Boss MT-2 Metal Zone

Can't beat boss stuff for ease of use. That's why they're the biggest in their field next to quality of course. The EQ adds a most necessary complication to setting up but it is SO worth the extra time and effort.

Does metal really well but also tones down to do some nice crunchy blues stuff. That said though, if you buy one of these your generally looking to play the more heavy stuff.

The extensive EQ adds a fantastic amount of flexibility and I would have to say the EQ is the heart of the MT-2's success imo.

I use a Hamer SATQ with a JB/Jazz setup through a Marshall TSL 602 on the clean channel. The MT-2 is a quiet pedal. To be fair, I can't really compare this with any other pedal because I've not extensively tried others but I can't imagine anything better to be honest.

Only had it a couple of months but judging by the experiences I've had with other Boss pedals this is never going to be an issue.

Not had to use them.

The only thing I could possibly knock this pedal on would be battery consumption. I did use rechargeable in all my pedals and the MT-2 used to get through 2 of these in a 3 hour gig.

I've done the right thing and bought a dedicated power supply now.

If it were lost or stolen I would try other pedals first such as the Metal Core but I suspect I would come back to the MT-2 pretty sharply.

the eq on this pedal is very easy to use whilst offering a wide range of sounds. also you can go from low gain to insane distortions with just 1 twist

i use this with a epiphone les paul classic a marshall mg amp and a dunlop wah-wah, and even tho the lp is not really a metal guitar i can get a real thick distorted sound out of the classic's pickups with this pedal. Good for most metal sounds it can go from a high gain overdrive to insane thrash and heavy metal distortion. my fav setting is bass-3 oclock treble-2 oclock mid- 11 0clock middle freq- 1 oclock and gain 3 oclock this is a good general metal setting good for lead and rhythm. only problem is feedback after incresing gain more that 4 oclock

its boss no more needed 2 be said. my old boss pedal i had for 1yr with no probs before getting the mt2 and no probs so far

never needed

great for metal and hard rock i luv this pedal especialy as my small marshall canot give my that really heavy distorted sound. well worth the money. i prefer this to every other boss distortion i hav used best feture is the eq. really helps sound like my fav artist especially metallica without havin to spend lots of money on guitars with emg pickups and big amps.works well with my epiphone les paul classic marshall mg15dfx and dunlop crybaby

Parametric EQ takes some getting used to. Manuals starting EQ settings are mildly useful

Epiphone V with Marshall MG head. Using 4x10 cab with emminence speakers.

I'm doing this review on the pedal I modded.

I just put an extra diode with a forward voltage of .1v in series with one of the clipping diodes. Since the stock diodes were back to back of the same type, this additional one should make the waveform slightly asymetrical and add a little more sweetness (which the pedal needs).

Generally speaking I only really use this pedal in drop tunings (usually just stantard drop D). It has a certain whine that doesn't really sound too appealing to me for standard tuning or melodic leads and such. After the mod the whine is a little more stylish and useable but its still something you have to play with before it sounds like music.

Since its not really a very chunky sound, I use the pedal for faster type of songs. Like speed chug stuff that is played with fast double-bass drums.

Theres some great screaming harmonics that are great when played on lower strings.

The biggest effect this mod did was make the chug-attack a little larger/realistic/3-dimensional (how do you really describe a sound in words). Its still the MT2 with a very slight amound of color to it. I was going to mod it more but after I checked my work on adding the diode I was pretty satisfied with it so I stopped where I was.

In my opinion its not very versatile but I think it covers its intended sound pretty good. Solos and leads can work great espescially if you spice them up with the pinch harmonics which come out great on it. You just have to watch your playing because the whine is unforgiving.

boss

boss

Works great. Stock is definately ok but the mod gives it a little extra tonal edge to make the chug stand out.

Also, if you are a modder, this is a very configurable pedal, schematics are easy to find and easy to read. Plus there are many other people that mod this so there are a lot of suggestions you can find online.


