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.

3-band EQ with adjustable freq. mids. You don't see that on many distortion pedals. If you understand how frequencies affect your sound, you'll do fine. If not, stay away.

Personally, I love this pedal. I tried a Big Muff, Rat, Tube Screamer, Blues Driver, and a couple others, and this just roared above all of them. I play doom metal, blues, post-rock, and plenty of other genres, and this pedal can handle them all. Versatility is the key! It delivers warm tone like nothing else, and with minimal effort on my part. Soaring mids, fantastic highs, creamy lows, or snarling, gnashing distortion that would make Satan cringe. Seriously, if you know how to tweak EQ, you can get basically any sound you want out of this beast. Oh yeah, and it helps to have a decent rig to run through. Currently my setup is this through a Music Man 130HD, and a Marshall 1960A 412 cab. It simply sounds beautiful.

Boss is the boss. It will never die.

Will never have to deal with them! Yes!!!!!!

I love this pedal. Plus it was about $100 cheaper than most of the alternatives. Tone and value in one package? Rare. I'd give it a 395, but 10 is just as good.

i didn't rate this category because i could not get a decent sound out of this pedal. if good sounds actually came out of it i would give it a 9 because its not that hard to use.

i play a prs santana se loaded with tremonti pickups into my board (morley wah, boss mt-2, ds-1, bd-2, and tu-2 tuner) into a fender hotrod deville 212. this pedal sounded pretty good when i played it in my room. i had a good scooped tone similar to metallica. but when i brought it to band practice i realized how little mids this thing was capable of putting out. my sound was lost as soon as the drummer started playing. even with the mids all the way up it still didnt cut through and sounded way too digital.

its a boss

i guess if youre a metalhead it is good for ya. i expected to get a kinda creed/alter bridge-ish tone with this but its way too digital sounding and definately lacks mids. don't buy this pedal expecting to have a full, overdriven marshall or mesa sound. if you want that save up and buy the amps. you cant bottle a good sounding amp into a pedal. bottom line. if your looking for a great sounding and extremely versatile pedal (from blues to hard rock) pick up the boss bd-2 blues driver. best descision i ever made. puts the ds-1 to shame as well.

I can take a while to figure out how to get a thick tone without it being muddy, but when you do it is AWESOME!
I play a Jackson DXMGT with EMG humbuckers thru a 1961 solid state amp (priceless). I can get most any tone out of it that I want. I can get classic British metal to razor sharp, ear shattering distortion (without boosting mids). You can do most everything with this pedal.

I play a Jackson DXMGT with EMG humbuckers thru a 1961 solid state amp (priceless). I can get most of my bands like Metallica (old), Mudvayne and Disturbed. It isn't too noisy.

I believe that I could depend on it for a long time. I wouldn't use a backup.
I'm pretty sure that I could throw it at a wall and it would work like nothing happened.

Never needed to have support.

I play music from Bon Jovi up to Metallica and Disturbed.
I've been playing for about a year. I also have a Danelectro FAB Distortion and a Danelectro Black Coffee.
If it was stolen or lost I would either get it again or get a Landmine LD-1.
I love the versatility of it. The only thing i don't like is that it can't get smooth low distortion tones very well, or like a smooth overdrive. My favorite feature is the semi-parametic mids.
I compared this to all other BOSS and Digitech pedals. All BOSS distortion pedals rule! I compared it closely to the Digitech Death Metal pedal. The Death Metal pedal hat watery sounding mids. So I chose the MT-2.

I wish that BOSS would make this pedal larger and have everything semi-parametic.

Very easy to use. The piece knobs for equalization disturb a little.

This pedal lacks bottom end (like the SD-1). You gotta adjust bass to the maximum from amplifier side to get heavy sounds out of this one. And the sounds it produces are mostly annoying. I could'nt get decent sounds for my purposes out of this, just some horrible screeching which slightly resembles bad 80's metal.

This is a Boss stomp box after all. Very durable I would say.

Well, this is not probably a bad pedal. It was just not suitable for my purposes. The lacking bottom end is a big problem anyways. I wouldn't recommend this to anybody.

You should start with the suggested settings for the kind of distortion you want, then adjust it according to your amp and guitar. The settings are very good as they are shown, but you will still need to make some minor adjustments.

