DigiTech Hardwire TL-2 Metal Distortion

Easy. If you know how to turn knobs and know what they do, you'll have no issues.

I used to own a MetalMaster and sold it, but this has similar qualities except with an actual gain knob and true EQ. There's a nice load of gain on tap and you can get nice DM sounds if you want, but rolling the gain down is kinda pointless since at about 1 it's just digital crunch that's cold and undefined. So if you're going to use this, higher gain settings is better than low gain settings. It's thicker than the other pedals in tone, the MetalZone is thin and raspy as where this is more full on the right settings.

Tank of metal! Heavy, metal knobs and switching, and a firm pedal to stomp on. RUGGED. Haven't used it that long, but as long as the board is as rugged as the chassis....

No idea.

Overall, this is a nice, heavy, wall of tone. Great construction and lots of options. I wouldn't buy another if it was stolen, probably get the Blackstar Dual Tube Metal! Anyway, besides a wish for a bit more gain, this thing cranks through cheap pickups, and probably way better with real ones!

Very easy to use with basic understanding of how a distortion pedal works. Level(volume output, bass, mids, frequency, highs, distortion(gain).

The sound is frickin incredible! Blows away Boss Metal Zone in my opinion. Very versitile, get sounds from AC/DC crunch to full on Pantera and everything inbetween! great sustain. The pedal gets noisier with the more gain (distortion) you add. But not a terrible bad hiss. It's a high gain Heavy Metal distortion, so it's to be expected.
I use Epiphone Les Pauls with Seymour Duncan JB in bridge & stock in neck. Also, use Jackson with Duncan JB(b)& Jazz(n). I play thru a 50 watt solid state Marshall with 2x12s.
I give it a 9 only because of the slight hiss when cranked.

Very well built, solid metal construction all the way around. Looks awesome!
Definately use it to gig and record.

Havent needed it but good I assume. Digitech is a company that's been around a long time.

I play everthing from Zeppelin to Metallica. Pedal is a little much for Zep sounds. havent quite dial those in. I have other pedals for Zep.
I've been playing for over 10 years in & out of bands. Not currently in one. Home record alot.
Definately buy another one if stolen.
The looks are what grabbed me first. It's very sexy, black with aluminum knobs. Looks sweet. The sound made me fall in love with it! Probably the best series of pedals Digitech has ever had.

I am more of a "foo-foo" ambient "the Edge" type of player. I needed more of a high gain sound from my AC30 because the band I am playing with has a few harder songs that we are starting to play. I went to GC and plugged it in. Immediately I new it was the one. WoW! Very, very easy to use and dial in a setting that had my Vox amp sounding like a Dual Rectifier!

I play it with a Les Paul Special (P90's) and a Strat with standard pickups. Very little hiss or noise. Any noise that does show up is taken care of by my noise suppressor. It puts out 70's, 80's and beyond metal very easily. I have owned mesa's in the past so to be able to use my Vox AC30 and make it sound like a Mesa Duel Rectifier is pretty amazing!!!

Tank. No problem gigging w/o a backup. I'm not worried at all about taking this thing anywhere. However, it is still pretty new to my rig so we'll see if it stands the test of time.

No issues at all. Hopefully I'll never find out how good or bad the service is.

Vox AC30 + TL-2 = Very cool. I have searched far and near for this kind of tone. I have been playing for 20 years or so and this is the best metal distortion pedal I have ever heard or owned. It gets every type of hard distortion that I could ask for, musically and without mud. It will transform your rig like it did mine if that is what you are looking for. For the few songs that my band does that require a high gain sound this solves the issue and then some. Play an A5 and let fade out and listen to the rumble!!!

I first found this pedal on youtube. From the first hearing on, it gave me the *****, because it was not a 100%-treble-pedal like all the "metal" pedals you can get out there. For example, the BOSS Metal Zone pedal in my opinion just can't get a decent bassy sound, which is very important in metal.

Anyway, first about the "ease of use". When I bought it and tried it out at home, I got a decent tone quite fast. Now, after let's say twenty minutes of messing around with it, I already am very satisfied, but there definitely is room for a better tone.

It features six control knobs, one miniswitch and of course the big footswitch. It has the classical knobs "level", "gain", "high/low/mid", but also another knob that says "frequency". This is one of the things about this pedal that give you quite a versability of tone, as it changes the frequency range that is boosted / scooped by the "mid" knob. The miniswitch changes between two distortion models, the tight, chunky solo-one and the loose, bassier, rhythm-guitar one.

The box also contained a fluorescent sticker for the big footswitch, kind of a plastic hat for the control knobs that prevents you from hitting them with your foot and another sticker that allows you to attach it to a pedal floorboard.

I am using this pedal with my LTD MH-53 (with EMG HZ-H4) and run it through the Clean channel of my Fame GX-60R tube combo amp.

