DigiTech X-Series Metal Master

Not hard to get a good sound out of this at all. The Morph feature gives you everything from a punk sound to heavy, almost rectified sound. That little "X" knob on all their pedals in this series definitely is the coolest feature. I keep mine at about 2 o' clock.

Little noisy, but that's why I have my Noise Suppresor pedal hooked up. This thing has MASSIVE balls and I can see why so many people are using it now (i.e. Murderdolls, Disturbed, etc.). Go see the "X-series demo" page on www.digitech.com and you'll see what I mean. I use a combination of Boss (mainly), Digitech (X series only), and Ibanez (Tone Lok only) pedals on my board. I use this pedal and a Boss Metal Zone, but the Metal Zone is actually my "rhythm distoriton," since it's not as ballsy.

I've used this pedal for over a year and gig quite frequently. No probs here. I even had a Boss pedal and this one is still kickin

Haven't dealt with them. One thing I will give them a 10 on is the fact that they aren't trying to "turn a buck" from their manuals. They have their manuals posted on the website unlike Boss who expect you to buy replacement manuals.

This pedal is my main sound. I didn't have it when we recorded our last CD, but it will be in the studio with me this month when we record our next one. Head over to http://www.coilback.com to check it out when we are done with it and you can hear it for yourself.

Only four knobs, level, low, hi and morph (gotta check this one out). But there is no Gain control, how come ? It looks like most of you haven't still figured out that you control gain with the volume pot on your guitar :) Dist sounds kinda shitty when your pot is to the max (max gain), when you decrease your guitar volume, output level of metal master remains the same, but gain decreases.
Change battery by pressing a special button with your 6.3cm guitar cable jack or with a screwdriver, whatever...it is easier than changing the battery with that damn screw on Boss pedals.

Well, when I first heard the Metal Master at my music shop, I fell in love instantly :) So many dist transformations using "morph" knob, and such a tone control using Spectral EQ, this thing cannot compare with that crappy Metal Zone. I use fender standard guitar but single coils are not the happiest solution for metal music and Metal Master especially.

There is only one thing you have to take care, don't put too much gain on this pedal or it will sound like shit. Decrease your guitar volume just a bit and enjoy the sound of this awesome pedal.

There is also an additional CIT(TM) output, which allows you to connect your pedal directly to the mixer, sound card (line in) or whatever so you don't need an amp between. Anyway, if you are about to record your material don't do this, use the amplification, this is the best solution. I know that because I have already recorded some material with Metal Master through Mesa Boogie amp and it turned out to be suprisingly good.

This thing is made like a tank, weights 200gr and there are no parts that can be easily broken but note that sadistic behaviour will break anything even Metal Master so...

But there is one problem...When you open the pedal (to change battery), look at the pedal switch located inside. It is kinda sad that Digitech used such a low-budget switch for X-Series pedal. It will die occasionally but don't worry, these switches cost less than 1EUR (1.2$) you can change them anytime and let's hope that it happens before/after your Gig :)

This pedal eats batteries so better use an additional power supply.

Free registration at www.digitech.com and you recieve 6 year warranty ? Sounds nice :)

I never used Digitech Customer Support and I hope I never will.

I play everything from Primus to Meshuggah and this pedal is like a gift from heaven. I play guitar for seven years and I have owned a tons of pedals (Boss, Marshall Guv'nor, Ibanez, DOD) but this is something special, a pedal with 3 different distortions that can be as heavy as hell.

Easy enough to get a good metal sound out of it

This pedal has a lot less feed back than my MXR dime distortion does, and for that I love this pedal. It gives get sounds from alien ant farm all the way to korn. I use it through a crate mx65r, and it sounds great if u turn the low and high up and the mid down on the clean channel, it kicks ass. I am going to get a seven string ibanez soon, and i already tried it out with this pedal. It kick so much ass I cant even explain. If u want heavy metal sound, go for this pedal

This is a very dependable pedal. I have had no problems with it yet

None

I play heavy metal like Korn type of stuff. It is a great pedal for that, but I also play a lot a Offspring too. Very versital. Great sound with a lot less feed back than other pedals with a sound gate

How easy to get a GOOD sound out of it? I still havent managed it.

Other than that, easy.

Pretty self explanitory, Level, Low, Hi, and the ExTRemE HarDCORE MORPH setting (which cuts the mids).

I tried it with a Gibson Les Paul Custom through an H&K halfstack. I honestly cannot see why anybody would waste $90 on the damn thing.

It reminded me of a good metal distortion, but somebody had left a wah pedal on somewhere in the mix. Thats what it sounded like to me.

I have heard worse (multi effects pedals) so I give it a 5.

Seems like its built good. Probably not as good as a Boss but Im bias.