I have used LPs, Strats, single coils, humbuckers, everything you can possibly imagine with this pedal. There are really only two good sounds from it. If you want a Mesa scooped sound, you got it. If you want a good hard Pantera sound, you got it. The harmonics scream from your guitar. The bottom end chunk is awesome. However, it really lacks in the mild overdrive rock sound. It is NOT a Tube Screamer for sure. As long as you are using a good tube amp and good quality pickups, you will love your heavy metal sound. That is why it is called what it is, because it is truly a heavy metal distortion. Nothing else.

BOSS = Quality
Everyone who has ever owned any BOSS product knows.

One purpose for this pedal. Plug in any guitar with humbuckers, active or passive, plug into a good tube amp on the CLEAN channel, (do not go into the overdrive channel, too noisy), turn on the pedal with the right settings and you will have a fantastic METAL sound.
Period.

It is easy to use but takes alot of knob twisting to get the sound you want

I use a fender american strat and marshall vs65r. when the mid and bass are turned up this thing get a big fat meaty sound and when the mid are down it has a tight aggressive thrashy sound. It does gat noisy on high distrotion settings but it is'nt unbarable. this is a very versitile pedal. I can get sounds from classic rock to death metal to slight grind to screaming shred.

what can I say built like a tank.

I play metal and this thing gets the job done. I've been playing for 2 years and can shred people with 15+ years into there graves. I also own a digi tech rp50 and danelectro blue Piasley pure drive. My favorite thing on this pedal is the mid frequincy knob. I dont like the low gian settings.

Pretty hard to get a good sound out of it, can be really confusing for people who are new to guitar. The manual helps a little bit.

I use an Ibanez K7 with this to a Peavey XXL head and a Mesa Traditional Rectifier cab loaded with V30's, and without an EQ pedal to help thicken the sound this thing sounds terrible. It's sound is really trebly and thin. I run a MXR 10 Band EQ after this and it does help thicken the sound up a lot more. Also, this sounds really fuzzy at high volumes if the distortion is even at just 12:00. I usually leave the distortion at 9:00-10:00 on this and that helps too.

Boss makes the most reliable effects ever, all of their pedals are like bulletproof.

Never had to talk to them, but they do have a great 5 year warranty. You just send your pedal in it's original box and they send you a brand new one.

Without the EQ pedal to make it sound better I give this a 6, but with an EQ pedal it helps a ton and really makes a difference, so with the EQ pedal I would give this an 8.

it's a no brainer! But I do learn from the manual how to scoop the mids out.

I'm playing a yamaha pacifica thru the MT2 connected to a Peavy 50watt amp. The MT2 makes my guitar sound thin and brittle, too trebly and sharp. Very hard to coax a good sound out of it, but I could get a fake(make that very fake!) Randy Rhode sound outta it, courteosy of the MT2 for making my sound so thin.

It's such a sick pedal in the way that it's built so strong, yet the sound it produces is such a thin and brittle sound.Built to be a pest indeed.

Never dealt with them before.

I play anything from blues to metal to classic rock. This pedal doesn't suit them all. If it were stolen, I would pop some champagne and congratulate the thief for being such an idiot, this pedal would surely piss him off! :p

Is very hard get a nice distortion, it depends from the sound equip used. As example, you can get 2 different sounds with the same pedal settings using 2 different ampliffiers (i've used Fender Hot Rod and Marshal DSL50). You must try alot of combines to obtain a great sound. It's some difficult.

Used with a Marshal DSL50 and a Jackson Warrior [MG Series. Pedal makes extra noise, if you use a lot of distortion, that will produce a fuzzy ugly distortion. You can get only metal distortions. If you try to get a overdrive or a moderated distorted sound, you will have only "nasal" and noisy sounds. This pedal is only recommended for metal style. In this field, the sound is great.

Boss pedals are like war vehicles. Indestructible.

This pedal is good for metal style. If you buy this distortion for play other styles, better get another. I've used also Metal Master and Death Metal pedals from Digitech, but i preffer the MT-2.

I don't understand how anyone whould find this difficult to use, Level, High, low, mid, mid freq and distortion. That said, I tried tweaking this thing for maybe ten minutes, results below. I don't own one of these but a friend let me borrow his for awhile.

My main guitar is a 1981 arai pro II cs-250 model. I have tried this thing with several guitars (Strat copy, friends Ibanez rg etc...) and several amps. The metal zone is the ultimate tone sucking machine. Colours the tone like crazy, removes all individuallity. Try to shred or play fast licks high up on the fretboard and you get this fake sounding high pitched noise that will make your ears bleed. The treble is absolutely terrible. It's no good for riffs either; no chug chug crunch. Muddy as hell, attack sounds like punching a pillow.

