Boss MT-2 Metal Zone

BOSS MT-2 Metal Zone

6 knobs - level (volume), lows, mids, highs, mid frequency, and distortion. This pedal is basically a head in a box -- if you know how to operate an equalizer, then you're basically set. I play metal and rock, I will explain which settings I use for them in sound quality. Also, don't forget that usually with a pedal like this you're playing through 2 equalizers, so don't forget to adjust the equalizer on your amp as well!!! Lots and lots and lots of tweaking, but when you find your "sound" it's all worth it

I am a hardcore effects junkie -- here is my current setup:

Epiphone G-310 --> Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner --> Boss TR-2 Tremolo --> Dunlop Crybaby 535Q -- DigiTech Whammy WH-1 (the BEST pedal ever put on EARTH) --> Boss BF-3 Flanger --> Boss MT-2 Metal Zone --> Boss DD-5 Digital Delay --> Peavey Renown 400 (clean channel)

I will review how the MT-2 makes my pedals sound:

DD-5: If you're using a delay, the MT-2 sounds oh-so-sweet put BEFORE the delay.

BF-3: Great flanging sound, I love it!

WH-1: This is hands down the best pedal ever created by man -- this makes my whammy sound so good -- I love the 2 octave sound a la Rage Against The Machine -- great sustain for high fuct-up solos. Makes harmonies sound great too. Get a WH-1 if you can find one!!!

535Q: This is the pedal I'm not too sure about -- it makes my wah sound very obsolete -- I will do more tweaking with it later.

TR-2: Self-explanatory tremolo pedal -- not really affected

TU-2: Again, not affected.

The only thing I'm upset about is the sound of my wah -- it sounds extremely transparent and non-important, and that doesn't make my wah too happy.

Awesome metal sound:
Level = whatever you need
Lows = max
Mids = min
Highs = max
Mid Frequency - 12 o'clock
Distortion = however you see fit

Great rock sound:
Level = whatever you need
Lows = a little less than max
Mids = 12 o'clock
Highs = a little less than max
Mid Frequency = a little less than max
Distortion = 10 o'clock

BOTTOM LINE: The MT-2, as you see, is extremely versatile, but again - make sure you play it on your amps CLEAN CHANNEL, and play around with your amp's EQ too.

BOSS -- I now own 6 of their pedals they've never failed EVER!!!

Our band plays RATM, and we write rock and slightly heavy metal songs, so this is great. Serves as a footswitch between clean and distortion, if you don't have a footswitch. Make sure you use with a power supply since it will be on 99% of the time, and TWEAK TWEAK TWEAK!!!

Out of the box, it's not easy to use. Takes time. I hated it for awhile, just because I never thought I would have to tweak a pedal.

I really love Ibanez guitars. The good ones, you know which ones. haha.....I haven't had a big problem with noise, none really. I can get a great distortion out of this, but I use one or two other overdrives/distortions to give this one a "different" sound. But, you wan't Pantera, it's there. But, you don't need to copy all the way. I'm running this with a BOSS GT-3, and using a Crate Tube amp or a Peavey transtube 212. (I can't complain, they were gifts from my sister) But all together, it has a good sound

It's a BOSS, I used to have a DS-1, beer has been poured on it, dirt caked all in it, and hence the name, been stomped on for 8 years.

I have never had to deal with them.

I play rock/metal/blues and this has just been another slut in my line. HAHA. If you like distortion at all, give it a spin, never hurts to have too many pedals. ;)

Alright. So many reviews have been written on this thing, that I just decided that I'd write something which is actually unbiased (I do not own one, I own many other drive/distortion pedals though and I tried this one to compare, maybe buy it) and pretty accurate, so it's useful for anybody that is looking for a succesful pedal.


Ease of use: Well, compared to most pedals, it's kind of tricky. The problem is not which buttons do what, but where do I have to dial them to in order to get a sound that is actually quality minded, as far as metal pedals go. It takes much time to get a sound out of it that suits a liking, and it is not really versatile but that is OK, most pedals are pretty straight-forward useage anyway. It's just that this one is too specific, and makes every guitar sound the same. I will elaborate in the Sound category. A 7 here.

Right. Here's some specs on the MT-2:

Good:

It gives a metal sound. Nothing to blow a nut over, but it copies a metal sound for you. That's what it's made for and I suppose it is really nice for beginning players to practice on, before they get knowledge to how a really succesful distorted sound is made (which, I guarantee you, is NEVER just one pedal, if a person tells you that your favourite bands use the Metal Zone, well, *laughs quietly*)
Also, it's really cheap. I think I saw one reviewer here pay 135 dollars for a used version, well, I've seen it brand new for almost half that price.

Bad:

It is a pretty low quality pedal, but ofcourse that is to be expected from a beginner's device. I know that a lot on this review page act like theyre in heaven with this thing, claiming that any kind of low price doesn't mean that the product is not perfect. All I can say is keep watching commercials.

To be precise about the sound, it's a regular fizz box, with some really low mids to reproduce some metal sound.
I do studio recordings and well, I just can't resist saying it but when that other person on this site described how plugging your guitar in a hornet nest sounds the same, I just had to agree. And yes, it's also very, very compressed. It smoothens out your tone a lot and I know how some people claim that that is a good thing (compression should at the very *least* be controllable), when I see them play, they indeed sound like they need a lot of electronical help from their gear. That is okay, but don't talk like this is the pro device. It's not. Nearly every guitar sounds the same on this pedal.

There is some degree of tonal quality, but no matter how well your gear is configured, it wraps up every kind of equipment as a medium sound. That is why the low quality people love it, and the high quality people hate it. Endofstory.

Here's some things to keep in mind when reading reviews, cause it's hard to see which people you can trust and which you can't. Here's some advice:

*Don't* trust anybody who gives a 10 to a cheap piece of equipment. I guarantee you that, keeping in mind that 10 is perfect, this rating is given by 'kids' who just got their first couple of items and are so happy about it that they decide to uprate their precious new gear in a world of professionals.

*Don't* trust anybody who types in caps, claiming that anybody who thinks the item is the best ever and thinks calls anybody who disagrees some kind of idiot.

*Don't* trust anybody who actually believes that a 100 dollar distortion pedal which mimics popular bands is used by Godsmack and Korn. Lol. Have you ever even seen their gear?

And last but not least, a "distrust" quote from another reviewer i saw somewhere:

"Distrust anybody who uses the word *awesome* when describing a middle-of-the-road product from a mainstream-oriented company."

Couldn't agree more. Thank you.

Yeah, it is dependable. No doubt there.

Not dealt with.

It's a rather cheap pedal with an equal sound. It's okay for beginners and practice, but I would never go onstage with it.
So that's the rundown.

It's a god for the amateurs but an amateur for the gods.

And even though I had a real laugh reading some reviews here saying how godly this thing is, describing that it is exactly what they are looking for, all I can say is.... why are you looking for a lesser quality sound? I won't rate it a 10 or a 1 like all other people do cause nothing is as crappy as a 1 and (almost) nothing as godly as a 10. Thank you for reading.

I have no problems getting a great tone but others might because I just have a great ear for tone.

This is the best pedal out there. I can get a very heavy sound from this pedal that is so heavy my friends cant believe it! I had a DOD Hypermetal distortion, but this is so much better. All of those botique pedals out there cant come close to this pedal as far as tone is concerned. I hear the guys from Godsmack and Korn uses one of these and I understand why! My tone sounds just like thiers and all my friends think so. If you dont like this pedal then you have your head up your ass. Just because Boss makes the best pedals, you dont have to spend 200 dollars on some botique crap. My band "Shoulder Lane" (we play numetal/rapcore) is on the way up, so I know what I'm talking about!

Built like a tank. Ive never heard of a Boss pedal going out on somebody.

I know a bunch of techs, and they say Boss is fantastic.

If you know about music, you know metal is the most creative. With the Metalzone you can sculpt you creativity. It doesnt sound like a crappy Led Zeplin tone, but a huge and heavy tone that sounds like your favorite bands.

You have to really tinker with the knobs on this thing and on your' amplifier quite a bit to get your' desired tone. This thing gives you so much flexibility in shaping your' distortion sound that it can be a real headache to set up with your' amp.

I use Ibanez RG series guitars. The Metal zone pedal can produce a ton of distortion (too much in fact). I set the distortion level knob on the thing to about the 11 o'clock position. I use a variety of different amps (crate, marshall, mostly). The trick with the metal zone is to take your' time in setting up the knobs on the amp and the metal zone and to back off on the metal zone's distortion knob a bit. I've used this pedal for everything from AC/DC, Pink Floyd solos, Zeppelin, and everything in between. I can get the sounds I want out of it, but it requires work and setting the amp up right too.

All the effect pedals that I own are Boss. I've been playing for over 22 years. I've never had a boss pedal break or not work.

Never needed to use it.

I play mostly hard rock and metal. I've been playing over 22 years. If I lost this thing, I would have to buy a new one since it's a big part of my live rig. I love the fact that I can get so many different distortion sounds out of this box. I hate the fact that it requires alot of work to get these sounds out of this box. The amplifier eq settings also have to be tinkered with alot when setting up. The trick to getting a good distortion sound lies in setting the knobs up properly on both the effect box and the amplifier. Only you can determine what that good sound is.

I know that many people like this pedal cause it's typically noob ware. "How easy is it to get a good sound out of it?" well, id say impossible. No matter how you set it its always that damn fizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz that keeps ruining the whole tone.... I mean I want high tones yeah, LOTS even, but not that damn fizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz cause that sounds so cheap! But, its kinda easy in figuring out, so a 7 here.

As i said, fzzzzzzz. some of the comments on this page made me laugh cause it all sounded exactly the way i felt about it. I must have entered 5 good music stores checking for some good equipment n always when i needed a metal distortion they hooked me up with this. No wonder it sells so much. its probably nice for beginning players who own jack and shit, and jack left town. funny quotes on this page...Plugging it into a hornet nest gives the same sound.... And its compressed as the center of the sun....haha Yes its for newbie players who think marshall really is the best and think that they will own metallica with this. That is so true. But its not, cause it doesnt own metallica :) It gets low quality guitars to sound a little in that direction. Namesale. My advice: If you really only have 100 bucks for a distortion pedal, try Boss' new MD-2, hook it up with an EQ and give it some serious time, I swear, MD-2 is like 3 times as much bang for your buck, and actually has really nice quality in it. As for Metal Zone, its just a cheap sounding all-around distortion box, combining 'metal' sounds with compression, making sloppy players sound better. Who the hell needs compression in a distortion pedal. I really like boss, but I just can't stand this Metalzone hype any longer. I know MANY people that bought it 5 to 10 years ago as their first pricey distortion method and NONE of them still uses it, or they sold it easily (cause every noob wants it). Trust me, if you want Metallica (lol, you think they use the metal zone?) you need lots of drive into a tube, with a good eq. Thats how you get close with quality, not a pedal that sounds like a rusty circlesaw thats ripping through a floppy piece of cardboard.

Once again I love boss, i own MANY of their devices and they are ALL satisfactory, JUST NOT THIS ONE. And trust me on this as well: I gave Metal Zone so much time (i really wanted to know where the hype came from) on MANY different setups, and my conclusion was is and always will be that its a newbie device.

Yeah it is reliable. Its Boss.

Never dealt with. Boss Lasts.

I explained everything in sound quality. Summary: Newbie thang, FZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

-It takes some time to get the pedal tweeked in to meet your needs, but don't give up because IT is There.

-No Patches

-No manual needed

-This is the only version of the MT-2 that I know about

-I use it with Clapton Strat with Lace Pickups, or a 60' Les Paul Goldtop with mini-humbuckers into a MXR Compressor - Fulltone Fulldrive II - Boss Blues Driver - MT-2 - Vintage Morley Power Wah Boost - Boss RV-3 reverb/delay - Morley A/B/Y switch then to, either, my Marshall JMP 2150 combo with a Marshall 1936 2x12 extension cabinet or a stock Fender 65' Twin Reverb Reissue.

-It's not noisy when adjusted properly. Highest gain settings will be noisy and not a plesent distortion for my taste.

-As stated earlier... If you take the time to set it up right for YOUR equipment, it'll sound Great.

-I get the sound that I want out of the pedal. I'm not trying to sound like all the others who've made their own sound. I can't sound like anyone, but myself.

-It reacts with EVERY piece of equipment in your chain. With the EQ controls, it'll help ballance out your equipment no matter where you insert it in your effects chain.

-I always depend on it. It is set up on my board and has never let me down.

-I don't have backups. I live on the edge.

-I've never dealt with the company. There's never been a need. I feel THAT is the Best Customer Support!

-I play Classic Rock, Blues, Jazz, Country, Metal... and whatever else is nice to my ears.

-I've been playing guitar since around 1965... On a few records in the 70's and 80's... a couple CDs reciently.

-I'd probably get another one. It works well for my chain.

-I've compared it to other products and like it as well if not better than most.

-I've read some of these posts that they don't like it... well... that's ok. I don't like a lot of tools that other people like. I think if you pay $100+ bucks for a pedal you ought to have had a good idea that it's what you want BEFORE you BUY it.

-I helps me make achieve a sound that's pleasing to me. It, obviously, wouldn't be good for Every lead.

-It's just a tool. I plays well with other children. It changes character if driven by an Overdrive... different volumes... different tone settings. Two or three of these hooked together on one board with different settings would be pretty interesting! For What It's Worth... This pedal is Worth the price if you are going to stick it in a Good Quality Equipment Lineup...

Not too hard to use but the slightest movement of the EQ can mess up your sound.

I LOVED this pedal when I got it 7 years ago. Now I think the thing sounds like shit. As my music progressed and matured my desire to use this pedal faded. Its great for someone looking for a noisy, fizzy sound but anyone looking for a nice, clear distortion with balls is looking in the wrong place.

10 Neither I or anyone I know has ever broken a boss pedal. They are little tanks.

No Idea

It's perfect if you are looking for a shitty sound along the lines of mmm THE VINES for example. Anyone with higher standards should look for a different pedal/processor.

i got the metal zone as a replacement for my fried ds-1.It has so many features so its kinda hard to get a sound u really like.I hate the mids it has on it,but the "double knob" feature is very interesting to screw around to find just the right sound.

I really liked my ds-1,but this pedal i just great.It has a very high amount of distortion without getting sloppy like the DOD grunge pedal.The sound is very thick and the the built in EQ is great for turing up the bass and scooping the mids.i have a rogue 2x12 with the worst distortion channel ive ever heard.this pedal really saves my music.

errr....the construction seems to be strong enough,but just make sure u buy the right kind of adaptor for it,

ir really like this pedal,the distortion is great and VERY thick.It really is the center of my sound.I like to play grungeish punk and it really helps that out alot too.Fopr some of the amps and effects ive used in the past,this pedal is perfect.Id buy it again and again.However,ive heard better pedals for lead.This more of a ryuthm pedal in my opinion.

It's very easy to get a sound out of this pedal, any sound you want, but you know... this pedal cannot gurantee a good sound that any of us want.
There is a sound editing or setting suggestion instruction manual, for some sounds (ie, fuck, blues, metal, and more) some are good, and some are okay, but some are the same as the next one.

I use Fender Stratocaster and Epiphone custom with this pedal.

It is real noisy, and some settings it is weak sounding.

I guess no other artists use this pedal, but it can mimick the sounds of some metal band, with good amps of course.

For Lead playing, this pedal is just crap!
For Rhythm playing, it's the best!

(Bad with stratocasters, especially when you are playing lead.)
(Good for grunge, and punk and some metal i guess..but the lead...
it's just sounds too shitty.)
(BUT IT'S LOUD)

Yes, this pedal is like a rock, it will never brake.

For a gig, i would use this pedal but not for all the songs. If i only had Metal Zone for a concert, i wouldnot complain.

I think so.

I play every kind of music. In a way, this pedal helps, it's not totally shit piece of toy.

Been playing for around 5 years, and i own Ibanez Tubescreamer, and PSK but, i find this pedal much better than TubeScreamer, or PSK, PSK and Tubescreamer is same shit. I got PSK for 10$s (New) and Tubescreamer is borrowed but it's worth 220$


If it was stolen or lost, i would buy it again, but in a much cheaper price. i would buy it for 100~140$.

I hate the fact that this metal zone doesn't cover any leads.

I think some people are right, when they say this pedal is for beginners.

It's got knobs on it... A monkey could probably figure it out.

I'm very meticulous about my tone and have been playing for over 10 years. I don't own one and never will....

This is a true story: Back when I was in high school, a friend of mine (who was obssessed with distortion) bought one of these because he wanted no one else to sound like him... He got what he wanted.

What kind of shit box is this? Boss have a reputation for making quality pedals at a good price. Why the hell did they put this one out? I swear, you could plug into a hornets nest and get the same sound as this pedal produces.

it's a boss... they make good stuff cause the guys who were playing in my friend's band tried breaking the pedal and they couldn't do it

never dalt with them

Do you think I own one?

It is not easy to get a good sound out of this pedal. That is why people give up on it after 10 minutes and give it a bad rap, then they say they have a squire and a crate, and have been playing for 2 weeks.....go figure. It took me a while to get my tone out of this pedal. There are so many ways you can alter your tone (on any pedal), guitar, pickups, speaker cabs and most important, the amp. You cant expect to get a good tone out of the mt-2 playing it thorugh a 15 watt crate. The controls are easy to edit, BUT every little change in the settings really does affect the tone, hence it takes very long to get a good tone. The manual helps for beginners, but it really starts with messing with your amp settings and the mt-2 settings. controls include: volume, bass, mid, mid freq, and distortion.

