DigiTech X-Series Metal Master

First off,this pedal kicks ass,very easy to use.It has a level,low,high,and morph nob,pretty simple setup.

I love the morph on this thing.I play a lot of metal,from metallica to slayer and back and i can easily get all the diferent styles out of it.By it's self it doesnt sound perfect,(no distortion pedal does) but by adding a chorus,delay,etc it rocks.For example if i just want to ad a little extra tone and depth i run it through my (rocktek)chorus pedal,if i want to add multiple effects such as delay, flanger,etc i run it through my(zoom 505).On sound guality buy its self i give it an 8,but run it through a chorus and it gets a 10.

I've had the metal master for about two years now and have had no problems at all.The battery wont last to long so if playing a gig i would recomend pluging it in.

Never had to use the customer support but the digitech website is nice and has a lot of samples to listen to before you buy.

Overal the metal master kicks ass,Like i said before i like to play anything from mettalica to slayer and back and the digitech metal master is perfect for all metal styles.I've been playing since i was 16 and im pushing 30 now (damn were did the time go) Any way after useing the metal master i would never use any other distortion pedal.

having to use the MM for the first time makes it hard to find a decent sound.

i used to have my treble and bass almost all the way up, and it sounded like crap. only after 2 years did i discover another way to play with the settings.

once you get it right, man does it kick ass. it doesn't emulate a tube amp, it doesn't try to (it could have gotten a 10 if it did, but that's reserved for the DEMONIZER!!! 10!!!). it just gives kick-ass distortion. i think the morph knob acts as a center frequency for the mid-boost or cut or whatever. put the morph up at full, and watch out for the bass, put it on 12:00 at most as it may be too muddy and lose note separation, and add treble to taste. it gives a fully saturated sound (none of that tour from hell sh*t) that sounds very versatile, ideal for soloing because there's that high-mid boost that makes the guitar cut in the mix.

the morph fully counter-clockwise is hard to use, as there's a sort of "cut" in the treble. the morph at 12:00...hmmm i haven't experimented with that yet. but so far, morph at full clockwise sounds the most usable to me, as long as you watch the bass knob settings. ;)

2 years and not a problem. hell yeah!

nah haven't even tried. why fix somethin' that ain't broke, right?

compare this to the Uber Metal. I have both, and each of them have their respective duties. the Uber Metal is much more versatile, but to tell you honestly, i prefer to use this when it comes to soloing. just try it and you'll see why. fantastic value for money.

You can "morph" between 3 metal sounds: The first sound (morph knob all the way counter-clockwise) sounds weak & screechy like a transistor radio; the 2nd sound (12:00 on the morph knob)is a scooped, flat, lame sound with no nuts; the 3rd sound (morph knob all the way up) sounds very good with smooth punchy mids and thick distortion. It has sample settings in the manual which I haven't tried.

The first 2 sounds are useless. I run it with every knob maxed and send it straight to the PA (I don't have an amp) add a little reverb and I get a hot, thick metal sound that I like very much. I've gotten compliments on the sound also from band members. I bought the Metal Master because I needed a direct out and I got sick of messing around with the Boss Metal Zone trying to get a decent sound out of that piece of digitally simulated shit. I tried the x-series multi chorus and main squeeze compressor and they both sounded like crap. The MM however is a great pedal for metal even though it only has one sound.

Only had it a month. No problems yet. You'll need to buy a negative center, 9.6V 300ma adaptor.

Couldn't tell ya.

Made in the USA (cool), direct out works great, thick & well balanced metal sound, I love it. Everyone who owns a Boss MT-2 should toss it in the garbage where it belongs and get the MM.

Really easy to get something sounding good out of it. 4 knobs aint rocket science.

It can be misused though. I bought this pedal when i was 13 and could make some crappy hissy shit come out of it.

Works best at the end of a signal chain, maybe in the fx loop of a amp set as bland as it will go. Otherwise, it fights with the amp and ruins your tone.

I played this with a squier custom tele w/ humbuckers and a marshall.

The direct output on this baby aint bad! When my amp blew up i went straight into the desk with the desk output and it sounded pretty good. No match for a line6 or anything, but decent.

When used with a guitar amp, it fights with the preamp. This pedal should be renamed a Metal Preamp and not a Metal Distortion pedal. Cannot be used to enhance your sound in any way, can only be used to be the sound.

For a little more than this pedal you can get yourself a 20watt practice amp with distortion. This is a much better option.

I've only played a few gigs with it, when i bought it i didn't know how to use it and decided it was crap. The week before i sold it (2 years afterwards) i played it and it still works.

