DigiTech X-Series Metal Master

this pedal has one main problem no mid control other than the morph knob which is only 50% effective as a change of distortion tone knob.

I found this pedal to have one ot two sweet spots but not much variety in fine tuning tone.mainlt for the processed distorion and the missing mid or mid frequencies knob(which make the distortion factory much better but not as good as the boss metal zone plus)the metal zone is fairly good for certain types of music but with very little tonal changiblity for fine tuning you sound.you can get in the ball park but not in your zone. a heavy pedal but lacks general eq funtioniblity sadly.

pretty well built pedal but i've heard some complains.

great foe heavy distorted nu-metal but if tone is important this one lack some important eq funtions no mids+/- control.but it's not a total peice but could be improved.a little processed sounding and bassy.

Four knobs, on-off... No gain knob; it's just cranked to 11.

When I first got this for Christmas a few years ago, I was like, "well this says Metal Master, so it better be darn monsterous!" I was mostly right. Tons upon tons upon tons of gain, and let's not forget gain. And a bit more gain? The EQ on this pedal is pretty cool but it's limited. Has a nice low end that thumps when you hit those detuned strings and do some palm mutes, but the treb is a bit shrill and the whole thing sounds pretty digital. It doesn't cut through the mix very well, so probably not a good pedal for recording although I was able to warm it up with a nice four-track recorder when I attempted it. The amp sim out is pretty unique, helps kill that nasty high end, I used it for solos sometimes because it's got a nice mid range kind of boxy (amplike) feel. I was kind of split down the middle about this pedal. Great bottom end, the most bone-crushing drop-A palm mutes I've ever heard come from my guitars. The gain kills the Metal Zone (at least in terms of the amount on tap), and it's nice and simple. The bad side is that damn trebble! It's just too digital sounding. The overall tone is pretty digital in fact.

It's heavy, even without the battery! It's wide and solid metal, very good tention on the pedal and you can really stomp this thing! I dropped it a few times and it's been thrown around, played catch with, etc. Not really, but it's a tank! Seriously for the price, you're paying 80% for the construction.
The battery life sucks though, it takes maybe four hours and you're replacing the battery! I once took off the cover and the battery was pretty warm, so this pedal really sucks up juice.

Never needed them.

This is a great beginners distortion pedal. It's fairly cheap, built well and has enough gain for any mega-chugger to be happy. I also owned a MetalZone at the time and this pedal beat the crap out of it in every aspect (Boss pretty much sucks since they've gone digital). I ended up selling both and buying a Guyatone Metal Monster and currently have a Digi Hardwire TL2 on the way as well as a Metal Muff (I love good gear). I'll post my luck with these as well when I've had time to test them out. I kinda wish i kept my MM though. It was a one-trick pony but heavy as hell.

Its very very easy to get started on dis piece of sound machine!!!

Its perfect!!! Im playing my Jackson RR3 with dis piece of gold and its satisfied me most than other distortion pedals! I can get sound frm Iron Maiden to Lam Of God genre,can u see how dis pedal works!!! I recommend dis pedal to those who are into Metal musics and you will be supprise!!! For those who rate dis pedal lower than 9,i think you got a hearing problems Or they are not a metallist musicians,sorry to sdaid dat!!! Go and do some homeworks on dis machine you guyzs!!!

Very very important stuff to me coz theres no point to have any other distortion pedals whereelse there are already 10 distorts in dis 1 piece of gold ****!!!

Ill state dat it was d best distortion pedal till now!

This is a straight forward easy to use effect. Read the instruction manual,set the controls and have fun! Just remember to unplug your cords from it the minute you are done playing because it IS a battery eater. When you get to almost the last page of the instructions there is the DISCLAIMER! Todays batteries cannot keep up with the current draw from this effect so purchasing the optional AC adaptor is recommended. It has some proprietary plug in so I guess you have to buy theirs which I just did.I have over a dozen 9 volt adaptors and none of them work on this pedal so yet again I have to fork over another 20 plus dollars for the joys of using their products. See my review of the Jimi Hendrix Pedal

This effect actually sounds better with a guitar that has single coils than one with humbuckers and absolutely forget it with one that has active pickups (EMG's cause to much clipping)
Yes it is noisy but after all it is a high gain effect and you have to expect a little noise but it is not an unbearable amount of hiss.
I play it through a 66 Fender Bassman/66 Shomman cab with 2 JBL D-130 F's and as far as the rest of my effects chain, well that is privelidged info. Now through the Soldano SLO 100 I will get a little clipping so I just roll off the effects volume to almost zero
and the clipping goes away. I just wish it had a distortion control to help get rid of the clipping with humbuckers and actives.Yes, I do realize it is a distortion pedal but there is such a thing as waaaay too much distortion.
IMHO the best sounds in this thing start at 10 o'clock on the morph knob to about two o'clock. Remember,taste is subjective. Tone I hate may be the one you love.

I have owned it for over three months and use it every day.Outside of the battery issues it does exactly what I expected it to do. It is a very well built piece of equipment and have had no problems with it.

Have not had to deal with them so I reaaly don't know yet.