The unit seems solidly built, metal casing. I could probly throw it against a wall and it whould work like nothing happened.

Never dealt with them

I usualy play prog rock, jazz, blues, hard rock and occasionally prog metal. No definition or attack on low notes, terrible high pitched whining on fast licks. Pretty much a useless box better suited to being used as a brick to throw through the window of someone you hate.

It covers a wide extent of distortion, at the same time, it's not easy to get ur tone. It gonna take ur time.

As I said it's wide enough to be competent for any kind of metal, but compare with some modern extreme distortion such as MESA rectifier, PEAVER, it seems not fashion enough.

Some people said that it's not strong at all, like sand... I believe that they didn't pay enough attention on adjust it. Ture it's not the most powerful dist pedal, but if u can add one more EQ after it, and adjust it in a undisturbed room. It can make what u want.

I always trust BOSS pedals, 3 years without a thing.

I have it for about 3 years, and I usd it to play rhythm and also solo. During that time, I had ideas to sell it, but finally I keep it till now, accompanied with my experience on learning from professionals.

I want 2 mention that, without a EQ it gonna be limited, 4 example, while I play solo, usually use a EQ to enhance mid range and cut the treble. It's a like a couple, lol...

All right, just enjoy it! Welcome to communicate.

It took awhile for me to get the right sound out of it. 4-band eq. need to keep the gain down... etc.

I run a epi les paul classic into a marshall vs265r. Very hot humbuckers. I will be frank with you, this pedal is really only for heavy metal. Nothing else. I guess I was hoping for some versatility. I think it sounds flat and has way too much gain. Definetly not impressed. If your a metal player this might be for you.

Solid. Its a boos. Built like a tank.

Good pedal for metal heads. Not versitile, and It did not fit my genre well (indie/post hardcore).

sounds kinda flat. lacks true tone and is covered by too much gain.

would not buy again. im going to buy a tube screamer.

it's easey enough, you get hundreds of sounds in this puppy, but be carefull, it bites!!!!

it's got to be the greatest of it genera, boss has done it again!!!!!!!

it's built to last so don't worrey to much about it

had no problems so far

must have if you love guitar

It has alot of EQ, so it is not the most simple like the DS-1 appears to be, but this is set up for alot of various sound configurations.

I think the pedal has a good bottom end and a great distortion. It does sound a little fake and transistory. Keeley makes a modded version that, from the sound clips, the description, and the reviews on Harmony Central, seems to be the way to go.

Seems like the boss is built fairly solid.

Haven't bought it yet, but will more than likely buy the Keeley modded version. It is a good pedal stock. I tried to MXR Dime and the Doubleshot and am getting rid of both. For $99 it is almost worth it. I think one of the music sites had it on sale a while ago for $75-$79, which is a great deal.

Pretty easy to use. The mid range pseudo paramto eq really lets you dial in your sound. But BE CAREFUL!!! If you max it out too far you can get into some serious weirdness. (Good, useful weirdness, but weirdness none the less. You know what I mean (;0)

I think it rocks. Sound quality is subjective though, and one man's trash is another man's treasure. That said, I can get every thing from light dirt to toxic sludge. But don't get me wrong! It doesn't ever sound like a natural amp crunch, or a tweed hammer. It always sounds like an effect, but a good, distortion effect.

Play with a baja strat (olympic white), boss delay, boss flanger, arion chorus pedal and peavey transtube bandito

Boss. Enough said!!!! It is built like a tank. And not some weird World War One thing with no turret. It is more like an M1 Abrams with a 120mm smooth bore gun and composite armor. But instead of a turbine engine it has more of an inline 6 Diesel. And instead of steel tracks it has a velcro stick plate, but it is still built like a tank. There is no way I could play without a backup, because I have two of them on my board!!! (One for lead, one for crazy feedback noise)

Boss. Called for a manual once and they charged my money. Rude on the phone, and apathetic. Glad that I never need anything of there's fixed.

I play kind of a mix of blues and indie. Main influences are SRV, Hendrix, Hawthorne Heights, Fallout Boy, Eric Clapton.

Been playing seven years. This is a great pedal for all kinds of distortion. More people should give this pedal a chance and not dis it just cause it's called metal zone. It is much more versatile than just metal.

This pedals is DEFINETELY not for beginners who don't want to tweak with EQ settings for several minutes. I would have rated it lower, had it not been for the somewhat comprehensive manual, as it does provide the user with a variety of distortion styles from classic rock, fuzz rock, and scooped thrash metal.

