheap fizzy pedal that sounds better in the bedroom than at stage volume. So I tried using it as a dirty boost, dist down and volume up. It had some possibilites, still just a little too transistory for my amps. I had an SD-1 modded by Robert Keeley that really boosts well, only with a huge amount of tone suck in bypass, not Keeley's fault, just a shitty Boss buffer. It really helps tighten up some of the muddiness that Mesa's have, tho, so I figured I'd get it modded, knowing that the pedal sucks tone when off and leaks distortion when off, too, but it might have its' uses. Listen carefully, it really screws with your clean signal.

At the time, and still as far as I know, only Keeley and Indyguitarist mod the MT-2, so I downloaded all the sample soundfiles and played them back in loops, comparing and listening for what I might like. To me the Keeley clips sounded kind of nasally, of course the mids were scooped to appeal to most of the MT-2 buyers (can't play leads with the mids scooped) but the Indyguitarist mod seemed to have more girth to the sound, more fat in the midrange. Just what I was willing to take a risk on, so off it went to Indyguitarist, for the Bogner/Diezel MT-2 mod. Fast turnaround, same as Keeley, but when I got it back there were some unexpected benefits I couldn't believe. See my review under Indyguitarist for my review of the modded pedal.

Boss pedals have been around since the '60's, and the originals are still working. You might not like their sound, but they are bulletproof.

Never needed Boss factory support. With all the people modding these things out there, you can get it fixed by someone, and quick.

For what I wanted it for, this thing stock sucks. If you're on a tight budget and need something that approximates a metal tone, this is about the only thing available that'll get close. Even Rocktron admits their new pedal is a ripoff of the MT-2 circuit. Maybe the Line 6 UberMetal would be better, but I'm concerned about their reliability. I won't tell any of my stories, but I know I won't be buying anything Line 6.

But if you do have one, get it modded. Personally, the Indyguitarist mod exceeded my expectations by far. And one very favorable surprise.

Easy enough to use,there's no mysterious combination you can dial in that makes an important difference anyway.

I use a couple of Les Paul Customs one with EMG 81s the other with stock Gibson 'buckers and an old Jackson Soloist SL2H fitted with Seymours (JB/59) . My main amps are an Engl Powerball and a custom hot-rodded Marshall JCM 800 and I use them with a pair of VHT Fat Bottom 4x12s so I know only too well what "brutal" distortion means. I'm not going pretend that this pedal gets anywhere near that kind of brutality because it doesn't. It's nothing more than a badly voiced, cheesy-sounding stomper and may be ok for you if you only ever plan on wanking around in your bedroom like a lot of guys want to do but if you want to gig anytime soon your gonna be needing something that won't embarrass you when its time to step up to the plate. The thin sound seems to get praise mainly from very young guys who have no idea what a really heavy distortion sounds like and who think a line 6 Spider combo is the absolute bitch. Or much older guys who think its cool to exaggerate and mislead those younger guys (could be some of those older guys have hearing damage maybe?) Plug this pedal into a cheap solidstate practice amp and if your inexperienced enough you may be superficially impressed because you have nothing decent to compare it with. But plug it into a big powerful tube head like a JCM 800 or a Dual Rec and you'll quickly realize that its the quickest way to emasculate your sound. No real low end...bland, nasal mids... glassy, fake-sounding highs.... the best way I can describe it is that it sounds like what those Queer Eye For The Straight Guy advisors would reccomend you should buy i.e. tidy, polite, tame and minus your balls. And you can play around with the fancy EQ all day long in the vain hope that a good sound is only a tweak away but it never comes because it just aint in the pedals nature. Metallica sound my ass. I can fart a better Metallica sound than this pedal can manage. Sure enough, theres plenty of sustain on tap but no hint of preamp-style saturation as some people seem to imagine. I tried 3 of 'em in the store and they all sounded the same so it wasn't a faulty sample. I tried the metal zone in the store with Peavey, Mesa, Marshall and Crate amps and it just doesn't fly. They all sounded much better without it and even the guy in the store agreed . To me no pedal (at least no solidstate pedal) sounds anywhere near as good as tube amplifier distortion but I'm not totally against distortion pedals on the whole, only the bad ones and this has to be the worst I've ever heard though admittedly I haven't heard them all. I shudder to think what could sound worse. I only tried this thing out of curiosity on account of all the rave reviews its had on here. But they turned out to be wrong. Maybe you could find a limited use for it if you play in a cheesy 70s glam rock covers outfit but for heavy metal? Forget it. This pedal is wrongly named and you couldn't pay me enough to use one.I wont give it the lowest rating because I just thought of a worse sounding distortion unit namely the Danelectro Fabtone but the Metal Zone runs it a close second.

I use other Boss pedals and they've never let me down electronically or mechanically.

If you really need a distortion pedal for metal and your on a tight budget, do yourself a big favour and give this one a miss and get yourself a Digitech (formerly DOD) Grunge pedal. Don't be fooled by the name. Your Metallica/Pantera riffs will really kick out with this one. It's a lot cheaper and has a chunky, powerful, ballsy sound that cruelly exposes the Metal Zones weakness in this area. Of course that idea won't appeal to brainwashed Boss snobs with their sweeping "Boss is best" mantra. But if you have an open mind give it a try. You wont be disappointed. Even better still (much better!) if you can afford it buy a Tonebone Hot British and you wont look back, at least until you can afford a decent amp setup.

Es un pedal realmente f?cil de usar, debido a que trae los controles que se esperan para un pedal de ?sta categor?a.

Tiene un sonido muy bueno, si entiendes desde el comienzo que no debes llevar sus controles al m?ximo. Por ejemplo, el controlador de la distorsion, debe ser utilizado m?ximo en un 65% ? 70%, porque de all? en adelante lo que genera no es mayor saturaci?n sino un poco de ruido adicional. El pedal ?no genera ruidos desagradables. Tal vez no es el sonido devastador que esperar?as en una distorsi?n, pero es muy bueno si se sabe mezclar con los demas pedales. En mi caso, ayudo al sonido con un poquito de ganancia en mi amplificador de tubos, un buen compresor, y tal vez un delay a unos 20 milisegundos.

Puedes confiar en que es un pedal que no te deja solo, como casi todos los pedales de BOSS. La caja met?lica es buena, el switch de encendido no falla, y los conectores de pila y de alimentador de energ?a son buenos. Funciona muy bien en garajes, conciertos medianos y estadios llenos... Siempre y cuando no abuses de los niveles.

It's not at all difficult to get a ridiculous, saturated tone from this pedal. It's got a few more knobs than most other Boss pedals, but frankly the gain knob makes little difference, because 99% of the people I know who own this pedal just keep the gain all the way up anyway.

The name says it all. I run this through a Hot Rod Deluxe, which does not have the greatest drive channel by any stretch, and I am instant Metallica with this pedal. I play a Strat Plus and an Epiphone Les Paul Extreme through this, and I get CRAZY distortion and sustain with either of them. Personally I generally just turn up all the controls, then roll off the treble 1/4 turn and scoop off the mids about half to 2/3 and I've got perfect metal tone. Switching on and off is flawless, no click or pop whatsoever, and mine is almost 15 years old. To me, Metallica/Megadeth/Slayer, their tone, while slightly varied, let's face it, they all sound pretty much the same. A quick turn of the mid control one way or the other and you've got any one of them.

Built like Fort Knox. A sledgehammer couldn't dent this thing.

One of Boss's more expensive pedals, but if you're a metalhead/shredder, worth every cent. I've since grown out of the whole metal thing, every now and then I'll get together with the old hardcore band and keep the whole neighborhood up, but as far as that goes this is the only pedal you'll ever need if you're into that kind of thing. Without question the easiest to use, best-sounding metal distortion you can buy. Don't waste your money on trendy DOD pedals, this is the only one you need. It can match AND surpass any of the "Death Metal," "Grunge," "Pro-Rat," "Big Muff," or any other "metal" pedal available. An ungodly amount of gain can be achieved with this pedal alone, but you can REALLY super-saturate your tone by placing behind a compressor, and then cascading the MT-2 into a booster pedal like a Blackjack. And yet the MT-2 will NEVER cause you to lose signal. It stops on a dime, Helmet-style. Even though I don't really play metal anymore, I would likely STILL buy another one if anything happened to it, just to have one around, it's THAT GOOD.

It took some time to get the perfect level of distortion I wanted, but once you find it, its great. Its crazy how the littliest turn can make the slightest diffence in your sound, sometimes is for the best though.

It goes to a Squire Stratocaster from a Crate GT15 amp, it sounds great, The distortion has some great bite to it and if you get someone to move the mids back and forth you can make wah noises. Anyways, this pedal fucking rocks for Metal, I can basically get any kind of distortion I want.

I can rely on this pedal forever really. I can Open up beer bottles with it too. ahaha

I would use it for a gig and the only backups i would have would be back up batteries

i have had no problems with it at all

I play Heavy Metal (Iron Maiden, Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera, Black Sabbath, and my original shit) This pedal suits me perfectly. I have been playing for about 3 or four year, and this being my first pedal I believe i will be sticking with it.
If my MT 2 was stolen i would make sure i buy another one or find the guy that stole it.
I used to play guitar through my friends Digitech Metal Masters, great pedal, but i decided eh its a Boss Metal Zone I will go try it out and it much better.
I wish this pedal came with a free case of beer hahaha.
This pedal helps with my music, i can get every tone I need out of this box.

my sound was very fiddly i like fair bit of bass high enough trebles but not to high and some cut of the mids but still enough in there to define richness and warmth the manual like the other guy said tells you what the knobs do thats it nothing bout tweaking it or setting sound.

my setup is ESP/LTD kirk hammett signature to boss pw 10 wah ( a very good fucking pedal if i might add ) to metal zone to Marshall 175 watt valvestate amplifier and it sounds good coming through but ive always liked marshall not noisy its perfect effects sound good fisrt time every time but thats the magic of boss my sound is one simillar to james and kirk of metallica dave mustaine megadeth how ever i like the fact that with the turn of the mid and mid freq you can go from metallica to megadeth to slipknot to iced earth to rhcp

yes i can deffinately depend on it unless the battery goes dead
yes would use it on gig

i play metal and yes this pedal is a very good one i dont think i will change the only other distortion i will get would probably be a ibanez tube screamer fo solos been playing bout 3 years currently getting taught and progressing nicley yes i would buy another without hesitation i just love its overall functionabillity and sound most of all

Like all boss pedals, it has its instrucions, a bit fiddly at first but you get used to the settings and find your own style.