Been playing 40 years and I like almost all music as long as it is played tastefully and skillfully.
Just remember the sound is in your heart and hands so practice,practice,practice!
I will not compare this to other effects out there which often leads to bashing something another company produces because one day maybe Digitech will want to sponsor me or my band.
Like any new toy, you play with it a lot and it often helps you to adventure into a new territory. This toy did with me!
Would I buy another one if it were lost or stolen? Probably unless I heard one that was a lot better and as of right now this one fits the bill.

Simple pedal. Only difference with comparable units is Morph knob and cab sim output. Cab sim is useless and Morph is limited, but it's all pretty easy.

This pedal puts out an inredibly processed signal. It DOES produce a very chunky sought-after palm-muted metal sound (reminiscent of Pain), but that is probably its single redeeming quality.

It is so processed that it almost sounds like a full-fledged preamp to my ears. This is bad. I HAVE gotten this pedal to sound good by putting a boss GE-7 after, cutting the 3Khz, boosting the 6Khz, and running it into a very clean Ampeg bass amp (but playing guitar). This cuts harshness and actually gave me a nice live sound once.

However I have NEVER AGAIN found a another setup where I could get a good sound out of this pedal. It ruins toneful amps, and the harshness is excruciating through tube amps. Not to mention the built-in cab sim is terrible and useless. You need a preamp and a poweramp before you go to a cab sim, period. Totally useless for recording. Perhaps OK for practicing through headphones with the right adapter.

The 'Morph' feature is simply a combination of EQ-ing mids and playing around with an exciter/enhancer. I can get the exact same transitions by playing around with the exciter on my Rocktron mAxe preamp or by putting a Boss EH-2 and Boss GE-7 after any metal pedal. Nothing special at all; in fact, most settings on the Morph are unusable. Settings start getting usable at about 11:00, but I would never use it before 1:00 because the mids are voiced badly to the left.

I must say that the High and Low knobs are exceptionably well voiced on this unit, compared to its competitors. But it could use more volume and a gain knob (???). It does not react to guitar volume all that well.

Flimsier than a boss, but it's lasted me 6 years so far with no problems!!!

Overall, the only appeal this unit has is its palm mute characteristics. Other than that, the Metal Master is absolutely terrible. I've been trying to find a place for it for 6 years on and off (because the palm muted sound IS quite that good and I haven't found it anywhere else, except perhaps a Sansamp), and I've managed only once. Digital strikes again.

I find the Digitech Grunge in the new series is a lot better than this pedal in many ways, even though it's very far from perfect itself (its signal is less processed, although it cuts through even less than the MM). The Zoom Tri-Metal also sounds a LOT less processed than the Metal Master, but it does not achieve the same palm-muting sound. It is a little more unique and perhaps better than the Boss Metal Zone, but in the same ballpark.

I would not buy this again.

4 controls. simple to use. Manual is fine.

I use this with a number of amps big and small, sounds good with both, sounds good with a little reverb from my Digital Reverb. It isn't noisy at all (Be sure you use a good DC so you don't get hum). Morph knob is wonderful. The first few distortion settings are pretty weak (I'm sure one is that Arion MM) I'd like a mid knob... I think it sounds best with the level at 6 or 7, low at 5-7, hi 5-7 and the morph 5-8. Destroys the Boss Metal Zone. Doesn't sound good through a v-amp 2... but really no pedals do.

Pretty solid pedal... weighs about 3 times as much as most others, very reliable. I'd use this stomp box at a gig for sure.

Never had to.

I play Metal and some heavier rock on this, perfect for it. I've been playing 10-12 years or so. I own a grunge pedal, used to own a Boss metal zone before this one. I'd HAVE to replace this one if it were gone. I love everything but the lack of a mid knob. Choose this one because my friends all love it. The out 2 to mixer is pretty useless for me. Wish it were lower priced.

not gonna repeat this anymore. 4 knobs, very easy to use. Morph feature is amazing

I use this to play metal -obviously- through a marshall mode4 head, 4x12 V30 Marshall cab and a Jackson dk10 guitar. I compared the MM with boss MT-pedals, the Line6 uber-metal and other digitech pedals (death metal), but the MM was my favourite by far. It gets the trash metal sound I want, it sounds really great.

this is where I stop giving good grades. When I bought my first MM, it died on me after 2 weeks playing. At a certain moment it started making a really loud cracking sound, and then it just stopped workingh, while the LED stayed on. When I unplugged the cables, the LED turned off, but it still wouldn't work. after a couple of hours, I could turn it on again, but after five minutes of playing the same thing happened. I changed battery, amp, guitar, cables, but nothing worked.
Returned it to the store, got a new one. This one did the exact same thing after two days !!!
Returned it to the store again and said **** off, I don't want it anymore.
But after some time I really missed the sound of the MM and I ordered a new one online in germany. This one hasn't died on me after 6 months, so I think i just had bad luck getting two ****** up pedals from the same faulthy series. *knocks on wood

didn't deal with digitech, but the people at the shop were i bought the mallfunctioning pedals were nice and helpfull

I really love the sound of the MM. I wouldn't have tried it 3 times if I didn't like it :p
If you play metal of any kind, this is the pedal for you. Make sure you have a guarantee though ;)
10 for the sound, 2 for reliability, total = 8

Well, Its Pretty Easy to Work With 4 Knobs

It really Great, Even If You Use It For A Direct Recording, It Perfect for a Metal Sound

2 years, Works Fine

No Deal !

