Boss MT-2 Metal Zone

OK here is bottom line on this pedal. I've lived with it for about a year now and have gotten to know it pretty well. Basically, it is a monster, but one that can be tamed. It is harder to use than most pedals because it has tiny adjustment knobs for "High" "Mid" "Low" and "Mid-frequency". You need to leave the distortion off and spend some time twirling those knobs back and forth until you find a setting that suits your ears, then leave them. Then you can start messing with the "Level" and the "Distortion" knobs. These have DRAMATIC effects on the sound. Little itty bitty adjustments produce huge differences in sound, so you just have to be careful. If you blindly start twisting knobs on this thing on a dark stage, you will be sorry.

I am in a cover band. We play mostly straight ahead rock with a few metal tunes thrown in, and I use the MT-2 to get that deep chunky crunch. My setup is Strat > Wah Wah > Metal Zone > Tubescreamer > Tube Amp (clean channel). This is one sensitive pedal. With the "Level" set at 8 o'clock and the "Distortion" at around 9 o'clock the MT-2 produces those deep, otherwordly metal tones that you can only get from other blues and distortion pedals when you crank the gain all the way up to maximum. At any settings higher than that the pedal is noisy, feedback-y, and basically useless - the sound turns to mush and has no character. Like I said, it is a monster.

The thing is a brick. I have had crowds of drunk people stomp on my Boss pedals with no damage.

Never dealt with Boss.

The reviewer who reminded people that this is a METAL ZONE, not a ROCK ZONE or a BLUES ZONE, etc... was right on. This pedal is for one thing - METAL - and it does metal just fine. If you use it through your dirty channel with the gain already at maximum you will be disappointed - the sound will be a mess. Hello? That is not what it the pedal is for. The MT-2 is supposed to be used through the clean channel. Get it? You stomp on it and it converts your clean sound and produces whatever thick, cruncy metal sound you have dialed in. Get it? The adjustments are sensitive, but if you play metal, this pedal has all the tone you need.

Very difficult to get a decent sound.

Never came close to getting the sounds of my favourite artists. Obviously they dont use this pedal.
I thought the distortion was excessively fizzy and the EQ very digital sounding.
Its noisey with the gain up yep.
The effect is weak unless you use it on extremely low gain settings to push an amp or other distortion... why bother - I use my OD2 instead now. I hoped it would give me some nice dark fat tones if I needed to charge up some black metal. Nah it can't do it. By the Line6 Uber metal.
I use it through an all tube amp.

Its boss so its made with nice metal but also has some cheap taiwanese parts to it.

never dealth with them.

Been playing all sorts of styles for 20 years. I have great distortion already and bought this pedal by mistake. I have seriously hardly used it and when I did it was to muck around or see 'just one more time' if it could produce anything decent. I wasted my money. I specifically wanted a pedal that could get my high gain tube amp a massive, dark, ballsy death metal sound through the clean channel. Nah...couldn't do it - it just fizzes away into fizzland :( Very dissapointed I must say. I would definately check out other pedals before spending money on this garbage... I know I should have instead of just buying it off the shelf because its Boss.

It's really not that difficult

I own this pedal for about 4 years now. I've been playing semi-pro for 10 years.
I learned that I get the very very best sound with the following settings. !!!note: at first it may seem strange, but wait and listen!!!
My set-up is: guitar > mt-2 > tube amp > boss ge-7 EQ (in return) > tube amp.

settings mt-2:
- level: 8
- high: 0
- low: 0 (with some guitars you should turn to about 3)
- middle: 0
- mid freq: 4
- dist: 7

On my tube amp (on clean channel) bass: 2, mid: 10, treble: 6.

On my EQ in effect return: adjust as desired, but turn the bass up a little.


I get a sound that is better and more tight that a good Marshall amp. At first your metalzone will sound like shit, but if you adjust your EQ in effect return you will be in heaven. It really really sounds great. (and yes, the mt-2 on it's own with these settings will sound like shit)

it's a tank

if you play death metal, these settings might be helpfull if you like a Marshall-tone

Pretty straight foward.mess with it for about an hour and you'll get the idea.

This is where the pedal lacks.Iv'e used the MT-2 for most of my guitar years(since they came out so I'm old lol)I swore by em up till now so I'm giving it a lower rating. I've found a pedal now that destroys this one tone wise and I realised how much better the MT-2 SOULD BE!Pass this pedal up and get the Line 6 Uber Metal.You won't reget it by any means!!The MT-2 is a good pedal but these days looks like other manufatuers are passing them up quality and sound wise.They might think about updating the product line.Maybe a noise gate and a wee bit less muddy distortion.It makes your speakers flutter.Trust me I thought this was the pedal of all pedals till now.