I use this along with a marshal and a fender stratocaster or telecaster and i play a variation of funk-rock.
It can give of a real nice sound for hitting of some guns n roses stuff or led zeppelin, the best though, is john frusciante (red hot chili peppers)if u have heard him do a solo live then this is usualy the pedal he uses, and in the solo for the recording of cant stop.
Very effective sound that makes a newbie sound awesome

solid metal, i had a small problem at first with the spring for the actual foot bit, but that was easily fixed in seconds

i love the way you can play anything and it will sound awesome on this pedal, i tried a big muff and then tried this, i wasnt sure what i was looking for until i found this one, its my favourite pedal

It is very hard to get a good sound out of it but this is good for it is versatile. It is worth it. The manual stinks.

I use a junky single coil pickups squire strat into a sweet fender deville. It is noisy but it is typical for a distortion pedal. you get a lot of sounds out of it. Old school metal, punk, very heavy metal, emo, or just good distortion. It can be moderate to heavy. Nothing bluesy. "METAL" zone. The lead is great to. I don't if you can get sounds of the bands a like for i have my own sound and i listen to everything from coldplay to underoath.

It is a pedal. it cannot really break.

no idea. make sure you use a boss power supply though.

i play hard emo mixed with synth type music and this is the pedal. It can play any type of hard rock. I have been playing 2 years but am in a band that has gigged a few times. I would buy it again. I only have this pedal. I love the lead and the rhythym. You can get a good thick rhythym sound and a long sustaining lead on the same setting. Great sustain and bottom end. It is a bit noisy but whatever. It has all you need for a metal distortion pedal. Crunchy punk to death metal. Just a thought. I admit i read one of the killswitch engage guitarists puts his mesa on heavy distortion and then outs a tube screamer on at its lowest gain. I do this now too, sort of. For a bit of lighter distortion sound put on a tube overdrive on a very low gain (like my deville) and then put on the metal zone. sounds great. This pedal gets a 1o.

LA REVIEW EN CASTELLANO. Luego de haber leido cientos y cientos de reviews en ingles decidi hacer una especie de resumen en castellano de en lo que la mayoria de la gente coincide y lo que no comparte. Con respecto a las caracteristicas, al primer contacto parece uno encontrarse con una distorcion comun y corriente. Pero no es tan asi. Ademas del clasico y necesario control de level (para poder equiparar el volumen de la guitarra cuanto se toca limpio o se activa el pedal) aparece el ahora no tan tipico (Fijense sino en algunos pedales digitech y dod) control de Gain. Aca es donde en mi caso encuentro mi primera insatisfaccion diria yo. El pedal parte de un suave overdrive hasta una ultrasaturada ganancia que, mas alla de los 3/4 se vuelve muy ruidosa y no agrega casi nada de ganancia, solo un minimo mas de sustain, que ya por empezar es muy bueno incluso a no tan altos valores de este control. Entonces, diria yo: Si el fuerte del pedal esta entre las 10/11 hs (o'clock para los que los leyeron en ingles -voy a tratar de seguir el mismo estilo de review) hasta las 3 o'clock, no veo la necesidad de aumentarle la cantidad de ganancia y mucho menos si toco a valores altos de volumen. Entonces creo que hubiera sido mas conveniente sacarle un poco de ganancia "extrema" por decirlo de una manera y correr esos valores en el control para lograr un poco menos de overdrive. No se si se entiende (yo si).
Luego por la parte de los controles tiene dos controles "grandes" (serian los comunes de cualquier pedal) con dos internos para darle un "barrido" de frecuencias diferentes al sonido final. Es realmente interesante y se pueden lograr muy buenos resultados finales, siempre y cuando se utilizen razonablemente y con cuidado, no a lo guaso porque vamos a lograr unicamente ruido.
En este sentido voy a lograr ser lo mas objetivo posible con los comentarios que haga acerca de este bichito, mas que nada por las cosas que escriben los demas, que por lo pronto veo que son demasiado puntuales y particulares, muy de gustos y cero de objetividad.

Con respecto al sonido en particular. Yo lo utilizo con una jackson JDR-94 japonesa con floyd rose (H-S-H) y un Fender Frontman II 25R (lindo ampli de practica, sobre todo por su canal limpio y su volumen). El sonido final general de este pedal es un estilo thrashero tipico de mediados/finales de los ochenta pero con un poco mas de brillo y una pizca mas de bajos. No es para nada raro si pensamos que este pedal es de principios de los 90 y LA onda era igualar los sonidos de metallica, el viejo sepultura, anthrax, pantera, slayer, etc que era el sinonimo de la vieja escuela del metal y que inspiro a muchas bandas de barrio a iniciarse en esto. Pero eso es otra historia.
Si vamos al meollo del asunto veremos que el fuerte del pedal se situa en uno valores altos de bajos y agudos (primer pote) y lo mismo pero opuesto con el otro pote (frecuencias medias). Si hacemos eso lograremos muy relativamente, una distorsion thrash tipica (si me preguntan, rapidamente diria que se asemeja a un Sepultura-beneath the remains, por decir uno) pero con un toque minimo de agresividad que lleva al sonido general a ser un poco mas gordo y asi poder exprimir un poco el fuerte del pedal en si.
si nos ponemos a jugar con los controles y con la ganancia podemos ver que el pedal permite abrirse un poco a otros estilos de metal o de rock, pero vamos a ver que en todos falta o sobra algo, ya sea ganancia, agudos, graves, etc. Por eso si alguien por decir algo, quiere tocar blues con este pedal, poder lo va a poder hacer, pero va a observar que otros pedales son mas apropiados para ese estilo y es asi donde la mayoria de la gente empieza a hablar mal cuando en realidad lo estan utilizando incorrectamente.
Sonido general?:Muy bueno, teniendo en cuenta sus caracteristicas (es un pedal, recuerdenlo), su precio, sus posibilidades y sus aplicaciones. Habia varios por ahi que decian que su sonido era muy chillon o sin vida, o flaco, etc. No es tan asi, puede llegar a ser chillon en algunos seteos, flaco en otros, sin vida? no se a lo que le llaman sin vida. Si vida se refiere a una distorcion valvular, y obviamente no va a tener vida, pero que se le va a hacer. Es un pedal y hay que acostumbrarse a eso. Estamos comparando una distorcion de 130 dolares (aca en argentina) contra 2500/3000 dolares que es lo que sale un dual rectifier o un peavey 5150 II (sin la caja).
Ruido?, muy poco. He oido ciento de distorciones de otros pedales y de multiefectos y esta esta entre las menos ruidosas. Digo de nuevo, puede llegar a ser ruidosa y se pone a tope la distorcion y se le agrega ciertas frecuencias de mas. Pero como ya he dicho, estan utilizando incorrectamente este aparatito.
Tengo conocidos que utilizan este pedal para tocar en vivo con su banda en lugares peque?os y realmente suena bien. Se puede "optimizar" su uso con un ecualizador como el ge-7 o un supresor de ruido o un compresor. De esta manera le podemos llegar a exprimir todo el jugo al metal zone

Realmente muy bien construido y confiable, aparenta ser solido como una roca y que nunca te va a dejar plantado.

No tengo forma de contactarme directamente con la gente de boss. Ademas de que vivo en un pais alejado de la civilizacion (Argentina), aca es muy probable que un pedal que compres haya pasado primero por varias personas antes. Asi que hace tiempo que expiro su garantia.

Para ir finalizando, un pedal recomendable para todo metalero que busca igualar el sonido thrash que siempre quiso. A quienes no le va a gustar? al que no busca puntualmente este estilo o bien es muy principiante y no tiene idea todavia que le va a gustar tocar, al que busca distorcion mas bien valvular (no se como puede haber gente que compro el pedal para terminar enchufandolo a un mesa triple rectifier y piensan que es una mierda porque no suena como su distorcion, por dios), al que busca un pedal EXTREMADAMENTE VERSATIL, (no es que no lo sea pero en ciertas ocaciones pierde rendimiento el pedal con ciertos seteos).
Que le faltaria? ser un poco mas parejo en determinados momentos en que uno necesita cambiar algun seteo rapido y se termina encontrando conque tiene que cambiarlos a todos. Muchas veces uno lo setea de manera espectacular para tocar ritmicas, pero cuando quiere hacer un solo suena muy mal. Entonces tiene que modificar valores para que termine siendo mas equilibrado los valores de rendimiento, sonido, y calidad final para poder tocar mejor lo que uno quiere. Ademas hubiera venido bien que el sonido final no hubiera sido tan comprimido y un toque metalico, ademas de que el fuerte de este pedal son las ritmicas y no los solos. Pero eso no afecta demasiado la valoracion final, obviamente si nos ponemos a compararlo con otros pedales de su categoria. Sin ir mas lejos DOD hace pedales muy rescatables y baratos. El DOD Death Metal es un muy buen pedal para distorcion extrema, pero al no tener control de ganancia (craso error) corremos el peligro de acoplar irremediablemente y las frecuencias altas suenan muy artificiales. Si DOD hubiera hecho un pedal similar al metal zone pero con el sonido del Death Metal, creo que hubiera sido un dolor de cabeza para la gente de Boss. Han hecho un muy buen trabajo con este pedal, ya que si nos ponemos a pensar que un pedal de alta ganancia va a generar ruido, comprimir la se?al en exceso, etc., creo que el resultado es mas que bueno.
Comparado con otros pedales, yo creo que los que mas se le pueden comparar a nivel general (no particular en el mismo estilo de sonido) serian el Marshall JH-1 Jackhammer, el DOD Death Metal y el DOD Fab Tone (por nombrar algunos). Estos ultimos quizas tengan otros puntos fuertes pero en general son buenas alternativas al Metal Zone en cuanto a Metal y Hard Rock.
Ahora si para terminar, un excelente pedal para principiantes y no tanto, gente que no puede acceder a equipamiento de alta gama y metaleros que priorizan el ruido antes que la calidad.
Conclusion final: Aprobado

PD: He observado que cierta gente (no aqui) ha modificado su metal zone. Si alguno tiene conocimiento de ello y lo quiere compartir solicito tenga a bien comunicarmelo asi lo hago y luego lo comento en esta seccion. Muchas Gracias

It might be a bit difficult to get the sound you want using the EQ at first.. but other than that.. its pretty easy to use.. the thing with the EQ is that the ranges are so wide, the slightest turn affects your sound. Most of the time this is a good thing....