This pedal gives you quite a versatility of tone, the equalizer does its work, especially the frequency adjustment knob. All in all, the distortion is quite chunky, that children-of-bodom-solo-sound in the "tight" mode, which does sound nice. In "loose" mode you can get some really nice metalcore or hardcore tones out of it, but I could have wished that there was no miniswitch and you could switch between two customized settings. But hey, what you get for this price is still awesome. It seems that the gain knob makes no big difference at all. At noon it already sounds like *******-balls-to-the-walls, so maybe pushing it to the max is just for that lip-cutting sharp solo sound.

I am pretty sure that you can get looooooooooooooooooooots of different tones with this baby. Still, I will probably try using it for solos and for the rhythm pars switch to the distorted channel of my amp.

As long as there's a full battery inside before every gig, I would take it anywhere with me. Those two stickers and the plastic thingy definitely make it gig-proof, and I'm sure that it will sound even better at high volume.

Nah I haven't, but they seem to listen to their customers' opinion, which is a good thing. I've had a digitech RP70 a long time ago and I was also very content with it. Gave em a 7.

I play any kind of metal that can get in my way, but I prefer as much distortion as possible. This pedal covers a great variety of tones if you handle it right. For the short time of twenty minutes that I have played with it, I can already get a nice view on it and I'm pretty sure it will surprise me again as soon as I get more fond of the control knobs. I think if it were stolen, I would probably save my money for another guitar, but that's got nothing to do with the pedal itself :D
What I love about it is that it's got bass. Metal Zone can go jump off the bridge.

Fairly straight forward device. As with most effect pedals, it's really up to the user's desired sound... this device will not leave you wanting what it's all about. DISTORTION. You'll find your tone and distortion.

Very nice. IMO, this acts as a tube screamer and a distortion pedal!!! I compared it to my BOSS MT-2 and this thing beat it up!

I really liked the TIGHT / LOOSE toggle switch. My BOSS doesn't have this.

It has a real cool rubber cover over the dials that'll ensure 1) you dials are safe 2) your settings are safe.

Uhhhhh...

I really like the spring loaded pins/hinge which to access the battery compartment. No tools needed.

Since I didn't buy it... it was just a loner, I cannot speak as to price to feature ratio. If the BOSS MT-2 and the TL-2 cost the same, I'd buy the TL-2 any day all day.

Well as for simplicity, i wouldn't rank this pedal too high. I think this was meant more for variety then "out of the box crushing tone" but play with the EQ and freq knobs a bit and you can get a real nice thrash sound. The manual is lacking preset info but other than that explains everything.

I'm running an Epiphone Limited Edition 1966 SG Silverburst into a Marshall MGII15. The sound quality is simmilar to that of the BOSS Metal Zone where it's got that nice cut through sharp tone but in addition it has a little more bass to it. For a High Gain distortion, this pedal has VERRY LITTLE noise. It's a real nice nu metal sound however I couldn't seem to get those "over-the-top" Insane metal tones that are in something like the Line 6 Uber Metal, but overall I would opt for this pedal because of the amazing amount of tweak-ability it offers.

Without a doubt this is about the mist sturdy stompbox I have ever come across. It has a steel casing and steel knobs with grooves to pinpoint your increments! I would depend on it forever. This is about three times as strong as any other pedals, such as those from boss. I would for sure gig without a backup and already have done so!

Never dealt with them

For my style, its perfect! I love the crispy high-gain sounds I can achieve out of the TL-2. I have been playing for a while now and I know what sounds good and this is definitely up there! If it was stolen I would probably get another one after I beat the thief for takin it :-) I personally love the gorgeous blue LED on the front and the tank-like structure and the steel knobs and of course, the sound. I would have liked for a higher amount of gain optional of course instead of the two voice modes which are pretty diluted. Overall it helps my playing and i would definitely recommend you pick one up.

This pedal like most of the ones in this range is relatively simple to use - its a pedal!

Just turn the knobs and listen....

yes there isa manual - thats good and reasonably informative - just what you would expect.

No defined firmware its just a stomp box.

This pedal sounds awesome in front of a tube amp. its really designed for ott heavy stuff so it is/can be noisy but that depends on the settings. In my opinion the sound from this should really have been in the RP1000 and was not.

Used with marshalls, Engl, GL Lynchbox, Splawn, THD and V30

No I cant rely on it. after just a few days this unit strated to switch itself to the on mode randomly. Good if you like that sort of thing - bad if you have just switched the amp to high volume clean channel - when it kicks in it WILL absolutely destroy you...

Based on my experience its a studio piece....

The replacement will probably be ok thought....

Went back to the dealer... they changed it out.

The dealer support was good.

I play rock so this pedal is good for me. I would buy another!

Its a cool pedal with some great features - I liked the rubber condom for the knobs - great idea.

Great range of pedals that look, feel and sound great - I have tried/own a few. This one failure should not really blight the hardwire models they are really good.

The RP1000 is exactly the opposite.....