Had it for years and no issues.

Dunno never dealt with them

Still sounds good,no issues with reliability and I sold it so that should answer the question if it were stolen would I buy it again.BUY THE UBER METAL!!!! It kills the MT-2!!!

Ease of use, erm, four knobs to twiddle & that's it?

Easy to get a good sound, well, the only thing that may take a bit of tweezing is the semiparametric mid control. You'll need to experiment to get a feel which mid frequency to cut/boost in order to get the desired sound.

Ampage: Hughes & Kettner TriAmp, Mesa Boogie Mark III, Laney 2x10 cab, Marshall 4x12 cab, Intellifex, Ensoniq DP/4. I play mostly indie/grunge/prog stuff now; this pedal was also part of my rig when I was playing in a Rush cover band.

Planks: Blade R4 (SSS, hard ash strat clone, Ref2/2/3 Ultrasonic pups), Blade California Standard (HSS, alder strat clone, Ref 2/2/5 Ultrasonic pups), PRS CE24 (alder body, Ref 5/6 Ultrasonic pups), Ibanez Jem (basswood, HSH, original DiMarzio pups).

Lemme put it this way, it's the only OD pedal I use now, retiring my trusty old Marshall Guv'nor & ProCo Rat. I don't quite agree with some reviews here that the MT2 is a 'metal only' one trick pony - I found it to be a remarkably flexible stomp box, thanks to its mids EQ. While it is probably not the best solution for 'just about overdriven' dirty clean / slight crunch in the SRV/Keef Richards vein, I've had no probs getting great Thin Lizzy, Zappa or even Santana sounds out of it. Just go easy on the gain & toy around with the mids EQ - this stomper can scream quite well, but sings equally nice when it's supposed to.

As far as "metal" sounds are concerned, using the PRS & Jem, I've had no problems nailing Metallica, Panthera, Alice in Chains or Sepultura crunch with it. Whether that's enough for dedicated Nu Metal or the like I can't say because I never needed those ultra-scooped, "dropped C & lower" downtuned tones anyway.

One gripe: The voicing of the treble EQ isn't optimal IMHO - it adds edge rather than bite or clarity. Can lead to problems with an intrinsically bright-sounding guitar - may sound shrill or harsh (backing off the treble will only help a bit here & make the overall sound dull, but still edgy). Depending on what you want the pedal to do, that may be just the thing you're after - and I have to admit, while your tone may sound harsh/edgy when you up the treble & play alone, you're practically guaranteed to produce a tone that will stand out in the mix.

Built like a tank, has seen dozens of gigs, never let me down.

No experience, my Boss stuff never broke, so I've never had the need to contact 'em.

Versatile, sturdy & good sound, charmin' package. Seeing as you can pick up used ones for half the street price of a new unit & the box is very robust, you can't really go wrong with the MT2, unless you're after a sound that one would normally not use a 'metal' distortion unit for anyway: It's neither a "100% tube tone" or "blues driver" pedal, but if you're shooting for rowdier stuff, chances are you'll like this one a lot.

This is a follow-up of my last review. Since I last wrote here I've tried this pedal through my new amp, and I must say it really stinks. Not very responsive pedal. The EQ is to scooped on the mid and the treble is horrible. There are to much muddy sound on the base and it gave no satisfaction useing this pedal. I also have a BOSS OD-20 as my main drive unit, and the modelling of the MT-2 on the OD-20 sound better than the real deal. If I'm gone use this pedal it have to get a mod, most likely a Keeley-mod. In stock version it's crap. Ok if you have a transistoramp, but for use with a tubeamp with 6L6 poweramp tubes, it's no good.

Tweak knobs to your prefered tonal preference. It's not complicated. If you really need it, download the manual from the boss/roland website.

It's a one trick pony. What it does, it does well. There are people out there with a pickier ear than mine, but I play metal so I'm losing my hearing anyway.

It's a Boss.

Never needed it.

It's never let me down. You won't get blues or funk out of it. That;s why it says Metal Zone on it.