I play heavy metal to the likes of: Iron Maiden,Iced Earth,Megadeth,Motorhead,slayer,Testament,Black Sabbath,Children Of Bodom,Joe Satriani,W.a.s.p, old Ozzy w/ Randy Rhoads,Judas Priest, Saxon, Blind Guardian and more that I cant think of right now. I have a Jackson PS-3 string thru - Randy Rhoads model fitted with a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge (hah, these drown EMG's, hah), a Ibanez Gax70 fitted with a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge and a Cort acoustic. These are played through a BOSS NS-2 noise suppressor and then to the BOSS MT-2 Metal Zone which goes to my Randall RG100ES head and Sonic 4x12 cab fitted with EV-30 speakers. The mt-2 by itself is noisy at high volumes, but a NS-2 controls that problem, and does NOT color my tone, which is good. The mt-2 always sounds great to my ears. I can get dead on Iced Earth and Megadeth, and a quick setting change for Maiden. But the tone is defferent, so it is mine. I play strict metal, so a chorus/flanger/delay/wah pedal is a waste of money for me, and it also colors my tone when in the chain, and ruins the distortion tone. I use my clean channel on my Randall 100% of the time, and use the Randall for clean, and the mt-2 for distortion.

I can depend on it, i think BOSS is very reliable, no problems ever.

Never had to deal with BOSS

Very good pedal to me, does metal like no other pedal: ive tried many dist pedals, and ive always come back to this....ive been playing for aroudn 4 years and i can get a pure evil tone out of this thing

I had no problem getting the sound out of it that I wanted. I gave it a 9 because it did take some trial and error. I attribute most of that to the fact that I am a begginer and have no idea what I am doing.

I use the MT-2 only for solos (in my case really just scales, since I am still learning). I think it has a very ballsy, thick sound with lots of harmonics and keeps it's sound even through the most aggresive of whammy attacks. I don't have to try very hard to get smooth runs up and down the neck, which I attribute more to the MT-2 than to my own skill.

I have an Ibenez RG570 and I do not tune it down.

I use a Boss OC-2 octive pedal with both octives on about 20% and the level cranked up to 75%, to thicken the sound (which is all that it is good for).

I use the MT-2 with the following settings:
Level 50%
High 70%
Low 75%
Middle 35%-40%
Mid Freq 65%-70%
Dist 50%-75%

I use a Boss MD-2 Mega Distortion for power chords. I also have an Electroharmonics Big Muff Pi and a Fulltone Distortion Pro, for non-metal stuff.

I have a Dunlop Q95 wah pedal that I only use on a note here and there, to give it a little color. I think that the MT-2 responds to my wah pedal more dramaticaly than my Electroharmonics or Fulltone.

I have a Boss EQ-20 equalizer with the 9 programable settings. I use it to boost the midrange and low end and overall requency as well as take out some of the high end. This corrects some of the problems, like sounding "too trebely or tinny", that I have heard people complain about.

Finally, I run it through a Boss DD-3 with a tiny bit of slap back echo and then through a Boss CH-1 chorus set to a very mild chorus effect into a small Marshall amp.

My setup is clearly that of a beginner and does not take the place of a vintage Les Paul and an overdriven Marsahll stack, but I am able to simulate a lot of styles and tones at a fraction of the cost.

I "play" or at least try to, in the style of Zakk Wylde, Static-X, Ramstein and everything else heavy and evil sounding, and I think that the MT-2 is an affordable way to get there.

I gave it an 8 because you have to manipulate the sound with other pedals for best results.

I have only had it for about a year, but it seems very well built.

I have not tried to contact Boss, but from what I have heard it is very difficult. On the other hand, I have also heard that you should not need to contact them.

Currently, this is my favorite pedal. I may look back on this and laugh, once I am more accomplished and have a couple of 100 watt Marshall heads and 4X12 cabinets.

I tried playing scales on my Electroharmoinics and my Fulltone, and don't get me wrong they are both great pedals and the Fulltone, of course is flawless, but they seem weak as far as metal goes.

If it were stolen, I would definitely replace it. I saw a used one the other day for about $60 and thought for a second about buying it, in case something happened to the one I got.

This is a beginner's pedal and is the cheap way of getting blistering metal sounds fast. It is not a pedal for playing live or recording. Jimmy Page will never own an MT-2, nor will you probably ever even see any of the Ozzfest bands using one, but it does get a good metal sound with lots of balls for beginners wanting to sound like their metal heroes.

No manual was included but there was really no need for one.
Turn the knobs and you'll figure it out.

Playing on a B.C. Rich Warlock Bronze series...
Crate Half-stack.
I have the MT2 then a Boss CE-5 hooked up.
This is my first gear, but I know when I smell crap.
INCREDIBLY FIZZY. You can get a few good sounds, but not the kinda crunch I was looking for.
No definition to notes what-so-ever.
Alright for soloing, but who does that 100% of the time?
I wouldn't want anyone to buy this pedal, not unless I was selling. :]
I'll give it a THREE because I like the number.

It's a boss... so everyone says.

No Opinion

I play creed, metallica, hoobastank, etc.
I like anything really... but mostly play my own stuff.
This pedal doesn't suit much of anyone needs.
If it were stolen or lost, I'd be very upset because I wouldn't be able to sell it to a poor sap.

I personally should have stuck to my original plan and bought a ZOOM TRI-METAL PEDAL.
I hope to in the future.

Easy to use.

True story: After a gig, we were talking with the owner and sound guy. He shows us some gear from his lost and found bin that no one has claimed. In there is a Boss MT-2 Metal Zone. He says no one will even take it! My buddie offers up $3, and the pedal is ours.

Days later we plugged it into a Marshall 50W Plexi. Put it this way, my buddie and I have never laughed so loud in our lives!

Let me offer a few words to describe this tragic piece of shit. Super fizzy (the fizziest I've ever heard actually), electronic and synthetic, compressed as the center of the sun, tweezy top murky bottom, totally unmusical.

Your a fool if you think that your favorite signed metal bands use these Metal Zone pedals. They don't. These pedals are toys to the highest degree.

Okay, maybe you just started out playing guitar and you think that the Metal Zone sounds great. That's fine. Maybe your a kid and can't afford something good. That's fine too. Just realize you could do alot better.

If I had to choose between the MT-2 or a pedal packed up with human shit for electronics, I'd happily use the pedal packed with human shit. This is probably the WORST sounding pedal I have ever heard.

If you love this pedal, sorry dude, and please let me know where your band is playing so I can avoid the Metal Zone tone at all costs.

The battery release screw broke and is stripped. Boss stuff is pretty reliable, though.

No idea.

I'm sorry. I hate this gimmick pedal.

Very easy but a lot of bending over to find your sound.

My setting are.... level 12 oclock, bass 3 oclock and treble at 1 oclock
mid freq. all the way to the right, middle at 10:30
dist at 10:30

Playing thru a 1971 Les Paul and 1971 Marshall Super Bass head and 1974 100 Marshall 4x12

My friend and I, who have both been playing guitar since Ted Nugent was king, both use the MetalZone for our sound.
We've trying dozens of pedals over the years and we prefer this one.

I went to the music store yesterday and tried the Boss pedal display using a Fender strat and a crate 1x12 amp. All the distortion pedals sounded bad. There were about 8 distortion pedals. I own most of them and they all sounded ugly.

To me this means that a good distortion pedal won't cure a bad guitar or amp.

I wouldn't have bought any of those pedals which I do own and love based on what I heard in the store.

On our own equipment [old Pauls and Marshalls] we get Tool, Alice in Chains, Megadeth, Rage, S.T.P., C.O.C., Sound Garden, etc

We love the tight bass the MetalZone provides. Speed Metal for days.

I don't know what to say to people who like the same bands as us and frown on the MetalZone. It works great for us guys.

rubber gromets deteriorate, footswitches do die eventually, the jacks can come loose. Still the thing is more reliable than anything NASA can build.

This pedal sounds killer with good equipment.
I pity you people who can't yet afford to shell out $1200 for pre 1980 Les Paul and $1200 for a good Marshall half stack.

If volume isn't an issue you can buy an old Marshall Valvestate 100 combo amp for about $250. My God they sound good and you won't need a MetalZone. But your still gonna need the old Les Paul : (


I own a dozen guitars. Nothing sounds better than an old Les Paul for heavy metal music and 99% of the other guitars out there including newer Les Pauls don't come close to the pristine sound of an old Paul. Learn and remember that and we will have saved you from years of frustration and money loss.

This is an attempt at a serious, considered review instead of all the "It totally rocks/It totally sucks" kind of stuff that seems to be getting more frequent on this page.
The Metalzone is a really easy effect to use because you get one basic sound and the rest is just tinkering with the eq knobs which doesn't really change the actual sound but just alters the bass/midrange/treble emphasis. It really is very weak in the bass, so I can't imagine anybody wanting to use it with the bass control turned down.The manual is pretty basic and the sample settings aren't much help. The British Rock setting in particular is a joke.I mean come on,we invented heavy metal for fuck's sake.

To my ears this is almost more like a fuzzbox sound than a distortion sound. Even with the bass turned all the way up it's still lightweight so no wonder so many users feel they have to shell out more hard-earned dough for an equalisation pedal as well. It might be worth it if you enjoy the basic sound which is a kind of buzzy 'chainsaw shredding through cardboard' effect. This isn't meant as a criticism but more of an attempt to put into words how the sound goes. As I said, it's very midrangey even with the bass turned full up. I can see exactly why this pedal appeals to novices but is loathed by experienced guitarists. It's as if it has built in compression which means that players with sloppy technique sound better than they actually are, but on the other hand, pick dynamics are lost which is tough shit if you're an expressive player. I happen to own a Boss GE-7 EQ pedal aslready anyway, and this did make a big difference to the tonal emphasis on the bottom end but I couldn't get rid of the ever-present 'buzz'. However the midrange is tightly focused and has a 'present' quality to it, and having used some other pedals that get frequent namechecks in this column I can say that none of them are totally perfect. The Metalzone buzzes, the Trimetal fizzes (though it can be dialled out)the Rat rasps and the Fabtone sizzles.
I want to be absolutely one-hundred-percent clear about this: no matter what some of the overly enthusiastic reviews on this page might claim, there is nothing even remotely approaching a Metallica sound on offer here, nothing like a Pantera sound either. You can actually dial up a *sort* of Slayerish sound but it lacks the vicious bite of the real thing. This isn't anything like an overdriven tube amp sound at all, it's definitely an artificial sound,and there's no sweet bluesy overdrive available. It's easy with the gain wound up to make pinch harmonics ring out in the manner of Zakk Wylde, but the actual tonality of the sound is a long way removed from Zakk's. Remember! None of these guys actually use a Metalzone! If they could get their sound from one, do you think they would all be using huge amounts of very different, and very expensive gear? The Metalzone has only one particular sound that it really stands out at and that might well be just what you're looking for if you're a Megadeth fan. At a practice session when I hit the intro to Holy Wars then went straight into Symphony of Destruction our drummer reckoned it sounded EXACTLY like the CD's. Listening to them at home confirmed this to be true. So Megadeth fans - go for it. Everyone else give it a thorough tryout to make sure that it's what you really want because there's no tonal versatility here at all. It's a bit of a cliched expression to use, but this really is a one-trick pony.

Well now, this IS my backup. I got my Metalzone for a mere #30 so even with my reservations about the sound,I still think that was a bargain. If my Tri-metal packs up the Metalzone with my GE-7 would get me through the night but I would still want to purchase another Tri-metal pretty pronto.I've use a Boss CE-5 chorus as well as the GE-7 for a few years and they've worked ok up to now , so very good on the reliability front.

I've never had any contact with Boss directly, so I can't comment.

I play guitar in a Rock/Metal covers band ,playing mainly in pubs and clubs in our area. And yes one of my guitars is fitted with EMG active pickups.Some people seem to have a dislike for these but they ARE the best choice for metal.I wouldn't ever have bought a Metalzone at full retail price but at #30 it was worth having in my effects arsenal. Even though I won't use it much for live work, it still makes a reasonable backup in an emergency. It's a pity Boss couldn't have designed it to give a lot more bass weight and dumped the buzziness. Then I would have rated it a lot higher. For most people the cost of a new Metalzone plus a new GE-7 makes for a pretty hefty outlay, and unless you absolutely love the Megadeth sound, it just isn't worth it. I suggest you try to listen to the tracks I mentioned and see if this is the sound you want.Despite it's shortcomings in most other areas the Metalzone really does nail that particular sound perfectly.(That's because Megadeth used them on the recordings of course). But if you want one, see if you can find a used one. There are plenty of them around at a reasonable price.

knobs for level, highs, lows, mids, mids frequency (i think) and gain. it comes with a manual that basically explains how it works. There a bunch of settings in the manual (for different styles) such as brit. rock, thrash, and other sh*t. my only gripe is that you can truly only get one sound, METAL.

ibanez rg w/ seymour duncan pu-> metal zone-> Marshall G30
this pedal is probably best for trying to get that "scooped" high gain metal sound on a budget. it sounds very metallic and heavy, great for thrash. the only good settings to me were to boost the lows and highs and cut or totally eliminate the mids. the latter one sounds best. although it is advertised as a "monster pedal with heavy mids and lows", the mids generally suck. feedbacks quite a lot on high gain/volume settings, easily eliminated with a noise gate. good all around heavy metal sound, can get sounds ranging from sabbath to metallica to nu metal. great sustain and harmonics .don't get this pedal if you have a good tube amp. it really sounds "fake" and metallic. it will suck the soul out of your tube amp. get a overdrive pedal to use instead to get thick distortion. if i had the cash, i would just get high quality mahogany guitar, stick high output pu's (such as sd's or EMG's) and get a od pedal into a tube stack (similar to zakk wylde's rig). it would be much more versatile and musical (?). if ya want that 80's metal sound then get a zoom tri metal instead. the metal zone is a great pedal nonetheless.

built like a tank

never had to deal with 'em

i play mostly metal, ranging from metallica, korn, sabbath, joe satriani, steve vai, pantera, megadeth, and some others, and some punk (bad religion, green day, blink 182, nirvana). great metal pedal very heavy and has lots of gain, not versatile, mids suck, but overall all worth the price if you want a good basic metal sound and can't afford expensive gear.

Easy to use. All you have to do is turn the knobs til it sounds cool.

Lots of distortion. I use it with a Jackson guitar w/ three stock, Jackson humbuckers, and a fender solidstate amp. You can scoop the mids, and crank the distortion, or turn down the distortion and turn up the midrange to get that honkey, midrangey guitar sound, kind of like Boston, but not as smooth. Pretty versatile pedal, but not the best for classic rock. Without the parametric EQ it would be a piece of crap.

Never had a problem with it.

I bought it for $149 just before they dropped the price to $89 GRRR!
I would buy another one. It's good at what it's designed for. Lots of distortion. It has plenty of low end. I don't know why people say it sounds thin ...and the midrange EQ frequency setting makes it just good enough to use for other things besides metal.

Really easy to use 4 knobs....well 6

1st of all let me say that anyone who bought this thinging they were going to get a marshall od or a 5150 sound needs to have this shoved somewhere side ways, it's a 80 dollar pedal, anyhting super critical of this is retarded. as for sound i mainly use it for a volume mid boast on my amp, so i run it though the loop and use it on my od channel and it sounds fine, i use it sorta like the solo button on the mesa's. and as for the guy who was like if you don't play emg's you are a nu-metal p*ssy, have you ever played clean before?? emgs are awesome DISTORTED pups but you take the mask of fuzz off and you got yourself one ugly monster, besides if you need fuzz to mask your horrible finger tone you shouldn't be playing in the 1st place. in the end it does what i want it to do

Uh bought it used and is still kickin'. every other boss pedal i have has ben fine

N/A

uh i play metal, emo, hxc and jazz, and for the 1st 3 this does what i want it to do, i just sit around and play with it for awhile. i run this through a blue voodoo loop, not the greastest amp but i like it, i play a carvin dc127 and am soon to get my "metal guitar" a gibson sg if it were stolen i'd probably just steal my friends haha

It's easy to use. I mean, Who doesn't for example know what the bass knob does??

Way too much mids, and too fuzzy and thin bass. I used to use my MT-2 almost exclusively until I got a Zoom TriMetal. I even thought it sounded good. What a fool I was. I would like to have more bottom end. It has no balls at all, it's just thin and mid rangey and fuzzy. I haven't managed to get any artist's sound, not even with the GE-7. It simply sounds like an MT-2. Sterile that is.
Not to forget that annoying hum it makes when not playing. It should have a built-in noise gate. Man, if you want a good sound out of the MT-2, you'll need THREE pedals!! An MT-2, an equalizer, and a noise gate. That's about the same money that you can get one of those neat Line6 POD boxes for.

Nope. BOSS IS NOT AS RELIABLE AS EVERYBODY SAYS. Boss pedals are way too overrated. My foot switch is not very reliable, sometimes it doesn't switch (Even though I press it as far as it goes). I would NOT use it at a gig, because it would be a shame if it didn't switch when it's supposed to. Perhaps as a backup, if my TriMetal fails on me (don't think it ever would).

Haven't bothered. I don't need the pedal anyway.

I've been playing for four years, don't claim to have too much experience with distorsion pedals, but I have owned a few "metal" pedals, and tried numerous ones, And This one is not at the top of my list.
I have a gibson explorer with duncans, and a kramer striker FR400s.
At the moment I only have a Peavey special 112 amp (very powerful compared to the size) due to lack of money.

