Boss MT-2 Metal Zone

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

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

reliable

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It seems sturdy enough

N/A

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

never used em

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

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

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

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

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

Solid pedal... Nothing can squash this thing.

Never dealt with them.

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

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

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

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

It's alive so far..

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

na

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

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

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

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

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

never dealt with them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Never had to deal with them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

N/A

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Solid metal construction. Very reliable.

Never dealt cuz they are reliable

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

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

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

it's tough and metal.

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

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

never dealt with them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So, my settings are as followed:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Never dealt with yet, and probably never will.

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

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

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

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

n/a

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I would use it for everything I need distortion for.

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

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