Never Ever ever use this pedal with single coils... the noise will kill your sound (besides.. one does not play metal with sigle coils). Contrary to what people say.. this pedal is SURPRISINGLY quiet for the very large gain available (when youre using a battery). The noise that people often hear is pickup noise from lights and AC wiring..(even humbuckers pick up a little)

I use this with an Ibanez (humbukers of course) you can get almost any hard rock or metal sound you want. ( if you cant.. that is because you are stupid and dont know how to set the knobs) I was able to get a good metal sound farly easy (not crappy nu-metal, i am talking about Metallica, AC/DC, Black sabbath..etc.)

i only use this with solid state amps and it sounds great.. i rarely use it with other effects, but it sounds good with reverb and delay (after the mt2 duh..! )

overall for the sound.. its awesome.. you can get a meaty chuggy sound or a smooth whole-note rythm with tons of sustain. oh.. and of course.. it sounds great with shredding too...cant forget that..:P

nothing to say here.. no backup needed.. this thing just wont break

never needed support

The final say.. If you read reviews that bash this pedal.. then those reviwes are written by very closed minded people. THIS IS A METAL PEDAL ONLY.. THATS IT. It works well with hard rock.. it WONT work for blues or most of classic rock.. its a METAL PEDAL.. thats all it should be used for..
theres simply nothing bad about this pedal its made excellent for what it is.
if something happened to this thing, i would definately replace it.
It definately helps make music.. It sounds great DI'd or mic'd

If you dont know what kind of music you are into, make sure this is not your first pedal..

Takes some playing around with the EQ but there is a wide range of sounds to be had.

Now before I give my review, I would like to make a point, nice and clear for everyone who has read the previous reviews. If you want Classic Blues/Rock sounds then you are a FUCKWIT for giving a review on this Pedal. Did you not listen to it before you bought it? I mean seriously, it has METAL ZONE printed on it. Now that I've got that off my chest, here's the review;

This is pure & simply a Metal Pedal. And I must say one of the best. This is a rhythm player's dream. Lots of dirt and bottom end. A very wide range sounds to be had and great for muted chunk.

If you are a lead player and want cutting bright tones, then this is not really suited. It has plenty of sustain and overtones but if you use this for lead you are going to need an EQ to boost the mid ranges.

You can emulate just about any Heavy Metal band's sound with this from 80's Power Metal & Thrash to todays Black/Grindcore sounds.

Never had a BOSS break on me yet (touch wood).

This boasts one of the Fatest bottom end sounds of any Distortion pedal.

I have been playing around 18 years and I love most brands of Metal music, though I'm currently going through an 80's Power Metal revival phase! I have a Marshall JCM800 2203 head, & 1960a quad. I play a Gibson '67 reissue Flying V and a '96 USA Fender Strat with a Seymor Duncan Hotrail bridge pickup.

If you don't like Heavy Metal sounds then don't buy this baby!

The only reason I'm giving it an 8 is because it's not really ideal for soloists/vituosos/leadplayers.

If you want a BIG rhythm sound, GET ONE!

Its not a boss multi fx processor or anything! Its just a stompbox! All stompboxes are easy to tweek. Unless, youre a retard.

LoL,i cant believe the **** they say about this baby! Ofcourse you sound like ****! Cuz... You dont know how to tweek this thing out. You can get any and when i say any i mean ANY kind of distortion you want from this pedal. Any pedal that has an EQ is a good pedal.. always remember that!! Especially if you have a another EQ to stack with it. You can get that SOLID CRUNCH from this. You can get a rythm palm muting with this. You can even get softer tones like Clapton etc... And more importantly... You can get the classic black sabbath tone,led zep,ac/dc,etc. A GREAT pedal.. since i was a kid i loved it! True bypass! Just make sure to make your tone switch is at the right place.

Ofcourse!! My life depends on this! Well... i may need loads of 9v bateries.. so i think il rather buy a adaptor to make my life easier.

never.. who the hell calls for these guys anyweys? retard

The Best Pedal I Have Ever Owned!! Well.. not really.. let me rephrase

The Best Distortion Pedal I Have Ever Owned!!

Yup.. thats right!!

1 Level knob, 1 low/high knob, 1 middle/middle freq knob and 1 distortion knob.
The knobs are working obviously, but they react to nuances of change, so you'd better be careful when you're setting them.

I tried out some distortion units during my guitar-playing times, and I have to say, this one is my favourite.
There are countless sounds in that pedal, but the only problem that most of them are useless. It's hard to get a sound that fits well, but when you find it you wouldn't want to change that. The first 2-3 weeks were awful, til I found my sound ,then I played with it for 3 years.
The settings in the sheet are only good for being starting points, but you can mix good sounds, based on them. It can be sharp as a razorblade or flat as if it were played from behind 3 pillows. The range of the sounds is very wide, but you can easily get lost within them.
There's no really need to set the distortion amoun over 12'o clock, cause then it will be quite muddy and messy. I used it at about 9 'o clock, and that was hard enough.
It's a really characteristic sounding pedal, and I think if you have enough patience to experiment its sounds you'll get a characteristic sound for yourself too.
There's a little noise when the pedal is depressed, but which distortion pedal doesn't make a noise?
It doesn't really like chorus effects, maybe only a little bit. Reverb is great, but my Wah pedal was not the best for it(it was a Proel, maybe it sounded off because it's not a champion Wah pedal), cause it sounded very flat.

Thick as a brick.

I dunno, I never had any businesses with them, except when I bought it.

It's a great, and individual distortion unit. Don't listen to those people who say it's shit. They say it, because they couldn't find any decent sound from the hundreds, or chose the wrong pedal for the music they play.
That's why you must know that this pedal is a HEAVY METAL DISTORTION UNIT. You won't be able to play Hendrix, or Clapton with it. I basically play hard rock (Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Ozzy)and sometimes it was too hard for even hard rock (especially with Zep songs. I had to turn the distortion knob into minimum level), although Sabbath sounded great with it. If you play Judas Priest, Metallica or Maiden, this pedal will probably be one of the best choices.
I switched it to a DigiTech HotHead, cause I play some softer tones too, like Pink Floyd, and that's too hard for it. By the way, I think I'll buy one again, and keep the DigiTech for softer things, and use the MT2 for hard rock stuff, cause it really sounds great, and I literary miss that little thing :))).
The other thing is that it's highly dependant on your rig, especially the amp. Don't even try to play with a single-coiled guitar and a Metal Zone together, cause it will be a mess. I use a neck-through CG Winner guitar, armed with 2 humbuckers through a Dynacord DC90 combo, and it's great, so there's no need for Les Pauls and Marshalls, but a decent equipment is required. It's even better with a tube amp, so if you want to play hard music with an individual sound, and you have a decent rig, that's your distortion pedal.

It's easy... The thing I hate though is the equalizer... it's kinda hard to turn the bottom knobs...

This thing is so noisy, that's pretty much the only bad thing about it... and it's kinda hard to find your sound on it...

well, yeah it's a BOSS...

This was the first pedal I ever bought and I bought it for about $50 Australian bucks... At first I loved this pedal, but unfortunately my liking of this pedal has deteriorated because of all the other better sounding pedals I've got, and because it is noisy...
Now I use a Big Muff PI for distortion and I just love it...

Easy, like all boss pedals.

I don't like thew EQ section. It is always nasaly and scooped, no matter where you turn the knobs.

Don't like it anymore. When I bought it, I was into late 90's punk like NOFX, Guttermouth, Pennywise, etc. This pedal had that sound. It could probably be used for other, better things, but not by me. I think my humiliation at my past musical tastes is fueling my hatred for this pedal. It's become a kind of scapegoat, and so it must go.

typical Boss pedal, self explanitory.....

my set up is currently:
Ibanez Jem7V
Boss MT-2, Boss SD-1, Boss GE-7, Boss NS-2(all 3 pedals going thru NS loop), vox Wah(after in line gain for more 'wah')
Mesa Triaxis
TC G Major
BBE
Mesa 2:100 Rectifier Power Amp

before i had any boss pedals i was having a VERY hard time getting the sound i wanted out of the mesa rig, wich is a crunchy metal tone, not nu-metal, METAL. it always seemed way too middy or tinny and lacked gain. i tried the DS-1 and all it seemed to do was kill my mesa's tone. so i tried the MT-2, and although it does add a tad of mids, i get the gain and crunch i want from my amp now, without sacrificing its tone. i keep the pedal eq knobs at 12'O Clock(this is essential, the eq knobs are what WILL mess with your amp's orig tone, and kill the crunch) and i put my level at about 6(thats where the crunch is from) and distortion at maybe 2 at the HIGHEST(u dont want distortions mixing, just boosting the amp's orig gain) i do use it with an SD-1 and GE-7 but its still a BIG difference with just the MT-2. i've heard people say the triaxis doesnt like to be pushed with pedals, i found this to def not be true with the MT-2 and SD-1. as long as u dont use too much pedal gains.

its a Boss.....

never dealt with them

im gonna give it a 9, this thing saved my rig, i spent months trying to shape a good metal tone and although its still not EXACTLY where i want it, this pedal gave me the gain and sustains i wasnt getting from my mesa set up. the only reason i dont give it a 10 is cuz it does add a little mid tone to your amp, but certainly not enough to spoil the benefits of this pedal.

i play Thrash/Speed Metal, Surf, Blues. Metal is the hardest tone for me to be happy/satisfied with, and to get. this pedal provided everything i was missing. but as a booster, not as a main distortion.

pretty easy to use and simpele

Its hard to get a good sound out of this thing.Because the mids are so harsh sounding if you get loud at all it sounds like a train crashing.A hole bunch of mids in my ear basically..ouch.discribes it!

havent really used much so dont know

I play metal for my band and this is the best metal pedal i have ever owned except for the my digitech rp7 (multi effects pedal) on grunge and if set right it sounds as heavey as all the top metal bands today.The only down side of my rp7 sound is the leads dont stick out enough.I was hoping with this i would get that and i did.But the heavey stings are to wimpy sounding.And i have all the right equitment.All tube amp with groove tubes 6l6's vintage 30 speakers its a beast.But i have sent this pedal in to get moded hopelly to get what i want this time.Check it out here www.robertkeeley.com/product.php?id=16

I found it pretty easy to use.... I have to say that the settings in the manual sucked ass though.....

I do agree with the guy below me.... the quality of the gear you use with the mt-2 will have a direct effect on the sound quality you get... For example; i have a squire strat and a 60W fender princeton 65 dsp (not best gear in the world but what the heck.... can't quite afford a prs custom 24 and an engl powerball so it'll have to do) and the sound I get is pretty good... when I pluged it in my friend's mesa 50 caliber it sounds pretty awesome... as a matter of fact when my band and i practice together the other guitarist plugs his jackson reverse head loaded with an EMG 81 at the neck into the mt-2 and then into the 50 caliber and he gets a very tubey distortion. Granted that the mesa is a tube amp but the sound he gets from the metal zone is damn good for a digital pedal... I honestly think that it sounds almost tube.... I do have to say this though: THE MT-2 SOUNDS MUCH MUCH BETTER IF YOU COMBINE IT WITH AN OVERDRIVE PEDAL!!!! I hook a sd-1 next to my mt-2(on the right hand side otherwise it sounds like crap) and it tightens up the bottom end and just makes it sound nicer...