I have dropped it a few times, but i haven't really tested it much.

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This is overpriced, missold and overshadowed by better things on the market.

**DO** Buy this pedal: If you like your metal. This isn't your first effects pedal. You know how you want to sound.

**DON'T** Buy this pedal: To "boost your solos". If you already have a decent amp. You play classic rock.

When i sold this pedal i was actually a little sad to see it go. It does what it does very well, but it's a little limited in potential..

Very Easy to Use

When I went to the Music store I was actually after a Digitech Scott Ian Black 13, I play thrash metal and I loved the Sound of the Black 13, I needed somthing in a Hurry and the Music store I went to didnt have one, so He recommended this, I can get most of the same sounds out of this(other than the tape delay)that I want, so I definately suggest buying this as opposed to the Black 13, I suggest this for a good straight scott ian distortion sound, like in "I Am the Law" and "Caught in a Mosh"

Level:11
Low:9
High:11
Morph:6

Sounds almost exactly like it and I saved about $75

Seems to be VERY Strong, Plus its Got a 6 Year Warranty, Can't Beat that!!

Never had to deal with them

I play mainly Thrash metal and would definately recommend this pedal, I use a Custom Washburn Scott Ian Guitar w/ a Bill Lawrence L-500XL Pickup, a Randall RG80-ES Head and a Peavey XXL 4x12 Cab and this Thing Rips!!

Very easy to use, straight forward labeling.

Not very noisy at all. I love the fact that it doesn't sound as "electronic" as some distortion pedals, and you can adjust the settings to create a whole wall of distorted fury haha. The morph function lets you blend easily between two very different distortion types. The independant low/high knobs obviously let you increase or decrease your treble and bass levels. And since it's noise-free I keep the level knob cranked 24/7. I bought this to replace the DigiTech Weapon I previously owned, simply because the weapon had a metal master setting, and it was the only one I used. I tried out tons of Boss pedals and other brands and this was my favorite. Run it through an MXR 10-band EQ and you'll be blown away.

Built like a Boss, but sounds far better.

No clue.

Great value, my favorite distortion by far. You can get crazy metal sounds, or light alt rock distortion. Very versitile. Ive been playing for a while, plenty of different amps and guitars and this is a great stompbox. A few more knobs couldn't hurt, but it's nice to have it so simple. Can't really think of anything to add or subtract, wonderful as is. If it were lost or stolen, I'd prob buy another.

pretty easy to use anmd found my sound right away, no mids and still sounded better then my MT-2

no noise, sounds great, used it with a rh200 head and a randall 4x12 cab, overall thias pedal kicked ass

had this pedal for a year and half i thought it was built like a fn brick or tank or whatevr then all of a sudden it crapped out on me for no apparent reason at all - i used the same ac adapter for it the whole time too and never had problems, i also had the smae problem as the guy who ealrier wrote about his light staying and just not working

i emailed them and all they could tell me was to switch the battery fn idiots

i play metal and it served its time amazingly well, ive been playign for 3 1/2 years and i sued a epi lp and a jackson dkmg dinky thorugh it, i was contemplating on just buying it again but a guy who worked at sam ash convinced me to just tweak my metal zone, wish it didnt crap out on me

OK. As pedals go, this is about as simple as it gets for a distortion box. This is both a good and bad thing. Good because it means you will be able to operate it with a bare minimum of tweeking. Bad because the pedal only ALLOWS a BARE MINIMUM of tweeking! No mid control means no control over the character of your distortion! I realize this is the METAL MASTER and as such is not meant for subtlety and depth. However, it is strange not to have a mid control, as it adds an enormous amount of flexibility with only one tone knob. Furthermore, this pedal really suffers without a gain control. There's no way to dial down the gain and in a couple of settings, that's what this pedal really needs to go from good to great sounding. Also, there's really only one good setting on the "morph" knob which makes it a waste of space. The only consolation is that this pedal does sound very good with the right setup. All in all, I give its ease of use an 8.

Here's the important part: Don't use EMG's with this pedal. I know what you're thinking, "But EMG's are THE metal pickups! Metallica uses them and so should we all!" But trust me, EMG's won't do the trick if you're going to use the Metal Master. Now, I'm not ripping on EMG's. I have em in one of my guitars, and they are wonderful pickups. But you must remember, EMG's are designed to overload an amp's front end to give a little extra gain, and because of that, running them into a simulated high-gain sound is really too much. I've had a lot of experience lately trying to use EMG's with modeled guitar sounds and have come to the firm conclusion that they are detrimental to the overall sound. If you're going to use EMG's, do it the right way: run your signal into a good tube amp that has a master volume and forget about distortion pedals. Don't run them into a digital pedal and then into a solid-state amp! The sound you get will be harsh and mushy all at once!