This is a strait up metalzone that i bought off ebay a year ago.
it's hard to get a good sound out of it becuase for my style of music it just doesn't sound good

i can't get the sound of my favorite artists. this pedal focuses to much on the mid range which makes it good for marshalls but for me i like to play super heavy death metal and this just doesn't work. i have tried using it as an overdrive pedal with moderate success but it's a really noisey pedal by itself, imagine it on top of overdrive!
they EQ is pretty sensitive which is good but it just doesn't have the tone i was looking for. i use this with a marshall valvestate vs100 and randall rh250 head. 2 cheap marsha cabs but they sound good at low volumes. i use this with a jackson with emg hz's in it and a jackson V with a dimebucker in it. this sound would be alot better for black metal but it can't do super brutal like suffocation and vital remains, but it can do stuff like early deicide which has a pretty bad guitar tone to it. go with the line 6 uber metal. alot better imo.

hell yeah! if there is anything i can say about this pedal is that it is built to last. if i actually used this live i would use it without a backup.

i have never dealt with them

i play brutal high gain death metal and this is not a good match.
i have been playing 3 years and i own 5 guitars and 2 halfstacks, and to little combo amps. i also own a boss gt-8. if it were stolen i prolly wouldn't care becuase if i wanted that sound it's an option on the gt-8. i hate the tone. that's all there is to say about it. it's doesn't sound pleasing to my ears but it could be great for someone else. i would go with the ubermetal by line 6. i have it and i think it's great even at high volumes it doesn't break up and it has a noise gate so it never squeaks.

Very easy! Six knobs Level/Low/high/middle/mid freq/distortion

Mids are semi-parametric, so you can choose the mid freq but no the Q factor...ok ok...nevermind.

If you are:
Begginer: simple...set all knobs at 12 0'clock then add dist at taste--->low-->high-->move at 0% mid then mid frec from 0% to 100% that means you are cutting mids...with mid frec you select the freq to cut...with mid at 100% u r boosting mids...comprendo?

Average: u r bored? use it on the fx loop w/o dist just like a parametric EQ...or after/before other distortion...

Stars: u don't use it...take it...remove the dust and food from it...then make a gift to your son XD

U$S 80 used in good conditions

Many artist use this stomp...but a few guitar players hahaha

If this is your 1st distortion stomp, you will love it!
then you get used to it...and you find it great...then ok...is good
then (3 to 4 years before) you want some moooooorrrreeeee and you don't like it because it sounds little artificial!!!! guaaaaaaa tears

Is real complex to rating this, because it is only one variable on the entire equation. mics/wood/stings/cable/amp/other fx/you...

Excelent for Palm mute!
Good for solos (because on high notes sounds artificial due to the complex harmonix that MT-2 generates)
Bad for playing anything but heavy. if you want to sound like AC/DC you can??t get the sound of an overdrive stomp lowering the dist level.

Low noise*...check out your ground conection! (begginers first)
*(used with humbuckers, ground conection checked, clean/filtered AC adaptor)

Anyway there's no artist w/o Noise gate/Noise supressors (part of the magic silence)

I give an 8 (Just for heavy music...no versatility)

It??s a BOOS

...BooS

ok I play from Pantera/sepultura/soulfly/megadeth and that kind of music...
after 6 years of use I say: It's great! but no always...I mean playing palm muting, I love it, but you lost clarity as you add a picked sting or playing w/o palm mute. Very complex to explain...and
depens on your rig...
If you heard it every day...at the end of the week you will hate it...but you will find it great 5 days after...maybe Iam ciclotimic hahaha

About the versatility...you choose a Metal distortion...sorry

On this days...I recomend you (metal players) try this:
Digitech Metal Master (it's digital! but it??s a secret! shhhhhhh)
Boss Metal Zone (the semi parametric EQ is part of the magic)
EH metal muff (true by-pass and versatility)
Uber metal (noise gate inculded!!!)

Byes...good luck and sorry about my english
Nacho from argentina

The pedal is straight foreward. It got two pots for Level and Distortion and two dualpots for Treble, Bass, Middle and Mid freq. It also spots a 9V socket for adapteruse and a batterycomparment. Access to the batterycompartment is easy. Just unscrew the bolt and open the lid. The manual is easy to get around and it contains suggested settings for different sounds.

The setup I used it in was this:
Guitar -> Morley PWV-1 Wah/Volume -> Ibanez PH-7 Phaser -> BOSS DS-1 Distortion (japan made) -> BOSS MT-2 Metal Zone -> BOSS OD-20 Drive Zone -> Danelectro DC-1 Cool Cat Chorus (18V version) -> Marshall VT-1 VibraTrem -> Carl Martin Red Repeat -> Amp (Reverb)

Guitars: Cimar Les Paul Custom Black Beauty and Squire Standar Fat Tele

When used for metal and high gain sound, it's spot on, but if you want to use it for other styles, it gets harder. That's the reason for why I rated this at 6. The problem with other sounds than metal require a lot of tweaking of the EQ and distortion. So if you're looking for a versatile distortion-unit look some place else. As other have mentioned, this pedal works better with humbuckers then singlecoils.