I Play Thrash/Heavy Metal I really Like It It Gives me A Powerful Metal Sound

very easy to use morph feature is cool as hell

has a great sound but i can not use my high output humbuckers(dimarzio ect.) or it clips and cuts out. level output is very mild compared to my Zoom Tri-Metal even cranked it's weak i orginally bought it to replace my tri metal what a waste

Crap, absoulute Crap it kills batterys real fast

Save your money i've had two that did the exact same thing.

4 KNOBS - **** EASY TO GET GOOD SOUNDS

I'm using a Mashall Mosfet amp. Most pedals sound like crap through this amp. This pedal gets any metal sound I want. I was very impressed.

Just got it but it weighs more than any pedal I have ever had...built like the proverbial tank

never used them

Did lots!!!!! of research. Made the right decision with this pedal. Would immediately replace if lost or stolen

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.

n/a

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.

N/A

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.

N/A

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.

the sound is pretty much set right out of the box...the only time u can get bad sound is turning down the morph knob to 0..sounds like an am radio....

im using a fender stage 160 which sounds good as fuck with this pedal..the distortion is thick saturated with the right amount of mids already added....theres also no high fuzzy noisy shit u cant get rid of and this doesnt sound "vintage" which is perfect...

ALRIGHT NOW HERES THE FUCKIN PROBLEM..I BOUGHT THIS USED AND 10 MINUTES LATER IT STARTED TO MAKE HELICOPTER NOISES...THEN I COULDNT GET IT TO STOP UNLESS I UNPLUGED BOTH CORDS...WELL PLUG THEM BACK IN AND THE FUCKIN THING WONT TURN BACK ON!!!...SO I HAD TO UNPLUG THE BATTERY EACH TIME AFTER EVERY 5 to 10 MINUTES OF PLAYING...THATS TNOT THE WORST PART..I TOOK THE USED PEDAL TO 2 MUSIC STORES THEY TESTED IT AND CONFIRMED "IT WAS FUCKED!!" SO..... I BUY A BRAND NEW ONE...and the FUCKIN PIECE OF SHIT DID THE EXACT SAME THING!!! i DONT KNOW WHY NO 1 ELSE HAS HAD THIS PROBLEM.SOMEHOW I SEEM TO HAVE GOTTEN A BATCH OF THE FAULTY PEDALS HERE...BUT 2 in a row?? THIS THING IS WORTH BUYING BUT IF IT DOESNT FUCKIN WORK HOW THE FUCK CAN I USE IT!!
I ALWAYS LOVE TO HAVE "potential tone", tone that sounds great but i cant FUCKIN USE!! but im going to buy a 3rd pedal (I HOPE THE SHIT WORKS)

i emailed them, havent recieved a response yet

8 for a Great fuckin sound BUT WOULD BE NICE IF I HAD ONE THAT WORKED FOR MORE THEN 10 MINUTES......

this will be a short review as the pedal was designed for one thing, more or less, and its dead simple to operate. thick and evil distortion with no bells or whistles. the manual is sparse and rightfully so

I am somewhat of a pedal hound, and in my righteous wisdom I employ a Boss LS-2 line selector pedal... which kicks ass for comparing similar pedals side by side. twiddle a knob, hit a chord, kick the switch, hit another chord through a different pedal, all going through the same guitar and amp at the same time with the same settings.
now I have no idea why, but I also own a new digitech DF-7 Distortion Factory (among several other distortion and OD pedals) and immediatly upon recieving my XMM today I pitted it against the DF-7 in a little grindfest shootout.
I THOUGHT the two would be nearly identical in sound... this is not the case. Ive found the DF-7, while it does have an abundance of sounds on tap and a broad eq spectrum, to be a little noisy, a little brash, and generally digital sounding.
now of course both pedals do sound slightly digital, because they are, but the XMM's voicing is much more musical sounding.
the lows are tight and punchy and the highs dont have as much fizzle as the DF-7. in short it is an Excellent pedal for all of your violent metal stylings. Ive had all of the boss, dod, and digitech models and Ive got a good handfull of boutique models, and aside from my Love Pedal Blackmagic, which is the One Ring to Rule Them All... the XMM is the one I will turn to for groin kicking intestinal spillage in a distortion. basically Cannibal Corpse in a box.
as a caveat however, I will say lead tones through either pedal leave much to be desired. the XMM juices out some nice harmonics certainly, but ultimately my humble shredocity doesnt have the pleasing sting and sag that a good analog distortion provides.
also, this pedal will not preserve your guitars pure tone, but if you are using it for the purpose its designed for that probably doesnt matter anyway.
I give it an 8 because it does what it was built for extremely well.

feels solid. never had a problem with digitech pedals before.

see above

great metal distortion pedal, probably the best one available at this time for this price. loads better than many others, and has a better crunch than more expensive digitech multiFX processors. I cant put my finger on it, but theres definately something very likable about this one.

Theres not too much to say about this ,is as easy to edit as makin scrambled eggs.
The manual is good but you dont need it.