Without overdrive pedal I'd give it a 7
with the overdrive pedal I'd give it a 9
plugged into a tube amp I'd give it a 10 (depending on what guitar you use)

I'm really happy with this little box even though it would be nice to have a big fat tube amp and a kick ass guitar... but then again I have no use for a tube amp since I would never get to turn the volume up cuz of the neighbours.... grrrrrrrrr... booty bastards....

seriously... have you seen this things? Thor could hit it with his magic hammer for a week and it would still work perfectly =D

never dealt with the nice boss people but I hear their service is really good. I would like to try getting both my boss pedals modified by either analog Mike or maybe Indy guitarist but that has no relevance at this present time

This little pedal makes my princeton 65 scream so I have no complaints at all... Again if you're getting crappy sounds from your pedal give it a chance... keep on tweaking it and try to play it with different gear... You will hear the difference. Of course the metal zone won't replace your dual recto stack but let's be real now.... it's a freakin stomp box!! buy yourself a decent second hand tube amp (mesa 50 caliber is an awesome amp by the way and it's not that expensive) and the metal pedal will give you enough gain to play anything from punk to emo to metal and back (unless you're one of those black metal ppl that think that the 5150 has too little gain)... don't listen to the people that say that this pedal sucks... and also don't listen to the people that say that this pedal is perfect... try it out and see for yourself... as far as I'm concerned this pedal is bad ass. nuff' said

Pie. Set the EQs at 12:00, dial in your gain and output, and stomp.

Ok, people. I can't believe all the crap I'm reading. Have some sense. If you play your $80 pawnshop Squier through your 5w Crate practice amp and have your settings all screwed up, of course the pedal will sound like ass. Garbage in, garbage out. This is hands-down the best pedal for ANY kind of metal you can think of, provided you have a decent guitar, amp, and cab. Without a doubt, the best settings I have found for any situation are to KEEP THE EQ FLAT. Set EVERYTHING at 12:00, save for the drive amount and the output level. This is where it shines if you have a good amp. I've run this pedal through a million amps, including Randall RH200, Crate Blue Voodoo 60w 212 combo, Marshall AVT50H, B-52 LG100A, Crate GFX 212, etc etc etc. It sounds damn insane through the Crate BV combo. The tight solid-state distortion coupled with the tube power just creates this tone that cannot be contained. The secret, once again, is to keep your EQ flat. 12:00. It lets the sound of your amp and guitar through and just adds a fat load of gain. Once you start twiddling the knobs, you get into mud zone, and it's easy to sound like shit.

12:00, people.

More dependable than God.

Who the hell needs it?

For a heavy music stompbox, it cannot be touched. I've used it for punk, hardcore, metal, hard rock, etc, and it never fails to disappoint. Keys: good gear. Use it, love it. STOP FUCKING WITH THE KNOBS!

Sound is sub-par.... a classic sound...for a dated sound.

Very teenage pedal on it's own....but could be used for alternate distortion.

Very high-end gain.....sounds very rookie.

Free with a guitar I bought.....great for getting wild feedback...other than that....look elsewhere.

6/10 - everyone probably had a sound like this when they were young and learning songs of the radio through a 10 watt amp. I you have a nice rig, and a means to be heard with distinction in a club, do not use this pedal.

Out.

Boss stompbox. Easy peasy.

First people, let's look at the name of this black box: Metal Zone. Metal. Get it? If you want to try and coax blues / classic rock tones out of this you can forget it.

So we play metal. Now what?

I play my metal with Ibanez S-series going into MT2 into Laney TF200 (clean channel). MT2 settings: bass/treble at about 2 o'clock. High-mid all the way down. Low-mids at about 1 o'clock. Gain sort of 12-3 o'clock.

What do I get? A thumping, chuggy-chuggy, palm-muting metal tone with plenty of harmonics a la Zakk.

Only thing wrong... And the reason why I give it a 7... As a leadtone this setting sucks total ass. In fact, there aren't really any GOOD leadtones (for solos) to be had here at all.

So as a rhythm distortion for your metallic purposes I'd give it a 9/10 because it really makes even the tiniest amp chug like a big fire-breathing metal monster.

As a lead distortion... 5/10.

Altogether 7/10.

It's a Boss. Put a battery in it and don't worry about it.

Really fantastic metal rhythm tone. From power metal to thrash and death... If you think this hasn't got enough gain, you're off yer rocks.

Too bad the tone sucks for solos.

Which is okay if you complement it with another distortion box for leads. I have a Marshall Guv'nor which is great and also an MXR Dist+ which has great sustain and a more natural sound.

Well for nu metal i found that its great and for only new metal alot of people say its good for blues, old metal and other stuff there wrong. this pedal is a piece of $%# for anything other than nu metal or any heavy heavy ^%$ like dimebag metallica and all that stuff.i got it cus i thought it would be good for everything but it isnt. the manual gives some sample settings but they sound nothing like the genre that it says they all sound super heavy nu metalish. its a nu metal pedal only. i had a bit of trouble at first when i was anewb knowing what each nob did

im using it with standard strat, and some loudass fender amp. its pretty loud. it sounds great for just new metal. u can get an accurate sound of any artist unless its nu metal.

its strong wont break its metal. id use it at gig with out back up. eat battaries pretty fats so might want a ac adapter

never

this pedal sucks for my style which is old classic metal and rock, I like sabbath, judas priest, iron maiden, led zeppelin, kiss, thin lizzy, def leppard, acdc

ease of use
really ease to use, just twiddle the eq knobs to get a lot of different sounds, you can actually rip-off the smashing pumpkins' big muff sound with this tank. Or if you wnat industrial, twiddle the knobs a bit again...so on and so fort. a versatile distortion unit.

sounds very solid with the right settings, no preamp needed, just plug-in your guitar, step on it and kaboom...you can level the neighborhood(if you got the right settings).

it's been with me for almost a decade and hasn't given me problems...

it's kinda hard to find a certified repairman here in our country, but who needs one?

wanna kick ass? find something like this, the closest thing I could ever think of is another boss distortion pedal or the big muff, or anything from a high-end multi-effects processor.

Level - Volume adjust to match your clean channel
Distortion - Its got plenty
High, Low, Mid, Mid Freq - Well its perfectly easy to adjust only I dont really have any technical understanding of what the difference between mid and mid frequency is. But its perfectly simple.

There is a clear manuel with suggested settings, the 'Heavey Metal' setting is the best starting place.

I am running it through a Vox AD50VT, with a Jackson Kelly.
Not only is the distortion much better for heavy metal than anything on my Vox, but the tone is brilliant too (Saying that now makes me think it could be the Vox producing the brilliant tone, seeing as tone is Vox's selling point). None the less the tone is improved when using this pedal. Theres also plenty of gain, which is good for generating feedback when cracked to max or you can lower it a bit without any noticable different to gain, but you cut out the feedback. The EQ is very good. Within the metal genre its versitile at least - The EQ allows anything from Megadeth's 'Holy Wars' to Metallica's 'Sad But True'. It doesnt muffle the sound or the effects on my amp like the DS-1 did. All in all, it sounds brilliant.

Well I havnt had it long enough to say but it seems very sturdy.

I play probably 70% metal and this is PERFECT for it (but nothing else). Great for rythem and lead. It kicks my DS-1 out the window (The DS-1 really didnt cut it for metal and it gave me a muffled distortion and it muffled my effects). You can only really play metal with it, but you can get all sorts of metal sounds out of it. As far as the 'wah sound' some people have commented on it having: yes I found if you have the mid and mid freq on a certain combination it can get that kinda sound, which really isnt a bad thing and like I said its only really on a specific EQ setting. Thats why I suggest you start on the 'Heavy Metal' setting which doesnt have the wah sound. If it were stolen I would get anyone with any hesitation! Or pummle the theif with it to death...Im sure it would survive the knocks.
The only reason it doesnt get a 10 is cos its only good for metal and nothings perfect but I think 10 would be a fair mark still.

Although this pedal is for beginners, it?s not just a simple stomp and play. You do have to spend some time adjusting the various controls to get good sound.

Let me put it like this? if you got stranded on a desert island with your fender squire and crate amp, and you believe you could spend the rest of your life playing korn, slipknot, and dimebag riffs? then this pedal is for you. If there are any little metalheads out there that are reading this that DO have an appreciation and place for classic rock or blues then read on?

Please indulge me and let me get on my soapbox for a minute and preach my testament for good guitar effects. There is a whole other world of guitar sound out there kids. A whole world of effects that you will never find at guitar center or sam ash. A world of guitar pedals where every single part (even the construction of the circuit boards) are meticulously made by hand. Don?t make the same mistake I did when I was searching for the perfect sound. Don?t settle for the mass produced soulless crapola that the monkeys at guitar center push on you. If you want to sound similar to the greats like Hendrix, Page, SRV, or Dimebag you have to research what they used and how they used it. And remember just because their name is on the pedal does NOT mean that they actually used it (dimebag effects, Hendrix wah wah, etc. etc., and also note that although the name may be the same for some of the effects that the great ones have used, the ones made nowadays are NOT of the same quality as the vintage stuff) If you truly are a musician at heart then get a job, save your pennies, and buy a decent guitar and amp (about $1,000.00 to $1,500.00) and then save for effects from hand made pedal makers like analog man, red witch, or black cat products. Buying characterless effects from sam ash or other corporate guitar stores will get you just one thing, a long hard lesson about ?getting what you pay for.? After playing for a year or two, I would wonder ?why don?t I sound even close to Hendrix yet? I have the fender strat look alike, crate amp, boss metal zone, and the Hendrix wah pedal (all the stuff the guys at guitar center said I would ever need). I probably need more practice.? After playing for 15 years I would wonder, ?gee? I have the real Fender tele, the Fender reverb deluxe amp, the boss metal zone pedal, and a hell of a lot of practice time? but I still dont sound right.? Still don?t believe me? Ok here is a challenge for you? search online for boss metal zone sound sample files, then try out a few other boss, dod, danelectro sound samples online. After that, look up analog man pedals, red witch, black cat products, chicago iron, and several other hand made analog effects. Usually they will have sound samples on their web sites. Then compare them to the guitar center/sam ash stuff.

ok, ok, boss DOES make reliable pedals. (even though they are not true bypass... if you dont know what that means then you need to do some homework)

never needed it

i think i said enough in the sound quality section.

For beginners, they would have thought something like "what the..?" when they first saw the knobs. but close your eyes and dial the whichever knob you found and wherever you want to turn the knob to and voila!! you got your sound in less than 30 minutes and you begin to understand what each knob does...