It's like the other BOSS pedals. Built like a tank.

Haven't had contact with them.

For the style I play, wich is bluesrock and rock, this is not the pedal I need. I bought this pedal 10 years ago and I played metal back then. If it were stolen or lost, I would not buy this again, but rather go for the BD-2 or a Ibanez TS-9

READ THE FUCKING MANUAL! You can even download settings from Bossus.com or you could do a little bit of tweaking it would hurt you! FYI...ITS HAS 3 PARAMETRIC EQ'S NOT 4 OK???

"METAL" Zone, from the name itself and with a little use of your most precious common sense it was built to play metal tunes. its versatile though, adjust the distortion knob and you can set this pedal to function as an OD. If you want to sound METAL i recommend using HUMMIES instead of Single coils.

TRY STRIKING YOUR HEAD WITH A BOSS THEN ANSWER THIS QUESTION.

huh?

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD ITS A "METAL ZONE" not a JAZZ ZONE, BLUES ZONE, ROCK ZONE, FUNKY ZONE, SELL-OUT ZONE. ITS A "METAL ZONE". GET IT? SHEESHHHHH.

This pedal has a very broad range of adjustability that can get confusing. It allows you to control much more of the sound than any other distortion pedal I have owned. The norm on distortion pedals has pretty much been turn all the controls all the way up - NOT WITH THIS ONE! The sound is so flexable with this pedal, you can sometimes get lost looking the right tone. But, patience and being conservative with your adjustments will payoff. I hate rating it this low but, getting good at figuring it out does take time. I now can get any sound I want rather quickly, but this came with practice.

Totally amazing, if you can get what your looking for. Incredible for running directly into the board. I have used it as a back-up for my amp when it went out. Like I said earlier, be conservative with your adjustments. Think of it like trying to get the water in the shower the right temperature, it can be done, with the slightest changes. One more thing, I'm a nut about using batteries instead of wall warts, but when I had the full board going with the boss power pedal, this unit did NOT add alot of noise to the mix. My set-up is alot smaller now, back to using batteries, and it is crystal clear.

It'a a BOSS, what can I say!

Don't need it.

Classic rock to heavy metal. I used it straight into the board when my amp went dead, no one noticed that I had done this. Made me wonder why I brought the half stack in the first place.

This is a Humphrey-Audio SLO-DIEZEL Modded pedal.
Great tonea all over the plavece on this.

I've never been this excited over a pedal.
Hed it 6 months and still can't wait to switch it on!

Any rock or metal tone your heart desire, plus is cleans up with the gain lower also.
The stock one is a doorstop, but this Humphrey Audio version is amazing.

guitars I use are PRS, Gibson sg, Gibson Les Paul Gary Moore, Fender John 5 signature Tele, and a new EJ Strat.

I play primarily through a Top Hat Club Royale amp.

Setup:
GUITAR>Humphrey Audio modded Boss compressor> Humphrey Audio 'Badder' Monkey> Humphrey Audio SLO-DIEZEL> Tim

No worries

I deal with Mark Humphrey on a regular basis. VERY nice guy and goes out of his way to get back to me. I have so many question and he's such a tone wizard I can't leave him alone.

He's building a Bass version of the SLO-DIEZEL for my bass player.

I play classic and Southern rock, country, hard rock, and blues.
I've been a pro player for 19 years and really have tried everything under the sun in the name of tone.

I own just TONS of other crap and am selling it off on eBay a few pieces at a time these days. I don't want any other pedals, and will simply add to my new collection with the Humphrey stuff. No reason not to. Money WELL spent.

If these pedals came up missin I wouldn't hesitate to have Mark Humphrey replace them for me.

I had lost his email for a time, but I googled 'Humphrey Audio' and he's all over the net.
Also read great reviews on his stuff on the Weber Board, Gear Page, Fender Forum, here on HC, etc.

Get ya' some!!