N/A

Quite bluntly, it sucks. There is no gain control, and I really cant get it to sound good. If Digitech would try to put out some decent pedals with real controls instead of trying to work their way into the setups of the typical 15 year old Ibanez packing nu metal head and put real controls on their pedals, and not stupid shit like "Morph", maybe they could make some use of thereselves.

I give it a 3, because I guess there are worse things that you could do with $90, like join PeTA or buy a Zoom.

It took me about 5 minutes getting the sound i wanted so i guess it's easy to use.No manuel needed,use your ears and fingers.

So far the best metal pedal i've tried.In the last few years i've had the following "metal" pedals:BOSS METALZONE,MARSHALL JACKHAMMER,ZOOM TRI-METAL,DANELECTRO FAB-TONE.All of them have been sold or traded.
The METAL MASTER stays because it screams real heavy metal like no one i've heard before.If you like SLAYER you will love this pedal,incredible palm muting and sustain.If you like IRON MAIDEN forget it,you will sound like shit trying to play The Trooper.

Still working fine after 6 months.

Never spoke with them.

It's excellent at what it's intended for:BRUTAL HEAVY METAL.
Not good for classic metal but i don't care i have a TONEBONE HOT-BRITISH for that.If you play NU-METAL bullshit by the way,don't get this pedal:STOP PLAYING...

Easy to use. The morph knob is added bonus.

Bought a Fender Blues Junior on a whim with no sound check in 1999. Soon became disinterested in the sound , So I had this amp in a corner collecting dust years as the reverb was a whisper, and it has no gain but this week I bought it a Digitech Heavy Metal Distortion XXM and it has a deep gain and distortion now, works well with the tube sound and 15 Watt power WOW. Also have a DOD YJM308 overdrive/gain that I use with it at times and it works well but has a clearer tone and lower gain than the Digitech. (Should I chain them?)
My Blues Junior sounds awesome now for the price $349, and this Digitech pedal was extra but worth it. I was thinking of selling this Fender tube amp but not now.

Haven't had it long enought yet. Harmon International who owns Harmon Kardon stereo recievers and amps, Infinty speakers, DOD, and Digitech are highly rated products overall.

No problems

With the Digitech pedal it has a throaty deep sound now.

I'm keeping my Blues Junior now

Easy to use except for battery replacement.

This is a death metal pedal galore. I'm sick of the few jackasses pissing and moaning about it. What the hell did you expect to get out of it?!! Someone said it doesn't sound like metallica. BULLSHIT. You can get any metal out of this pedal. If you want some rock, tube 'heavey metal' buy a fucking pedal that is made for it NOT this! It beats the hell out of a Boss MT-2 and the people who bash that pedal are jealous because they spend 3x's the cost for a stupid brand name or boutique pedal. I haven't tried this up against a MXR dimebag pedal though. So if you mesa booger snobs want to piss and moan go ahead.. We just didn't happen to shell out tons of money for an inflated hype setup. Also, as for the noise.. .What the Hell do you expect? It's not a freakin Tweed pedal emulator! Noise gates are like gas is to cars. You dumbasses. Brutal death metal is the best for this, but you can back off and play other stuff. These tone scapegoats need to shut the hell off and list a better pedal.. .oh wait.. they didn't know of any. Get a life. Nu metal or not this thing kills.

no problems yet

answer emails the same day.

noise and no distortion control? Bah. What the hell do you expect. It does and well you are just plain retarded. It gives everyone the sound they want. People didnt buy this because of wide range of tones. They like it the way it sounds and that's all that matters. Get a freaking EQ pedal to change it you snotty nosed bastards

Very easy to use. Only four knobs: Level, Low, Hi, and Morph. The first three are self-explanatory. Morph takes a little time to get used to, but will produce a very wide and useful range of tones. With a few minutes of experimentation I was getting great sounds out of this pedal.

Memphis imitation Les Paul (pickups: rhythm-DiMarzio PAF; lead-Carvin M22 SD)>Metal Master>Marshall MG Series transistor amp (Clean Channel). This pedal was extremely quiet on most settings, even with the Low and Hi knobs set at the maximum. It was a little noisy with the Morph knob set at or near the minimum, but it was still a lot quieter than the Boost channel of my amp (and a lot better-sounding, too). Low and Hi controls are well-voiced and very functional; I've heard a lot of pedals where the tone controls only sound good in one position, but on the Metal Master I can set these two knobs anywhere from halfway to full-on and still get a useful, well-defined tone. I didn't care for the lowest settings of the Morph control, between about 7 and 9 o'clock, (too noisy and compressed), but past 9 o'clock the sound of this pedal really comes alive. Here are my two favorite settings: (1) Low and Hi maxed out, Morph at 11 o'clock (great Robin Trower "Bridge of Sighs" tone through the rhythm pickup; (2) Low and Hi maxed out, Morph at 4 o'clock (great with any pickup combination--sounds like Jake E. Lee on Ozzy's "The Ultimate Sin.")