This pedal is to play Heavy metal 80s tone and thats what i play so dont bother telling that "This not sound like Korn, or linkin park""
I use it with my Marshall AVT 100 and believe me, i can get real warm fat metal distortion that will make you headbangers proud,also classic 70s distortion, i can go from DEF LEPPARD to Megadeth or Stryper and even death metal,trash sounds , i also own a Peavey Envoy 110 and sounds great there too.
Can be just little noisy as every distor pedal but just in the super high gain settings.
But believe me this thing is far superior than the Metal ZOne because this pedal has more distortion modes.

Built like a tank , yeah i would use it without backup

I never dealed with them but i guees theyre good

As i said before i wanted real Heavy metal,Trash distortion and this one gives me all that, been playing for 5 years now, what i like most about it is that when soloing it dosnt sound weak it sounds real.
If stolen i would buy another.
I choose this instead of a metal zone which i think its good but not have this 3 types of distortions.
It shurely make me inspired and very happy i feel like playing trough a Marshall jcm 900 or as playing with slash`s gear.
Just try it with a nice amp like a marshall or peavey

Could it be easier? Well, yes and no...let me explain.
Volume knob--self explanatory. Low and High (EQ) knobs. Easy-breezy. The morph knob is where things get complicated. You can fiddle with the thing for a couple of hours looking for exactly what you want. And then that can all change in an instant by tweaking the EQ knobs.
Usually my favorite sound comes from the volume at the 10 o'clock position, bass all the way up, volume at the 3 or 4 o'clock position, and the Morph knob at just a little before 12 o'clock. If you want an '80s heavy metal sound a la Slayer look no further, but the versatility of this pedal extends to newer metal--I'll refrain from calling it nu-metal, something I really feel is an insult...anything with a hip-hop-like spelling isn't worthy for my ears.
The manual is the same standard little booklet for all X-series guitar and bass pedals. Each 2-page section shows you how to get different sounds as compared to other famous pedals in the same category. But this is all just a starter; find your own sound by fiddling.

Honestly, out of their little suggested presets in the booklet, the Boss one I think sounds the best. But really, having never used a Boss DS-1, I don't know how close the sound is. What I can tell is that, through the right amp and with the right guitar, you can get a very Guns 'N Roses-ish sound. My own axe is an Epiphone G400 w/maple neck and EMG-81 (bridge) and EMG-85 (neck) pickups, so it's far from difficult to replicate a Les Paul sound. Some of the more middle-intensive warmth is lost, due to them being active pups but even more importantly being more metal-oriented hot pups, but distorted or overdriven this is really unnoticeable and I like how the Metal Master isn't dependent on mids like a Marshall; it's more like a Crate or a Mesa/Boogie in that it caters to a more bass- and treble-intensive sound, especially fun when you crank it through a bass amp; using a simple Crate BFX-15 15 watt bass amp, I can get some very loudly-thumping grindingly-loud sounds that never touch on harsh. That's how I like all my music to sound--with emphasized bass that's well balanced with the treble and is relatively low on the mids...not so low as to be thin and lifeless, just at the edge where if there were more mids the sound would get dull and muddy.
As I've said before, I use a Crate BFX-15 15 watt bass amp, and it sounds great with this pedal, using either output--either the normal Amp out or the CIT Equalized out. The Equalized out jack is meant to plug straight into your recording source without the need for a mic'ed-up amp. I believe that the EQ is modeled slightly after a Marshall, but again it never grows muddy or overly-warm with mids.
As much as I like this pedal, it does contribute a rather nasty amount of noise--even as quiet as my pickups normally are (even though they don't quite add up to Fender's new Samarium Cobalt Noiseless pickups in their new American Deluxe Series guitars) I hear it all loud and clear with the Metal Master. Compared to how loud my pickups are when you play them, as compared to when the guitar is idle, though, as long as I'm hitting strings the noise is virtually non-existent.
One thing: it might be the amps I'm using, which are a Fender Mini Deluxe or Marshall MS-2 9-volt-battery-run practice amps, but when the morph knob is turned exactly to the 9 o'clock position, artificial harmonics are a bit easier to sound out, but feedback is also EXTREMELY easy to induce.
Aside from just being a distortion pedal, I've found this pedal to be useful for other things. My favorite purpose for this pedal, even beyond being a distortion stompbox, is exploiting the CIT modeling. Let me explain: my neighbor moved out about 2 months ago, and he couldn't figure out how to get his Crate BV120H head and Crate 4x12 100 watt amp combo out to texas in his Chevy Tahoe. So he left it with me. I've been happy, and even though I said my pickups don't suit a warm-toned amp, the mahogany of my guitar begs to be heard, and it just plain isn't out of the Crate. So I hook the Metal Master up to the power source, place it as the only pedal in the effects loop, use the CIT modeling out-jack back into the effects loop of the amp, then turn on the effects loop and 12dB volume pad. Then I just use the amp's own overdrive; because the CIT modeling out-jack isn't tonally transparent (the EQ effects the signal whether the pedal is switched on or not) it makes the amp sound a bit more like a Marshall, but with a bit of the less-mid-presence that I said I liked about Crates. Of course I could probably skip this if I swapped the tubes out for some warmer ones. But I found it's a good idea, and so I propose it to others with effects loop in- and out-jacks on their amps to do the same.