Just ask me for sound clips and I'll send them. I have 1 song made pre-mod and I'm probably going to make a bunch of new clips now that I've done it.

if you put all the controls at 12 o clock you will get a pretty good sound to start with so thats easy .....

i would say in this position it's very middly kind of brian may and michael schenker ....so if you take that as your starting point .....you can boost the bass and go for a Sabbath sound or boost the trebles for a more 80's metal sound ......

i don't know if Boss meant to do it but they've voiced this pedal for a real Randy Rhoads sound....... a sort of rasping middle but with more bass or treble if you need it ...

usual boss very good

if i had to sum it up i'd say...... Randy Rhoads .......very heavy .....but with clarity....

Lots of EQ options with para-mid boost & cut and bass/treb boost & cut. Gain-wise it's just about insane if that's what you like. Took me all of 10 minutes to find 3 settings that I'll use.
Well built, ac adapter at the top end-where they belong on ALL pedals. EZ battery changes, rubber bottom. Cool controls. Easy to dial in. Easy to use.

Les paul into MT-2 into Fender Blues Deluxe RI.
I dime the gain, dial in the mid freq to 2K and cut it down to near zero. Bass is set at 1-2 o'clock. Treb is at 12 o'clock. I run my LP at 2 on the volume pots and 7 on the tone pots. MT-2 volume is at 8 or 9 o'clock. At these settings the MT-2 is not noisy.

Perfect, thick bluesy overdrive-distortion with nice sustain and harmonic feedback. If I need more gain I move the LP pots up to 4 or 5.

The solo tone using the LP 490 R neck pickup is very dark, thick and bluesy. I'm Using the 498 T bridge pickup for the heavier rock tones with the MT-2. Monster rock tone that sings and sustains. The middle position sounds well balanced through this pedal for crunch rhythms.

I play in a classic rock & blues band so I need crunch, heavy distortion and solo power that cuts but doesn't overpower or sound stupid. The MT-2 is perfect for this.

I realize this is the quintessential METAL pedal but I like it for its versatile and wide ranging sonic potential. People are surprised when they see a Metal Zone on my board. I guess they think its reputation as a chug-chug pedal marks me as a Metallica wannabe. But when I open up the LP neck pickup for some Clapton/Cream solos or Page solos, all of that metal stuff goes out the window. The big secret to this pedal is relying on the instrument's volume and tone pots to feed a perfect signal into it so it can do the magic for me. It's a cheap, easy to use pedal for my blues / rock playing.

Okay, so when we're goofing off, noodling and chugging along with the really heavy stuff, I raise the mids to 12 o'clock and it's "chain saw city"-LOL. Finally, with the gain at near zero and the volume up, it does a nice gritty boost for thin blues solos. It almost sounds "strat-like" with the LP on 2, using the 490-R pickup.

Great Blues & Rock pedal besides all that metal stuff that it does so well. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! Ha ha. It's plenty versatile for what I do.

BOSS ...stupidly well built. Been using BOSS stuff since the early 80s. Never, ever had a piece of BOSS gear fail on me. Impossibly well constructed.

C'mon...who ever sends a pedal in to BOSS TO GET IT FIXED?

I have owned lots of BOSS & Roland gear over the years. I currently own a TR-2, MT-2, ME-5, CE-2 and a Roland Blues Cube (outstanding amp, by the way.) BOSS Roland makes top notch stuff in my opinion. My ME-5 pedals (I have two) are late 80's devices and they still crank just as well as the day they were bought.
The MT-2 is a classic-for sure. It's not JUST a metal headbanger tool. Since it has so much potential I have to say that it will serve up some nice blues and rock tones for players who give it a try.

When I run out the door to a jam with my Blues Junior or my Roland Blues Cube 30, I usually grab my MT-2 and my TR-2 pedals. With just these two I can go from surf to hard, butt-kicking rock and everything in between. Versatile, versatile, versatile.

i thought it was very easy to get the sound u wanted, if u are into a heavier sound, i went off the manual then adjusted to my likings.

i am using a crate head and behringer cab alond with a gothic v that has emg 81/85 set up, when the lvl is up loud its kinda noisey.

i have had mine for years and i never had a problem yet, i do suggest getting an adapter though

overall i think its a great pedal for fans of creed to metallica to dying fetus. if u are looking for an ac/dc feel i wouldnt reccomend it. if i lost it or it were stolen idk how much i would play till i got another one.