This pedal is very versatile, as its 3 band equalizer (mixed with my amp's 3 band equalizer) can fluctuate to the extremes of sound possibility. For this reason, your perfect sound may be hard to find if you don't already know generally how you want to shape it. For me, it wasn't too hard to play around with it and find a decent sound, I like a good crunch to my distortion, and this pedal provides more than I need. Sometimes, however, I feel the need to scoop the mids depending on what I'm playing or who I'm playing with, and the pedal also gives a nice cutting scooped distortion as well. I have found, however, that the pedal is very harsh if you're looking for warmer tones, and the perfect sound for me is not in this pedal. I use this with my practice amp (Crate GLX30) and it works fine for a bedroom. I have used this with my half stack (Randall RH150G3 head and B-52 LG412V cabinet) and the sound is very good. Before this head I used the pedal by hooking my practice amp to my cabinet and actually played a few small gigs with it, and actually did not sound bad at all. It's close to a perfect sound, but it is hard to get a warm tone out of it, if that's what you're aiming for.

I suppose I already commented on the sound quality in the ease of use section, but again, you can get a good crunch or scoop out of it, making it very versatile to use. However, this pedal has a harshness to it coming from the highs, and if you turn them down the sound does begin to get a little muddy. Another thing to note is a large amount of feedback that comes from this pedal. I use active pickups (EMG 81 and 85) which contributes to the feedback, but even when used with my buddy's Ibanez with passive pickups there was still a large amount of feedback. However, using a noisegate (I use the Boss Noise Compressor) fixes it right up. Overall the sound is great, but not perfect.

I can and have used this pedal in a gig without a backup, being a Boss pedal this thing literally has fallen down a flight of concrete steps and been completely fine. Nothing goes wrong with Boss pedals, they are the only ones I trust enough to use constantly. After 4 years the most that has happened to this pedal is a few scratches in the paint.

I've never had to call customer support, I wouldn't know.

I play a lot of metal, I am a lead guitarist in a 6 piece metal band. Having 3 guitarists in the band, each member needs to have a clear, crisp tone to prevent from muddiness in our sound. I like to play a lot of thrash (Megadeth, Slayer, Metallica) but my sound more reflects scandinavian metal (Wintersun, Ensiferum, Children of Bodom), meaning more intricate parts and an importance of clarity of my sound. This pedal does that for me rather well and can be adjusted to have a good sound for any style of metal that I want to play. I have been playing for about 8 years and have owned this pedal for 4 of them. It is an extremely reliable pedal that will get very good metal tones for you. I play mainly on my Schecter diamond series Black Hawk guitar that I loaded with EMG active pickups, and go through this pedal, Crybaby wah pedal, and the Boss Noise Compressor pedal into my Randall RH150G3 head and B-52 LG412V cabinet, or my practice amp, a Crate GLX30 combo. If this were stolen or lost and I wanted a distortion pedal (although my stack's distortion is perfect) I would definetely choose this over other distortion pedals.

When I was choosing a distortion pedal I compared it to the Boss Mega Distortion pedal and the DigiTech metal master. I soon learned that Boss has no competition from DigiTech in terms of anything besides price (this pedal cost twice as much as the Metal Master). However, I chose it over the Mega Distortion because the latter didn't have the gain I needed that this pedal delivers well. Overall, if you need a distortion pedal for any reason, rather than using your amps distortion, and are willing to pay for this, it is one of the best out there for any kind of metal.

If you think its difficult you don't know what the hell the knobs do so go ask an adult you baby. And to at least one reviewer: it has a THREE, not FOUR but THREE band eq, the mid freq (short for frequency, der) is a parameter for the mid, you moron. Please do the world a favor and kill all your relatives and gulp some drain cleaner because your genetic line is obviously of substandard quality. You don't deserve to exist.

For everyone saying 'Oh boo-hoo it doesn't do overdrive or mellow distortion' I have one word for you: METAL! It's in the name, for heavens sake, METAL Zone not Anykindofdistortionyoucouldeverpossiblyimagineorwant Zone, METAL, METAL, METAL!!!!! If you want a pedal that can do OD, buy an OD pedal; if you want a pedal that can do average distortion, buy an average distortion pedal; if you want a pedal that can do metal distortion, buy a pedal with metal or extreme or something else that fits the image of metal.

Okay. Whew, I feel better. Sound? Ah yes, of course, the review. It does have enough bass people. If you disagree you don't know what you are doing. If you boost low all the way on this pedal it kind of hums and sounds like crap. Bottom line (no pun intended) keep it at or below 3 o'clock.

If you still think it has no bottom end, perhaps you should try backing off the hi or, dare I say it, actually cutting it. Remember people, your amp has a hi knob too. If that's already high (again, no pun intended) then boosting the hi on the metal zone might make your sound tinny and crackly.