I am using this with an ESP Horizon guitar with an EMG-81 in the bridge and an EMG-85 in the neck. The amp I've got this and my pedal going through is a Line 6 Spider II 212. The pedal is noisy when the distortion is turned up past 3 o' clock on the knob. For me, to get a very good metal sound, the scooped mids setting is the only way to go. Otherwise, this pedal sounds very thin and trebly with no bottom end to hold it down. My person favorite setting for this pedal is:

level: at about 2 o'clock
low: at about 3 o'clock
high: at about 2 o'clock
mid: alllll the way down
mid freq: at about 3 o'clock
dist: between 2 o'clock and 3 o'clock

With this setting, I get a nice Pantera/ early Children of Bodom distortion. The distortion is tight and clear, but does not produce that massive, monster "chug-chug" that you may be looking for. An addition of an equalizer may help produce this.

This pedal is VERY dependable. I've dropped it countless times from flights of stairs and have even accidentally kicked it several times. I definetely gig with this without a backup, as it is very durable.

I have yet to deal with them.

I mostly play alllll kinds of metal, jazz, and blues. This is a fine match to my metal tastes. I have been playing for about 4 years and found this pedal to suit my needs. If it were lost or stolen, I would buy it again, as I am very satisfied with the setting I have dialed in. I am not very happy with the fact that it is not a great solo pedal, as the notes do not seem to connect.

not too bad - not for beginners though!
takes a lot of tweaking to get desired effect
the suggested settings all sound like poo

This thing is as noisy as hell. when I used it I kept level at 3 and it is still very loud - it completely takes over.
Plus there is a lot of hissing - but you get that with high gain so deal with it.

I play a maton MS500 into a Marshall AVT100 combo (+ various effects stomp boxes).

This peice of crap will destroy all your tone and it makes every guitar sound the same. I have used it with my mates guitars and amps (all different) and you lose all individuality

cant say anything good about this piece of snot

i was using one of the dirty channels on the amp until i invested in a RAT and i boost this with my TS9 reissue - sh*ts all over the MT2

its a boss nuff said

never dealt with them

i play metal/hard rock and dont rate this at all
do yourself a favour and get a decent dist. pedal ie RAT
BOSS normally make excellent pedals ie DD range, flangers etc
but this is just sh*t. no words can describe my hate for this pedal -it will totally dominate your sound

The 2 center knobs have dials within dials. This is the boost and EQ which can take some time to dial in just right. The Distortion is nice and standard but nothing to write home about. Your amplifier should produce the primary distortion sound you desire.

I have Zakk Wylde EMG active pickups in a gibson explorer. All tube amp and just recently bought some expensive Sylvania 12xa7 WA pre-amp tubes from 1966. I did a lot of research and these are nice tubes for metal sound.

This is the only pedal I have. The amp is the most important piece of equipement so spend money on that, instead of a dozen pedals. Like I said above, this pedal is primarily for boost and EQ because I use the 2 middle dials more than the distortion itself. My amp tubes give me the distortion sound.

This pedal is fairly easy to use. All it takes is a few minutes of fiddling with the knobs to figure out how they all work and influence the sound. The manual also provides some good starting points.

My current setup is Ibanez Destroyer II w/Dimarzio SD > MT-2 > Peavey Backstage Chorus 208. I also have a Marshall AVT50 but it's getting fixed at the moment.

In terms of versatility this pedal is good. You can get many types of rock/metal sounds from it. But where the pedal falls short is sound quality. It seems to suck the natural tone and character out of the guitar, resulting in a sound lacking in fullness. This not the fault of either the guitar or the amp, trust me. Turning on the chorus and adding some reverb seem to help mask this, but not entirely.

Mine has worked perfectly fine. As long as proper care is taken and it is used for what it is ment to be used for (not including throwing it off a building for shits and giggles) then there should be no problems.

never used them, can't say.

This pedal would be good for a teenager learning to play guitar who can't afford higher end equipment, is into rock/metal and wants something versital to emulate their favorite sounds. If I shopped around more I probably would have bought something different like a Marshall Guv'n'er II. If it didn't suck the tone from the guitar end I would say that this would be an awesome pedal. If you find that you life it, fine. If you don't, sell it. But if your a spoilled brat who has your daddy buy you thousands of dollars worth of music equipment so you can be just like your favorite rock stars and you still complain, then shut the fuck up.

It's easy as any pedal. In the end you simply have to tweak some knobs, cmon guys! I passed a couple of minutes tweaking this thing then I found my sound and I never had to adjust it again.