To everybody who's considering to buy this pedal: If you're looking for a pedal for metal style, don't buy this pedal. Maybe if you want to play hard rock you should get it. And another thing.. DON'T listen to ppl who gives it a pure 10 and claims to get every damn artist's sound and says things like "It's BOSS!! Reliable!!". Either they are blind and deaf, or they have read all the other reviwes and just go with the stream and exaggerate. There are better pedals out there. Open your eyes.

And some guys who says that they KNOW everything about distorsion pedals, and have only played for *almost* a year (hint hint, slaytannica).. What the?? Bet this guy can hardly play. And I'm a nu-metal poser because I don't use EMG's? heh..
Well, I'm going to conclude this review now.. Don't buy this pedal if you're into metal. Go for a tube amp with a good distorsion, but if you don't have that much money, get a Zoom TriMetal, or maybe a Boss GT-6 multiFX unit, but NOT a MetalZone.

If you can't figure out a stompbox then your too stupid to be playing guitar! People wine about uhh I can't stand the shrill sound then turn the knobs a$$#@!e. This box is for true metal masters not nu-metal Limp Wristcuit and Stinkin' Park sissies.

I run my Yamaha RGX821 / B.C. Rich Mockingbird / Jackson King V (all with EMG81?s) into Boss DS-1,Rat2,Zoom Tri-Metal.I also use a Morley Wah ,Boss Chorus Esemble,Boss Eq20 and a Bodd ge-7 for a volume boost. Straight @#!$ing metal rig in case you didn't know, bro. If your not runnin EMG's then your a nu-metal poser. Read the writing on the pedal. Metal Zone...nuff said. With this rig I can get Slayer, early Metallica, Testament, Iced Earth and my own brew of metal, thrash and death metal. But i don't try to sound like my favorite bands, I get my own sound.

What are you stupid? Hello, Boss peadals. Built like a tank. My rhythm player dropped his MT-2 off of the Eiffel tower while posing for a picture with it. He climbed down, plugged in and instantly got Dimebag Darrel's 'Far Beyond Driven' sound. Built like a $%^&in' tank, bro.

Ha! Read above. The support guy at Boss probably has time at work to practice his bowel-loosening riffs while not answering the phones.

If this pedal was a groupie I'd marry her. Nothing gets my killer lead AND palm-muting crunch rhythm sound like this pedal. I've been playing for almost a year now and I KNOW good pedals. I'm thinking of getting another one and running them together to get true bone-shattering metal riffage. If this pedal was stolen from me I'd hunt the #$%^er down who took it and beet him with it before I planted insect eggs into his ear so they would hatch and eat his brain like in Star Treek II. Get you one of these pedals and remember METAL RULEZ, bro.

Any idiot can figure out how to use this thing, it's just a stompbox...real simple, I had absolutely no problems switching from a bottom - heavy nu metal sound to an old AC/DC type sound. Just a simple twist of the two knobs. Anyone who says this is hard to use just needs to take more time fooling with it...manual is good, explains everything. It has some cool settings, too!

I play a standard strat thru a Fender Princeton 65 amp, so of corse there's gonna be some noise w/ no humbuckers...but that was ok, b/c the tone was great! I was able to get the metal sound of bands like the Offspring and the Deftones which I really like. I can even get a real good Satriani sound. Not a nice overdrive tone...there's a little too much distortion, even when it's at it's lightest. If you want overdrive, get a different pedal. But if it's metal you're after, this pedal is great.

I've never gigged with this, but for over two years I've beaten the crap out of it, and along with the other BOSS boxes it's as sturdy as a tank. No problem here.

This pedal is real good for the music I play, like Deftones, Metallica, Nirvana, Rammstein, Satriani, Eric Johnson. The equalizer is really handy, lets me go from bottom - end thrash like the Rammstein to a punchy treble like the 70s and 80s, classic rock sound. I think this pedal was a great buy, be smart people and don't rely on your amp for distortion tones!!

THis pedal was pretty good. i dont know what anyone is complaining about, a bunch of metal brat-guitarists, most of them expecting a $250 sound from something they paid 80 for. Anyways, the sound was ok, when i used it, i played it with a standard mex strat straight into a fender hot rod deluxe on clean channel. It suited my purposes, which were to get a range of punk rock sounds. A lot of people dont realize that just like metal, punk has also evolved over the years. Going from pop punk to hardcore, you can get hundreds of tones from all sorts of different bands with millions of different rock, metal, surf, indy, etc. influences that all change their sound. Punk is no longer just Ramones, Green Day, and Blink 182, but i think i could get a passable sound from this pedal if i had each of their respecive guitars, as well as many other of my favorite punk bands. I didn't think the setup was particularly shredworthy, so im not complaining about the noise that i have accepted will always come out of single-coil pickups. Deal with it. it was easy to use. Also, if i turned the gain to just above zero i could get one overdrive tone that was ok.

The sound quality was good for what i needed it for. i personally love the unclean noise. My favorite band of all time (Jawbreaker) use riffs in the backround you can't hear very well but they complement the song. Sure, the guitarist doesn't get a gold star on his shoulder, but people playing guitar to impress people need to think over what they are doing. By not being obnoxious loud solos they still got the message across and made good music in the process. THis is probably just me bitching but Lead guitar is really overrated, there are all these people who learn four metallica licks and play them over and over and over again until you want to smash their guitar. The guitar is the most diverse instrument in the world. Sure, metal is ok, but sooner or later to grow as a musician we will have to realize that there is life after metal, and that if you dont have emgs it doesn't automatically make you a "pussy", in fact, usually the person could be way better at four different types of music than you are at metal. plus, have you ever tried to play your emgs without distortion into a blues amp? emgs are very unversitile pickups, not unlike you claiming this pedal is very unversitile. i guess im not talking to the whole group of people, but put your complaints into perspective. There are very few guitars, amps, and pedals that can do EVERYTHING, but that doesn't make them bad (unless they are overpriced).

i think i pretty much summed it up above

This isn't hard to use at all, but I gave it a nine because it is very sensitive. If you tweak the knobs slightly at all, mainly the equalization, it gives you a highly altered sound, which I actually prefer, but I wish the pedal had a little bit more control over distortion settings. I got it used from my neighbor, so I don't have a manual, but I never needed one.

This pedal is great. It gives me the exact tone I prefer for new and old school metal and rock. Don't be fooled by the name. Rockers - this is your pedal! This pedal has two settings. Lots of distortion and insane amounts of distortion. I prefer it over the Mega Distortion though because it has immense equalization capability. The Mega Distortion tended to lack EQ capability and a broad tonal range, but does give a bigger variety of distortion, which I wish this pedal had, because through my Peavey Bandit 112 it sounds the same no matter how you adjust the tone of the distortion. I'm considering purchasing and amp modeler for this reason to get a bigger distinction between a Fender/Marshall/Rectifier tone.

Combat ready. I got mine used and it still works like a dream.

The greatest pedal in the world for hard rock and metal. It is a little expensive new, which is why I got mine used, but nonetheless well worth it.

Took me 2 minutes tops to work this thing out and get some good sounds out of it. If you cant work it out, then maybe guitar wasn't meant for you...

I have afew different setups. If i'm recording, i do a direct record through a alesis midiverb. If im just practicing, then i just grab whatever effects i feel like using and chuck them into my little practice amp. Even though i'm using an old ibanez roadster (with single coil pickups :P), this little box is the shizzy. I love it. I don't feel the need to recreate the sounds of any particualar artist, but i reckon you could tweak this unit into just about anything.

Well i've only had it for afew days so i can't really judge it yet.

Purdy website. Never had to deal with boss

I love this pedal. I feel attached to it already. I don't think i could bear to see it stolen, or replaced, even with a brand new MT-2. If it were stolen, i would definitely buy another one. My favourite feature on this pedal would probably be the middle freq function. I like sitting there and twiddling with it when i play my guitar. I reckon the only thing they could do to make this better would to make it bassier, and make it heavier (weight wise). I don't know why, but i like heavy pedals :).

Has to be tweaked a little bit to get great distortion. The manual discribes a few presets. Bought this thing used and it was my first pedal. Loved it until I got my Tri Metal which ate it alive.

My setup when I had this pedal was: ESP LTD M207 -> MT2 -> Marshall Valvestate 8080. I had to tweak alot to find the right sound. The amp has a horrible sound. The pedal was very noisy at high volumes. I think the distortion is great, can be thin and also very heavy. I recommend the Zoom Tri Metal. Cost a little more, but it will tear your heart out!

Buildt like all the other Boss Pedals, like a tank. Runs on 9v batteries or an Adapter. No backup needed.

Never dealt with Boss

I've been playing for 2 years and tried alot distortion pedals. I play alot of heavy/black metal and this pedal will give you that sound, but using it at high volumes kills the tone in hiss. I recommend looking into the Zoom Tri Metal if you are considering buying a distortion pedal, but in the end, it's all about the amp. I now own a 5150 head and I love it to the death!
I'll post soundclips in the future, look at http://home.no.net/viper82

Rock on people!

It is quite easy to find several good tones out of this box. They are all heavy, though. Don't be mislead by some kid who's idea of clean is "that emotional part before Jeff Hanneman chops some guys head off on Reign In Blood".

This pedal was driven by a Jackson with an EMG81 in the bridge and a G&L Legacy with a DiMarzio Fast Track II in the bridge. Don't bother using your neck pickups with this pedal, you won't be able to distinguish any differences in tone between any of your pickups with this square-wave generator.
The outer mid control seems like some sort of an inductor potentiomer as it seems like the sweep on a wah pedal. The inner mid control is centered in the upper-mid band.
For leads with passive p'ups, the high notes sound *very* nasally and again, very wah-like. With the EMG81, however, the highs were more defined and open; still retaining a bit of the "aw" characteristic. With some reverb, a very cool 80's metal lead tone can be had. I found a setting that gives a cool Alex Skolnick lead tone.
Rythyms is where this box takes the cake. This pedal can give you some seriously heavy shit. The amount of different tones are amazing, but unfortunately, they are limited to only heavy shit. There are no subtle timbres to be had here-and regardless of how you tweak it, you can fuggedabowdit! You're only getting evil shit here, kids.

Boss...They build shit that you stomp on...Think about it...

Overall, this is a fun pedal that is good for cheesey crunch-off's with your pals or for heavy shit in general. It lacks dynamics, flexibility, and clarity, but then again, it's been aptly named "MetalZone" for a reason. It does what it says so that's an easy "10".
As a blues guy who like to wank it with some heavy, aggressive shit at times, this little guy is alot of fun.

It's pretty easy to use, if you get it new, there's a list of good settings in the manual, so just set these up, then play around... it's not as easy as say the DS-1, but you can get sooooo many different sounds out of it!

FANTASTIC! I have NEVER been able to find an equal in any multi effect unit (I was looking for ages to simplify the piece of floor behind my mic, but NOTHING could give me the same sound as the Metal Zone!). It has some GREAT sounds in it, especially with the mid frequency sweeper, if you want to get on your knees, and keep one hand doing hammer on's and pull off's, then you can make it sound like a Wha! Whoa! I can't say enough good stuff, so I won't write any more... lets just say, I've owned a quite a few stomp boxes, nothing beats Boss (I guess they did name it appropriately!), and definately nothing beats the Metal Zone!!!

As with all Boss gear... the only thing that can go wrong is human error (eg. you forget to show up at your gig!).

Fantastic! Phenomenal! Grouss! Sick! It just goes off!

Not to bad at all! Any sound i could ever want. Took a bit of getting used to though

Great! No competitors in this field any sound you could want from korn to blnk 182.

Boss is Boss is Boss! The only thing that ever needs doing is a battery change due to excessive use!

No problems, no contact with customer relations.

For the money paid, you couldn't ask for more in a distortion pedal! Overdrive, distortion, sustain, low and high settings and that scream sound on the high notes of solo's! Simply flawless!

It has taken me a great deal of time to get the sound that I want out of this pedal.. Some of you guys are talking about how you borrowed it for a day and got pissed because you couldn't get a nice sound.. It takes weeks or maybe even months to make it sound good! I've owned my metalzone for about half a year, and I've finally got a killer sound out of it! Other than that, the manual is very clear, and it even shows some settings that you can begin to experiment with.

I have a Kramer striker 400 --> MetalZone --> Peavey special 112 (160 watt solidstate). occasionally I use a zoom 505II for delay effects, but I like it simple. I might get a GE-7, and then I'll be satisfied. I know many people think that the peavey sounds shitty, but I've managed to get a great sound, kind of like jon schaffer from iced earth. And more bass?? how much bass do you guys need?? If you're

The setting I use is following:
level:12 o'clock
bass: 5 o'clock
treble: 4:30
mid frequency: 3 o'clock
mid: 9 o'clock
gain: 3 o'clock

My amp settings are:
bass: 8
mid: 4
treble: 4.5
presence: 10

This gives a shitty clean sound, but I dont use the clean channel very much. I play mostly metal, and the distorsion I get is thick and saturated. It sounds as good as many half stacks that I've tried, but only at loud volumes. The single speaker in my amp is a problem tho, it can't handle the power from the amp, and it will surely break if I turn the knob way up (It's good for band practices and for small gigs tho).

It's built as a tank, but I'm having a problem with the foot switch.. Sometimes it won't go from clean to distorsion and vice versa, so I have to swith again. Dunno why everybody thinks of quality when they hear "boss".

I play metal, and I have been playing for about 3 years. I wouldn't buy another metalzone if somebody stole it, unless I found a used one. I think I would go for a boss GT-6 or something like that... or maybe a ProCo Rat.

Very easy to use, alot of bending down to fine tune the EQ.

Excellent sound which makes me wonder about all the 1 ratings????? I figure these people are paid to write bad reviews by Boss's competitors or perhaps they have a personal axe to grind because of a sexual problem or something. I've been using The MT2 with a custom '81 strat and a 2002 Ibanez rg470 to test it's shredding attributes, running into my recording amp, a Marshall ATV20, with varoius effects added in the chain, sparkle drive, zoom powerdrive, G-Major, etc. The distortion is tight and tube like, of course it doesn't sound like an all tube head cranked up, but the sounds are very close, the sustain is rich and long lasting. Great lows! the EQ controls are very responsive and playing with them reveals quite a wide range of sounds, some bad, most good. I do alot of recording and I like a wide range of distored sounds. I recommend this pedal.

never a problem with boss

I'm very happy with this box and it's found a place in my inner circle of pedals.

With the four band EQ, it takes a while before you can get the sound you want, but that's just because you have a large pallette to choose from.

Set Up: PRS Santana SE->Ibanez TS-9->Nobels Overdrive Special->MT-2->Digitech XP-200->DOD Digital Delay->Carvin Bel Air 212.
Let me just say right off: I do not play metal! Therefore my expertise in the area of metal sounds is low. I play alternative rock/hard edged brit pop/whatever. As you can see above, I use lots of different distortion pedals. The MT-2 I use the least of all, but that is what fits our style of music. This thing has lots of gain, so I keep the gain knob very low. Bass all the way up of course, and I don't like to cut the mids too much, you lose definition that way. I think this is a fine pedal for what I use it for. It's good for heavy riff rock (e.g. Rage against the Machine, Alice in Chains, etc). I even scoop the mids a little when I am playing Metallica (here's where you need that four band EQ) Also, it's great for adding chunk to my overdrive pedals, and even sometimes for added gain for soloing (again, in conjunction with the OD pedals). Another thing, this pedal is great for feedback, even at low volume, which can be bad or good. I personally like it, because it's not my main pedal, and sometimes I need feedback quickly. I've seen a lot of reviews bashing this pedal, but I say you should just be careful what you use it for.

I bought it used, seems to work fine. Eats batteries pretty quickly, but now I have a powered pedal board, so it's nota problem.

haven't dealt with them.

I said before, for alt. rock, this pedal is fine, just don't have it as your one main pedal. If it were stolen, I would probably buy something else, that's always more fun. The other guitarist in my band has a Marshall Shredmaster, that's a great pedal, I'd rather have one of those. I suppose a DS-1 would probably do the job as well, for a cheaper price. Overall, with the four band EQ, this pedal is probably worth the price ($89 new I think), but you should really try it out first before buying it.

It requires a lot of tweaking... but don't bother with it... read the SOUND section. I stood hours in front of it, trying different combinations, and it wouldn't work. I was about to throw it out of my window when I called the friend who recommended me the pedal, but he told me a tip. One hell of a tip... read below.

By itself it's a real piece of shit. When I just bought it I hated it. It thought it was a waste of money. But here comes the cool thing. GO GET A BOSS GE-7 (7-band eq.), PUT IT AFTER THE MT-2 AND START TWEAKING WITH THE KNOBS!!!! You'll get orgasms with the sounds you WILL get (guaranteed) with this combo. By itself, the MT-2 is a pile of junk, and it deserves a 3. but with the GE-7 it's a 9. BOSS should make a "Metal Budget" Combo and start sellin MT-2 with GE-7 together. They are a dream togther. but the MT-2 all alone? Forget it.

Reliable 100%

Never had to deal with them.