This is one versatile pedal!!! you can do an overdrive with it, fuzz.. thrash metal distortion.. 70's rock, 80's rock, whatever distorted sounf that you're looking for!! and yeah.. one drawback is that this pedal creates some kind of background noise.. use a noise suppressor and problem solved!! every guitarist with stomp boxes should own a some kind of noise suppressor anyways (my personal taste only). I used this pedal with a Fender American Strat with a Peavey 158 amp (now I use a Vox amp) and it made me forget about how disappointed i was with the Peavey...

Having this pedal made me think a lot better about Far Eastern made products, the Taiwanese are one hell of a pedal builder, but sucks at coating the paint on the pedals.

I can't find the word "Customer Service" on the Boss' Dictionary. I reckon this thing can outlive human kind

Well, if i knew earlier that ebay sell these kinds of pedals earlier, i would've bought it from there, but hey.. for 195 bucks, i'm satisfied, it's worth it and i can get any distorted sound i want to play every song that i want. Versatility is the word for MT-2

How easy is it to get a good sound out of it? - very. if you can't cope with level, distortion and EQ, you're an idiot.

How is the manual for it (if there is one)? - it's good. there's not much to the controls, but it does give quite a few suggested settings for various types of music

Do you know the firmware revision number? - eh?

Has your unit been upgraded? - can you upgrade a stompbox?

It sounds great with any guitar or amp I've used it with. Turn the distortion right the way down and you've got a bluesy overdrive. Turn the distortion up and 'scoop' the mid-range, you've got thrash metal. Set everything somewhere in the middle, you've got classic rock. There's so much gain lurking inside this pedal I've never needed to turn the distortion up higher than three quarters...

There was a guitarist in my band a few years ago, he played a Telecaster and had to plug into our shitty H/H pa amp, and the MetalZone still produced a sound that could shatter glass at 100 paces.

It's NEVER let me down. It even has a good battery life.

Never needed to deal with the company. Products that don't break due to shoddy manufacturing is the best customer support anyone could ask for.

I play Metal plus 'other stuff'. I basically set the pedal up for a thrash sound and turn the volume down on my guitar to get a milder overdrive, or use settings on my multi-FX, but the MetalZone is my main distortion sound.

I've been playing 12 years, I use 'SuperStrats', CryBaby wah, Korg AX30G multi-FX, 100watt Carlsbro amp and 15watt Fender practice amp.

If it was lost or stolen i would get another one, no question.

I love everything about it and hate nothing.

I chose this one because my friend had one and it sounded amazing. I compared it to just about every other distortion pedal i could find. The Ibanez pedals came quite close, but they have built-in noise gates which really pissed me off - how are you supposed to get sustain when it automatically cuts out? In the end this one just sounded the best, and it was significantly cheaper than many other, less versatile pedals.

Hey, it's a stompox! Just pt in the battery, connect it to ur ampo anyway u like, stomp on it to switch it on & that's it!! Just be careful when setting the EQ though, u really need to pay attention to the frequencies of each knob to make them effective.

Really very good....it's got all the distortion u'll ever want as in a good tube amp; yes it does sound like one. Bout the noise problem stated by some reviewers below....don't pay attention, they're either deaf & hearing those wierd "eeeeeeeee" in their minds or just old geezers who can just not accept that the noise actually comes from their crappy amps (they may have GOOD amps, but it's just in the way they use it that counts....tone is in the fingers, my misguided friends. Anyways, yes, it's dead quite....not even any hum, even through a small Laney practice amp, which I tried through in the shop (I use an 80's Roland JC-120, so I can really assess the MT-2's potential, yes my amp is really that extra-clean. All I can hear when I crank the distortion knob is really cool feedback that goes on forever, that even adds sustain to a really out-of-sustain guitar like the RG-470 (my test guitar). And also really beautiful gain that ranges from thick overdrive to extreme distortion, but still doesn't sound as digital as Dimebag's in [I'm Broken]. It's just beautiful like a high-gain metal style amp.

Just pure beauty, way good if u need some tuby distortion w/o buying a real tube amp & then retubing it every now & then for cranking the preamp gain too much. Haven't used it in a gig yet, just bought it =P....but will be doing so, since I only have an insanely clean amp.

Never needed it....notlike some of u.

To tell the truth, it's works better than suggested by some of the other reviews....& IMO, will always win thru even when compared to those copycat metal distortion fx's from other companies like Digitech, DOD & Rocktron. Remember, those came out WAY some time after the MT-2 1st came out in the market. Only wished it worked like the MZ-1 though, but it'll do.

The Level, Bass/Treble and Distortion knobs are all straightforward and work like you'd expect. The midrange EQ knob, however, is not exactly what I would call a typical mid parametric EQ though (more on this later), but everything is still quite easy to use. Compared to most modeling effects units out there, this thing is a breeze.

I used this with an 1979 Ibanez Artist ES style guitar (Super 80 flying fingers pickups) with a variety of effects (Ibanez flange, ProCo Deucetone, Guyatone compressor, etc.), including an old Roland GP-100 modeling preamp/processor. My amp is a 1977 100-watt Hiwatt head running a Laney cab with 2-12" 75W speakers (very loud, but clean). The MT-2 is a pretty powerful distortion pedal. It has a very beefy low end that even at low volume levels makes my Hiwatt jump. I don't consider it muddy at all. However, the the mid parametric EQ strikes me as a type of wah-like effect rather than a traditional parametric EQ. Some here have mentioned it sounds like a wah pedal with the pedal fixed at some position. That pretty much describes the mid-EQ dual-knob control exactly. In fact, if you put the middle level (center knob) somewhere past 12 o'clock and then rotate the mid freq knob (outer knob), you have yourself a wah pedal. Like others have said, you can't defeat that wah-like sound no matter how you arrange the EQ settings. It's not necessarily a bad sound, and if you like it, you're all set. It lends itself to very powerful sounding metal chords, but for my own ears, it can be tiresome to play solos with that constant wah-like tinge (although Jimmy Page used that sound on the solo on Whole Lotta Love .. . he left his wah pedal on and in one fixed position for that solo). But do you want to sound like that all the time? If you play nothing but power chords and rhythm stuff this pedal is awesome, especially for metal. Very powerful low end (boost is +15dB) and tremendous thick rhythm sound. But for single-note soloing, other than on rare occasions (Whole Lotta Love anyone?), I would rather use an overdrive without that squawky midrange resonance peak there all the time. I plan on returning it for a refund, as I would rather have a pedal a bit more versatile for soloing as well as rhythm. However, I may look for a cheap used MT-2 (or a Line 6 DM-4 which models the MT-2 along with a whole lot of other pedals ) just to have it for occasion metal style power chord riffing. This pedal should suit metal players (well, it is called a Metal Zone after all) but I can't imagine using this all the time for playing straight rock solos or blues solos. No wonder so many have had problems using this pedal along with their wah pedal, you're essentially chaining two wah pedals together - you'll get one big massive midrange resonance peak. It'd be like ice picks in your ears. I'll give a 7 because the MT-2 sounds like it would suit certain players perfectly, but it's not for everyone.

It's a Boss pedal and built like a tank.

Never dealt with them

I've been playing about 25 years, but I usually play straight jazz and rock, but metal (more grunge than metal) on occasion. This pedal seems like it would be great for metal power chords with a lot of low end thump (heard endlessly on the radio these days) and that midrange peak, but if you're into older style rock (Hendrix, Page, Fripp, Gilmour, Beck, SRV) this probably isn't the pedal you're looking for. I tried the MT-2 mainly hoping for more control over the distortion's EQ, which unfortunately most dist pedals lack, but didn't expect its mid EQ to be so inflexible and more just a mid-range resonance peak controller, similar to a wah pedal. I own a Boss OS-2 overdrive/distortion which is certainly more versatile. With the OS-2 I can't get that incredible low end of the MT-2 and power chords aren't quite so powerful, but I also don't have to deal with that squawky wah-like sound either during solos. My Roland GP-100 actually gets a pretty good MT-2 sound when using the Metal Lead preamp model with lots of Bass and low EQ added. So if you've got a GP-100, the MT-2 sound can be had using the Metal Lead preamp setting with some EQ adjustments. I may try the Line 6 DM4 distortion modeler stompbox. It's a bit pricey, but can apparently do the MT-2 sound along with whole lot of other distortion stompbox sounds. It may be a good way to sample a lot of distortion stompboxes without dishing out $50-100 for every single one of them.

not for a beginer, but is fairly easy to use if u know what ure doin

i have to be honest, this pedal sounds terrible, ive been playing for quite a few years and have used many different distortion pedals and this is one of the worst, it sound muddy as hell, a thin tinny sound, its basicly just noise

well its a solid pedal,

wish i never bought htis pedal, waste of money, i play metal, using a jackson dinky and a jackson warrior and sometimes a gibson v, if ure looking for a bone crunching metal tone which doesnt sound like a cat being strangled this is not the pedal for you, if you want to throw away some csah for a crappy piece of junk, buy this pedal

I use this mostly for a Santana type sustain/boost. It gives a good warm classic rock lead if you aren't afraid to adjust the EQ properly. Some musicians are afraid of turning a parameter all the way off/on to get good tone-they don't feel like the pedal is utilized correctly with at least a little treble or a bit of the mids boosted. It is o.k. to leave the settings in the middle on this pedal, at this position they do not affect your sound in any appreciable way. For some it may still be too hard but with some tweaking you can get very good warm and creamy sustain. I use this with a Les Paul 490R/498T's and it is very, very nice for what I play. I play in a female fronted band i.e., Natalie Merchant, Sheryl Crow style and it is very nice for getting the lead out there and yet stays warm. It did take me a long time to get it to this point though, out of the box it is a Metal Heads Dream Box!!

It is somewhat noisy if you don't use a gate but why wouldn't you use a gate of some kind? I knew it had potential when I first used it. You will need to take time to get a good tone. That is why it has a level, distortion and 4-band EQ. Use them.

Boss is as Boss does. You know the story here.

No issues. Always had responded quickly when I had a question. May not have liked the answer but I got one.

It will serve you well, do not be afraid to experiment with your gear.

It takes time to lear how to use it properly, but the features are extremely smart and useful.

I was using a Yamaha AES620, which is a Les Paul type of guitar with a Duncan JB on the bridge through a '59 Bassman reissue, which is a plain clean amp. The Boss is powerful, and you can probably ANY Heavy Metal sound out of it. It does Pantera, Vintage Sepultura, Slayer, Metallica and any Death Metal band very, very well. If you only play Metal, the difference between this pedal's sound and a real high gain amp is small. The thing is, I've been playing less and less Metal nowadays and this pedal wasn't much useful anymore (for me) so I ended up selling it yesterday. Don't get me wrong: if you play only palm-muted riffs and power chords, this pedal is a killer, but it sounds too harsh and "quick" for open chords. So, for Metal application, I would rate it 10, if you can't afford a real high gain amp.