A simple 9, because, even though the thing is built like an anchor on a Nimitz-class carrier, the Nimitz would go longer on a 9 volt battery. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but really, these things eat batteries up. I can't remember how many batteries I went through before I wisened up and drove my ass down to Fry's for a voltage-selectable, interchangeable-tip and tip-polarity adapter. It's a little fun when you let the battery run out, you get a stutter effect of the signal constantly cutting rapidly in and out, but its fun for maybe 2 minutes until you realize you can't switch the pedal off now.

I haven't had to deal with Digitech, hope I don't have to. I've been so pleased by the Metal Master and how well it's built that I now plan on buying a GNX4 or, even more likely and even more preferably, the brand-spankin'-new GNX3000.
I've read a lot of reviews and consumer-posed questions, even on Digitech's own website, of people wondering what the stuttering or rotary sound is after about half an hour play, when I knew from the start.

Great pedal, very useful, not just for distortion but also for that CIT modeling.

Very easy to get massive amounts of 'metal' gain from the get-go. The morph feature is nice to. This is the first super-high-gain pedal I have heard that does not sound 'nasally' and 'mid rangy' like the Boss and DOD. This is a very nice pedal if you want smooth, creamy massive, gain. Most other pedals have a lot of mid-range, like your wah pedal is stuck in the middle, but not this one. It sings!

I play through either a Crate Vintage Club 60 or (now) a neat little Peavey Classic 30. This pedal turns both conservative amps into a massive metal machine. To really experience this pedal, you MUST play thru an all tube amplifier in the clean channel. It really sounds AMAZING on my Tele's neck pickup. Superb singing sustain. Also, this pedal is very quiet and very well built. The level control is nice, 'specially on a tube amp where you can kick up the clean volume, drive the tubes and use the pedal's level control to control the output. I have to give this a high mark for the sound quality. It's not versatile, it's full-tilt super high gain, and it does a helluva job at it. If you want 'blues tone' get a blues driver. You won't get anything but super-massive-high-gain singing sing-sing from this pedal.

Don't know. On;y had it about a week. Seems VERY well built. It's heavy, and I can't see any plastic anywhere. 'Tis all die-cast metal.

Never had to deal w/them.

I play anything from blues to pop to 'brown sound' (Van Halen) to Ritchie Blackmore tone. My amps can cover the blues and pop/rock crunch tone, but to send your amp over the edge of super-high gain, this pedal does the trick. Nice EQ, not midrangy or nasally. Very sweet, singy sounds especially thru a tube amp set on the clean channel. I am very impressed that this pedal can turn my Telecaster into a big, fat, sustainy beast. Therefore, if you're looking for a pedal that's a one-trick pony metal, brown sound, woman-tone beast, this is the one. I really can't find any faults about it.

this is an update from a post some months ago
easy to use more gear needed to get right sound.

when i first got this pedal it fell short of the sound i wanted but i thought it had potential. first of all get a noise gate i use ns2 and it is ok next you must get some eq like boss ge7 this makes the sound so much better.if i turn the ge7 off it sounds shite and would probably throw the m.m. in the bin.
ive had loads of gear over the last 20years zoom.boss.korg e.t.c.and spent a fortune,but looking back ive never been totaly happy with the sound.now at last this is it for the first time i am totaly happy with my tone.

had no problems so far.

nope

i play prog metal, dream theater and symphony x, slightly cut the mids on the ge7 base at 0 treble at 1 and ive got the most wonderful symphony x sound. i have an ear for tone and this is as good as it gets for the amount of money spent.
boss ns2-metal master-boss ge7-boss ch1 into 2 marshall 30 watt valvestates. pete back hand made guitars,like ibanez with locking trem only a fucking 1000 times better.
i would buy the whole lot again cos ive been searching for 20 years for the right tone and this set up is the best ive found i intend sticking with it.
just to recap i dont think this pedal would be any good on its own,same as any other distortion in my opinion but used with gear above it transforms into one hell of a sound and far better than multi effects ive had in the past.

There are 4 knobs... - what should be difficult? ;)

I am using an ESP Grass Roots-Guitar and a Korg Toneworks AX100G as 'booster' and noise-gate (before the MetalMaster), after that there's a Peavey 2x80W Amp. There's not much noise (I use the Noise-Reduction from the AX100G). I can't understand how anybody can say, there would be 'heavy noise' with this pedal - do you use a wrong AC-Adapter?!?

I have tried the 'direct-recording' with the extra 'Mixer-Output' (=cabinet-emulation). It sounded far better than my Line6-Pod II!

The Morph-Knob is great. You can get nearly any distortion - from heavy-metal to death-metal-sound. The Lows are powerful and the Highs and Mids make a 'clean' sound.

I have tried a lot of other distortions before and sold most of them again... Few pedals are as good as this one (e.g. I recommend the Ibanez Tone-Lok SM7 to blackmetallers too).

Seems to be very robust, never threw it against the wall ;)

Never dealt with it.

This is one for metal-fans.

Very simple to use, literally plug-n-play! Lots of great sounds instantly available... if you know how to use them.