I play mostly Megadeth, Metallica, Slayer, etc. (No nu-metal shit)I've been playing for 4-5 years. I haven't had much experience with other's gear, but I can tell you this for sure: DON'T GET A MT-2 IF YOU WON'T PUT IT WITH A GE-7!!!!!!!!!!!!!. I have a epi strat clone, that will get replaced with a Jackson KE-3 really soon, and I can get a really good tone with it, although the definition is very weak (epi's stock single coils... ugh!). WITH THE GE-7, IT'S AN 8 OVERALL, BUT SINCE THE REVIEW IT'S OF THE METAL ZONE BY ITSELF... WHAT A SHAME!

quite easy...comes with some gay factory settings (thrash is my fav)some r quite good for some older metal like metallica.
wtf do u guys get a sound for blink, and green day?seriously ppl that r planning to buy it, this pedal serves its perpose, Metal!

the sound quality is all F*k'n their man, i mean its a boss. play this then a dod grunge or a danelectro and u will see what i mean. i use it with my peavy bandit 112, or my marshall mg30dfx. u can hear every string...
i still dont understand what u guys mean its weak and can play punk....kus u really can't (maybe on the brit rock. its not the pedals fault...if u know how to palm mute properly and hit the strings u will get any metal u want. it is a lil weak on the lows. in what i mean is u wont get a death metal sound or rumbling lows unless ur using a head.

this sh** is like a tank, i've used it for years now and it hasnt screwed up or had any flaws. i'd definately hit up a gig without a back up...

i couldnt say kus its seriously unbreakable

i play metal....mostly megadeth metallica black sabbath...u know that stuff. i've been playin for 4 yrs and can get almost a perfect sound of master of puppets on my peavey...my dod grunge and death metal r crap to this...
the sound is so clear, and it is very versitile...70's rock all the way thru to SOME of todays metal.i can solo with this without havin to focus on the notes cus they come out so clear...

it could be easier to use.dont like the layout with the stacked knobs.

sound quality is nuthin special.a bit of a dull sound.kind of digital drone sound.not enough bottom end for my liking. not good for metal of the heavy variety. probably appeals to blink182/greenday/sum41 fans and that kind of dumbass phoney shit.definitely not a heavymetal pedal.

same as any other boss pedal ive seen solid metal so would probably wear ok.

not a great attempt at a distortion/metal pedal from boss. must try harder.this aint the 80's anymore.kepp up with the times. make apedal for the 21st century if you can manage that like other companies seem to.this is just a relic from the past.if you like this you must have cloth ears or sumthin.

A bit more complex than other pedals (which translates into a bit more control over tone), still very easy to use.

My setup:
Gibson SG (stock pickups)->metal zone->JCM900 with some FX in the loop.

It does exactly what it's supposed to do : Grinding, screaming, cutting distortion.
The tone is razor-sharp, and makes the marshall really scream, with a tight bottom end and nice scooped mids.
To get the best out of the pedal I set the gain at about 2' o'clock, boost bass and cut mids with the eq, and put the amp controls to get a light overdrive that smooths out the sound a little bit.

The case and switch seem to be bulletproof, but the knobs.... argh, take care !!!

If you play metal you'll like this pedal.
If you do not, do not buy it: it's called metal zone, can you spell it ? METAL ZONE, not sweet blues or happy country.

pretty easy to use i guess.nothing complicating compared to my lexicon mpx.and also to tht singaporean guy who wasted his friggin 120 sing bux...dun be a idiot and tell us how to eq our pedals.

the only good for this crap if its free would be a door stopper.the eq is total insensitive and does not change the character of the pedal at all.worse sill its damn noisy and the distortion sounds like a chainsaw...shrill and buzzy.this pedal juz makes a hell lot of shrill noises and tht sums it all that it does.but it prob make guys who don't know about tone and listen to junk and metallica happy.piece of shit is no diff from the dod junk the dan electro mini pedal distortion is way way better.here is what i use anyway..
ernieball musicman silhoutte special - 535q wah - bob bradshaw midi
floorboard - tech21 psa-1 preamp - lexicon MPX g-2 - bbe sonic maximizer - rocktron hush noise supressor - vht poweramp - marshall jcm 800 tube amp.

guess so.looks alright.

i didn't even wanna buy the stupid damn thing.i just went to the local music store swee lee to see how bad it sounds.and i wanna say i was totally impressed about how bad it was.worse then whut i had in mind.and i don't have ur so called crap gear of a low end clone guitar or solid state amps.i must agree with guy from singapore though,get the metalzone if u got a cheap guitar and solid state amp.it prob won't make a diff much to tht crap gear anyway.yeaH and play a c chord over it and see how it sounds, ur guitar skills really do compliment ur tone views,surprised u even know how the eq works.and those ppl there who post ur metalzone settings,nobody bothers to know whut the hell you do with tht piece of crap..happy being a bedroom guitarist.

Very simple, Bass, treble, and mid. Same as on most amps.

You can really get a lot of sounds out of this thing but the sweet spot I've found is with the bass at 2 o'clock, treble at 6 o'clock and both the mids at about 10 o'clock. This will give tyou a nice Iron Maiden/old Metallica type of sound. If thats not what you're looking for this pedal is probably not for you. I've heard people say that its noisy but it is a high gain pedal. Really its only noisy with the distortion knob set past 6 o'clock and it has enough balls that you don't really have to go beyond that. Also remember, theres a lot of other things that can cause noise, from your guitar to your amp, even the cable you're using. Also your effects setup and power supply are critical so don't be so quick to blame a pedal for noise.

I've had this thing for 8 years. Since they first came out. I've never had to replace it and its taken numerous beatings and still sounds great.

Never had to deal with them

Great pedal for classic or thrash metal sound, not that glorified pop they play on MTV. Not great for blues but you could get away with it.
This pedal has been the main component of my sound over the last 8 years. I never use amp distortions because I never found on I liked. I basically use this as a second channel; Find a good amp with a good clean tone and use the Metal Zone for my distortion. Perfect pedal for what its made for.

Well, like all distortion pedals... dead easy!!! If you can?t use one of these, then go and play drums or something! ... ja ja ja : ) just kidding. The MT-2 is VERY easy to figure out, and flexible in terms of eq. (not an MXR Distortion + certainly, but of course, we?re talking about something different anyway...). It just takes a little tweaking and a creative way to balance the mid frequencies so the hum is reduced to a decent minimum. If someone has a hard time tweaking 4 knobs, then how the Hell would they do with an equalizer?? Maybe they should play drums ja jaja. Forget the manual, don't need one, just tweak a lot!

Yamaha RGX821 / B.C. Rich Mockingbird / Jackson King V (all with EMG81?s)  MT-2  Phase 90  DD-3  Crate Blue Voodoo / Fender Twin Reverb (both clean). Simple and effective.

Ok, the sound is always brutal, grinding and consistent; not very noisy at all. I think it?s better used for high-gain music (forget that Sonic Youth, Bon Jovi, 60?s hippie rock and roll or MTV crap... it?s bullshit!), but don?t go to the very top. It?s maybe one of the few pedals that has ?too much gain? on it, so avoid to max this knob or it will sound like shit; 2-3 o?clock will be just fine, even for death/black metal. Same shit with Level, use your amp?s Master Volume instead if you prefer a natural sound (tubes, of course!); too much Level on the pedal will make it sound thin and crappy; 9-10 o?clock will be more than enough. Just make rational use of the knobs and it?ll sound OK (not perfect really, hence the 7.5). BTW, NEVER EVER use another distortion with it engaged, it will sound awful no matter what, just leave it alone, or use a compressor instead.

I?m surprised about how many people complain about it being very noisy, but then again, it takes a few minutes with the parametric knobs and voila... And you always can use your amp?s basic knobs, can?t you? I guess that the people who bitch so much about this pedal are dumb-asses used to the idiot-proof digital multishits or using noisy pickups on their guitars (ABSOLUTELY NO SINGLE COILS!!! S.C.?s are noisy and thin, just perfect for sissies, humbuckers are the way to go if you want a man?s sound!!! EMG?s please!) Either that or they are a bunch of hippies ja ja : ) If you like Santana?s sound, well... go grab a PRS, a fine porro of marihuana, kiss Carlos? balls and live in the past with your long-dead rock?n roll up your silly ass. If you like high-gain music... well, that?s another story.

I find it very cool for a Death Metal sound, which is what I got if for. Lots of gain and a wide range of METAL sounds, not ?country?-happy-bendy shit!!. And I mean METAL, (METAL zone... get the idea?? anybody??) not like the funny guys ?I want to sound like EVH or SRV or Satch or Hendrix ... and this pedal is shit because I just don?t get the sound I want?; OF COURSE, IDIOTS!!! If you want such a sound, get something else, a TS-808, an MXR, a Blues Driver, a Big Muff, a decent amp... But before doing that: LEARN FIRST TO PLAY/SHRED LIKE Eddie V. H., Led Zeppelin, Yngwie, S. Vai, D. Gilmour, J. Hetfield, D. Darrell, KRISIUN, EMPEROR, VADER... whatever! Once you get the magic in your hands, equipment is second. (But don?t get me wrong... Fender Telecaster and MT-2??... you must be retarded, man; it?s like hitting a nail with a screwdriver. Teles are for sissies, anyway) : P

So far I?m very satisfied with it; I?ve had mine for about 6 months now; I?ve used it (w/out a backup) for small to medim-sized venues and it smokes everything else big time. I?m 2 weeks away from the promotional tour for my first album and I don?t plan to use a backup. It?s finely built and that makes me feel confident that it won?t break or something. It?s beer-proof, bullet-proof, hammer-proof; very dependable!!. Note: Always bring fresh batteries, just in case...

Never dealt with them. Pretty website, but I can't say any more.

A pedal of extremes, not only sound-wise: Highly overrated by many and overpriced, exaggeratedly underrated by many others though; it?s not the best, neither the worst. It?s a fine pedal, it only depends what you want it for.

Despite all the happy feelings about it right now, all that I read lately about it are very bad and disappointing reviews. That leads me to question the benefits of the MT-2. Well, I might be very single-minded, but I always can learn a bit from more experienced players (not wannabes please). MANY people think that the MT-2 sucks big time, and that should mean something; people who play REAL METAL in the style of Krisiun, Cannibal Corpse, Emperor, Vader, Nile and the likes.

I live in Colombia S.A. (A is America not Africa for the geographically imbeciles). I don?t have the chance to test that many different effects and brands, so the MT-2 is king of distortions. But I want what is best, I?ve read about ART X-treme, SANS AMP GT2, ProCo RAT and TurboRAT, the Jackhammer, etc. If any REAL metalhead has an honest and constructive comment about extreme distortion devices, please feel free to e-mail me bernagh2k@hotmail.com and drop me a bit of your wisdom, I surely as Hell will appreciate it. Thanks.

Play around with the sounds and quit bitching for your lack of inexperience with guitar equipment you jerkoffs! This pedal is one of the best pedals on the market for a $70-80 price range. You can get alot of Bottom End. Get a real amp that can put out a bottom end, and EQ pedal, and noise suppressor and dont expect a k-mart $50 amp with a radio shack speaker will make you a death metal band. The only thing I'd change on this is put all the controls separate instead of some on top of each other.

Great sound quality with EMG pickups, and a the REAL Bill Lawrence XXL double blade, as well as the Seymour Duncan Dimebag SH-13 pickup. Works just fine on a Randall 100SC(2x12) and a Boss EQ-20 and noise supressor. Make sure you people bitching about this pedal sucking to have a decent guitar. Alot of crappy imports out there that ARE THE REASON YOU HAVE NOISE!!!!!!!! learn how to use a noise suppressor as well as the chain effects rather than pissing a moaning that you suck.

Never had a problem with this nor any BOSS pedal.

never had to contact them. Maybe you idiots out there should so you can read up on how it takes more than just one pedal or setup to get a finished sound like major metal bands do.

Upgraded to a Tech21 Sans GT-2.... Both have their differences.. I do prefer the Tech21 over the Boss MT-2 but I'll never sell the MT2.

took me about 3-5 mins to figure out the midrange thing, other than that it's as easy to use as a chair.

here is where it gets sad: i buy this damn thing to get away from my DOD fx86 Death Metal pedal (shut up, i can hear you all laughing), but while looking for a coal chamber/system of a down/pantera sound i love. (aka drop tuned with a sh*t load of bottom end) but it just couldn't do it. it's WAAYY too bassy with the bass anywhere over 8 and the midrange doesn't help a single bit. sure you can a metallica-ish sound,not saying i don't like that, i just don't want it. you nu/death metallers out there, beware the mt-2.

it's a boss, the only thing that would make it stronger would be if it was made of steel. Oh yeah, IT IS. (but that doesn't help the sound, now does it?)

no idea whatsoever, but it's goin' back to the damn store.

overall, i give it a six because of the 10 in reliability, but minus the 4 in sound. if you like a metallica/megadeth/no bass whatsoever sound, this is for you, if go for the same stuff i do, don't fall into the hype, avoid this thing like the plague. (like i said, it's goin back)

Thism is my first distortion pedal so it took me a a bit time to work out how to operate it. The manual helps but I found it difficult to adjust as small increments seem to have a bigger effect than I thought they would. But a bit of perseverance paid off. and after a while I could figure out what to to without too much trouble.

According to Boss the Metalzone MT-2 "..provides super-long sustain and heavy mids and lows like a stack of overdriven amps." If only this was true or even partly true I would have been a lot happier. I thought it sounded great in the shop and even when I got home I was still having a great time plying along to Metallica, AC/DC, Guns and Roses, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and all the other bands I like. After the novelty wore off though I started to realise that there was something wrong. These bands all have sound different but the Metalzone MT-2 was making my playing sound the same ( I mean in terms of tone)no matter what I was playing.I must admit that I am now thoroughly disenchanted. Sadder, wiser and #75 out of pocket. I only have my own inexperience to blame but now I never buy anything now without giving it a thorough tryout. I use mainly amp distortion now using a Marshall Bluesbreaker in boost mode just to overdrive the preamp section and this gives me my own sound which I am very happy with.

The switch broke after a few days and although the shop replaced it for me without any problems it shouldn't have happened.

I've already described my tastes in music and I am now in the process of forming a band with a few friends. I won'be needing the Metalzone MT-2. It was an expensive mistake.

I wish it had a control that said "Great Sound" on it but it doesn't so you fiddle and fiddle in the hope of finding that great sound then one day the penny finally drops that you just cant get a great sound with an MT2 because its basic sound is bad to begin with.

The basic sound of this unit is a mind of lifeless metallic (not in a good way though)clank that grates on your ears. I think some of the reviweres have been a bit harsh giving it aq one so I'll give it a Three even though it really only deserves a Two.

I wouldn't know. I didn't keep it.

I was hoping for great things after all the hot reviews of this pedal on Harmony-central but I need something that kicks major butt. This sorry excuse for a distortion unit couldn't manage to kick PeeWee Herman's butt.

It's easy to use, not much complication. I think a beginner will very soon find his way through finding the metal ripping tones. I didnt bother with the manual, there's nothing to learn, just hands on, tweaking it do the job. Upgradability? What have I missed, despite having it more than 6 years ago?!

Well, I use a good Marshall amp, so, any crappo pedals sounds good! This Metal Zone pedal, to me, is basic noise, not much body tone. No power, no kick at all. I basically tweak it to sound like a normal distortion with more clear tones rather than buzzy noizy sound. Yes, it does produce good distortion rather than what Boss called it METAL tone. I coupled it with some other pedals to get the correct sounds of my choice.

Yes, you can rely on Boss, you can put its pedals under a T90 tanks and it will not die! (hey, dont try this, i was just being over-exag). But truely, Boss stuffs are good, you can rely on them on stage!

Never once have I dealt with them.

I think, I'll give it a 9/10 for its reliability and built, for sound quality, I give it a 4 or 5 the most. Let's jsut be fair, it does produce metal ripping sound but its lack in tones spoils it all. But for the kind of sounds that 'We' are looking for,...well, you can never find it in Metal Zone. As for replacement.... this is how I'd put it..."I don't mind leaving it on the stage after my gig and let some lucky souls pick it up and take it home with them."

Its simple like any other stompbox, adjust your settings to how youd like them, then stomp on it whenever you want to use it or turn it off. The manual is extremely helpful, it thoroughly explains how to use each knob, as well as gives you different settings for dif. sounds like, death metal, overdrive, Classic rock, etc.

I use a Classic Ibanez guitar with humbucker pickups through a DOD effects proccessor and a Marshall MG80 amp. The sound is great for a heavy palm-muted sound and for bustin out the mids, but not extremely well for playing the loud, bassy tone of bands like System of a down or Systematic. It does however give you a great, crunchy sound for bands like sevendust, or even, if set right, like ac/dc and van halen.
Since I'm going for more of a system of a down heavy tone, the pedal wasnt right for me, but if you want sheer death metal its beautiful.
PS. Doesnt work well w/ other effects simotaneously but extra knobs give phenominol diversity among the other pedals, such as the dod death metal, the metal zone totaly tops the dod death metal(i own them both)

Right now my pedal appears to be broken because when i shut the lid, the pedal wont work, like the slinky is detached, i can keep it working if it stays open but its an extra inconveniance. I would be scared playing it live so i always use the distortion from my processor, which i love.

I bought it used so ive never dealt with the company at all.

Overall the pedal was not right for me, but for anyone who wants just a truly harsh distortion, your gonna love it. It would be great for teens who just bought a guitar and already want to form a band or for experienced players wanting something great for soloing. This pedal just got in my way and therefore I'm only using my proccessor now. Anyone who says that u can't get great sound from a multi effects prossesor needs to open up their mind because my dod rocks.

It's a distortion pedal, how hard can it be. The manual gives you some nice presets which with a little tweaking can get you just about any dirty sound imaginable.

good overall sound but if the knobs get knocked (which they often do ) it can totaly diddle your sound. But when correctly set up this pedal is sweet as!

slight problem with the input jack socket coming loose and buzzing but other than that i would trust this pedal to hell and back

never dealt with the company. Websites good though.