It's a Boss. They've been around for a while, so, yes, I would depend on it with no dout. I know these pedals last forever.

Never had to deal with them.

This pedal was not a good match for my playing styles, and does not have the dynamics I now expect from a distortion unit. I've been playing for 15 years now, own Metal suibable gear and now play with blues/pop/rock type of gear. I need a good distortion pedal that have more dynamics, that responds well to pick attack, cleans up well when the guitar's volume is backed off and also sounds good when palm-muting, which are qualities that the Metal Zone just doesn't have. It is a very good pedal, indeed, but a one-metal-trick-pony. In short: it's not versatile for other types of music, but it's great for Extreme Metal

I think it's fairly easy to get a good sound out of this pedal, as long as you keep all the knobs in reasonable positions (say, close to 12:00). The on-board E.Q. is a GREAT touch; it allows a range of sound that I've haven't heard in other distortion pedals. With such a wide range of options, however, I do think that newbies might be confused by this pedal and scoop out all their mids, thus ensuring their guitars will be lost in the mix. I use it to BOOST my mids. The only real problem with this is which mid frequency to alter; that involves some patience and knowledge on your part.

I am here to praise the Metal Zone, not to bury it. First things first: it's whisper quiet. There's GOT to be a built-in noise gate. Compare this to ANY other Boss distortion (particularly the horrendous Mega Distortion) and you'll hear pristine silence in between chords. Yet, it does a decent job getting harmonics.

I am using this with a Schecter C1+ (Duncan Distortion bridge, '59 neck) and an all-tube Crate VFX5112. I use this in a somewhat unconventional way: as a booster to my already dirty (and great sounding) drive channel. Other stuff in my chain: CE-5 (Chorus of the GODS), DD-3, and sometimes MXR Phase 100. My rig sounds good. I use the Metal Zone to add a little "bite" or "dirt" into my sound. It does that wonderfully. I used to use a Maxon SD-9 for this purpose. The Maxon was a little irritating. The Metal Zone has 10x the versatility due to the built-in semi-parametric E.Q. I compared this directly to the MD-2 Mega Distortion (yukk!) and the DS-1. The DS-1 was thin and watery, and there was some residual noise. Plus, you couldn't turn down the distortion enough. Yes, it was more transparent and full spectrum. That didn't stop me from hating it....

Built
Outstanding
Stomp
Smugly

Uhm, yeah.

I play rock, some metal and every now and then, some punk. This is good for that. Bear in mind that this is NOT smooth and crunchy. It's a little harsh, and fairly cold. Some might even say it can sound a little thin. I LIKE thost qualities! I use this for tonal coloration, and for that, it's perfect. If I want smooth and creamy, I just leave my amp's dirty channel on by itself. If I want to add bite, I turn this on. It's very clear, very present if E.Q'd right. Bear in mind that I'm happy with my sounds otherwise; my guitar and amp sound great to me; this just helps me put a little edge into my tone. Obviously, if you're playing a cheap guitar into a cheap amp, this isn't going to help. It does, however, do a fairly decent rendition of a JCM-800 E.Q. wise, though it's NOT smooth, as I mentioned. I used to own a JCM-900 stack, and I sold it because the distortion was terrible. Dang transitors. Lost my faith in Marshall. Crate's high-end stuff is better sounding, to me.

Anyway, this pedal is inspiring, but it seems easy to abuse or misunderstand. You should always try out stuff before you buy it. I love this pedal, but then again, that's me. I have very specific reasons for using it. Your mileage may vary. I've been playing for 18 years. If this was lost, I'd replace it. But I'd have to replace my chorus first. This would get replaced second.

i think a lot of us metal-heads can be a bit impatient at times. so relax, take a few minutes and do be in such a rush to crank everything up to 10. it's very easy to use if you take your time to experiment.

i play my good old beat up ibanez rg320 through my cheap but loud peavey studio pro 112 and this little box makes it sound sweet. i cant believe people are saying that the pedal is noisy. the only time its noisy is when you are not playing it through the clean channel of your amp. and to say it has a thin weak sound is an outrage. yeah, if you take out all the lows and mid then yes it has a weak sound. duh!! pour on the lows, don't be affraid of the mids, just gotta play with em a bit. and dont forget, you can always adjust the controls of your amp too. i think you guys may be just depending on the pedal for your whole sound. dont be affraid to adjust the tone and volume knobs on your guitar as well. turn the distortion up to about 8 and then play with the volume knobs on your guitar and you can even get a carlos santana type sound. this pedal is by no means a one trick pony, f@cko!!

i play death metal, electric blues, classic rock, etc..... and this pedal, combined with your amp settings can pretty much get any of those type of tones. personnaly i think that everyone pays way too much attention trying to emulate other musicians sounds. how do you think Dime got his unique sound. definately a sound all his own. go for your own sound. the world is spilling over with carbon copy musicians. if you are more worried about sounding like Dime or Zakk or Angus or Tony then you are about finding your "true" sound , then join a cover band.

This pedal is easy to use, hard to master. Fairly easy to get a good sound in a bedroom, but much more difficult in a band setting where the scooped mids make your amp inaudible. I recommend using an EQ, i have a cheap danelectro one and it works great.

Excellent sound quality, again in your bedroom. If you can get the sound to cut through in a band setting it sounds great there too. Can be noisy, especially with the highs up and the amp cranked. I use a Fender Princeton Chorus, Epiphone Les Paul. Works for most metal, though it doesn't necessarily imitate the sounds of Metallica, etc. More Megadethy.

Boss. Rock. Nuff said.

Great for metalheads with the patience to mess with the controls. Hopefully band members are patient as well when their 10-watt amps drown you out.

You plug it in and step on it, it doesn't get any easier than that. The manual is actually pretty good; not that you need it. It does show a couple settings for getting certain sounds though, which is cool.

I have an Ibanez RG750, Floyd Rose Discovery DS-2 and a Fender Standard Fat Strat with Dimarzio Super Distortion. My amp is a Fender Princeton Chorus. The MT-2 is very cool - the various distortions you can get from it are great.

So far, so good. Yes, I'd gig on it without a backup, it's a Boss. Worst case if it did go bad, you'd have to play with less distortion, yuck!

Hadn't had to deal with them.

I play mostly hard rock: Megadeth, Dio, Dokken, Malmsteen, Satriani, etc. and this pedal is good for all of them and shredding and burning in general and the darn thing doesn't even seem to care if you can play well or not, it just adds distortion to your signal, fancy that! If it were lost or stolen, I'd buy another one in a skinny minute. I love the distortion it provides and that it seems rock solid. I've never used pedals before in my 24 years of playing but it is awesome. I compared it to the other Boss distortion pedals but this one had more of a range of distortion and stronger distortion than the other ones for my taste. I wish it had a hot chick that came with it, but what do you expect for $90?

It's pretty easy to use, after I got the hang of it. The EQ is nice if you know what you are doing, I love how the sounds you can make can vary greatly.

I have (had) a fender strat with two Seymour Duncan SHR-1 hotrails (neck / bridge) and an Ibanez SA160. I currently use a Marshall JCM-600, 60 Watts, all-tube. My only effects pedal is the MT-2 right now. I think the sound quality is amazing, at least after playing it through the marshall (had an old Peavey that was really cheap). It took me a while to get the EQ figured out to get the sounds I wanted. I love it. I can get anything from Metallica to AC/DC, Van Halen and Iron Maiden (especially the old Maiden sound) The tone is great, and with the EQ can be changed to almost anything. I must admit however having a good amp makes a world of difference, and it is really the only effects pedal i've ever had. One thing I do not like is that it does not have the smooth warm crunch of an overdrive pedal (which i plan on buying). Even with the Distortion turned all the way down it's still fuzzy. Some settings give too much feedback. Overall I think it's great for the hard stuff and good for softer stuff if you have nothing else.

It's pretty tough, I don't think I could break it if I tried. It's called a "stomp box" for a reason!

I wish I hadn't paid so much. Worth every penny to me, but I still got ripped off (about $165 US.) I love 80s sort of rock/metal but this pedal fits in with just about everything. I like blues rock and newer stuff too. Been playing about 4 years. My other amp is not worth mentioning :P I'll be buying another Fender some time. I would definately buy another if I lost it, the sounds it makes are great. The only thing I don't like is trying to find new sounds. Sometimes with the EQ but once you get it figured it out it's worth the time. I love that it can play so many styles of, at least of rock/metal (like imitating a band's sound.) I would like to compare it to an OD-3, because again i want an overdrive that has a warmer smoother sound. The MT-2 is a bit too fuzzy for soft stuff to me.

A bit more difficult that other distortion pedals.

The only pedal (except Sansamp) that gives real sharp aggressive thrash-metal sound that is ideal for "industrial" drop-D palm-muted riffs, and it sounds a bit more meaty that Sansamp does. Very cool! Also this is only pedal with variable mids on EQ! Little change in mids will be great for your ears - try it! You can do hundreds of real heavy sounds from 80's hard rock to modern "compressed" over-the-top sound. The only flaw of this pedal is that it ABSOLUTELY can't be used for playing "in line" - you never hear such nasty cheap fuzz! But with gutiar amp it is great device.

BOSS pedals are invulnerable.

not needed

Really cool pedal for real metalheads and thrashers. Good for rock, punk, not suitable for alernative, nu-metal.

Pedals are always a joy to use compared to multi effects, no annoying menu's to flip through! its just hands on, The Metal Zone has the bonus of an eq built in which is great!

Its always down to the musician to get a good sound, effects DON'T improve sound, they just add to it, you need a good guitar and amp to get a nice sound then u bring in the effects, people who say the Metal Zone is rubbish/muddy/too much treble must be using this wrong, YES, it can sound rubbish but thats down to fine tuning it. I have afew guitars which include a Fender USA Strat Plus and An Epiphone Les Paul Custom with Seymour Duncans, for an amp, I use a Laney TF-300 which I love! so for me, I have good tones to start with before bringing in the MT-2 or any other effects pedal

I Love the pedal, you can go from blues/rock/Metal, something I like to do is have a Boss BD-2 (blues driver) plugged into the metal Zone, between the two, you can get some real nice sounds, Ive got very close to that Classic Slash sound but my Les Paul has a big part to play in getting that sound, both pedals can sound rubbish connected together but its all down to how your using your equipment and being patient, sometimes u should ask yourself if you are unhappy with the metal zone? is it the pedal or what you are using it with? or how you are you using it? (cheap guitar leads can effect sound as well) apart from that, I love this Pedal

ive looked at pedals from different companys, Boss is my fav for build quailty, they seem to never die?