The metal zone is a very simple and easy pedal that has 6 control knobs,level,equalizers(high,low,middle,mid freq)and dist.And there is output and input.And is easy to turn on just by pressing on a footswitch.And there is a manual its simple and easy to read.The metal zone has not been upgraded yet.

Im using a Epiphone limited edition custome made molson canadian guitar with seymour duncon pickups with heavy bottom slinkys and a Rhoads flying V jackson and fender heavy picks with a practice amp.The metal zone is loud as hell just with all knobs at 12 o,clock.The Metal Zone is a powerful crushing grinding sound.And as you use it the sound still sounds great.I use this pedal for Metalica, Slayer ,Rage against the machine and Cannibal corpse and death metal and thrash and grunge.Using this pedal every soud you can get out of it is pretty good.

The pedal is very reliable I had battery in it for 1 year ad the pedal still sounded awesome.And I would totally use this in a gig.

Customer support was good and very freindly.You dot need t upgrade this pedal and you can get this pedal repaired

I play death metal,thrash,grunge,hard rock and this pedal can do all that.Ive been playing for 2 years,I own a crybaby and a me-20.If this were stolen I would replace it.I love the dark and heavy pounding sound but i hate that when youturn the dist or level al the way up you get a loud fuzz and the sound turns to muddy.My favourute feature are the eq's.I chose this one because its cheap and cool looking and good reveiws and the sound of the pedal.I wish thispedal had more low end.This pedal helps me make music because the sound has lots of aggresion.I recommend this pedal to metal heads!!!!!

This pedal is great but it takes sometime to get a good sound of it. Its not hard to figure out at all, especially if you read the manual because in it, it includes some really good presets that i have tried out. The fuzz, hard rock, and heavy metal presets sound the best, in my opinion. If you take the time to play around with the knobs it sounds great

It sounds good, not the greatest, but better than most pedals. It doesnt work well as and overdrive or medium distortion. It really shines when you cut the mid frequency and boost the mids. When you turn the distortion past 3 it sounds to muddy for me. Id keep it around 12 or 1

Its a BOSS... enough said

never had to never will

It works great in any genre. This is a very flexible pedal.

I bought this on eBay a few weeks ago and it took me around 15 minutes to get the sound I was looking for from it.
The controls are set out well with dual-pot tone controls so it's not too cluttered.
The knobs are very sensitive too so you don't need to crank them too far to get quite a radical change in tone.

I'm running this pedal through a Roland Cube30 and an Ibanez RG321 with standard INF3/4 pickups, the sound quality from the guitar/amp itself is pretty good but this pedal really picks it up a notch. clear highs and crisp mids, gritty punchy lows... Perfect!

My previous pedal was a Danelectro Black Paisley and I loved the sound of that, but playing with this MT-2 is just on another level. That was quite muddy and lost some clarity but this is fantastic!

I play a lot of styles megadeth/disturbed/john petrucci/neil zaza and this pedal can be tweaked to suit almost any tone you want... with the gain turned right down it's still driving pretty hard but with any amount of gain wind back the volume on the guitar and it cleans up nicely for short melow phrases where you don't want the drive to be noticably 'gone' with the pedal off...

What can I say? It's a BOSS! It's built to withstand getting driven over by a Challenger Tank... All BOSS pedals are virtually indestructible and this is no different. Foot switch feels smooth but firm, jacks and power socket feel tight and solid... Even though this was second hand when I bought it, you wouldn't know it by the feel of it.

I've not had to deal with BOSS for this pedal, but with my old flanger I had to get the footswitch/battery cover replaced and they were happy to supply me with a new cover/screw :)

Quite a pleasure to deal with to be honest.

I've used many overdrive/distortion pedals over my 18 years of playing... Marshall Guv'nor (Mk1), various BOSS overdrive/super overdrive pedals, Danelectro Daddy-O, Danelectro Fab Tone, the Danelectro Black Paisley I mentioned before... and in my oppinion and for my style of playing the MT-2 p***es all over the lot of them!