For the type of music i play ( metal-punk fusion ) this does the job quite satisfactorily. One ting that does annoy me to hell about it is that it is allways distorted. There is no slightly dirty tone like on some other distortion pedals, but then with a name like metal zone what should you expect.

a little hard to get the exact tone you want....little touches on the knobs can make a huge difference

as far as petals go, this is the best....you can make it sound like a petal version of any heavy amp....petal version is the key word...for years i thought this is where its at but everyone eventually learns that good amp distortion is way better....this petal will hide mistakes in mounds of gain and will definately surprise you with the bass it has....that is why i reccommend it to begginers or people with low budgets....i was at both of these points in my life.....playing through a boogie or marshall would kill these anyday but i don't think that those kinds of amps are for begginers....bottom line....the best bang for the buck for begginers and low budgets.....i stress to you kids though GO EASY ON THE DISTORTION LEVEL, halfway at 12:00 position is the most you would need or all your listeners will hear is ssssssccccccccchcchhhhhhhhhhh in their ear.......

boss.....would never need a backup

i don't even think they need it but whatever

see above.....also though is a good petal as a backup in case you blow a tube in an amp live.....can run it through the board or a backup amp that is not high end, i give it a 10 for pedals but a 7 against good amp distortions....so ill even at an 8

Easy to configure, takes a while to find certain tone

This thing sounds great. Exactly like all the metal bands out there.

Indestructible. No need for a backup.

Never dealth with them

I play everything, if it sounds cool, i play it. I would replace it if it got stolen, lost, broken, whatever. It sounds just the way it was made to sound like... It was made for metal and it sounds exactly like metal...

I got it yesterday.. I took out the manual skipped all the crap about using it and went to the presets.. The heavy metal one is rather lousy but the hard rock and some others are good.. In about 5 minutes I tweaked and awsome sounding metal tone..

First things first.. All you punks out there who say this thing has a crappy thin sound are feckin RETARDED or they have pieces of crap for equipment. Now I run a crappy sing coiled strat clone thru a signal effects stereo chorus thru the metal zone into a peavey studio pro 112. It sounds awsome together. I know peavey isnt too great but It kicks @$$ with this combo. It is definatley not thin. Anyone who has any talent at guitar would relize that you to turn the knobs on the pedal (round things for you slow ones out there) the middle frequency makes a big difference by the way. This pedal does not lack any bottom end at all..Here are the settings i use on my amp with this pedal : low - 10 , Middle - 0, High - 7
here are the 3 settings that i use on this pedal.. Pick which one is right for you.. They are the good metal ones for this pedal which is made for metal. They are perfect for Metallica, Ozzy or any nu metal song..
Mine :
Level- 12
Bass-3 oclock
Treb-1 oclock
mid-cut
midfreq-11oclock

death:
High : 12 o'clock
Low : 3 o'clock
Middle : 8 o'clock
Mid. Freq. : 10 o'clock
Dist : 12 o'clock

trash:

Level:12o'clock
Hi:12o'clock
Lo:3o'clock
Mid:cut
Mid Freq:10o'clock

On low volumes I recommend that you put the distortion on 9oclock to max.. On anything higher or if you find you are feed backing (which isn't bad on this pedal) then take the distortion down to 9 oclock or even to about 10 or 11 o clock.. It doesn't make much of a difference.. Especially when it is up loud...
The sustain for this pedal is awsome.. It is near endless..
The feedback like I said is the best i've ever seen on a metal or high gain pedal.. Usually when I would go high volumed , I would have to turn the volume on my axe way down to get rid of feeback.. On this it just does not feedback.. It sounds awsome with chorus.. I recomend that if it is not a boss chorus pedal, turn the effect level down on it to reduce feedback.

I stress the word "BOSS" in the pedal title...
All i would do for backup is make sure I have a spair 9 volt at the gig..

Never dealt.. 5 year warranty tho.. If they wouldn't answer me or help me. I would see to it that they changed their mind :)

I play metal,punk,nu-metal and hard rock.. This pedal gives me the sound for metal, nu-metal and hard rock... For Punk, right now I am using my amps dist. But in the mere future I am gonna get the Boss DS-1.. I tried it and it is perfect for punk and stuff like nirvana..
I have only been playing for 1 and 3 quarter years.. That might not be very long to some of you but I can tell you that I am probably better than some of you out there that have been playing for more than twice as long.. My opinion means something... Anyone who is looking for a distortion pedal for metal than buy this!! Don't settle for a gay zoom 505 or anything .. Trust me ..They suck..
If my pedal was stolen by the pedal goblin then I would hunt him down and castrate him with a rusty spoon... And get my pedal back.. Otherwise I would buy a new one.. And I just dont see how someone could lose a pedal.. What kind of moron could lose a pedal.. Maha..

Easy to use, just takes a little getting use to. But it cmes with pre-sets so its ok.

People that say this thing has no balls are full of sh*t. This thing is one of the best pedals for metal and hard rock. It can produce a wide variety of sounds. BUT, this thing starts sounding bad with the distortion all the way up, and when its all the way down. But I play through a 160 watt Fender amp, with a Gibson Les Paul. I play Zeppelin,Skynyrd,AC/DC(really great for ac/dc), and some pink floyd. Sounds great for most of them, not bad a t all for the others. But this is one of the best distortions out there.

like all Boss products, can take a pounding. GREAT!

never need to deal with them.

One of the only pedals worth its money. GREAT. get this one.

Do not be scared off just because this thing is called "metal" zone. Many people use it because of the great metal sound, and many also hate it for this thin, digital metal sound. But hey! learn how to tweak on the EQ on this pedal!! PLEASE!! I use this pedal as the main distortion for J-Rock songs from X Japan, Luna Sea, Glay and so on...

out of all those J-Rock bands, this pedal works perfect for Luna Sea. It sounds EXACTLY 100% the same.

My setup goes SS AMP>>BOSS GE-7>>MT-2>>GV-2>>yamaha guitar

this is how i rock on the MT-2
level = up to u, i put at around 10
high = 3
low = 2
middle = 10
mid freq = 1
dist = 12

i use the 2nd or 4th position for my guitar

then my amp goes
bass = 10
middle = 11
treble = 11

The above settings is whati use for most J-Rock, especially Luna Sea. Sounds totally the same, don't belive u take a MT-2 home and try using it for one week and u'll be so amazed by the sound u can get. I kick in the GV-2 to play those smooth, long sustain solos. I use the cheap yahama single coil guitar, i can "sometimes" get infinite sustain. I believe if u have a LP, then u can sustain till u rot.

For more heavier songs for example some of those X Japan songs. I just have to kick in the GE-7, and there i go heavy metal. Although i can also tweak the eq on the mt-2 to get those heavy metal, but someimes i need to change from rock to metal instantly, so the GE-7 is useful for that.

If u play J-Rock and have a cheap solid state amp and cheap guitar, pleas don't look anywhere else. PLEASE BUY THIS PEDAL MAN. Do yourself a favour so that u won't waste unecessary money.

And for those who say this thing sucks and is for amatuer and kids who just anyhow jam their guitar. YOU GOT IT ALL WRONG. This pedal plus a solis state amp can sounds exactly the same as those great marshall or peavey amps with overdrive and thru tons of rack EQ.

If u don't believe what i say, try my suggested settings above and strum a C chord. You'll be instantly stunned by the sound. Because it sound EXACTLY the same as the intro C chord for Luna Sea's "I For You".

And i say again, althogh this pedal is called Metal Zone, but it does not mean it's only for metal. You can see many reviewers say this thing is nothing but metal, then i really pity them becasue they just did not spend enough time on the 3 band EQ on this pedal. I use this for ROCK. Specifially......J-ROCK! And it works 100% suitable!! Don't stay away from this because it really ain't metal, it is the MOST VERSATILE distortion pedal.

It's easy to get a good sound, but if you want to get great sounds, you must tweak and tweak to find the sweet spot.

This is where this pedal amazes me. The eq and the dist knob on this pedal is what made it so wonderful. If you turn the distortion maximun, you can get those really cool heavy metal distortion sounds plus some tweaking on the eq of course. If you slowly reduce the distortion knob and tweak the eq, you can go down to normal distortion til those overdrive sounds. Of course you can't get those vintage sounds of overdrive or distortion, but if you're not very particular about tone, this pedal can take you anywhere you want.

I've bought it second hand from a friend many years ago, and it still works like it was new. Some funny thing is that whenever I plug the cables into the Metal Zone again, it automatically switch itself on. I have no idea why, but anyway, it's no big deal.

Never dealt with it

This pedal can go anything from overdrive to distortion to metal distortion, perfect pedal.

If you're looking for a distortion pedal, no need to look anywhere else, with this, you won't need an overdrive pedal is you're not so picky about tones.

This pedal derserves a 10 for it's versatility, I think this is the most versatile distortion pedal ever made. No wonder it's the most popular pedal every sold by Boss

This is what makes this pedal so popular, it's so easy to get good distortion sounds with the 4 band eq.

I use a Ibanez SS amp and with a GE-7. The MT2 really can make my ss amp into a great distortion unit. the 4 band eq really provides a widde range of versatility. And for those who say the combination of MT2 and GE7 makes wonders, well, a good equalizer can make any shitty distortion into heavenly distortions, but the ge7 when combined with the mt2 makes the mt2 more metallic sounding which is very very suitable for those who are a total metal freak.

yes, the mt2 sounds great on my ss amp, at first i was so excited as it sounded so good, but i strat to find sound boring as i play more n more. I have no idea why, but i really start to fing the sound coming out from the mt2 a bore.

quite a stupid question for Boss's products
but anyway, there are still chances that boss's products will fail on u.

I compared this side by side with my Marshall Guv'Nor Plus for a couple of days. I find that my GV2 has this strong roaring sound which sounded damn good to my ears compared to the thin sounding distortion of the MT2. But anyway, because i play J-Rock, this MT2 isn't really suitable for me, it's for Metal, that's why it's called Metal Zone!!!

Although the MT2 can satisfy some of my heavier songs very well, but i've got the GE-7 which can make my GV-2 into great sounding distortion which is even better than the MT-2, so I won't go to the shop to buy the MT2.

But for beginners, i would recommend this pedal, because it can instantly make u sound great. Only drawback is that as u start to improve and compare with different distortions, u will start to find the MT2 quite boring for ur playing.

Anyway, those famous artist don't use metal zone for metal sounding distortion, the KEY is the EQ!!! EQ is everything!!! Metal Zone is also based on EQ, it's the EQ that creates the wonders of distortion. And remember the Metal Zone only has a 4 band eq, if u buy a EQ pedal (which is a neccessity), u get a 7 band eq (or more if u're rich), which can make even more wonders to ur distortion.

So if u already have a distortion pedal or anything, u won't really need this metal zone, u need a EQ pedal!

BUT! As far as i know, every pedal has this unique tone that differs from one another, the Metal Zone has this special tone (can't be explained in words) which sounded quite good to me just like my Marshall Guv'Nor has this special unique tone which i like and u can't find in any other pedal.

So go to the music store and test for urself to see whether u like the unique tone of this pedal, if u like it, then buy it. That's what buying individual pedals is all about, "getting the special unique tone u want". Or else, go for multifx, they are cheaper and more practical.

Well, 6 knobs and a switch. Easy to set up basicly, harder to find the exact mid frequency you want to cut/boost.

Right...Metalzone, through a guitar amp? I think they sound...well...shit really! Especially through a solid state combo...urgh! Through a nice old Marshall half stack...getting better. Through an old valve Marshall Bass amp, Cooking! The MT2 is generally an nasty, tinny, horrible pedal that I wouldn't touch with a barge pole, No bottom end, no body all high end shrillness. I run a Gibson Les Paul Studio to the MT2-CH1 Super Chorus-NS1 Noise Gate, into a 1971 Marshall Superbass head and 1976 Greenback loaded Marshall 4x12. I found the MT2 to be noisy, so added the NS1 and swithched to Planet Waves cables. With the Marshall being a bass head, it adds all the bottom end the pedal lacks. I play in both a punk and a Hardcore band and prefer a huge, loud guitar sound full of body and warmth rather than the scooped metal sound, I used to do it until I realised that the guitar frequency is in the mids, and if you scoop them out, your top end is taken by cymbals and the bottom by the bass, if you wanna be heard, put some mids in people! I only use one sound in each band, and the Chorus is used only to beef up the guitar in the HC band, the punk band has a second guitarist anyway. Only complaint really is that it robs the sustain a bit. I'll give it 8 because it does sound huge through the Superbass, but I know they are crap through guitar amps.

Oh, it's pretty indestructable, it is a Boss pedal after all. Gig without a backup? Yeah, only one show (with the Punk band) I got so drunk that I was ordered off stage after two songs for not being able to play, I was found later unconcious on my back in the venue's car park and found that another band had picked the MT2 up by mistake and taken it away. I tracked it down eventually but I was stuck for a few gigs!

Dunno???? Never dealt with them.

Like I said before, I play Punk and Hardcore. I used to play in metal bands too but used a Korg AX30G which I still have but don't use. Other gear I own is an Ibanez RG548, Ibanez EX170, Washburn MG24 and a Marshall JCM900 4101 1x12. I will be taking delivery of a Mesa Engineering Dual Rectifier head TODAY and am having a custom Jackson SL2 built. I originally borrowed this pedal from a friend when I first joined the punk band, then bought it from him. A bit of punk rock trivia for you: I was asked to join the band to fill in for the lead guitarist for a UK tour when he couldn't do it due to other commitments, these commitments being he is the Guitarist from legendary punk band GBH (he left a while after as GBH are getting very busy. They have a new album due out on Go-Kart soon and trust me....it's how punk should be done!) I'd only just bought the superbass, and although it sounds AMAZING on its own, being non master volume, it's too loud for soundmen. I hate pedals because they just get in my way, get stomped off mid jump etc...but this was a must. I've never used a pedal through my JCM900, and never will, it has all the distortion I could ever ask for. I did loose this pedal, and no, I didn't want another, I got it back but if it went missing again I wouldn't be that bothered. Well, you wouldn't polute a Dual Rectifer with a crappy distortion pedal would you? If my amps ever got stolen though I'd plead with Jock (GBH) to sell me his 50w JCM800 (single channel) because it it THE BEST amp I've EVER heard, end of story! And I've had the privalige of playing Deizel, Matchless, Soldano and VHT amps!!!!

To get a good sound out of it, takes a little tweaking but not hard to find a grinding, hard hitting distorted sound. I don't need no sticking manual, my ears do the adjusting. I will give it an eight due to the buttons are too responsive!

Believe it or not I run this MT-2 through my 65 Deluxe Reverb. I play modified (AVN PUs) in my Fender Strats. I use a LoneStar Texas Fat strat with this pedal switched on both singles. I like the sound that comes from this evil little box. The first day I got it home it put a grin on my face everytime I played it. My Deluxe Reverb is probably the cleanest amp around and I was amazed on the Metal sound that was comming from my amp. The scooped mid is the only way to go with the zone. You can get very nasal Megadeath sounds to Iron Maiden type lead. This is a one trick pony! Metal, Nasty Metal. I since graduated to Tonebone Hot British for my Marshall like tones. I break out the Metal Zone 2 every now and then for some harsh & nasty Metal!! I always run this with a Carl Martin Compressor and the two sound great together. I would suggest running a compressor to provide a little more thickness and clarity. I give it an 7 for sound quality. Metal is what Metal does!!! Metal Zone does Metal.. Blues players look elsewhere, but you can get a little ZZ Top from it! The distortion is slightly digital sounding which adds to its nasty personality. I like it best when compressed and a little delay for flavor. Power cords look out!! If you hang around the 9th fret of the bass E playing some Iommi you will not like it!! To distorted!! I always prefer to run my pedals on 0% mercury batteries! The power adapter makes the tone even too harsh so I stick with the battery!!

Its always there when I need it! I hate the plastic screw!!

Never had to deal with the company!

I play mostly clean blues and hard rock. When I get bored I bust out the Metal Zone to take some agression out. I am very happy with the pedal and it served me well. I use it on the 2 normal channels on my amp which is not as bright at the 2 vibrato channels. For the price you just can't beat it. If you want true tube distortion and have 200.00 sitting in your pocket look at the Tone Bone!! Metal Zone will take a little tweaking, along with the rest of your rig to get the sweet spot. But if your looking for mean, nasty metal sound check one out!! Find a friend and play his before you buy!!

The metal zone is very easy to set when you are looking for a tone, too a degree anyway. the eq is pretty descent but i really hate this thing. ease of use, well step on it, its not difficult to use at all.

I was using a Premier strat fake and a crate half stack at the time (on clean channel). my experience with the pedal had been limited to the bedroom when i at first thought it was great because you could almost get that "master of puppets" album sound out of the thing. but that's in the bedroom, in a live setting, with a LOUD amplifier this pedal is a piece of crap. No matter how I tweaked it, the pedal seemed to eat up and drop gain, as though the real low end of the guitar wasn't getting thru. I tried it with a power supply and fresh batteries of course, but to no avail. I think of it as poorly as, say, one of those DOD meatboxes - bedroom distortion. not made for serious Blastomatica.
the distrotion itself wears thin on your nerves, its very tinny, especially when the beef isn't coming thru.

You cannot depend on this thing live, you lose gain!!!! busted!!!!
"would you use it on a gig without a backup?"
i would never use this on a gig even as a backup!
does it turn on and off everytime? yes i suppose i have to concede that. although i have used one where the switching mechanism was unreliable.

no idea about cust supp.