I do not own this pedal but did try one out at a Guitar Center in Ventura, California. I played it with the cheapest Ibanez strat (the ones they have out to demo effects with) going into a tiny CRATE amp... after a few minutes of noodling, the store manager came and asked me to "TURN IT UP" 'cause it sounded so good.
Sure, I've been playing for a long time and have my licks down, but I've gotta say this little pedal really CRANKS and added a lot to my jamming! Bottom line, it made the $200 worth of equipment I was playing sound amazing. Now, I already have my dream tones at home so I don't need this box, but I highly recommend it to anybody wanting to add a serious range of hard-rock/metal sounds to their arsenal.

Unfortunately my experience with other DigiTech products has been dismal... they tend to die for no apparent reason... even if you don't even touch them.

I wish I had this pedal back in the days when Metal ruled the world and I was going nuts trying to squeeze a decent lead tone out of a Tom Sholtz Rockman and the then available Boss pedals... man, Boss distortions just suck in my opinion.
Anyway, competent players will easily be able to get awesome sounds out of this bad boy... less talented ones will just bitch and moan and will have to continue searching for that ever elusive box that'll make them sound good. Just don't blame it on the pedal.

simple as you like..

pretty poo. you really really need to check it out before you buy it. it's very noisy and i've tried to record with it and it sounds terrible. to be honest i haven't found a decent metal so i can't recommend one. i'm not a boss man either but The metal zone is better than this...

the only thing goin for...it does seem pretty solid.

Haven't delt with them..

I love and play all kind of metal and some other stuff. and before anyone says any thing i only tried to use it for metal..
I really don't think this thing is worth buying. if it was your first pedal you'd think it was great but believe me, If you've played for a while and tried to use something like this on stage with a big stack you'd stink. all these guys given it 10 is bull. i'd only read the reviews that give it a lower rating. it's your own choice though.
my advise don't through your money away...

Very easy to use

This thing is the loudest, noisest piece of shit on the fucking planet... Anyone who thinks that they can make music with this God forsaken pedal either has poor musical taste, or they don't hear the static. Go get the other X-series rock distortion pedal insted.

I don't think you could ever break this thing, I've thought about throwing it across the room but realized that it would break whatever it hit rather than itself...

The batteries don't last too long on this pedal, but it's all good, just get the AC adapter if you have any problems.

I know I could depend on these guys.

Honestly, don't waste your time with this kind of distortion, it's too loud and squeaky for anything. Instead of using insane distortion, learn how to play really great, challanging clean music; you'll impress a lot more people and will still be able to hear after you are 30.

very very easy, 4 knobs, piece of cake

very BRUTAL distortion, i dont know what this kid was saying about not using it live, i've used it live countless times without falter, not to mention it works in great conjunction with the amp I use, fender cyber twin 130, so when i turn off the distortion, the clean is the best you can get. And just a word of advise to this rich ass hypocrit before me, you were talking about not using a distortion pedal live and to use an amp with real fuckin balls. You said you have a fuckin Randall!!! That amp is made for brutal distortion, Darral Fuckin Dimebag distortion!!! And you use a distortion pedal with it, what the fuck wrong with you. This thing has Brutal fuckin sound if you know what your doing.

Digitech!!!

never dealt

Amazing quality

its a goddamn stopbox. easy as shit

i use a randall stack, dimebag darrell Dime3db guitar, crybaby wah,digitech chorus pedal and then this thing. i find the sound of this pedal a tad bit weak and fuzzy, its got a good amount of fuckin noise with it. one of my friends has an MXR doubleshot distortion, that blows this motherfucking pedal out of the water.By its self this pedal sounds similar to the megadeth album Rust in Peace. dont get me wrong that album is kick ass but it aint heavy. but if u add an MXR ten band EQ you start to hear similarities of the albums countdown to Extinction or some pretty heavy slayer. this pedal is good for playing in your basement or bedroom, u cant use this thing live for a couple of reasons, for one u shouldnt have to use a distortion pedal live, u should have a bad assed amp like mine for heavy distortion, all u assholes who buy these measa booger dual rectos and then hook a distortion pedal up to it need to learn more about heavy sound. if u gotta use a distortion pedal live then use the MXR doubleshot, seriously that thing kills. another reason is the noise that comes with this damn thing, even with a noise reductor it still fucks things up, this isnt a pedal that u turn up loud but i dont kno maybe it will sound good for u fuckers. this may be a good pedal for those faggot ass nu metal bands full of gay fucks who cant even solo. or maybe not. if u want real metal like metallica,slayer,anthrax,Damageplan,and megadeth.... get the MXR or a really bad ass amp like a marshall mode four or some shit.

i notice a sound difference sometimes after i uplug my stuff but i hear this from other people too. its built like a Hummer H2

havent talked to them

despite some of the bullshit about it its a pretty good distortion pedal, it beats the hell out of the boss metal zone. not many pedals have this sorta sound but no pedal compares to bonecrushing amp distortion. im 14 and have been playing for a while, ive used alot of guitars,amps, and pedals. this one isnt too bad.

4 knobs: Level (volume), Hi, Lo, Morph (varies the type of distortion). No Gain knob, which is a shame, but doesn't bother that much tbh.

Ok, this is the first distortion pedal i've tried that deserves the name "brutal". This pedal produces a real balls to the wall tone.

I've had the Boss Metal Zone and Ibanez Smash Box SM-7 pedals before, and for the music i play (metal), this one is far superior.