This pedal also has midrange to boost (despite other reviewers opinions) or cut, if you know how it works. The mid is the best part about this pedal. Parametric. You want modern black metal? MF at 2 or 3 o'clock and cut mid to taste. Pantera? MF at about 1:00, 1:30 and cut mid to taste. Classic thrash? MF at 12 o'clock and cut mid to taste. The key to the midrange on this pedal is knowing what the mid freq (short for frequency, der) does and no, I'm not going to explain it. That is what the manual is for. Moving on.

The hi is very high (redundant, yes I know) on this pedal and takes some getting used to.

A slight twist of any eq knob will change your sound more than you expect it to because it boosts/cuts 15 decibels. I'm sorry if decibel is to big a word for you but I do have reading skills that far exceed the 4th grade level that nearly everyone else reviewing this particular product seems have.

It does sound really nice when you first start playing, almost right out of the box. After a while however, you start to get the feel of the one aspect you can't tweak on this pedal: the distortion. I'm afraid this is where the MT-2 comes up short. Oh sure, you can cut or boost the dist to your hearts content but you can't make it sound any different, not that you can do this with any pedal. It just seems, well, too harsh, like it's trying too hard to sound like metal. Don't get me wrong. it sounds ok, a 6, but it just has a certain characteristic that is very hard to convey in words, kind of like a certain set of frequencies being permanently -/+, which is where the eq really shines. You'll note the 8-score I gave this category and the 6 I gave the dist. That's because the eq gets a 10. It helps to compensate for the dist. No need to continue with descriptives.

My setup with the metal zone, if you care:
various guitars
Dunlop Crybaby
Boss OD-3
Boss DS-1
Boss HM-2
Boss MT-2
very old Crate 65 watt SS amp I got from a friend (don't know the make)

If you're a bedroom guitarist, have a solid-state amp and like thrash, heavy, black, death or any other kind of metal I recommend getting this pedal on ebay or something because they are not in high-demand because (unfortunately) metal is not in high-demand. You could probably get it for 30 to 50 dollars. Plus, it's BOSS. What's the worst shape it could be in? 'It's scratched' or 'it has a stain' or 'it smells funny.'

If you have a Marshall or Mesa or any other big huge tube amp stack, what the hell are you looking at here?

So in conclusion, an 8 for solid-state amp, at-home play, maybe a small club gig. Anything bigger this pedal just wasn't designed to handle, and if you're playing gigs like that you can afford a stack, so why bother trying with this?

Boss.

I'll probably never know.

I play all types of metal, some alternative/punk, some blues (though I'm not very good at), and whateverthehell else I feel like. Love this pedal for close-quarters metal practicing, nothing else. About 10 or so years ago, I tried a bunch of pedals at the store display and no other pedal even came close to what I wanted at the time: chuggachug metal. Still the best at what it does, just like Wolverine.

it took months for me to get something usefull from this little bastard..not easy if you are kind of a "plug and play" guy..may take your days and nights just for one stable tone..the manual is another story of disfunctionallity..most of the settings are almost sensless and crap but who cares about the settings..it's all about your own creativity...soo...it takes a 3 for ease of use ..if there is one..

umm..actually yeh in these days i exactly got the tone that i was seeking for...i mean something different from the metallica,pantera and the whole other crappy fuzzy farty sounds,yes i got my own sound in my own taste..not only at home or at the studio,even on stage i'm absolutely in love with it.but i'm warning you it's going to be a disaster if you try to record directly with it or on stage if you don't have a good amplifier so don't even think to gig with it cuz yep it brings the loudest annoying whore cry..it gets thinner and fuzzy as it gets louder you'll need a compressor pedal and a di-box and maybe a cabinet simmulator too if your amp sux...so it gets an 8..

if you wonder how reliable is a boss product..there is the answer:Boss=heavy big balls...

i'm in Turkey and it's a $100 box pedal what support? no idea ??

i'm playing metal for almost 11 years and yeh it's a match but not without my jackson ps3-t rhoads,boss cs-3,tech 21 sansamp gt-2 and behringer ultra g di-box..i love the toughness of it..it's like built to be a legend or something and it's really capable of creating something different,powerful and individual than others if you give some time to it with some patience..