It has enough gain range to play anything from Gary Moore to Disturbed, enough tonal variation to do anything you would want with it at all.

Being called the Metal Zone leads you to think that this is ONLY for metal, but believe me, it can be used for any style at all! This is a VERY versatile pedal indeed!!

I would recommend one of these to anybody!!!

I've had one of these for years ...like since it came out .I have 2 now one stock and one I modded I like the tones of both for doing cover band work . The modded one sounds relitavely EVH but not quite but close after a bit of dialing in... depends on the room your in too .

gahh, took me about 15-20 minutes to get good sounds.
the manual...well i didnt bother reading it.

its pretty noisy yeah.but only when youpumpup the volume a bit.
the effects are strong and have a metallic, cool tone to it.i donno, try not to play blues or rock or something.getting a goodrock tone out of this is near impossible.now playing some metal is really easy.and its great for solos.
most of the settings i use are fantastic.
i dont have any complaint with the sound of the thing, except its noisy at high volume.

haha.

never tried.

i play metal, like megadeth???slayer and sometimes death metal like cannibal corpse.i also play power metal, or melodeath.for all these genres, this pedal brings out a great sound.
but for my blues music, or hard rock/rock n roll stuff, its a bit too...cold.
if it got stolen or lost, i would buy this again.
buy the adaptor btw, its a pain to keep buying batteries.

4 knobs and each one opens a whole new can of worms... spectacular

i just picked this up i dont usually use any thing other than amp distortion but my 84 jcm 800 is a pain in the ars to make quick changes on stage.... i don't... do not... i havent since highschool... played anything that is metal appart from maybe some of my solos, and i love the sound it is perfect when you keep the distortion under 5 or middle or noon or whatever. fact of the matter is this is versatility at its finest.

i hear it is great havent had it long enough to break it though :P

this is great for me and im not a metal head by any means i am excited to use it on upcoming gigs tours and even in the studio! for an idea of the type of music im using this in go to; bernadetteconnors.com and cheack out some tracks its not metal...

Kind of bizarre that the mid controls are built around the main knobs, but easy enough to use.

I tried running it with a Yamaha semi-hollowbody and a Fender Super Champ (tube and solid state hybrid). With all the settings set to noon, the distortion is colossal - too huge for anything but serious metal. It sounds like an overdriven Marshall stack, which, I think is the idea. Other than lightening quick licks or slow chugging, however, all nuances are lost with this pedal. The sustain also lacks. I was immediately disappointed the first time I plugged it in after getting it. The distortion sounds very fake when any levels are lowered below noon. Good mids, but difficult to adjust and keep subtlety. This pedal has two sounds: Heavy Metal and Tin Can.

Definitely dependable. As are all Boss pedals.

The Metal Zone pedal is really only suited for heavy metal players. Anything other than riff rock sounds terrible on it. It's not subtle enough for classic rock because it goes from zero to 11 instantly. If it were stolen or lost, I would definitely try a different Boss pedal like the overdrive or turbo distortion.

In my case manual is f***** useless (as usual) so it takes hell of a lot of time to get your sound and then even if you change settings on your amp or change the amp it all means nothing and you have to keep fiddling... again.

I've got Jackson Ke3 and marshall 1960 300W half stack, and once I set up mt2 the sound is so amazing that I forget about the misery of setting it up. It is quite noisy but noisegate makes it quiet.

I actually am one of those who think that boss effects are tanks, this thing took 4 years of heavy playing very well and i think it will outlive me

Seriously, have they even got one?

For thrash and death metal- perfect, it may take a lot of fiddling, but the sound is very rewarding.

I'm giving the easy of use an 8 due to the fact that you have to unscrew a thumb screw to get to the battery. I can't wait until this rolls under the couch some late smokey night and I never find the #uc&ing thing again.