The only drawback is that it produces some noise. But i'd never play high gain metal without a decent noise gate anyways. Trust me, this pedal justifies it, so get a Boss NS-2 to accompany the MM.

It's built like a tank, personally i dont know how people manage to break it. Very heavy and sturdy.

No comments.

I play hard metal (black, death), and this is THE pedal for it. Far superior to Boss Metal Zone and quite a lot better than Ibanez Smash Box SM-7.

A+

This has got to be one of the easiest distortion pedals to use in the world. No just take about thirty seconds playin with it and you'll have a killer fuckin sound.

Ok, first off this distortion is one BRUTAL mother fucker, easily comparable to a mesa triple rectifier, VHT pitbull, or a Rocktron Pirhana. As far as noise, there is a little, but I just started using a boss GE-7 equilizer, and there is almost no noise at all. I use mainly a jackson USA rhodes with Duncan livewire metal in the bridge, that makes it even better, i sometimes will do a pinch harmonic without intending to, and when i do want to theres no falling off or going dull, this thing is good!!

I gig without backups, in all seriousness, it's a fuckin digitech!!!! You'd probably have the pound it with a sledgehammer for about 30 minutes to break it.

never had any problems, and they were doing a buy 2 get one free on the x series when i bought this 2 years ago, and they sent me the free one.

I have 3 bands right now, one is eightys style hair metal, one is a straight up Grindcore, and the other is a thrash band. I use this for all of them, and this thing can produce the perfect sound. if it were stolen i'd buy a new one. The only distortion pedal that i think can beat this is the rocktron silver dragon, but that thing is 130 bucks, and i dont wanna spend that on a distortion when i've already got a killer one. And as a final remark, if you get this then buy the boss ge-7, it makes the sound even better.

This is a update from my past post.

It's very easy, at least for me it was. I've changed the settings on the pedal as well as on my Crate head. My sound is better, not as trebly and bassy. I let the amp do that and the pedal just gives it a kick in the ass.

Going to be changing the bridge pickup in my ESP H-301. Still not sure but either a Seymour Duncan Full Shred or Live Wire Heavy Metal. Still the ESP->Metal Master->Crate GX130C Head->Behringer 4X12. I might also get a noise gate, I want to get my tone as machine like as I can. I go for the high gain, clarity. It's still brutal but most people I know go for a muddy, thick sound but I want people to be able to hear every note and chord I play so they can hear the technical aspect of my music.

I try to aim for a Shadows Fall/Skinless high gain that sounds crisp and crunchy on palm mutes.

I have a AC adapter for it. It's not going to crap out anytime soon. It's been through a bunch of jams and tons of personal practices. It's a tank and a half.

Haven't dealt with DigiTech.

Amazing. It's perfect for my thrashcore band. Think along the lines of Lamb of God and a less melodic Shadows Fall. I'm a death-head forever and this pedal works just as good for death metal. It can also handle hardcore. I couldn't have asked for more.

This is definitely an easy pedal to use. Just plug in, experiment with the 4 knobs, and you're gonna like the sound, especially if you are into any kind of metal.

Right now, I'm using this pedal with a PRS 24 along with a crybaby and a boss compressor into a peavey ultra 112 tube amp. I also use a down-tuned Ibnaez S470 through the same rig and am very impressed with the overall sound and range of this pedal. I had been using a boss metal zone for the past 4 years and this pedal has more bottom end and a fuller, punchier sound. With my PRS, I can get more of a classic rock tone if I turn up the midrange on my amp, have the morph knob around 10 o'clock and turn down the volume a bit on my guitar. This pedal is called the metal master for a reason and if you like a tight chainsaw sound, this is the quickest way to get it.

I've only had the pedal for a week, but it is very solid and well constructed.

Great freakin' pedal...

Pretty much a no-brainer, you got bass, treble, and the morph knob kind of controls the mids, I usually have the morph around 2 o'clock or so, below halfway sounds a little weird, and turned all the way up you get ultra sick death metal distortion.

This thing is one mean mother. You'll have all the bass and treble you could ever want with this thing, very powerful sounding. Just keep in mind it's called the metal master, and it's tone is good but only for metal. I play a mexican made Fender strat throuh a peavey bandit 112 that has it's power going to a Randall 4x12 cabinet.

One thing I cannot stress enough: You must buy the AC adapter for this pedal!! It requires 9.6 volts and will sound not near as good with anything else. I used a radio shack ac adapter for awhile and I got a constant super loud and annoying hum. Another thing is you will probably want to have some kind of noise gate with this pedal. I use a boss noise suppressor, I think the nd-2 or something and it works great. So basically if you want this sound it's going to cost you a couple hundred bucks, which I would say is worth it, but then again you could get a Randall rh100 for a little over 300 I think. Tough decision, but I will say this; playing through this pedal gives me an evil smile all the time, especially when playing, for example, lamb of god, sounds frightenly close.

Again, make sure you buy the AC Adapter!!
Haven't had a problem, this thing seems pretty solid, it's very heavy.

If you want to play brutal and powerful sounding metal, this is a pretty good little pedal to use, say if you already have a powerful amp but don't like it's distortion. Just keep in mind you'll be spending an extra 26 bucks for the ac adapter and you'll probably want a noise suppressor too, which is another 80 bucks or so. I've been playing for 10 years and overall I'm pretty happy with this pedal, I gave it an 8 just because of the extra costs.