Im very into that Siamese Dream distortion sound, coming out of, say, a JCM 800. I also love nasty snarling distortions like the ProCo Vintage Rat (WAAAAY heavier than the metal zone). This product was unable to provide me with a beefy beat you in the face tone. I also like to use my strat fake and a Rickenbacker 360, and that doesn't belong in the same room as a metal zone. its boring and annoying. just buy descent equipment and you'd sound heavier. a telecaster and a tube screamer sounds better.
i would never buy this again, i caution the whole world to cease and desist!
I hate this pedal, don't waste your time unless you wanna sound like every other lonely metal head playing in their bedroom.

Easy, easy to use! You must press your foot down on the switch to make the little light go on and you are now James and Kirk.
The manuals "sample" settings give you a little start to some different sounds. The "metal" sample is a great start.

My set up for metal is a Jackson Dinky with Armstrong pickups or a Washburn A-5 plugged direct into the MT2, then into my Laney Pro tube 50 ,that has a EQ-7 and a delay/reverb run into it's effects loop. The cab is a 4x12 Jackson. The pedal is not noisy like some distortions I have tried. Man does it rock. It is the heaviest heavy metal pedal I have heard. I play it with the EQ-7 turned on with the low and high end cranked and lowered mids. My amp is eq'ed the same way, bass boost and treble pulled and the mid pushed and at about 3. It is unreal metal chord action. I don't like the lead sound it produces but it is very close the Kirk, Metallica's " Master of puppets" sound, which I always have not been nuts about but works very good for the metal master's. I do use the pedal for Metallica's lead work because it is as close as I have been able reproduce. This pedal is not a overdrive or low drive distortion, it is for raw high octane metal. It will not make a fuzz tone or blues sound. The manual makes some reference that it can but it does a terrible job of trying to be versatile. I didn't buy this to play SRV with. I bought it because the music store said, " Heavy Metallica metal? Give me $89.95. You will not be dissapointed." I'm not. If the monster in the movie "The twilight Zone" that was ripping apart the airplane played guitar, this is how he would sound. This is a great buy for the metal/thrash player.

Boss is really about the only thing you don't have to have a backup for. Bring batteries.

Here's some support... buy the BOSS EQ-7 to go with your rig. It's still my best investment.

As far as BOSS customer support goes...I'm sure they care.

I play the guitar, most styles. I go through phases that I'll play anything, but metal is what I really started playing 20 years ago and it's what I really like to play now. This is really the first distortion pedal that I really like. Every other one that I have tried has been a rotten attempt at distortion at a quality that my raw amplifiers could stomp. The overdrives that I tried didn't overdrive the amps sound they just gave the amp a new sound that was always crappy. Futhermore some of the distortions were very noisy! A Guyatone I bought in the UK you could pick up Radio free Europe when you turned it on in Michigan. The only thing I hate about the MT-2 and all distortions is; I wish they made a $89.95 driver that you could be playing on your "HOT" channel and hit the stomp and have it really drive your hot channel into metal distortion without sucking the tone of your amp away or giving you a mess of unusable feedbacking muck. This has to be played on your clean channel. Could I live without this pedal? Sure. The only pedal I absolutely have to have is the EQ-7 to get the cones shaking. The world would be a little crappier place without the MT-2.

Pretty good eq control four knobs bass,treble,mids and mid frequency.Then distortion and volume control not a major piece of equipment to operate mind you the key to getting a great sound that is different from others is to use the freqeuncy knob well.

I play a late 70's early 80's Gibson Les Paul into a hughes and Ketner amp on the clean Channel.I use a fair few distortion boxes on my board Includeing ,Boss DS-1,Rat2,Zoom Tri-Metal.I also use a Dunlop Cry Baby,Boss Chorus Esemble,Boss Eq20 and a Bodd ge-7 for a volume boost.If you haven't already realised the metal-zone is called so because it really is for playing Harder edged music.Not for blues, Jazz, etc.Even a little unsuited for stuff like Aerosmith and Pearl Jam mostly(DS-1 territoryas far as Boss are concenered).Now if your still interested in getting a high gain and really intense distortion you can get no better.I also own a Zoom Tri-Metal which is a great High gain intence distortion two but I find the pedals vary in sound quite a bit. The Metal-zone is more defined and punchier and gives kind of a High gain amp like sound with tons of distortion where as the Tri-Metal has a more wilder sound and can be more extreme.The thing I wish I could do with it is have a better Wah sound with it useing my Cry Baby.But Dunlop do say the wah fades the more distortion you use.

oss they always make reliable stuff .Just look at guitar players on T.V. most will have at least one Boss Pedal on there Board.

Pretty dam good actually.I asked them for some help on the best way to use my Boss EQ20 with souly my amp head and they not only told me about the best way to connect it to the amp head but also gave me some example settingsto try out and this came after 3 days since I e-mailed them..

If you like Harder edged music and like to play with a loud over the top distortion then you should try this out .What more can I say.

Once you figure out how to tweak the mids to your liking, it's a total No Brainer. It seems that most people use this pedal for the "scooped mid" sound, and I guess it'll work for that, but that's not the sound I use it for. People just seem to love to bash this pedal, but I've been trying very hard for the past five years to find something that sounds better, with no success. If you can get a great clean sound to start with, you can get any sound you want with the MT-2. There is no such thing as a "Magic" distortion box - Get a superb clean sound first as a starting point, then use this to enhance it. Any stompbox like this is only as good as the signal you feed into it, and where the signal goes after it. Using the standard benchmark set up of a Les Paul Standard (Or any high quality mahogany or Korina guitar with good pickups) and a vintage Marshall 50 watt half stack (four inputs, channels jumped, set CLEAN!), if you can't get a great sound out of this pedal, I definitely advise you not to quit your day job.

I play mainly old USA Deans and Gibsons through 50 watt Marshall Plexis and 70's HIWATT DR-504 heads with a variety of quality cabs all loaded with Celestions or Fanes. The MT-2 is one of 12 boxes on my pedalboard, but it's the only distorion pedal I need. From blues ala Gary Moore to the masterful melodic tone of Michael Schenker, and any classic 80's metal sound like the best of Priest, Maiden, Scorps, etc, it's all right there. So is Eddie's "Brown Sound" and the Blizzard of the late great Randy Rhoads. If you cant get superior tone with the Metal Zone, It's not the pedal's fault - It can't make a shitty rig sound great, or even good. But it can make a good rig sound great. I'd rate it a "10" in this category, but since I'm constantly on the prowl seeking that elusive something better, I can only give it a very solid "9".

We're talking about a BOSS pedal here, correct? "Nuff Said!

Huh? Again, this is a BOSS pedal we're discussing, right? It'll outlive me I'm sure, and along with cockroaches, a nuclear holocaust couldn't kill it.

You name it, I've tried it - The latest being the Zoom Tri-Metal - No Comparison. Maybe a few Soldano SLO-100 heads could make me live without my MT-2 - Until then..........

Well its fairly easy. You can't crank the knobs like you do an amps. They are sensitive. To easy to get horrible sounds, but not easy enough to get the good ones. Ignore the manual settings. They don't help. You need to work with it and your amp to get a decent sound.

I use an Epiphone Les Paul Custom (heavier than most and more gibson sounding), a marshall AVT 150, a Boss Super Chorus, and a Super Shifter that i never use because its terrible, and the metal zone. The metal zone is not noisy. Thats one good thing. The main problem is that while you can get Pantera, Metallica, ect. sounds out of it, it never sounds quite like the real thing. It's just too digital. Now when i first got it, i loved it. Now i find it only moderately good. This thing destroys your tone and sustain. If noise and distortion is all you care about, then you might like it IF you have a good amp...otherwise it sucks no matter what you do with it. If you want to keep any of your guitar's natural tone, avoid this like the plague and use amp distortions. Buy a Marshall.

Ok, this thing looks tought as hell and it is...except the screw warps after a few years, and the knobs are easily bent. It does have a good quality switch though.

Never had one break down so i cant comment on this.

I play alot of KISS, Ozzy, a little bit of Pantera, but mostly my own stuff. I wouldn't use the metal zone for KISS but perhaps Ozzy and Pantera...but then there's always that digital sounding tone that ruins it. I have yet to see a professional artist use this pedal. If this pedal were stolen, i would hunt the guy down just for the fact that he stole it and disrespected me, then i would throw it back in the closet where it belongs. I'm thinking of buying a Marshall Jackhammer pedal now. It would give me a Marshall tone at least.

it's not easy to get on first try, but that's not necessarily a burden. tweak it a bit and see what you like, no drama. if it was that easy to get then the pedal wouldn't have any diversity, would it?

i'm using a Marshall AVT150 (the OD2 channel is the reason i tried this pedal out) with a Hamer Explorer. i've also got a jim dunlop wah and a BOSS GE-7, but when i tried this pedal out, all i used was the store's Hamer Explorer and AVT150. and it sounded great. i'm one of the pickiest people ever, and what's more is i HATE digital effects. i despise them with all my heart. i swore i would never even try a digital pedal. until i realised how much my amp's distortion sucks balls. so i went and tried this thing out, and WOW. it's just very cheap way to fix up a crap distortion channel. and it sounds sensational. i play thrash metal and melodic death metal, and i need extreme amounts of gain for that stuff. this pedal is just a perfect match for it, well perfect short of a triaxis :)

i only tried it out, i didn't hit it with a sledgehammer, or take it out on a world tour

most people bag this pedal for not being diverse enough, or for being "too metal". all i have to say about that is, READ THE NAME!! it says M-E-T-A-L Z-O-N-E. not, "High gain distortion pedal that can be tweaked to play jazz or soft cock rock". if you need less gain distortion, get a different pedal. it's like eating a banana and complaining that it doesn't taste like an apple

but seriously, if this pedal can please me, believe me it can please anyone who needs a cheap high gain fix. i only had to have a go at the knobs twice before i got a sweet sound. if you don't believe me, try it out for yourself. if you're running it with the amp's clean channel, then make sure there is some mids, and not too many highs or lows. i found an awesome searing, chugging full bodied sound by putting the level knob almost halfway, the distortion knob to full, the highs and lows just more than half, the middle a little more than half, and the mid frequencies at 0. try that, coz that's what i'll be using when i get some cash to buy it with :)

The mid freq knob is kinda tricky... besides that, it`s "plug and play". The Manual has some cool recommended settings... but I didn`t like the Heavy Metal settings. However it`s great anyway.

I`m using a crappy epi strat clone with stock pickups, a BOSS EQ pedal, and a Yamaha HY-10GIII amp (getting replaced soon).

Something that I haven`t read anywhere else is that the sound changes a lot depending on where you`re playing. In my bedroom, if I don`t use the EQ pedal, it deserves a 7 (with the pedal a straight 10). It sound a bit thin, and i don`t like the way the EQ settings work on, but the sound is great anyway. I once played with my whole setup excepting the eq pedal on my school's gym (basketball field, closed), and it rocked. I couldn`t believe the way it sounded. and it`s a 10 watt amp!!

I played once with it on a friend`s Peavey Bandit 112 and it just blew me away. it was an incredibly massive, high sustained, crunchy, fat, blahblah, distorted sound. without the eq pedal again.

It depends a lot on your gear, but it sounds great on almost any setup.

A big mistake with this one is to use it with full dist. It adds lots of noise, and the dist gain is not that much. With the dist at '3 or 4' will be enough, and only with a bit of noise. (gotta buy the boss adapter) I haven`t had feedback problems, ever.

I like bands like Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth... mostly 80's metal bands, and I can get a really good metal sound with this one... and with my eq pedal. they should sell a GE-7 + MT-2 combo or something... together they rock!

I've had it for a month or so, and it hasn't given me any problems. I haven't had it for enough time to give a reliable opinion.

Haven't had to deal with them

With the GE-7 it deserves a straight 10. Anyway, it a very important piece in my gear. if it got lost or stolen, i'd buy another one again. Those who say that's useless for blues or whatever, shouldn't even post here. Just look at the pedal's name! METAL zone! it talks by itself!

I've been playing by 4 years, and like I said, I listen to the 80's metal generally. (nu-metal, rap-core or whatever it's called sucks!) It matches perfectly with my style!! It gives an insane amount of gain, even without the dist at max!. I tried the DOD death metal too. It's a piece of sh*t compared to this one. it's like a "Hyper-fuzz noise ultra feedback" pedal. the extra bucks are worth the difference...

IMPORTANT: If you have an amp that doesn't have good equalization, go get the GE-7 Boss equalizer pedal. I didn't missed the GE-7 when I plugged the MT-2 on my friends' Bandit, as a tip.

Conclusion. It's really worth the buck. A must have if u don't have the cash to buy a Triple Rectifier or something and you're looking for that thrashy 80's metal sound. If you play blues, or even grunge, don't mind with it.

I always seem to be able to get exactly the sound I'm looking for with relatively no hastle.

GREAT

I seem to be the only person to have problems with this thing, when I first got it it wouldn't turn on, so I sent it in to have it repaired worked perfectly for about 2 months then it started turning off and on as it chose, sent it in to have it repaired again, came back worked for a while then started having the same damn problem!

Like I said before, they didn't fix the problem.

If it wasn't for all the trouble I've had with it turning itself on and off I would have given it a 9

It is slightly difficult to get the sound you want out of this pedal, but with some tinkering and reading of the manual, you can find what you're looking for

I have an Aslin Dane Guitar and a Crate GFX 212T amp. I used to LOVE this pedal, but for recently I've started to think a little less of it. It has pretty good quality, but I really can't say that it can create Great sounding disortion.

For a while I thought it was broken because it was making some loud noises that sounded like you were smashing the guitar to bits if you just moved the pedal. Turns the jack where you plug the cord into was loose. I just tightened it with my finger and I haven't had any more problems.

Never needed them

This is a metal petal. It could prolly work pretty well for some punk or hardcore stuff, but it is mainly metal. I like it, but I might check out some other pedals if I lost this one. Check it out, see what you think. Some people love it, some hate it, but it's definitely worth a look.

oh my goodness. the EQ on this box is amazing. parametric lo and hi EQ's. the neat thing is the semi-parametric mids(sweepable). you can get old school sound, or the gut wrenching scooped mid overloaded lo's. the distortion knob is sweet. in the "0" position its like an overdrive on too much caffiene. "10".... well i havent worked up the nerve to try that yet... "3" i perfect for me. i love this pedal

i am running either and aria pro II(duncan sh-'59's humbuckers) or a jackson dinky(duncan shr-1 rail, only pick up i use) thru the MT-2 into a crate bx-100 15" 100 watt(bass amps are great guitar amps...i think) or a hartke ha5000 500watt in to 4x10 and a peavy black widow 18" subwoofer. and i string up my guitars with ghs 14-52(wnd 3rd).
the pedal has a little hiss... but find me a pedal or processor that doesnt. the pedal never sounds weak. although when using different size speaker cabs you need to EQ a little diff. and room size/space makes a diff.
i can get almost if not exact sounds of these bands from this pedal:
zao, point of recognition, no innocent victim, earth crisis, etc.
i love this pedal.

if you use a 9v battery... dont leave your cables plugged in. i found this out the hard way.
backup? never... unless i had 2 of these things.... oh the thought of it.
i love this pedal

in case you fall over?

i play hardcore, emo and the like. i think it works great.
if it got stolen i would find out who took it, tell them good choice, and go buy another one.
i wish it had two channels to select from and a graphic EQ along with the parametric.
greta pedal go buy one from www.musicarts.com

Exceptional. It might be a little complicated for the noobs, but after you get used to it, it s really easy to get the sound you want from it.
I specially liked it's metal configurations i got

I use an Aria Pro 2 Magna CG-X3 , and an old Innenis amp.
Absolutely no noise at all (if you get the right adaptor, of course)
Its effect is great , no problems getting a real close Bruce Dickinson,Therion or Metallica sound
The only thing i didn t like is the Distortion knob (i wouldn t recommend this pedal for Iron Maiden fans, once it s very hard to find a well balanced ``weak'' drive )

NO PROBLEM AT ALL
It s a damn rock. Never had problems.(duuhhh...it s a BOSS)

Never needed

GREAT PEDAL FOR REALLY HEAVY MUSIC.
I ve been playing for like two years and this was my first pedal. Loved it. Those ZOOM toys are no match for this
There was a problem though,in finding a good lead distortion, but that's not so difficult too.
I m totally sure that BOSS kikcs ass. I m planning to get a GT-3 now

No difficulty getting a good sound out of it. Every setting in the manual sounds QUALITY granted the clean channel on your amp sounds good, which is a large part of how the pedal will sound when on. Getting the specific sound you want out of it could be challenging for a new guitar player who hasn't learned how to control a pedal. What the hell is a firmware revision # ?