I even have a that old Boss BE-5 multi effects unit!! and that still works!

they are helpful and respond quick

I like to mess around with different types of music, I love using a Boss BD-2 (blues driver) but I wanted something to work along side it that could give me more options! The Metal Zone is very useful if u want to have a range of sounds! Blues/rock/metal, I would say its a pedal that gives u abit of everything from the Boss Distortion/OD Range, if your a complete Metal Player, maybe a pedal thats more focused on metal would suit you? as I see this pedal as more of an all rounder type eventhough its called Metal Zone

This pedal is not as straight forwards as, say, the DS-1 or DS-2, it takes some time and some experimentation.

At first I was very unhappy with this pedal. My sound was tinny and noisy and I was not getting that low-down crunch that I really wanted. This was my fault. After further experimentation with this pedal I finally managed to find my perfect sound - a 70s Rock/Grunge sound (E-mail me if you would like to know what settings I use). I have used this pedal on-stage and it sounds phenomenal (with the right settings of course). As some reviewers have already stated, you will most likely get shit sounds out of this pedal before you find what it is that you are looking for. The setting knobs are very sensitive, thus allowing for maximum diversity with regards to possible distortion settings. This pedal caters for literally ANY genre of music requiring some degree of distortion or overdrive.

I am the third person to own my current MT-2. Two of the kobs are slightly bent, but that does not affect the functioning of the pedal in any way. This pedal is most reliable and I would gig without a backup.

I have never dealt with the customer support.

An outstanding pedal. This pedal can do anything.

4 knobs and equalizer... not too bad

honestly, i found the sound kind of thin and tinny. i tried my pedal/guitar/amp at all different settings, and the best distortion i got sounded thin...the setting i got was AMAZING for Dimebag riffs(RIP). however any other metal probably couldnt be reached. obviously so many people couldnt be wrong, everyone says its an amazing pedal...it just didnt work out for me.

boss. no questions asked

dont know

ive been playing for 8 years, and i play metal. i REALLY hate to admit that i dont like one of my pedals....i try to love em all...but i just think that this pedal got WAY too hyped up to live up to its name. like i said before, i find the sound is tinny, loud(in a bad way) and thin. currently my primary distortion is a ds-2. it is SOOOO thick and chunky with amazing leads, but preferences are preferences.

the 3 band eq is very well done. you can dial in lows, mids, highs, and everything in between. personally i would spend 15 dollars on another one, anything more, i would save my cash.

It didn't take me long to get a sound I was happy with. Used, so no manual. It sounds like a fat wasp (in a good way!).

I already have a ProCo Rat for 'normal' distortion, but wanted something for a beefy, chuggy, yet raspy thrash metal distortion for jamming along to my old Anthrax, Megadeth and Metallica CDs. This pedal is perfect for this. I was concerned this would be a little untameable, but even with everything on max (well, you've got to see what happens, haven't you?), it still didn't dissolve into a wall of noise like I expected. There's clearly a great deal more than distortion in there, certainly compression and I'm sure I can hear a little bit of Phase in there somewhere too. The EQ is very versatile.

Only had it a few days, but Boss don't break.

Dunno

It's exactly what you want if you haven't got the cash (or space!) for the stack from hell, but want the sound. I'm sure, as many here have commented, it's not a patch on the real thing in the live environment. But I sure as hell can't tell the difference on my Marshall SS Practice Amp. When I win the lotto, I'll get the Dimebag (R.I.P.) setup and play with the volume at 10 til 4am in the morning in my Mansion in it's own grounds. Until then, my Metal Zone will do just fine.

It's easy to use, there's only a volume knob, high, low, mid, mid frequency, and distortion. Each one is pretty straight forward for what they do, you should know, if you don't, then you are an idiot and you probably won't know how to use this pedal to get a good sound.

This thing can produce a massive distortion and just about no unwanted noise. It is actually a lot easier to get this pedal to sound bad than to find a good sound. You can get a good sound, but it won't be right away, you'll have to set the EQ on this pedal just right to get it to sound good. It usually is either gives off a nasaly distortion, or just too much middle. They really wanted to give guitarists the chance to get what they want from this pedal, but the mids are pretty bad, the mid should be at like 10-ish or 11-ish o'clock, and the mid freq. at around 6-8, and then you can have the high and low both at about 1 o'clock, and put the dist. wherever you want/need it. That is probably the best sound I could get out of the pedal, anything other than that just sounded crappy. I like the range of the gain, it can either be nice and light to really heavey. I don't use this pedal anymore, I had to sell it along with a lot of my other pedals to get better stuff. But, when I did use it, I didn't have the dist. all the way up, I used a DS-1 as a booster, to add some more gain and some volume. The DS-1 and the MT-2 is probably the best combination (one to boost the other) of distortion pedals I've ever used! If you think the MT-2 isn't enough for you, go out and buy a DS-1, you'll be so amazed, it's really that good, it took me a while to find a good combo of dist. pedals. Also, don't listen to what that other reviewer said, the dumb idea of "turn everything to max and use the mid frequency knob to find the sound you like," I actually tried that once, STUPID! If you do that, you can only get these sort of sounds from doing it, either a cheap, trebly and bassy but very muddied up distortion, or a nasaly distortion. It sounds soooooo bad, don't even waste your time trying that lame idea! Anyone who just turns everything to max has NO CLUE what they are doing!

It's a Boss pedal... I got my metal zone for free from a band I was in a while back, the guy who had it before me gave the pedal a BEATING! Kicked it around, dropped it I think he told me twice, and somehow burned it for like a minute or so, I don't know how it caught fire and how it still works perfectly??? There still are these wierd burn marks on it, but I cleaned it up nicely, and had to bend the high knob back to place after he dropped it. See, they can take a really bad beating and still work like new. And yes, I had it checked out to make sure nothing cosmetically was wrong with it, and nothing was amazingly!?!

I've said enough... Just don't do that IDIOT idea of turning everything to MAX and just turned the mid freq. knob around till you find a sound you like, it won't work, only IDIOTS turn everything to MAX!!! The MORON that said they should be beat over the head with his Metal Zone! If you want it to sound good, sit down with it for a few minutes to dial in the right sound you like, because it isn't as easy as most boss pedals, this thing can sound terrible more times than good.

This is a follow up to an earlier review I made, Ive had this pedal for a while now, and use it live once/twice a week. In my opinion, not the easiest to get a good sound out of, youll need to spend some time with it. I dont need/use the manual, its self explanatory. Im giving it a 7 for ease of use, because it is capable of some truly BAD sounds as well as GOOD sounds.

Again, this is a follow up, so Ill make it quick. Ive been using this pedal live for a few months now, and I actually really like it. I use Les Paul guitars through Fender tube amps, and also use a new Visual Sound Ultimate Overdrive pedal. Lately I have been playing distorted blues-style stuff like Gary Moore, and with my Les Pauls and some tweaking, I have gotten some very Gary Moore like tones with it. This pedal is hard to set up, I have spent hours tweaking the bass, treble, and mids to find the right balance with my guitars, but now Ive gotten it. This pedal WILL make TERRIBLE sounds, and can be like a mosquito, but if you PLAY WELL and spend some time tweaking it, it can work for you. Live, it cuts through very well, and sounds mean with the Les Pauls. This pedal has become my favorite. Yes, its mid-heavy, and can be very nasally, but Ive tweaked it and gotten nice aggressive, supercharged blues/rock tones out of it. I still love my Visual Sound Ultimate Overdrive, and my Proco Turbo Rat, but the Metal Zone gives me the saturation and heavy mids that I need for over the top tones.

I have been playing for 10 years, and play 80's metal, blues, and rock. My primary influences are The Edge, Gary Moore, Jimmy Page, and Joe Satriani. Right now, Im playing a lot of really distorted blues/rock, similar to Gary Moore. I have been using the Metal Zone for this, among other things. I once saw an older guy playing in a coffee house one night, his tone and chops were incredible. After his band was done playing, I went over to check out his gear. I was shocked to find that he was using some "cheap" low quality distortion and overdrive pedals. I learned that its not so much WHAT you play, but HOW you play it. No pedal is perfect, and a lot of skill will more than make up for whatever your gear lacks. After a few months of experimenting, I have found that the Metal Zone is NOT perfect, but it works great for me.

It took me a little while to get used to the semi-parametric mid control but after a while i've developped a trick with this pedal that gives a lot of versatility i'll explain more in the next category.

I play an epiphone SG special to my MT-2 through a really old, third-hand all tube, 30 watt yamaha combo (i'll be getting a bigger amp soon though).

I dont find the pedal that noisy unless you have the dist on full all the time, then its only when i'm not playing that i get a sort of staticy fuzz but it isnt too loud and i usually have the dist on 12 o'clock or less. Also my guitars pickups (still got the stock epi ones in) are a little noisy so that might be part of it.

Now about my "magic" tone trick (I dunno if anyone's said this before because i really dont feel like reading over 900 reviews on the same pedal).set bass an treble on max and mid level at zero. Then just by turning the mid freq knob in either direction you can get a ton of different sounds because by doing this you're basically selecting which mid frequencies get a 15 db cut. Combined with the dist control you can get tons of different sounds from mid gain bluesy drive to full out, balls to the wall death metal crunch, nasaly highs to chest pounding lows.Like i said i usually keep the dist around 12 and the mid freq around 10:30~11. This setting gives me a nice full crunchy fuzz that makes pinch harmonics SCREAM with the bridge pickup on my guitar on. The only thing about this is that it works backwards. What i mean is instead of the normal operation where turning up the knob rasies the mid freq in the sound, turning up lowers the frequenies in the sound. So to get a big boomy fat sound you would turn the mid freq to "full" an to get a high nasaly tone you would turn it down to "zero".

Its a Boss so its built like a tank. i guess id have to use it live wihtout a backup since its my only pedal, but i love the sound and i know the pedal wont crap out on me.

never dealt with them.

I've been playing guitar and bass for about 3 years now and out of all the other distortion pedals i've heard i liked this one the most. I play mostly punk and metal/hardcore/screamcore type stuff so it suits my style well. I would not recommend this to someone who only plays jazz and/or blues as even with the extensive tone control this pedal just has too much gain to have a real bluesy or jazzy drive tone, but if you play metal, punk or anything similiar and want to make all your guitarist friends have serious tone envy then this is the pedal for you IMHO ;). If this guy was ever lost or sotlen from me i'd track the bastard down and beat them with the pedal (this baby is heavy enough to knock someone out!) or save up and buy a new one.

6 knobs.A level and distortion knob.The other 4 are Equalizer knobs.The EQ is perfect,but takes a little getting used to.

You will not need another overdrive or distortion pedal.This pedal is perfect.With the EQ you can get any sound from SRV to Slayer,Joe Walsh to Tom Petty.

You could run this over with your car and it would still run.BOSS pedals never quit.It is solid steel.It also has a very long battery life as long as you don't leave it plugged in when you're not using it.

Have not had to speak to them,probably never will.