In a nutshell - Piece of piss

Superb - good for really heavy sounds (of course!), i.e Killswitch Engage, Slayer type distortion, but if you wish to play with a little less distortion dont buy this pedal unless your gonna crank it up to 10. then again it is a metal zone, so dont buy it if your not playing metal

Yes, End of

didnt break, easy to use, so i didnt need it

Tip Top

fairly easy to get good sound of, I dont like the how this pedal has 6 knobs too many should just be 4. Requiring more tweaking since simplicity is what floats my boat Manual is Ok but who needs it

Im into alternative rock mainly but I decide justice on power chord sound and this one does a good job actually and I was surprised by its heavy distortion since I had just purchased line6 ubermetal and wasnt too far off from this sound but like other pedals ive tried it just didnt cut it after awhile, it started to sound raunchy or something I dunno but I was using it through a tele and 212 deville and its a good pedal for its price but wasnt for me since im looking for something more along lines of boss ds1 and proco rat2

its not a danoelectro plastic pedal

just wanted to try the boss metal zone when i bought it at pawn shop and liked it at first but after awhile it wasnt what i was lookin for so i took this and ubermetal in for a rat at pawn shop :( lost out on some money, but if this was only distortion pedal on earth its not like i would be mad cause it does what its supposed to but i have a right a to be picky in a world full of distortion pedals

It's easy enough to use. It's a Boss stompbox, not a multi-FX unit. The setting examples they give you in the manual are not the best, but you have to see them as guidelines rather than actual settings.

Even though it's called "metal" zone, you can use it in other musical applications.

Obviously it does the metal thing to a tee. Just a guitar with a bridge humbucker into the MT2 into a clean amp and you're away. For metal riffing I usually give it plenty of bass. Back off the high mids and bring up the lower mids to about 1 o'clock. Add enough treble to make your sound "hot". Gain usually 12 to 2 o'clock. This will give you a nice thumping sound for riffs.

I've heard people who claim the MT2 sucks the bass out of your tone.

Huh???

Are you guys using the same pedal??? Believe me, there's plenty of bass on tap.

The only thing with this setting is that while it gives you a nice rhythm tone, it's no good for soloing. Sounds like a bee in jar, because you scoop out those high mids. You need a booster of some sorts for soloes. The MXR Dist+ works fine.

With the gain on full you get that thick, oozing, sludgy kind of doom/death metal sound. You can't possibly need more gain than this.

For more of a classic rock sound I take a little less treble than bass and both mids up to 12 o'clock. Gain at about 10 o'clock. It still sounds thick enough, but it's more of a rock sound.

For metal it's still the best stompbox I've heard. Period.

I've been using it for like 10 years. Never died on me. I use Duracell 9v batteries and they last a long time.

It's a 100$ pedal. What customer support???

While it's more versatile than most people give it credit for it IS of course made for metal. To my taste it's still the best metal distortion out there. Especially for those thick thumping riffs.

this pedal takes a few minutes to get a good sound out of it, in fact it took me a month to get my current sound. but, like anything, it is well worth the wait and effort.

i can get ANY, and i mean ANY sound out of this pedal. ranging from over saturated recto tones, like dream theatre or moonspell, to a marshall's crunch, down to a light overdrive for chords or blues (turn your guitars volume down to almost null for overdrive)

i am using this with a gibson sg, boss ds 1, boss flanger, boss delay, and crybaby into a peavey xxx cab and head.

you all know the answer to this one

i've heard many things but im not sure personally.

i play many different styles of music, i am a very versitile musician, and htis pedal matches all of those, some more or less, but it has found its niche in my rig.

and on a closing note, try out this setting, it is amazing..very good for heavy rhythm work and PROMINENT solos.. especially with the neck pickup.. good for shredding.

amplifier: bass 8 .. for the low end
mid 4.9...pedal's eq scoops out mids,amp's provide tone
treble 7.. equalizes out the bass

Mt-2: level: 5
high: 8.5
low: 10
middle: 2
middle freq: 6
dist: 7

If you know what frequencys do then it will just take a a little bit to dial in how much of whatever you want. But the person who buys this is usually a new guitar player playing their $200 ibanez threw a marshall mg, its a hard pedal cuz thers alot of bad sounds in this pedal.

This pedal is what its made for, metal. So can't really complain i cant get classic rock sounds or blues overdrives now can I? But if you want to play Hardcore music, Everytime i Die, Fear Before the March of flames, this pedal doesn't work. You can get alot of bottom end and bass with this pedal real fat. great for Metallica kill em all type of stuff. You can set the highs pretty well, and get good metal solo stuff, but you have to scoop the mids. If you push the "Middle" it sounds like (what someone already posted) White noise, so you cant get ne mids out of this pedal what so ever. Im playing out of my jackson with an emg 81 and i still cant get ne mids. So its alright for metal, not great but it gets the job done but nothing compared to a decent 500 or up good distortion on an amp. played it out of my Randall Titan, 68 bassman silverface, peavy keyboard amp, (sounds best out of the keyboard amp for some reason)