I'm running a WASHBURN mercury II series equipped with matched humbuckers (which are a necessity as far as i'm concerned when it comes to this pedal. Single coils (for the most part) send a thin "midy" signal which don't seem to agree with the particular pedal) into my SNARLING DOG fire bawl wah, to a generic flanger from Korea, Through a solid state ACCOUSTIC brand head from 81' into a CRATE half stack (the top stack(slant face)) with for CELESTIONS and i still get tough sound out of this pedal. I only hear "noise" from the pedal during practice when i'm standing 3 feet away from my rig which is natural. you want to eat eggs you got to realize they come from a birds ass! I mean yeah it makes noise, but when you playin out at local show who really cares. if you dont want feedback fork over the 200-300 bucks and score youself a wireless unit and get away from your amp. save your ears. Using a crate stack i have no problen sounding like megadeth from Symphony to Cryptic

I have not ever considered even having a backup. maybe the same pedal with the setting dialed in. the only cause for alarm as far as needing a backup goes is the wire for the battery under the pedal.I've noticed that if i don't set it properly after i change the battery it can rub othe battery when you step on the pedal and over time my wire have gotten smashed. but a little heat shrink fixed that.

never dealt with them wasn't aware of any upgrade

i play an even mixture of godsmack, creed, late alice in chains style originals, i been playing for 5-6 years. i would definitley buy the same pedal if this were lost or whatever, soley because i know exactly how to get just about anything i want from this one pedal. if i started a ska band or some nonesense of that sort then yeah i would get something else. I was a full on fan of dod pedals but the battery compartment on them and the actual pedal didn't have a long life line not in my experience anyway then i bought the metal zone and it was all over, now im set on using boss
I'd give it a ten but it ain't got a rack on it. UU

It's easy to get a good sound out of this pedal. The controls actually make a noticeable effect on the sound, unlike some other pedals I've used.

I am using Ibanez RG guitars and a Carvin SX-series amp with the Metal Zone. The pedal has some hiss due to the massive amount of gain. I've found that either batteries or the Boss adaptor work best to eliminate noise. I used a radio shack adaptor for a while and it was very noisy, with a lot of hiss and hum.
I've never tried to mimic other guitarists' sounds, but this is a very versatile distortion. The input level along with the distortion level give a wide range of sounds from warm "overdrivey" to monster metal.

This pedal has never given me a bit of trouble, it's a Boss!

I've never has to deal with Boss so I can't really rate their customer service.

I play metal with a funky flavor and 80's thrash thrown into the mix. I have always sought the sound I am now getting. This is THE pedal for hard metal, period. I can get the most brutal crunch and screeching harmonics on the same settings at any time.
I have been playing for 15 years and have tried processors and distortion pedal after distortion pedal. If this pedal were lost or stolen I would immediately buy another MT-2. I compared this pedal to other Boss models as well as DOD/Digitech pedals. I love the sound, reliability and versatility. I only with it came with the Boss adaptor, but then the combined price would exceed $100 and people might shy away from it. This pedal has actually helped me in my playing. Since it has so much gain it will pick up every touch of the strings. This has helped my "clean up" my playing style which was a little sloppy before.

Pretty easy to use, gain, vol, hi, bass and semi-parametric mids.

I usually play a Gibson SG, Digitec RP20, Marshal JCM900 100w and this black box.
I'm into speed/trash metal and this pedal is the real deal !
The distortion is really screaming, thunderouns and fat (due to the SG i guess), just perfetc if you play metal or want a really screming distortion.
Plug into a 100w Marshall and it will tear your hairs off you head !
The only drawback is that this is a metal-only pedal, just forget it if you like softer things.

It's a piece of steel, but the pots (coaxial ones) seem really weak.
The case is bulletproof.

For metal I would give it a 9, just beacause I don't know how could it sound with a transistor amp.
For all other thing absolutely 0, but before buying something you should read the name: metal zone, and that's it.

Damn... how hard can turning some knobs be?? Simple enough to find a nice sound....

WOW! I have a Fender Blues Junior tube amp, and I thought I got nice sounding overdrive on it... This thing takes that a level up! Man, I can't get over the difference in tone I can get, just by tweaking the EQ and the Distortion level....

It's a BOSS.... Nuff Said...

Ummmm.... YEah... like BOSS needs support for their stompboxes...

I play rock, hard rock, metal... Perfect fit... Love it. I tried it for 20 minutes in store, and haven't regretted buying it for a second. Kinda wish that the pedals came with the AC adapter, but then, it would cost more that way...

pretty simple to use,not very simple to make sound good.but over all pretty basic,with 5 minutes of trying.

10 10 10 10 10.well,youll like it if you can dial it in and you like pantera.i love having tube guys (mesa,marshall,ect,) come up to me after gigs like"jesus christ"where do you get your sound!!!!????".if you have the cheapest solid state amp,its gonna sound thin and trebly.if you invest with a good power amp or head,youll get a good sound.period.i personally play a peavy 50/50 tube amp,and i love my sound

had it for eight years,looked like crap when i bought it,looks like crap now,never failed me once though and keeps running strong,oldest piece i own

i bet there customer service looks like those maytag comercials,they dont even need suport,thier stuf works

good pedal,play it through crap,itll sounds like crap,play it through nice stuff,it sounds like satan himself screaming into a microphone

This is isn't your standard 3-knob distortion pedal. Out of the box it's not going to sound great- this is something that will really take some time to get a "good" sound. The knobs are easy enough to use (Level, Highs, Lows, Mids, Mid frequency, and of course distortion), but the real trick is twiddling the knobs to get Your Sound.

I use various ESP guitars into a little Fender Frontman combo, I have a bunch of other pedals but bringing them into this would alter the sound of THIS pedal- which would nullify the point of my evaluation. Now, anyone who buys an ELECTRONIC pedal and attempts to get TUBE sounds is very naive, it's simply not possible. However, the sounds this thing is capable of are excellent. As stated prior to this section, it will take time to find the sound you are looking for (time being a few monthes), but once you have achieved your sound you should be happy with it. Of course, if you decide to put the level and distortion on full the pedal is going to mass produce feedback, otherwise, I find it quite usable for your typical Metal. Spunds will not be warm- but the tone is very flexible and thats a good thing. It's better suited to newer metal because it lacks the tube warmth of your classic Metallica sound- but that should be a given. Not perfect, but excellent; not warm, but solid.

Here's an analogy for you all:
Boss is to a guitarist, as Old Faithful is to tourists.

I've never had to deal with the guys at Roland/Boss- and thats the best possible customer support.

For Metal, I suspect, no $90 pedal can produce this variety or quality sound. I've been playing for 3 years and have tried way too many distortion pedals, many have a warmer tone- but I feel they get fuzzed out and lack the clarity needed to clearly articulate Thrash Metal. The only thing I wish it had was a way to add warmth to it, like some kind of knob, but that hasn't been invented yet. Otherwise this is the pedal for Metal heads. The 8 is for it's excellent sound, but difficulty to cultivate that sound, a little noisy at high levels and apparent lack of warmth make up the 2 points lost. A really great pedal overall. Feel free to contact me with any questions/comments.

It's pretty easy to use. It has four knobs, which two are like an eq. Those two split into two more. The left knob is the level, the right one is the distortion.

At the time, I was running an Ibanez RG through the metal zone into a 30 watt crate. At first, I bought it because I was into the offspring, kinda hard, in your face kind of distortion. It worked for a while, but then, it crapped out. It lost all the sustain, and it just sounded like a black piece of shit metal box. I had to use it with the distortion around 2, if you count all the way to the left as 0. Anything higher than that, it's waaaaaay too metal for me. It might be good if you're into really heavy, metal, can't hear shit, guitar sounds, since this makes the perfect noise for that, BUT, for the money, get a good old orange box, boss ds-1. It's a lot cheaper, it can go heavy, as well as mild, or light, if you need it to. I decided to give this guy the boot, and buy a tube amp. I know we call cannot afford tube amps, but there are better distortion boxes out there. Get one with a tube in it.

It's a BOSS pedal, they're unbreakable. The only thing was that loss of sustain. But I still dont' know if it was the amp, or the actual pedal. I give it an 8 for the doubt.

Never dealt with them.

I was into the offspring, and the pedal fit fine for a while, but then it just sounded like shit. I compared it with a friend's, and it still sounded like shit, with his guitar, and mine, tried in different amps. this is a kick ass pedal for metal heads. THat's it.

You really need to spend some time tweaking the knobs to find a sound you like, but eventually you'll (hopefully) find something.

Its loud. very loud. It can really scream, but thats not hat i like: i like very hard "dirty" distortion, not the screeching high sound of the mt2. Sure it can be ground stomping in the bass, but its not "my thing" to get rid of all the high tones...
otherwise: very nice n hard sound if you like it.

Damn:) i dropped this thing on my zoom 505 last week and it totally busted the zoom's casing... (the window is totally broken) but the MT2 didnt even lose a chhip of paint!! Still works perfectly!

i dunno

nice effect, but not "my thing"

My cat could get a decent sound out of it without reading the manual

Well, I use the discountinued fender M-80 amp. Ironically the clean channel is the one with any balls at all....So, I picked up the MT-2 and so far I really think it sounds as close to metal as you can get without a marshall stack. Play it loud for full affect. Don't count too heavily on the pedals tone control...plug it in and adjust your amps settings instead. Fun pedal....just don't turn into Steve Vai.

Depend on it if you like the sound. It's not going to mysteriously burn out.

The thing that makes the pedal is the diversity you create. Picking styles totally change the Dynamic. (ie, open chords ring very nicely, even for highs and lows). You can recreate sounds of Oasis, Pearl Jam, Metallica, Pantera, and pretty much anything else. If you think a pedal totally limits your sound then just sing and sell your gear.

This pedal is hard to work with. Any attempts to get any subtle guitar distortion is impossible, even with the distortion down all the way and the volume knob rolled back on your guitar. It has a 4-band EQ (why I do not know) which allows you to dial in anything from "too damn heavy" to "stop scratching your nails against the chalkboard". Ugh.

I used this with a Carvin TL-60 swamp ash with coil taps on both pickups. I ran that into my Fender Roc-Pro 1000, and have a Dan-Echo, Turbo Rat, Hash Browns, and Dunlop 535Q Wah in my pedalboard. This pedal is useless. It overpowers all of the other pedals, and leaves absolutely no clarity in my distortion. Different amounts of tweaking left my with slightly more clarity, but only in the form of painfully shrill highs. The pedal is noisy as hell too. It feeds back like no other, and don't even try to control it if you know whats good for you. Maybe with an EQ it would be better, but I just dont feel like trying that. Its good if you want some old Metallica tone or if you are a person that can't tell the difference between a PRS and a rock. The only reason I give it a 4 is because it does get really distorted, and for heavy stuff it works, just as long as you don't go past the fifth fret on the low E.

Its a tank. After I get mad at it, I throw it around the room and it doesnt bust. I guess thats the reason they made this pedal so tough...

I play everything, and have been influenced by SRV, Jimi Hendrix, and other bands. This pedal doesnt not fit me or my kinda music at all. It is a cess pool in a box. Don't buy it. I replaced it with a Danelectro Fab Tone, which I am now replacing with a Jekyll and Hyde. Spend a little more... dont buy this...

It was very easy for me to get a decent tone. Other than Bass and Treble, you dial in a frequency, and either bosst or cut it. Pretty simple.

I am using a Fender Lonestar Strat into an old 1966 Silvertone tube amp of about 5 watts. I first bought the Boss Blues Driver to push this little amp harder for blues, and am very happy with that pedal, but I also wanted a serious metal tone for writing songs at my buddy's house. I decided upon the MT-2. I think the MT-2 will "do it" for most players just starting out, in that, for a simple 90 bucks, you can approximate a Marshall-esque tone. VERY metal! Infact, metal is ALL it does. You can have bright metal, dark metal, scooped-mid metal, midrangey metal, metal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but ONLY metal shall ye eat. At first I liked this pedal, now after 3 days, I don't. It has the definite character of a wah pedal cocked in its middle position, which cannot be dialed out no matter what you do. No dynamics at all. A very nice try from Boss, but like almost every other solid state distortion pedal that's ever been made, it still sounds like a toy.

Like we all know, it's tough as heavy metal.

Who cares.

I play a little of everything. Been playing for 22-odd years. I am in a hard rock band and use a Les Paul and Mesa Rectoverbs for that. But, I wanted a high-gain pedal that was as nice as the Blues Driver I bought, for my little tube ampster. The MT-2 is for young 'un's who want metal for breakfast everyday at 10:30am. It's a one-trick-pony. I need something alot more complex. I get less pleasure out of this than I did when I bought my first DOD 250 distortion pedal in 1979. I compared it with the new Boss MD-2 Mega Distortion, and may try that next, but expect similar results. I'd just rather use the Blues Driver to push the amp, or play it clean. Overall, the MT-2 certainly isn't junk, so I give it a "2".

Just basic EQ's, Level, and Distortion Level - Not to complicated to tweek.

In my opinion, this pedal is really nice and well worth it's low cost. I go for distortion similar to Fear Factory and Pantera - though I don't listen to those bands that much, I do like their tone. REMEMBER - Tone is all opinion. This thing of course, will not sound like tube distortion. The sound you get will also depend on your guitar and amp. If your using some rip-off brand strat through a 6-inch Gorilla amp, you might have some room to complain. If you have at least a decent amp and a pretty nice guitar, you can acheive great metal tone. I use this thing all the time to record straight into my Roland digital 8-track. I personally like this better than the triple rectifier - I know I'll get slaughtered for saying that, but in my humble opinion, Mesa is more than 75% reputation and hype, and I'd never spend more than 1000$ on that brand. That's another story - have a powerful power amp and you can definately gig with this pedal. I give it an 8 because there's not too much versatility, which would be a big plus. but it's still great for metal.

I don't foresee this thing breaking on me anytime soon. Very reliable, like a tank - It's BOSS.

Never dealt with them

As for metal playing, if you're not satisifed with it, you may want to redefine your definition of metal. This will not make you sound like a nu-metal band. There's not too much versatility as I said before....most people will cut the mids and boost the his and lows - granted, it sounds great when you do. But there's not too much else you can do with it. Definately a great buy - I plan on using this thing for a long time.

This isn't really a review, it's just a comment for any beginner's out there - Fair enought, this peadal doesn't have the same warm tone as a tube amp. A decent tube amp will cost the best part of ?1200. This is ?120. If you have a solid state amp, and want to put good, heavy, thick distortion, buy this pedal. If you like cold, hard distortion, buy this pedal. The whole tube vs. transistor thing is down to personal opinion. I prefer tubes, but I've been playing over eight years, and work in a guitar store. Eight years ago, I probably couldn't have told the difference. I also play blues, and a bit of jazz as well as metal, punk, so I prefer the clean channel on a tube amp. This can't compete with an all tube marshall. How can a twelve year old kid afford an all tube marshall? They can't (probably). If you can't, try out this pedal. Also, Boss are the best FX pedals out there - Marshall pedals are hideous, easily broken bits of crap, and danelectro are only okay.

It isn't the easiest to use, but it does have a much better sound because of that. It isn't extremely hard to use, but i personally had a hard time getting the sound i wanted out of it.

I currently play an Ibanez GAX70, throught the metal zone and into either a kareoke or a fender vibrochamp. Not the greatest setup, but it does sound nice for recording. When i play on the kareoke i can run it to my stereo system and get really big sound. I finally got a sound like Metallica out of it. It is really great. One pointer, don't crank the dist. all the way up...big mistake.

It is Boss...there is no need for more.

five year warranty??? Heck Yeah!

i love it. there is an extremely wide range of sounds that you can get out of it and it is fun to mess around with. It is definately worth the 70 i paid for it. Im gonna keep this one forever.

you have to be a dumbass if you can't work this pedal. it came with a manual but i didn't even bother to look at it.

i own a crate gfx-212 amp and a digitech rp2000. I own an ibanez rg120, a fender deluxe double fat strat, an applause acoustic, and a PRS CE22. at high volumes it hisses alot but after turning the gain down it sounds nice. i can get a megadeth/metallica tone with this and it sounds alright. ive never owned a tube amp and im pretty sure a tube amp would beat the shit out of the metal zone but i cant afford one. the metal zone was only 80 bones and its pretty good for the price.

ive owned this pedal for about 5 months now and its never given me any problems.

never had to mess with it

i play anything that sounds good. old santana, old metallica, megadeth, slipknot, slayer, system of a down, any kind of blues music. i can get just about any sound out of it that i want you just have to know how to tweak the knobs. i listened to the guyatone metal monster on buzzfox.com and it sounded kind of shitty so i decided to go with the metal zone. if it was stolen i would be pretty pissed off and i would buy another one.

It was pretty easy to figure out. I have to give it an 8 simply for the amount of parameters at your disposal (a total of 6). Step once for "on", step another for "off". C'mon kids, if you can't figure out a stompbox, you're in the wrong game.

This is where it hits the fan. One expects a certain amount of obnoxiousness from a metal pedal, but this was a bit excessive. I fount the tone to be blaring, grinding (in a bad way, not like overdrive)and just irritating in general. The feedback was nowhere near controllable, and despite the 6 parameters, you could only get a select few different sounds out of it.

It fell apart promptly. The screw that Boss uses to keep the footswitch on was stripped VERY quickly, thus anything but EXTREMELY ginger hadling would cause the footswitch to fly off.

Never dealt with Boss.

I play blues, and this pedal was given to me, so I don't like to look a gift horse in the mouth, but in all honesty, I hated it so much that it was completely useless to me.

This pedal is 'kin awesome! The 3 bands really allow for a versatile metal tone. The manual even gives example settings for different metal sounds.

I use a Jackson DX10 and send it through a Peavey Trans Tube Amp. It sounds great, especially with the Boss Phaser and Flanger-cool effects when its yurned way up. Like i said, it's a great pedal for METAL!! I almost sound just like the heavy metal gods. In this case, the masters are Dave Murray, Adrian Smith, Mustaine, Rhoads, KK Downing, and Glenn. It's also great for Iommi and Blackmore riffs. Punks should stay away from this pedal! Use the MT2 with some compression and you can recreate Maiden's SIT album. So up all the fuckin' irons!!!

It's as reliable as my trusty right hand! The MT 2 can go through "Heaven and Hell" and still look brand new! Very reliable, just eats batteries like no tomorrow!