Okay, for starters, I'm kinda new but I sat here side by side with a HardWire TL-2 Metal Distortion. I give the MT-2 an 8 and the TL-2 a 10. The Hardwire is astronomically better in everyway, sound, design, construction, ets. Plus no stupid plastic thumbsrews to loose!

Don't get me wrong, I like the MT-2. I got mine for $40 (new). A steal at that so whose complaining righ? Nuff said.

Well, let me hit on the damn thumb screw again. It's positined just below the footswitch. I know someday, I'm gonna stomp on this thing and break it. IF I don't loose it first. Let's just say, you're on a gig, you need to change the batteries, you in the parking lot or behind the stage or wherever... it's dark, you unscrew this damn thing... set it... Oh damn... where did I set that? I put it right here!!!! Now you don't have a Metal Distortion box because the foot lever switch won't stay closed or work w/o it.

Because this actually hasn't happened yet, I can't score it too low. Seriously, the knobs are hard plastic too. the TL-2 has SS knobs AND a rubber cover that covers the knobs for protection... you can throw this damn thing and never worry about it. SO SOLID.

n/a

I'm gonna throw an 8 for overall value. Based on the fact I paid $40 for it new, it should get a 10 here, but... nah....

Pretty simple controls: level makes it louder, bass and hi's change the EQ, distortion gives you more distortion. The mid knob and the mid frequency knob gave me a little trouble, though. I had a hard time dialing in a sound that I liked. But overall, the pedal with give you a range of good sounds pretty easily.

I'm using mine with a variety of guitars. Basically, I put it through either a 1994 Fender American Tele, a 1988 Gibson SG with GFS Mean 90s in it, or a custom Tele I built with Hot Rails in the bridge and a Big Texas in the neck. I play through a 1960 Fender Champ. At bedroom levels, this pedal sounds pretty decent. If you jack up the volume at all, however, it starts sounding like a swarm of bees. The distortion isn't really very clean (if that makes any sense). Also, this sucker gets pretty noisy. I had to buy a MXR Smart Gate just to compensate, and noise gates just kill your tone. Also, no true bypass is a downer. I played with the MT-2 while I was still an amateur, and it never bothered me. But since I've gotten more serious lately, it won't cut it anymore.

My battery power supply broke, so now I have to run it through an adaptor. I think that might have been more my fault, though. But overall, Boss pedals are built like freaking tanks. I did gig with a backup.

The guys at Boss are easy to work with, and really know a lot about their products.

THIS IS NOT A REVIEW, IT'S INFORMATION FOR PROSPECTIVE BUYERS. THE MT-2 AND THE AXL DEQ2 AND JOHNSON DEQ2 PEDALS ARE EXACT THE SAME BUT WITH DIFFERENT ARANGEMENTS FOR THE POTS. THEY ALL HAVE IDENTICLE CIRCUIT BOARDS, IDENTICLE SPEC PARTS (AND IN MANY CASES, THE SAME PARTS) AND WORK IN EXACTLY THE SAME WAY. AXL AND JOHNSON PEDALS ARE WAY CHEAPER THOUGH.

IT SOUNDS LIKE A DEQ2

ALTHOUGH THEY ARE EXACTLY THE SAME, THE BOSS PEDAL HAS A HIGHER BUILD QUALITY. SAVE YOUR CASH, GET A DEQ2, AND IF YOU LIKE IT, GET A MT-2 COS IT'LL PROBABLY LAST LONGER

It took me about ten minutes to find the right sound for me.It usally takes a little bit of tweaking to find the sound that is right for you.

I am running this through a Marshall MG15CDR (Piece of crap) and I play on a Esp Mh-250.The sound I can get on this pedal is absolutely amazing.

I would happily use this without a back up.

Haven't dealt with them.

I play music ranging from Sepultura to Cannibal Corpse and with this pedal you can go from soft rock to brutal death metal.I would recommend this to any people that play rock and metal.If this was stolen or lost I would by another one.

Extremely easy to use
simple dials, well diagramed to help out.
Easy to get a quick, chugging, squealing distortion from.