Its a boss, i could throw this thing out of a window and i wouldnt have to double check it i know it would still work.

n/a

alright for metal, thats it, no mids what so ever, so if you want to play some metal, id look around look at the mega distortion boss pedal, or some mxr pedals, or save a little money and get a fulltone, this pedal isnt bad for a beginner but if you need some tone, theres really not ne here

Mine's a 'Humphreyaudio Mods' SLO-DIEZEL refurb which I bought off his eBay store.
Can't be beat. Thanks to his mod this will do lower drive tone as well as sheer over the top CRUSH!!!
I had a stock one for 2 months and couldn't stand the thing. I sold it.
Had a Keeley one next, not my cup of tea at all.
I took a chance on the Humphrey one, This one is night and day.
Very easy to get pleasing tone from thanks to Humphrey Audio.

I play 7 string JEMs through two KRANK heads and four 4x12 cabs.
This pedal has become the absolute center of my hard rock and Nu-Metal tones. No noise and the drive is perfect for low endy grind.

Don't see a problem, and Mark Humphrey backs his stuff up.

Emailed him about rig and tone questions I had, and he gave me some ideas which totally made my rig come to life.
Also collected some guitar tips from him too.
The guy's a pro.
He answered all the many emails I sent in a timely manner.

Original music ala Korn, Bizkit, Zombie, Metalica to Nickelback, Theory of DM, Switchfoot, etc.
Been a pro player for 7 years now, and heard about Humphrey Audio stuff from producer/guitarrist Lydale Macnamara who has a load of their pedals.

I plan to explore more Humphrey Audio pedals in the near future.
The price is unbelievably right, the service is pristine, and my tone is just SICK!!!

Six controls - level (output volume), bass, treble, mid and mid frequency, gain.

On the surface this looks easy enough, but it's actually quite hard to tweak the eq right. One way that works for me is to set the bass and treble at 12 O'Clock, turn the mid up full then tweak the mid frequency control until it sounds it's worst, then cut at that frequency. All the controls are very sensitive.

Rig is guitar (strat, tele, LP Junior, Yamaha SG2000)-Jen Crybaby-MT2-MXR Dist+-small stone-Boss CE2-Boss DD-20-Deluxe Reverb Reissue.

I've had the Metal Zone a few years, and keep coming back to it despite never being entirely happy with it.

It has an overall cold, harsh sound of the kind some people say sounds "digital" (the MT-2 is analog, at least, mine is). All Boss pedals have a distinctive tone - kind of clinical, and the MT-2 is no exception.

The eq gives a very wide tonescape, able to go from a bright fuzz sound to some seriously bass-heavy thump. The range of distortion available is pretty wide, but the pedal rapidly adds gain as you raise the distortion and to avoid the pedal walloping your volume up means keeping the level control pretty low (I use clean sounds that are as loud as the hi-gain so I don't welcome huge volume boosts). On the other hand there's huge amounts of extra volume there if you want it.

One problem is that the controls are very sensitive. The slightest twitch of the level or gain pots alters your sound and volume drastically. A second problem is that it takes over your guitar tone. The strat's bridge and neck p/us sound almost identical, as do the Tele's bridge and the SG2000's neck humbucker. Whatever you set the MT-2 up to do that's pretty much the only sound you'll get when it's on.

What I do find it good for are cascading into the MXR Dist+ to shove it over the edge when I do want more volume. It's also good for giving the boost needed to make tapped harmonics easy and loud. It also serves to buffer the rest of the effect chan to avoid tone sucking (the Crybaby is wired full bypass, the rest of the stuff is unmodded). It also makes getting feedback simple.

I've had Boss pedals die of old age, but it's rare.

Its just try and try, until you get the right sound for your tastes...

Great sound...I really like the pedal...

Very good...It combines with other pedals really well..

Its Boss....Boss is Boss!

Its pefect for hard rock, overdrive, metal....One of the best single pedals...

Getting a good sound on this thing is quite easy but you can also get the perfect eq with this thing. I'ts worth the money

WIth this I can get all kind of sounds like mudvayne or mettalica and pennywise. the 3 frequecy eq is incredible. I use this on a backstage peavey 15 watts and I can get almost the same sound level than my friend who have a danville 80 watts. I'll keep that all my life.

It never fell me (and I don't see why it should)The only thing is that if I leave my cable in the input jack it suck my battery but it's like every other pedal

I'm playing a lot of punk with this and the only itch is that my amp restricts me for the clarity of the sound.