Excellent sound quality, ... if you know how to get a decent distorted sound. I mean that if you don't know what is a good drive sound, you can't find it even if you have it a couple of tweakings away. I play fusion, shred and Jazz. I use this pedal in front of my Fender Twin 65 reissue with a variety of high end solid body guitars (I don't use Jazz boxes with this of course). No other pedals. Just the Twin, its reverb, and this pedal. Guys, I have a very consistent lead sound. I'm not saying that this thing is like having a Bogner cranked up. This would be a lie. But this Boss thing can solve any problem with your lead parts giving you endless sustain, fast harmonics, excellent stopped lows and everything in between. For reaching a very good sound, I recommend to cut off treble from your amp and from the pedal, ... almost to ground zero! This is the secret to have a very good fluid, dynamic, no-mosquitos distorted sound. Put your middle as you like and put in a good amount of basses. With this eq i have a really great distorted sound. Sure it's a pedal sound not a sound from a tube 100 watts head cranked up, but I'm completly satisfied with this pedal. Until recently I had a Soldano Decatone. But I sold it recently to purchase some other instruments so I find myself without a gain sound (the Twin is my only other amp). So I did buy this pedal after a couple of days of tests. I try some pedals form Carl Martin, Ibanez and some more, but this is the one that I choose. I repeat, if you tweak it properly, you can find a very good (eighties) distorted sound with tons of sustain in it. Uh, it's not that noisy I think. Best buy for the price.

I never trusted pedals, I used to own big heads in the past (5150, Soldano) so I don't have experiences with pedals. But recently I talked to a very famous pro who said to me that behind the Marshall heads which he sports on the stage for show off reasons he played simply with a Boss pedals in the clean channel of a small combo amp (linked to some 4x12 cabs). He did a lot of tours with it and never had a problem. And with tremendous results .. So ...

Never needed it.

In the end this thing is very good sounding. It has that creamy, fluid lead sound with great fast, sharp harmonics you hear from the greats (Lynch, Van Halen, Shawn Lane, Warren DeMartini) all the eighties guys). Just remember to shut down the trebles ... don't forget. Then eq the sound as you like (but don't touch the trebles!!) and you will be fine. A good sound with simply few bucks. You don't need a 5000 dollars stack to play a good solo or a good metal riff or rhythm part!

THE SOUND IS IN THE HANDS !!!!! REMEMBER !!!! If you have a good sound in your hands you will be ok with this pedal too simply with a couple of tweakings ... if you don't have that sound, if you didn't study enough , .... don't waste your money with the big boys of amps. You wouldn't sound good anyway. Don't forget.

This is a good pedal. Can sound really similar to some stuff in the records from the eighties and plus more. It can even save you if you want to go to a gig and you don't want to take with you tons of stuff. With your guitar, this pedal, you can play with any good amp and have a good drive.

Uh, another thing. DON'T COMPARE THIS PEDAL TO THE REAL THINGS. If Soldanos and Bogner amps cost 50 times more than this pedal there would be a reason right?

easy no problems at all just tweak the nobs

my guitar is an alvarez guitar with rosewood fretboard and body with s/s/h set up i use v8 pickups in my bridge then into my mt2>>Boss ge-7>>peavy bandit 112. just be patient in tweaking those nobs and shaping your tone using boss ge-7 u can get a kick ass METAL sound, i think this pedal is far compared to boss hm3.(boss hm3 sucks big time)

boss i'ts a tank you can even use it to crush your enemy's head
i would definitely gig with out a back up.

never dealt with them

im playing thrash and deathmetal. its the right pedal for me. i've been using this for 5 yrs. if it were stolen i think im gonna try the line 6 ubermetal they said it's also brutal sounding and it has a noise gate. but for the price and sound quality i think nothing beats mt2

As with most stomp boxes you have to play with it to find what you like.

My main setup is a Fender Tele (american) with a seymour duncan hot rails in the bridge plugged into the Mt-2 to a Marshall VS-100r powering a Marshall 1960 4 X 12. The MT-2 is as noisy as you want it to be...........I use it mostly for the extra EQ boost. I turn the gain on the pedal to 1/4 and have the amp gain set on 6. You must blend the two together to get a ballsy sound. If you just use the pedal for crunch it sounds very cheesy in my opinion. My tone is almost identical to Mercyful Fate's---In the Shadows album.

I have owned and stepped on it for 6 years and it sounds as good as the day I got it.

never dealt with them.