I just bought this pedal yesterday, so I can't really comment on this. But this pedal seems very heavy and solid, and the footswith is very positive, quiet and smooth.

This is my first DigiTech product. I bought it at the Guitar Center in Amherst, New York, and I paid $19.99 for two-year replacement protection. (Not a bad deal, since the salesman threw in a free AC adaptor.)

I like everything from classic rock (Allmans, Doors, Mountain, Outlaws, Bad Company...) Latin, flamenco, gypsy jazz, metal, surf and alternative. Anything but country, rap and punk. This pedal is a little too dirty for classic rock, but it's fine for heavy metal. You're not going to sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan or Dick Dale with this pedal. I don't really hate anything about this unit--it's quiet, toneful, and it's like adding a third channel to my amp for only eighty bucks. What I love best is the sound--tight, solid bottom end and fat, sassy highs. A lot of people have trashed this pedal in reviews, and a lot have praised it too. I think if you have crappy pickups in your guitar you are probably not going to like this pedal. Also, if you use shitty strings (like Fender 150's .008's or those strings they sell at Guitar Center for ten sets for $3.95), then you're probably going to hate the bottom end of ANY pedal. So put on some decent strings, like GHS Super Steels or Dean Markley Cryogenics, and change them once in a while. And get a book, like Dan Erlewine's "How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great," because a lot of good guitar players don't even know the correct way to put strings on a guitar. Also, it will help a lot if you lower the bass side of your pickups, especially the rhythm pickup, and raise the polepieces so you are getting more of a single coil sound out of your wound strings. If you are using pickups without adjustable polepieces, you're probably going to get mud out of the bottom end, no matter what pedal you are using.

This is a follow up to my earlier review when I decided to totally trashed this pedals quality but, now I'm changing my review because I finally found a purpose for the Metal Master. The change in my opinion is because I discovered this pedals true worth is to be an overdrive pedal for an amps distortion. On its own this pedal sounds laughable and doesnt produce any good professional sounds however, when you blend this pedals distortion with your amps distortion it produces a great sound and you can pretty much simulate most amp models from the Marshall to the Mesa Boogie. What I found is that my amps distortion cleaned up all the annoying whaling noise that came out of Master Master yet, it preserved the heavy bottom end thump used for palm mutes and amazingly gave my amp and guitar a rich tone through. The trick to doing this is to lower your guitar volume to about its lowest point and then to crank up the level dial on the pedal to at least 12 oclock or higher. The MOrph dial will give you more treble and bass presence to your sound depending upon how heavy you want to go. The high and Low dials will also increase your volume. YOu can easily get the sounds to most metallica songs by tweaking the settings this way and I even got a hendrix and zeppelin sound by doing this. This pedal has potential.

After making this pedal into an amp overdrive, I now appreciate its worth because its swirling noise quality blends in well with the amps distortion which results in giving off a rich and full tone perfect for metal or hard rock. Its definantly now an asset to me and I plan on making it part of my rig.

Very simple to get an awesome distortion sound, there are four knobs; Level(Volume), Low(Bottom), High(Crunch), and Morph(changes colour of sound). Note: There is no "Gain" knob, but then again if you are playing metal who turns down the gain.

I'm using a Samick Greg Bennett Torino T-R1, and 15 watt Peavy Rage 158 and I'm using this pedal as a secondary distortion instead my amps distortion(super crap). The distorion on this is great, you can vary your sound from a high gain "AC/DC" type sound to the bottomless sound of "Cradle Of Filth". But there are some things i don't like about this pedal. The pedal eats batteries like crazy, I played for like 2 hours, and the batteries ran out(I went out and got an adaptor and it works perfect(Highly Recommended)and its very worth it in the long run). Another thing is that once the "Level" knob is turned past half way, it gives crazy feedback if you stop playing for a second and it pierces your ears. Also, I didn't like the way the pedal sounded when I muted out notes while playing, it sounded like a high pitched "chink" whereas I wanted more of a "plick" sound.

I have had this pedal for about 4 months now and its has never broken or fooled up once since I got an adaptor.

Never dealt with them.

I play mostly metal and rock and its works pretty good for the most part. If it were stolen or lost, I might decide to invest my money on a better amp before purchasing this pedal. I love the heavy punch this pedal makes and I love the screams in my solos that it makes. The only things that I hate about this pedal were already descibed in the sound quality section. I would recommend this pedal to anyone who wanted some serious high gain distortion sound in their guitar playing.