Never had any problems, thankfully!

Definitely get this pedal if your into Maiden, Priest,Megadeth, and Rhoads! It's got a mean, nasty sound, with little hiss. It sure as hell lives up toits namesake! Long Live Metal!

easy to use, the EQ, the dist knob, the level knob....

good sound quality, can cover mostly all the distortion sounds out there... witht the 3 band eq it can do alot.... i use it for mostly everything, punk, nu metal, heavy metal.... this goes good with the music i play, if this is ur first distortion pedal, u wont need another distortion pedal anymore, this pedal can pack a punch..... it has good sustain, a really good bass for heavy palm muting, u dont even have to put the distortion taht high to get a good sound, i put it either to a 12 o clock position for punk or jsut rock, in a 3 o clock position, for heavy metal, stuff like metallica.... i have another distortion pedal, (my first) boss turbo distortion, i use that, like an overdrive pedal, a very soft distortion, sometimes for nirvana stuff, or like santana or something like that... but i mostly use the metal zone... and u should get it to...

its boss, cmon, its totalyl reliable, built like a tank....

once u buy this pedal, u will know wat im talking about, sweet distortion, hard casing, easy to use, god u wont need another distortion pedal anymore, unless this gets stolen from u...

Very easy for good sound. With correct knob placement, this one pedal alone has ALL the crunch I need. There are patches all over the web for it. Very hard pedal, very durable, WILL NEVER break. VERY easy to use.

I use two guitars, a Dean VX flying V (soon to have Lawrence L-500 or L-500 XL in the bridge) and a Jackson KE explorer (soon to have Semour Duncan JB in bridge) with the stock pups' (besides my jackson's which are actually EMG's) my sound is sooo crunchy and unbelievable. I play these through a Randall RG100 es head with a Kustom 4x12 cab, all i can say is "CRUNCH." I can get the sound of all of my favorite bands e.g. Testament, old metallica, anthrax, iron maiden, judas priest, black sabbath, iced earth, motorhead, venom, and many many more. very versitile. Obviously a metal pedal, for all you crazy metal heads out there, go and get one!!! I cannot explain how smooth and sweet sounding this pedal is (with the right guitars and pickups and amps of course)

This pedal does nto, and will not break. No need for a back up pedal (i do have a zoom 505 and a marshall jackhammer pedal though, but would bring for fun if i gigged)

never had to deal with them

EXCELLENT pedal, in my opinion this is THE best heaby metal pedal out there, flat out unbelievable, and if you dont think so, you are crazy, or you have crappy equipment, this pedal is ALL you need for METAL!!!!

Its a good pedal with 4 ajustments,but if you make the wrong move you get sounds from planet mars. but oyher than that its a good pedal just keep the distortion up and the gain half way or at 11:00

Im using a yamaha pacifica guitar.which is looped thrue my mt-2 to my rp300,then to my peavy mark 3 amp which then runs my dean markley cab,or I run my session 400, it sounds meaner,my favorite artist is metallica and megadeth,trying to sound like a messa boogie cab is hard but megadeth is close,with that i keep the bass up mid 0 treble up.I try to keep on the marshall side of things

this thing is built like a tank or safe,if I could keep money in it and lock it I would.My ds-1 is the same way.If i was in a band i would gig with it without a back up no sweat.

Never dealt with them.

I play death type metal and metallica and megadeth mix.I ve been playing for about 3 years.If this thing got stolen I would be postal.This thing gives me a good metal kick but not enough kick.I compared this to the death metal pedal,this is much cleaner alot less noisy.

It looks harder than it really is. Level and distortion controls, three band equalizer, and a Middle Frequency control.

I used the pedal with my Fender Squier Strat and I used Crate and Fender amps. It sounds amazing!!!!!! Even when the dis. control is all the way down you still get dis.

Its a Boss so you know its gonna last forever. I would always use a backup no matter what.

Never dealt with Boss or Roland

Ive been playing for about 2 Years and I play everything from blues to metal to classical. Like I said it amazing amount of gain. I love this pedal!!!!!!1

Whether you know about eq's or not, this pedal is fairly easy to get adjusted to. It has sweeping mids, so you can get a lot of different sounds from the thing. Be warned of the 'Level' knob though. Don't turn it too high, or you will produce mud. About 11 o'clock seems just right to me. The distortion knob should be maxed out. why else would you have the metal zone for, right?

VERY close to studio-quality distortion. As per above, the sweeping mids make the mt-2 extremely versitile, and give a nice range. I find it really kicks with a Boss Flanger. Gives it a nice, thick, swimmy Tool-like sound. Very clear.

I could lace the damn thing with C-4 explosive, and it would still come through in a pinch. No problem. The thing is die-cast metal, just like your old Transformers, and they're still around, right? I've had mine for...oh....4 years now, bought it used, and it still has NO chipped paint. Amazing.

No Idea.....Works like a charm.....maybe it has been charmed...

I play a Gibson SG, and a 75 Stratocaster through a huge Laney amp, and while both Guitars sound great, The Gibson SG and the Metal Zone were made for each other, i'm convinced. It has so many variations of sound, you'll find you can get a new sound each time you plug in. I'm influenced by Black Sabbath, Tool, NIRVANA!!, and Pink Floyd...and oh yeah, The Zep. Get this pedal if you want dark-chunk loud!! 'Nuff said.

When I first got it, it was a challenge to get the perfect sound for my style, but once I got the hang of it I was on my way. For more information and visual guide of how to obtain certain sounds

Visit: www.geocities.com/metalzonesound !!!

If you get the right effect quality, it sounds great, and it is fun to play around with all the different textures. Overall has a good sound quality.

Well when I got it I thought man I could drive a tank over it, the fact is that is is nicly cased of in a metal frame. As for the technical point of view, BOSS - built to last. I have had no problems yet.

No experience...

Gibson Les Paul > Dunlop 535Q Wah-wah > MT-2 > Marshall Amp.

Lovely set up, with the right tune up you should be able to get the exact sound quality (distortion wise) what you are looking for. Apart from that, this set up offers a wide range of different tonality and sound. I never want another effects pedal unless the MT-3 comes out some day. I'd recomment it!

For ease I give this pedal an 8. It takes a few seconds to get the exact sound you want.

I'm using this with a mexican strat with SD hot rails in the bridge straight into a fender hot rod deluxe. Sometimes I use an Ibanez RG560 with this also. I didn't plan on getting the sounds of my favorite artists which are Weezer,Offspring,Metallica, Foo Fighters. On second thought I can get an ok Metallica sound. This thing puts out a little noise! It's bearable though.

How many times do you wanna hear that built like a tank thing? I had my 400LB friend sit on it naked and it still works. That's good enough for me.

Don't know Don't care simple electronics

I got this thing for $25 barely used with the power cable and I'm sure it would be he perfect pedal for someone who likes 80's metal. I'm still gonna try the Danelectro Fabtone and the TS-9 just cause I can. I've been playing about 1 1/2 years, before this I played drums. It's a good little pedal for someone who has an amp that doesn't have crazy distortion at low volumes, but then again what amp does?

This product is super easy to use it only took not even a minute to figure it out. the manual is very useful but it is so easy to use u dont even need it.

My set-up consits of a dean Avalanche one two marsall amps (avt50 & mg-rcd15) a metal zone (of course), a ds-1 distortion, a DOD FX69 grunge distortion, a Electro-harmonix russian big muff, And a Korg (Toneworks) AX1G, and it works well with every one if it is set up in the back. Even though its noisy its good for geting great feedback, and it always sounds great.I really im into korn, nirvana, led zeppelin, hendrix, bush, and more metal, grunge, thrash, and punk, and all the metal zone is good is metal and for a more darker sound. everything else is good with a DS-1.

Oh my god this is probably the best set-up pedal ever; I've stomped on it everthing and it still work. Even if i did have enough money i would use it witout a backup.

I havent had to deal with them becuase its a awesome pedal

This pedal lets me do anything the only thing i wish it had are 2 settings like the ds-2 and aexpression pedal input to change the settings.

If you don't know how to use one of these,Osama Bin Laden should murder you,took the advice of reading the manual and it's settings,one piece of advice,GET THE ADAPTER,this thing eats 9 volts like a fuckin' resteraunt.

My setup is a Jackson DX10D Guitar,with a Marshall 5210 50 watt amplifier(it's not what you think,this beast is bitchin')For the sound I would say Metallica:Master Of Puppets,and Justice For All,it can nail the song from Master(Welcome Home (Sanitarium)fuck yeah!

I've only had it since Christmas,but so far so good,it has'nt blown yet,I don't gig (I'm not in a band)I've had it on for as long as 20 minutes,and to this day,everything is cool.

I have no fuckin' idea about Boss,but if something ever goes wrong,I have a 5 year warranty.

I play nothing but metal,(I didn't buy it to play Kenny G,or some soft shit)I would say the pedal,my Jackson,and my Marshall is a good match.It can't be stolen or lost because I keep up with my shit,NOBODY DARES TO TOUCH MY STUFF,my favorite thing to play is any of the songs on "Master" or "Justice",I'm a true headbanger,Metallica is my life,James and Kirk should be given a medal when they die.

In my set up I had to have the high tone knob too far down and found very very slight movements caused great leaps or cuts in top end. The parametric thing also takes some getting used too. Whatever you do it is very easy to get a high gain tone.

I had it in an effects chain to drive pitch and delay effects but in the end I decided to put them in the effects loop of my Boogie for a real sound. If you have a cheap amp with little gain and want to go straight to metal missing out many steps inbetween then this is the box for you. The main problems are 1) It has a half depressed Wah like boost in the tone that you just cannot get rid of, even with all of the tone controls it has. 2) It does not clean up from the guitar volume, even with low gain crunch type settings (same as BD2, OD3 etc but not DS1 curiously) 3) It loses subtle picking technique sounds 4) demolishes much of the pickup type, position etc. information in the tone. Positives are 1) allows you to seriously add bass which can make your amp sound a lot, lot bigger 2) turn a single coil guitar into something a a much meatier 3) good for Van Halen type tapping.

IAB

It's completely unfair to expect this little box to give the complex tone and distortion of a valve amp or preamp but I hoped it might come closer. I thought perhaps it would add a nice distortion option but the old DS1 does this so much better - for me anyway. With this baby it really depends where you are coming from and I'm sure for some people it does things they just couldn't do before so I'm sure they love it, but one day.......

You turn the EQ knobs, there's nothing confusing about that. I suppose the only downside is that there are only 4 of them, and two mroe for volume and distortion. The confusing part is how to get a decent sound out of this thing. I've had this piece of shit for about three years, (I'm kind of a cheapskate, and vocals are my passion anyway) and after growing up and out of the "more distortion is better" attitude and maturing a bit, I realize that no recording artist in their right mind would use this as a primary distortion pedal.

If you turn the distortion knob too low, you can't hear your guitar at all. It's absolutely horrible. Regardless of where you turn the knob to, the damn thing buzzes awfully. The only way to get any tone or sustain out of this thing at all is to crank the distortion. I've had it everywhere from 10 o'clock to 5 o'clock, and with this much distortion, whatever you're playing is just drowned out.

I'm playing on an ESP EX-351, and it's plugged through a Boss GE-7 Equalizer into a very expensive Crate Blue Voodoo half stack. If you want to play Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Slayer, Pantera, Led Zeppelin or pretty much any guitar music that has a decent tone to it, you're better off looking elsewhere.

Please take note of this: THIS WILL NOT GIVE YOU ANYWHERE NEAR THE METALLICA SOUND.

The thing's made of solid metal, like all Boss pedals. I don't think a stompbox could be more stable unless you paid some crazy fuck with a gun to sit in front of it all day. As far as touring goes, I wouldn't be caught dead playing this thing at a gig in the first place, unless I was purposely trying to offend the patrons of the venue. I wouldn't worry about it though. Damn thing could probably survive tank treads.

Never had to deal with anyone there.

Metallica is certainly one of my favorite bands. I bought it because I read (probably on this website) that it was a great pedal for all metalheads. I certainly would have to disagree there. The thing sounds absolutely terrible, and I'm beginning to wonder if I've spent more time crouched down fiddling with the knobs than I have actually playing my guitar. It's that bad.

I've been playing for about the last six or seven years. I also play bass and drums, as well as sing. No, not all at the same time. I've been in two bands, and recorded a full-length demo for the first one. Quite honestly, it sucked, and it's part of the reason I've given up basically all metal, with very few exceptions. (I still love Metallica and Pantera)

This pedal is absurdly popular amongst people just starting out on the guitar or people who haven't really started to get serious with their music. I suppose the intimidating black metal casing and overall weight of the thing make it seem perfect for all your favorites from Metallica to Cradle of Filth. Well I'm here to tell you that it's not. I'd rather play nothing but clean than have to put up with this pedal anymore.

If it were stolen, I'd laugh because I felt sorry for the stupid bastard who took it.

played with the knobs, got a decent sound. that's about it

great, thick, raunchy sound. the low end can be a little overpowering
but it can be compensated for.

it's a boss. what do you want? the thing is a brick

never dealt with them

i got this unit about two years ago and i'm very satisfied with it. i now run this through a zoom gfx-8 as an external distortion. also, i don't think that this should be called a "metal" distortion pedal. the tone is off. instead, i find that it makes a great punk pedal. that somewhat nasal tone works well with the style.

This pedal is very easy, pretty strait forward in every aspect. The manual isn't really necessary because this pedal is SO easy to figure out. Pretty much just plug it in and play!

I play a Deluxe Double Fat Strat through a Peavey Bandit 112(100w and one 12" driver) I mostly play clean and distortion, no other effects and this pedal gets the job done. Its a very heavy pedal and very metallic I think. You can't really tell when your playing at a low volume, but when I'm playing in my band and I have to crank it, it lacks a "chunky" sound and is very thin. This could just be because of my amp though. However, this does allow for a killer lead, just don't plan on using it for a powerful and low pitched rhythm. Over all though, it is a sweet pedal, it just isn't perfect for my needs as a rhythm player, but if solos ranging from Van Halen to Linkin Park are your thing then this is your only pedal!

Its a boss, I've never seen a sturdier pedal, ever. I bet I could run over it with my pick-up truck and it would still be just like brand-new.

Never had to deal with them because it is so reliable. So I honestly can't rate 'em on this one.

This pedal isn't a good match for me when I'm playing in my band, but when I'm just jamming with whoever it can go from Led Zep to Metallica and everything in between if you just mess with it for a little while. Great pedal, I've bought about 4 different distortion pedals and I always end up using this one to jam with. If your thinking about buying this pedal than I recommend that you add it to your arsenal A.S.A.P!

Once you play with it alittle, there is no problem. Never used the manual.

I have a Japan made Ibanez with a Marshall JCM 900 half stack. It sounds great once I got my sound, but on some settings there is a little hum in the background. Most settings are great and sounded superb.

yea, it is built very well and I have not had a problem with it.

Never called, I have had no problems with it.

I like to play heavy rock and metal rhythms, fuzz and regular overdrive. This pedal does it all from light rock, to heavy metal, to hard rock, you can make some cool distortion with this thing. If you are looking for a distortion pedal be sure to add this one to you collection

Takes a little bit of time to get a good sound out of it but once you find your sound its great. Manual suggestions are OK but kind of basic. Use them as a foundation to create your own tone.

Fender Fat Strat->Boss MT-2->Boss CE-5->Boss GE-7->Fender amp
Sometimes its noisy when you have it on certain settings. I try to get an AC/DC sound out of it, and I think it does a pretty good passable sound. I sometimes use this with my CE-5 to get a Nirvana sort of distorted chorus sound and it sounds good. I recommend you get a GE-7 if you have the MT-2 to help clean up your sound. This pedal is not very good for mild distortion at all. I give it an 8 because of this but if i could get a nice mild distortion from it I would give it a 10.

I've dropped a Fender PT-10 tuner on it by accident and it made a chip in the PT-10. Boss left unscratched. Boss are the toughest pedals out there.

Never dealt with them, don't think i'll ever need to.

I play mostly hard rock and i've been starting to play blues a little bit but this pedal is not for blues at all. If you want a distortion for playing blues get the Blues Driver or Overdrive/Distortion. You might need an equalizer after this pedal to get a better sound out of it.

easy to use, if you can't use 6 knobs and one of hem is volume than you are a monkey maybe??
there is a manual, but does the distortion know reely need explaining??
manual settings are crap, find your own, but if you are looking for your sound try to focus it in your head first (bassy no misds, crappy no mids an extreme highs) and also, if you turn the mid knob clockwise, than turn the mid freq knob the opposite way...
mybe hard to get good tones only if you dont know what you want (happend to me)

i played it through crappy marshall 10w, big fender, probbably 100w, and a older carvin 150w through a marshall 1960 cab, amp has 7 band equiliser, great amp, also played it with ibanez rg550ex ltd
if you plan to get a great sound out of this pedal alone or any other pedal, it won't go, you must have a god amp, guitar and good cabels, gdistortion is great, more versatile than ds-1 which i sold, great for rock also, sounds like a tube drive when set up right, also has killer bas for heavy sound, if you need more drive on the other hand, you probably cant play, because i play hevy, speed, thash, and it fits.
nothing can be perfect so here is a

it's a BOSS, so i ahd already one, sd-1, same built, my advice is: tahe the rubber that holds the pedal screw off, it is easyer to turn on, i would use it without backup, WORKS EVERY TIME, not like ibanez sashbox, peace of crap that is

nope

rock to metal, great
trust your ears, if you can't try it, if you play rock of metal you probably won't regret, i diden't, so i am HAPPY with it