I play classic metal and some new stuff with this pedal. I have played for 11 years and have tried many different effects. This pedal can be brutal if you dial it in right........I like the simplicity of it and the fact that you can level out the distortion on it. I have some digitech pedals where you can't reduce the distortion on them....that is kinda lame. Overall I think it is a great pedal for THE RIGHT PERSON. It isn't for everyone.

There are four bands of EQ, and you must pay extra attention to these in order to get a good sound, It does require some tweeking in order to get the most desired sounds. Other than that all you have to play around with is a Level and a Distortion Knob.

My setup currently consists of a Gibson Les Paul/Flying V loaded with EMG acxtive pickups going through various Boss Effects pedals then into a Marshall JCM 2000. Ofcourse, do not try putting this pedal through a valve amp, thats just plain stupid, I dont really use this pedal anymore but if I were to it would HAVE to go through a solid state amp.

The Boss Metal Zone is a noisy pedal, period, and you will need to consider this If you are considering buying one, active pickups or a noise suppressor pedal or both will cure this problem however.

This pedal does have a hell of alot of gain, but don't be fooled for a second, that doesnt mean it sounds brutal! cos it doesnt! the only sounds you will be able to get out of this are fizzy, weak, thin distorted sounds. You won't be able to get any satisfying sounds from this pedal, unless you're a fool who has never played a valve stack before and believes a #90 pedal will give you the sound of slayer! lol.

On the other hand this pedal will give you that nasty old school black metal sound if thats your game i.e. Mayhem or old Emperor.

It's a Boss pedal, so It's one of the most reliable pedals which can take a few tours. No other pedal to my knowledge is as tough as these.

N/A

I play mainly metal i.e death/black/grind/hardcore/thrash. This pedal does not really have much practical use for those styles, with the exception of old school black metal which this pedal may serve some use.

I have been playing about 3 and a half years now, currently the guitars I own consist of a Gibson Les Paul limited edition 2004, Gibson 98 "The Paul" modded with black hardware and EMG pickups, a Gibson flying V customised and fitted with EMG pickups and a ESP Ltd baritone. My main amp at the moment is a Marshall JCM 2000, i did own a peavey 5150 II but sold it to raise some cash. Also I use various boss effects pedals, morley bad horsie wah wah, and a digitech whammy.

If this pedal got stolen I would only have wished the thief left some cash for me lol, but yeah im selling this thing anyway! If anyone needs a good metal solid state distortion pedal, they should try either a Digitech Death Metal pedal or the hughes and kettner warp factor! the warp factor sounds really warm, big and most like a valve stack than any other pedal ive heard before.

To be honest there's not much I love about this pedal, It really is crap!

I bought this pedal when I first started playing, at a time when I was ignorant of how to achieve a great sound, as im sure most people do until they realise that they should really just throw it out the window and buy a valve amp instead!

Anyone who praises this pedal as "amazing" and "10 all the way!!" is a fool and doesn't have very good ears, or is just ignorant to the rest of the world, No serious musicians would ever use this pedal for serious use i.e. gigging and recording.

Overall get a valve amp, if you cant afford one, buy a randall, if you cant afford that then buy either a digitech death metal pedal or a hughes and kettner warp factor pedal!

Boss makes good pedals, but not this one!

This is possibly the easiest pedal to use that i have ever dealt with, you pussy's need to learn how turn knobs properly or sumthing.

Sound is perfect, i can get Dave Mustaine, James Hetfeild and Dimebag sounds outta this bad boy, its a little harder when trying to immitate another sound but to find your own is easy as fuck.

I could easily use this on a gig, theres no chance this thing'll fuck up on me.

I use this baby with my Washburn V & my Randall RG75, and it sounds sweet as, i would deffinately replace this if it were lost/stolen.

When it comes to thrash this thing is near perfection ;)

It takes a long time to get a good tone out of this one. The Mid Frequency was slightly confusing at first. For those of you who complain about getting a nasal tone, first, turn down the gain.

I use this effects chain:

Kustom KLA-20 > Digitech RP80 (for amp modeling) > Boss Metal Zone > Dunlop Crybaby 535Q

The sound is great with the gain turned down a bit. If it is full, you will get a bad-sounding nasally tone. This thing has all the gain you need, with some left to spare, no need to use it all. I give it an 8 because it took me a while to figure it out.

This has been covered... this thing is built a tank.

Haven't dealt with them

I play all kinds of metal from shred to thrash to death, this thing can cover them all with a bit of tweaking. If this were stolen, I would either buy this unit again or get a Line 6 Uber Metal. I wish the Mid frequency were easier to understand, but that's about it.