That said, I found the Metal Master actually works better with *GASP* single-coil passive pickups! Seriously folks, I'm using a Fender Lite Ash strat with the stock Seymour Duncan alnico single-coils into the Metal Master then into a Fender RocPro 1000 combo (1X12) amp. The sound is head-and-shoulders better than what I was getting from my EMG-loaded, solid mahogany US Master's Artist, and I love that damn guitar! But, as I said before, EMG's don't work worth a damn in a digital setup. Do yourself a favor, and try this pedal with a strat, and I guarantee you'll be amazed at the difference it makes in how this pedal sounds. I've found that every pickup position on my strat sounds great throught the Metal Master. I cannot say the same about any other distortion pedal I've used. I really wish I had tried single-coils when I was testing out a Vox Valvetronix head last year!

Moving on, the Metal Master is a really good and cheap option for direct recording. I haven't found a pedal that can do what the MM does for direct recording. I've recorded 4 identical tracks (panned hard left on 2 and hard right on 2) and came away with a scorching death metal sound! Forget about setting up your amp and and an SM-57. Just plug this fucker into a decent sound card on your computer (with the right input device of course) and voila! Instantly good sound. Although, your settings on the pedal will be very different from the one you would use on an amp, but you knew that already, right?

Now for the bad part. The damn morph knob. It blows. Really blows. The settings to the left are too thin. The heaviest setting to the right is only good for slow chording and makes it really hard to get decent pinch hamonics. You can still get them, but it takes more work and they don't sound quite right. Nothing rings. Everything just sounds kind of sickly. It's bad for leads and too mushy for fast palm-muting. However, set the morph knob to 12 o'clock (the Metal Zone setting) and things get much better. In fact, if it wasn't for the sound the Metal Master makes on this setting, I would have slapped this pedal with a 2 for it's sound rating! And, as stated above, the lack of gain and mid control really hurt the overall sound and effectiveness of this pedal.

The Metal Master is very one-dimensional. However, since I really like the one good sound the Metal Master is capable of, it's rating gets bumped up a bit.

I've seen some complaints from reviewers about these pedals crapping out. Specifically, one said that his pedal was making helicopter noises. I think what happened in his case is that he was running on a low battery. This pedal, as with all the X-Series pedals, sucks batteries like a half-starved vampire. When the battery gets low enough, the Metal Master starts doing some sort of wierd feedback loop. You'll definitely know it when it happens. However, you'll also notice that when you replace the battery, or better yet, plug the pedal into an outlet, that the pedal will be back to normal. Moral of the story: always play this pedal with a fresh battery in a live setting. And just to be safe, you should try to play it with a wall wart instead. Aside from this issue, the Metal Master is pretty solid.

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Bottom line: If you're into high gain, and you want to go cheap on your gear and still get a decent sound, I recommend this pedal with the caveat that you make sure to play a guitar loaded with single-coil and non-active pickups through it. Even passive humbuckers sound a little plain-jane with the Metal Master. Single-coils are the key to unlocking the potential of this underrated beast. Just make sure you have some way of cancelling 60-cycle hum.

Not a great pedal, but for death metal and for its price, a very good one.

Tweak the 4 knobs...what else is there?

I used this with 3 different humbucker guitars. A Jackson, an Ibanez string thru and a Baritone with active pick ups. Amp is a Roland Cube 60. Sounded good in every situation if tweaked properly.

Well, here is the bad side. I owned this for exactly 46 days and it died on me. The pedal is fried. When it comes on, the power light stays on. It will not go off. The pedal is not working though-there is no distortion. The power button inside is fine and so is the rubber that clicks it on and off. There is no problem with the power supply and other pedals are working okay. Tomorrow I am going to buy a Boss MT-2 Metal Zone and I recommend you do the same.

Warranty expired yesterday so I'm out of luck.

Good pedal for all metal but it broke so I'm out $80 now.

It is very easy to use. Just tweak the morph knob to find your sound.

I play a Brawley A-222 through a peavey classic 30. The problem with the metal master is that you really only get one sound from it.It produces super high gain with hardly any mids. If you're into that kind of death metal sound, then this pedal is perfect for you, but if you need flexibility don't buy it.

I've had it for about three years now, and have not had any problems. I wouldn't think twice about giging without a backup.

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Digitech says that it can "morph" into different classic distorion pedals, but I have not found that to be true at all. All the morph knob does is add a little more mids. This pedal does a wonderful job of creating that nu-metal sound, nothing else.