Straightforward distortion pedal with both far left and far right knobs being single function and the two inside knobs being dual function. They are stacked knobs so there are 4 knobs, 4 functions. All of these affect the eq and act like a paragraphic eq that is very powerful and set the wrong way can sound horrible, set the right way sound better than most any "metal" distortion pedal on the market today at a $90 to $100 price range(not including $160+ pedals with a preamp tube. On/off by pressing foot pad. Typical power activated when guitar cable is inserted, don't leave the cable plugged in even when unit's active led is not on. It will wear out your battery.

The pedal does have a similar sound to the Metal Zone, however it is much tigher and has none of the muddy bass rumble that the metal zone can produce when using it with the eq set to a scouped sound. The pedal runs at a higher voltage (18 v) I believe so it has some type of step up to the 9 volt used as a power source. It does burn up batteries but nowadays most good pedals do. I like the sound for metal, especially through a Marshall JCM800 using the preamp along with the pedal it walked all over my metal zone, muza, and DS-1. My JCM800 is modified and sounds great with a metal core. Which doesn't always sound great with just any amp. The Hardwire Metal Dist pedal sounds like a cross between the metal zone and the metal core pedals by boss, but tighter.

This pedal is built very well in all areas except one, there is a switch on it called 'loose or tight' depending on which way the switch is the pedal has a definate change in sound. That switch should have been made with the next large size of the same style. It is a metal toggle switch and is durable but not indestructable and will be the first thing to go on a pedal that gets run over in the driveway or stomped on too many times the wrong way.

Don't have a opinion of digitech customer support or their warranty department. I am not going to rate here but will mention that the entire line of Hardwire pedals lack any visible serial number. When you try to register the pedals online you are asked for a serial number. If you don't provide it, it won't let you register. Hold onto the reciept, that is all that matters when claiming warranty anyway, they don't care when you registered, that is just to send you literature in the mail in most cases. Digitech will fix this registration/serial number issue, at least they should or have and I hope if I do have warranty issues they are a company that will honor it and pay shipping both ways. Not have me pay to send in defective merch. to them.

Overall I say its a 8 for this pedal. I like mine and the chorus and delay/looper are really nice. I bought all three at a great price. The delay/looper is a steal and the looper is flawless, check some of the youtube videos, the looper during playback has no click, no air noise and up to 20 seconds with layering that doesn't fade out the orig takes excellent for the price and you get every delay on the Line 6 echo park but they are clearer I think. The delay/looper is favorite of the Hardwire line for sure. The HARDWIRE Metal Distortion will be around for a long time. It can take a few min tweaking the two inside knobs (stacked knobs so there are 4 knobs, 4 functions) to get the sound to eq like you prefer. It has a wide range of freq on the inside knobs not found on most dist pedals, even new ones. This I think is the key to getting the sound in your head applied to the pedal. The inside knobs are critical. Its a distortion pedal not a amplifier and I love all my distortion pedals. This happens to be one of my favorite to use right now and probably will be that way years from now. The Hardwire Metal Distortion is a keeper for me

This pedal is very easy to use, it's a stompbox. It doesn't get any easier than this.

The sound this pedal generates just didn't agree with my tastes. Although many may like the sizzling hi-gain sound it produces, I just didn't care for it. To my ears it sounded very digital, buzzy and unnatural type of gain. Compared to the hi-gain channel of my tube amp, the pedal just sounded ridiculous (unnatural).

I did not have a problem with it on the reliability side. I've owned quite a bit of Digitech gear over the years and have never had a problem.

I've never had to contact the company for repairs etc.

I've been playing for well over 20 years now. I play mostly blues, rockabilly, rock'n roll, rock and metal. I just sold this pedal as it just didn't agree with my tastes. I'm looking to replace it with something a little more 'tubey' sounding (i.e. Seymour Metal Mayhem, Blackstar HT-DistX, AMT SS-20, maybe a Damage Control Solid Metal or Demonizer). As I mention, may like the extremely saturated sizzling distortion this unit provides, but if you are looking at something that reacts like a hi-gain tube amp, your best bet is to look elsewhere.

This pedla is easy to youse but hard to get a good sound out of it. The manual should have some pre-settings or some thing rather than just a simple diagram.

frosty,lacks balls evan. The gain is a bit weak for a metal pedal this pedal is more suited to hard rock perhaps.It is a true by-pass pedal wich is great and the battery is very good, the tone dose not fade, it will keep maximum power until it runs out.

it works every time haha and the battery is awsum as well as the high voltige and true bypass, the stomp locks are a great idear aswell.

i will not be dealing with hard wire or digi-tech because i am selling mine!

i play a big variety but bought this pedal because i was hoping for reliability and tone for melodic metal. it has the first one and more but the tone is horrable, the distortion is not evan of the same leval as a solid state randall! so i will be selling it if thats possable because i some how dont think selling this thing will be easy.