I use a ESP LTD M100-FM
Not the worlds best guitar
I use a Marshall 50-watt AVT
Not the worlds greatest amp
I just use your bog standard cables
With this setup i have found hardly any noise whatsoever
Barely realise its on half the time

The strength of this pedal is incredible
It sounds like an angry stack on fire
It really rips through riffs. Boosts solos to sound awesome
I have very few faults with this pedal.

It is really good for your metallica/megadeth and heavier sounds
Highly recommended pedal

This thing was built to withstand a bloody Nuclear war followed by an apocalypse
It just never breaks
I have delievered heavy abuse to this pedal. I have kicked it. Dropped it. Allsorts, ripped cables out of it
Even the jack sockets are sturdy.
No complaints at all
This section is perfect
I would definitly use this without a backup
Even the battery power is decent enough

Never had to deal with them
as pedal is most definitly bomb proof!

I have been playing 4 years, used several different amps, pedals and guitars. I work in a shop that sells guitars, amps and pedals. Everything you can imagine. Its hard to find a pedal this good until you start hitting the hundreds. I payed ??35 for mine on e-bay, in used but good condition.
If this pedal does not rip your face off you arent using it right!
This pedal is indestructible

Simple enough 4 knobs total. Bass, treble, parametric midrange, distortion, volume. IF you cant figure that out, get prescription eye glasses or learn how to play electric guitar

To put it simply if you don't play Thrash metal, death metal, metalcore, black metal, or extreme metal in general then look elsewhere. If your interpretation of metal is Black Sabbath, iron maiden, and deep purple then this pedal isnt for you as you will dont understand or appreciate the nuances of the MT-2 as it relates to metal. Get yourself the boss DS1 or go with regular amp distortion if you want a mild metal tone.. However, if you want the real standard Chugga Chugga palm mutes, razor sharp riffage of early metallica, and the general metal midrange of thrash/death/metalcore then this pedal is for you. The key is the parametric midrange EQ which give endless tonal possibilies.

Its been dropped, kicked, and has multiple scars but, still works like new

Very available...

As i said before this is for the broad spectrum of metal music. I've been playing for 10 years. I'm more of a hobbyist but am always searching for the metal perfect tone.. The closest I got to that point thus far is the Peavey 6505 and the Krankenstien but, to be fair, those are 1800 dollar amps while the MT-2 is a 100 dollar pedal so comparing apples to apples the metal zone as a pedal gets a 10. Of course thousand dollar amps are going to sound better but, if you put the metal zone in the right type of set up though a good tube power amp into a 4x12 cab for example, it can sound pretty damn close to a thousand dollar rig.. Who knows maybe even better

This pedal is very easy to use....
you can try your own sound as it has a great EQ with bass treble mid and mid cut .. you can also change the distortion level and the main voloume at it
its manual is pretty good it gives you some presets that you can use and they sound pretty nice
i give a 9 here

What setup (i.e. what guitars and amps) are you using this with?

i am using ESP guitars with humbucker pickups on it
and i am using a crybabeQ95 wah and valve amps mainly it give great distortion.

Is it noisy? On what settings?

It is noisy if you give a lot of distortion if you keep the distortion knob at high levels ... it can be used for heavy distorted riffs but i prefer to use it in lead parts
it kicks *** at solos :-)
Are the effects weak or do they always sound great?

it is not always great at sound cause you cant use it for every taste it is good on leads and on metal riffs

What amp are you using it with?

valve amps mainly

Can you get the sound of your favorite artists? Who are they?

it can give you some great lead sound like Hammett it can also give sound like Murray or smith ... it can give you a great metal lead sound but in rock riffs and leads i dont use it much

Are certain effects (distortion, chorus, ...) very good? Very bad?

i like it when i stack it with wah and reverb.... it is perfect
also chorus are good and does not lose sound quality
flanger is interesting if is stack with an MT-2



8 cause it doesnt cover big variety of sound th

Can you depend on it?

you can absolutely depend on it ... its a very strong pedal.. as i have it for long time it has felt some times from 1.5M height or even more to bare floor but it still works perfect

Would you use it on a gig without a backup?