This is the best distortion/overdrive pedal ever made.Get it cheap on e-bay and you won't buy another distortion pedal.

It's easy to use, but then it would be - it has some knobs to twiddle and you step on it when you want distortion. The instructions include some useable sample settings to get you started.

I've used this with a variety of setups, mainly Peavey Wolfgang and Pacifica 821D guitars through a JCM-800, Peavey Classic 50 and Carlsboro GLX 150. The pedal is a bit of a one trick pony, it's fantastic distortion for metal shedding, but not much else in my opinion. Some of the settings you can use on the pedal are really harsh and sound awful. I've given it a 6 due to it's lack of versatility, but for certain applications i'd rate it much higher.

I've used it heavily as part of my setup for about 7 months now with no problems. A friend of mine has owned one for 9 years now and it's still going strong. These things are solid and dependable.

See above - I've never had to deal with them.

I play a variety of music; blues, funk, heavy metal, hard rock and I've been playing about 15 years. I like this pedal and brought it because I'd tried a friends and liked it. This pedal is great for self indulgent heavy metal shedding - and there's nothing wrong with that! However, I think for other applications you'd do well to look at other pedals.

hey its a pedal where's the problem to use it?

i use a jackson usa kelly alder body maple neckthru. i own a marshall dsl 100 with a 1960 cabinet. first i plugged it into the input of my top but it sucked very thin and "electronic(techno)" sounding. then i tried it thru the fx loop without using the preamp of the marshall so i use the boss like a preamp and WOW thick heavy distorted monstersound it can go from acdc/sabbath to dime and cannibal corpse.

i only own it for a week but its a boss so its build like a tank no worries

never dealt with them

i play metal and if i say metal i mean METAL not that limp shitkit drinkin park pussy shit. everything from sabbath to cannibal and goregrind and it can do it all perfectly. i tried the dime distortion which sucked although im a HUGE dime fan but this thing sounds much more like dime and it can do a lot more. id give it a 666 ;)

The EQ is extensive for a distortion pedal, so it makes it that much more complex, but if you mess with the dials and listen you'll quickly dravitate toward a sound you like. I got mine in under 10 minutes out of the box.

I'm using a Fender Prodigy II with EMG passive pickups, to my Ibanez WD7 then the MT2 and then my Marshall MG 30-watt. It's pretty quiet, but then my guitar is cavity sheilded and even the single coils are actually stacked 'buckers. The distortion is harsh and metallic; just the way I like it. Rakes and scrapes come through nicely, but at the same time it can really chug if your amp will handle it. I run it at about 1 o clock distortion into my dirty channel with just a little bit of gain, so my Marshall's OD handles the growl and my pedal handles the scream. It's a good combo.

This is a dumb question.

This is an equally dumb question.

I play metal, melodic metal, and my own kindof mixed up style. This pedal delivers wherever I choose to use it. I've been playing for a year, and own my Fender Prodigy II, an Epiphone Les Paul with an EM-81 in it, an Ibanez WD7 wah, and my Marshall MG30DFX. If it were lost, I'd kick myself in the groin for losing it, and if it were stolen, someone would have hell to pay. I compared it to some cheapo distortion pedals and some Digitechs, it made the sound I liked the most. Beautiful pedal.

6 Knobs and a big switch to switch it on and off. It's pretty easy to use.

Sounds really good I play in a hardcore band and it suits my needs. I use a LTD Viper100FM-Korg DTR1000 Rack Tuner-Boss MT2 Metal Zone-Boss NS2 Noise Suppresor-Peavey XXL head-Peavey Triple XXX 4x12. I bought so my sound would cut through which it does. The other guitarist in our band uses a Mesa Dual Rectifier which just creates a wall of noise and the Ultra channel my amp just couldn't cut through.

It's a Boss plus it doesn't get stamped cos it's on all the time and is stuck to my pedalboard in the bottom of my rack case so it's well protected.

Never dealt with them

Great value and a great sound I love it. I've benn playing for 10 years and owned alot of gear but the Metal Zone is my favourite distortion.

It is very hard to get a good sound out of this becaouse of a few problems. (1) i have found that when dialing up differnt amounts of highs and especially mids the volume re adjusts itself which is a pain. (2) No matter at what setting, there always seems to be a faint fuzz in the background that no amount of tweaking can fix except maybe flattening the treble know on my amp. (3) The sound is really rugged and harsh...makes me think of a "rocky sanpaper sound"
The maual is pretty helpfull and comes with a few setting that you can try out which are not bad, however the overdrive, fuzz and British rock serrings pretty much sound like crap. Overall i just hate how it takes a lot of tweaking to get a particular sound.

Okay ive used a bunch of setups with this, and i have tried it with various musical styles in mind since i've baught it about 4 years ago. Ive used Ibenez rg's fender strat copies, an evh wolfgang special, a godin, and some teles. My setup varies because i like many musical styles, using a crybaby, boss flanger bf-2, tubescreamer ts5, boss dd-3 delay, and the ocasional tremolo or chorus and in all sorts of combinations. I have played it from with everything from a rage 158 peavy practice amp, to a marshall transtube combo and an old fender tube amp. That being said, i do not find the pedal noisy when turned off but matchin its volume to the rest of the rig can be a challange witht eh distortion turned all the way. This effect is definatly not weak but quite harsh and prominent. I have found that this pedal is really only for the hardest of hard metal where lots of good palm muting response and harsh razor like tone. The closest it comes to emulating i think is panteras tone if you max your lows and highs and cut the mids on the amp. I think this pedal is too harsh to play metallica and things like that because it only really has its unique sound when the distortion is cranked, otherwise it starts to sound flat and flat. You can sometimes immitate a kind of old hendrix fuzz or that franz ferdinand sound but its still not close anough, and if your looking for a really good pedal for anything but really really hard harsh metal then look somewhere else. It seems to work well with flanger

It reliable, mine looks like its been to a nazi death camp cuz i dont take good care of my equipment and i bash them when i play. No problems yet. Yes i would use it without a backup but then again i probably would not use it for every song.

nope now dealt with them...did not have to, but i hear they are alright.

I play a wide variety of styles. When i just want to go crazy and shret like hell then this is a great distortion. It would probably bee usefull for beginners because with its high gain possibilities it can make an inexperianced guitarist sound a bit faster and make his teqnique seem better...(harsh distortion tends to hide mistakes.) I have been playing for 5 years, and this was my first distortion. When i got it i was thrilled and i loved it soo much, but as time went on and as i developed a guitar tone taste i have slowly started to steer away from it. If it were stolen i would be really pissed. I want to have this my whole life because it was my first after all. I just wish it didnt have so much of that harsh sound deep inside below the sound. I cant describe it, its like "within the sound". Im basically saying i would like it to respond more to playing and picking stle instead of covering all the mistakes and blending notes. It sounds a lot like DOD Grundge, or the new digitech Death Metal. Like i said its not bad but i would recommend The digiteck X-series metal master oer this as the stand-alone best metal only distortion. By the way if anyone has a chorus they would like to sell e mail me at luka_wolf@hotmail.com .. Thanx . I know i sounded harsh in teh review, but you have to be realistic. Dont trust the reviews on this site that say almost nothing bad about pedals. They are usually people who just baught it and have not warn it in enough to find its faults. C ya!!! :)

It took me a few minutes to get a nice Metallicaish sound but once you get used to it (take ya no more than 10 minutes) it becomes second nature. -WARNING- the sound settings that they give you in the manual suck ass...

I play a strat with single coil pickups through a Fender Princeton 65 amp. The amp in itself is not exactly a dream come true in the distortion arena but it screams with this little miracle box. Of course the mt-2 won't replace your boogie stack but for the money you shell out it comes pretty close, especially is you play a guitar with humbuckers through a bigger better amp. Bottom line this little pedal rocks! Infinitely better than the digitech metal master and the digitech grunge... no comparison... mt-2 reigns supreme

this thing will live thourgh armaggedon...

right........

I play a bit of jazz, some metal, punk and surprise surprise in a church band... been pleying for about 4 years now and I'm really happy with this pedal. sounds even better if you add an overdrive pedal to the loop ( I use a sd-1 but the od-1 sounds a bit warmer) I'd gig with it without a backup and if it was stolen I'd probably buy another one... great pedal

By the time you get here, you know there are one low one high and two mid eq twisties. and a level and a distortion.
pretty easy, if you like a fuzzbox to make, you know, fuzz.
but to find those really sweet "other-than-death-metal" sounds, youve got to work a bit.

a cheapo-caster and a behringer blue devil with this pedal. sounds ok,
but any noise in your system (VERY bad shielding on my guitar)will be amplified to the ridiculous and beyond.
i usually dont twist the distortion knob beyond 9o'clock, because im not the most-metal-maniac out there, under 1o'clock it still has some warmth though. It is named METAL-zone, so you know what it does, but it still wants to be used on low volumes, cause at high volumes the METAL sound gets too metal for me. sounds a bit weak. As a practice pedal i guess it is good, but i wouldnt play balls out loud with it. it gets too "skinny"

Its a boss. METAL zone could come from the construction. this thing will outlast your guitar, amp and probably yourself. Just make sure the battery wires dont get squeezed between the "pedal" and the "button" underneath.
Wouldnt gig with this pedal, but hypothetically, it shouldnt be a problem quality wise

Easy to use, brick like. boss can fire their phone-workers

I like a sweet rock sound, slightly distorted and just a bit overdriven. this is not the ideal pedal if you dont like to much fuzz, but with the distortion way down it sounds kinda good.
Been playing a while, and this is a good pedal for the bedroom "i want to sound like im playing loud when im not" type of thing. thats what i use it for anyway.
wish it had a complete bypass, so it would be completely un-noticable when not active, but hey, in a $100 pedal, you cant have anything.
try the 70's rock setting from the manual, twist the low end up a bit, the high end down, lower the distortion and up the level, and you can get some sweet sounds..
but it is a metal pedal, and it does what its supposed to do, with a good bang-for-buck

The mt2 takes a bit of fiddling to get a great sound(especially the parametric mid) but apart from that its standard dist pedal fare.

On its own the mt2 sounds a tad fizzy to my ears especially when u push up the dist.The eq is unusual to say the least with the treble sounding pretty nasal.However, the sheer amount of bass on offer is awesome.I use mine after a boss ds1 with the mt2 dist at 9 0 clock and the ds1 dist at 0.This beefs up the sound massivly in the lo mids without having to use stupendous levels of distortion!!!
This sound is great for a crunchy gut heavy dist thats great for stuff like 'tallica,soundgarden etc.This goes from a BCR mockingbird with seymour dimebucker into a marshall jcm900 clean channel.

Its a boss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If u want anything from sabbath to pantera get one!! Like i said earlier though team it with the ds1 for a really great all round rock sound