I would never use anything in a gig without backup so it cant be a exception to the rule

i have it about 5 years and i never needed to repair it or contact to boss... so o have no opinion on this section

What style of music do you play? Is this a good match?

metall at most times and it rocks
it isnt very good at the good old rockies ... you better use OD there

How long have you been playing? What other gear do you own?

playing 9 years tube amps :marshall handwired stack , tsl 100 stack , crybabe wah , multieffect pedalls, line 6 pods , srtat guitar
i had a line six spider amp at my first steps to combine it and it sounded good

If it were stolen or lost, would you buy it again or get something else?

i wouldnt buy it again as my amps have pretty cool distortion now so i dont need it

when i bought I hadnt such good amps so i needed it

what do you love about it? What do you hate? What is your favorite feature?

i love EQ and its durability


in others i cannot reply
i give 8 overall

it takes 5 minutes to find your sound but after that
you get bad man lows and little girl highs

sound quality is amazing even plugged into an acoustic amp
i play it normally threw a dean markley or my peavey amp straight out into the pedal and then into either my fender strat or my gibson sg and sounds good with any effect on my amps

bought my used and i still kick the shat outta it, its a heavy pedal you can beat it up and it'll last

havnt used it hope dont need too

i play anything from lamb of god to metalica and the pedal sounds great and ive used other distortoin pedals ad you cant get the same sound out of a pedal as you would outta this one ive used $150 and they dont compare to the 50 i spent on this one

it's a plug in and go process.....easy to figure out for newbies and easy to master for old scoolers...i run mine through the front of the amp in the high and or low inputs..depending on yhe venue and surroundings..the manual had several settings and my setting was a mixture of all of them...

i usually play through korean guitars with gibson 500 pickups into solid state amps with fairly expensive cords and patch cords...sometimes a boss noise gate after the MT....but i never have the gate on....i dont use a lot of the gain or the level knob and i eq the tone according to ,once again, the venue...and i have never been lost without my "tone" on any of these different sounding rooms or outdoor gigs..the bottom line is that with this pedal, i can get my sound out of any amps' clean channel...

well, i have one on the pedal train..and one on a backup pedaltrain and one in my gigbag.....i think i also have one in my van...and ny bass player carrys one for mr in his gig bag...
so i dont know if i would have to worry about it much...and i am actually using the same one i started out with years ago, on my main pedal board...and i have never had any problems...i have always used an adapter with it.

boss is a great company to deal with....i love my pedals

i have been playing metal since it was called just plain old rock and roll....and i really need reliable gear that sounds great and takes a beating and i have never been disappointed in this pedal...i really cant compare it to anything else cuz i dont like anything else and believe me i tried em all....cheap,reliable and everybodys got one....so what are you waiting for....

The metal zone has 6 knobs (volume, high, low, mid range, mid and distortion.) It can be potentially fiddly at times, but finding a good tone isn't hard.
It can take a little time tweaking the settings to find a tone you love, and to remember the position of the dials.

The sound quality of this pedal is fantastic. It has been my sole distortion pedal for many a year and provides harsh, growly lows, right through to brilliantly smooth high end screams.

I've owned mine for 6 years, the majority of the time it has spend plugged in to power, extremely reliable and has never made me cry.

Great pedal. I don't play metal music but it's fantastic tones, extreme versatility and reliability make this one of my all time favourite pedals. A must have for anyone looking for great, diverse distortion.

I think it's pretty easy.
4 knobs: 1Level(Volume),1Distortion,1EQ High/Low(-15.+15)and 1EQ Middle/Mid Freq(200.5k). If you don't know how to use them just give it a try and find your personal sound.

I must say that I don't like metal and the metal sound, but I just wanted to try it. Although if you like metal than you should buy this pedal, it has the classic metal sound. As said before it has the ''zzzz'' metal sound, so buy it only if you want to play metal with it.

Would you use it on a gig without a backup?
-Oh yea, this pedal will never let you stand on the stage like a loser. You can really depend on it.

I don't know, never needed any help because I never had problems with it since it's a good wuality pedal.

If you like metal then you must buy this pedal, it is really good playing it!