This would have to be the simplest piece of equipment I own. But changing the settings of your Head or combo to get your sound is another story.

I have a Ibanez RG370 with A digitech metal master X-series, Digitech RP80 Multi-Fx Pedal, and crybaby Wah all running through a Crate GXT100 head and crate 4x12 box.

This Pedal is a noisy mother... It hums very bad with an AC adaptor. If you are going to record tracks with this pedal, DONT BE CHEAP AND PURCHASE A BATTERY! it will take 85% of the humming away. This pedal is awsome if you can tweak it properly with your settings on your head or combo or purchase an EQ, you will get a wicked sound. The only noise gate I have tried this pedal with is the one in my multi-fx pedal, it did not one thing at all (it might decrease with other noise gates). alot of the humming will deffantly come from the AC adaptor. But this leaves you with the problem with the battery making your pedal chucking a spaz.

I bought one MM X-series and I used a battery for 1 day and the next day the pedal started making like an echo sound like it was jumping, so I took the pedal back and got another on and the same thing happened again. If you are going to use batterys buy descent ones, the pedal dont like el'cheapo ones.

I still use a AC adaptor at gigs and band practice though, I recomend not taking the risk of the pedal going mental on you insted of METAL! In my opinion this Pedal shits all over any other distrotion pedals I have used, but like most things in life it's going to have its faults. You can achieve so many differant sounds out this pedal its not funny. I created some very nice original sounds with this pedal mixing it with other effects, but you have to be dedicated to working all its faults out to use it effectively.

I play all kinds of metal, but if you are looking to imatate Slipknots sound you can deffantly do it with this pedal, it's either buying this pedal or the more costly LINE 6 spider heads. If you are more into stuff like God Forbid, KsE, At The gates, Children Of bodom like me, then I would recomend testing some heads out to try and recieve the sound you are looking for. But deffantly test out the MM X-series it may be for you.

You can rely on this pedal if you have a AC adaptor, but with a battery defantly not.

This is the only pedal I would buy for metal, but it's personal prefrence. I have been playing guitar for 8 years and this is the most wide stretched distortion pedal I have used. I love the fact that you can achieve a really chunky sound, but I hate the fact that their is just not enough top end. If it were stolen or lost I would probally save my bux and purchase a Peavy 5150 Head but if I saw one cheap or second hand I would buy it again for sure. My favourite thing about the MM x-series is the morph nob it's just really that flexable. So my final coment is test it for yourself and see if its the right pedal for you.

This isn't a frickin' lovetone, people, it's pretty easy.

You get a good sound despite any attempts to mess it up. The distortion is clear, and the tone controls can give everything from a blow-out-a-candle-across-the-room punch to a high gain fuzz.

Twisting the morph knob, every member of the band made me stop and play at a different point. You would have to be deaf not to find a good sound in this box.

My setup is as follows: Ibanez SZ230, Digitech Tone Driver, Digitech Metal Master, Digitech Turbo Flange, Digitech Hyper Phase, Digitech Multi CHorus, Line 6 PODxt, and 60 watt Crate Blue Voodoo.

This thing sounds beautiful. It has a rich, full tone, and the hardest clipping distortion i have ever heard. The distortion (how i set it up) has a very thick bass and strong treble, with the morph setting right on a "drop off", giving it an excellent metal/metalcore tone.

DON'T LISTEN TO THE IDIOTS. The boss metal-zone is far inferior to this pedal. old boss fanatics tend to mislead like that, and the majority of them are just looking for something to gripe over. The Metal Zone is a setting on the pedal, for crying out loud!

People complain of hiss. Now, I'm not sure what they're doing running a metal distortion into a rectifier (or whatever) but this thing is completely silent. I cannot even hear it turn on. You may end up startling yourself because you didn't realize it, and accidently scraped the string.

Sound quality? This thing can kick out sharp, clear harmonics at the same volume as your ordinary playing with ease. Sustain lasts for just about eternity, so you may be needing a volume pedal, if you're impatient. Why complain over a lack of a gain control? It doesn't need one. Using the morph knob, it actually "masks" the distortion (hence the drop off) as you go lower. If you still can't get over, put an overdrive in front of it. viola, a gain knob.

It can sound like anyone. Agony Scene, Himsa, Mudvayne, Norma Jean, Unearth, Pig Destroyer, whatever. that morph control makes the pedal extremely flexible, and the high and low knobs let you make the fine adjustments necessary to go from excellent to superior.

This pedal gets along well with others. With the OD and chorus, i can make a variety of rich solo sounds. with the chorus, i can get that "huge" sound that makes for a killer intro. the OD with the MM gives the sort of sound i would expect from a "high gain blues amp", or something... truly unique. My PODxt has many many amp models and options, allowing for a neverending amount of options.

This is the toughest looking stompbox i have ever seen. boss makes tough pedals? hah. those sheltered children have clearly never seen these pedals. you could probably run this thing over, replace a few knobs, and have no real problems but an ugly paint job... seriously.

I would be fine gigging without an additional one, as if i had to run off stage from an angry crowd, dragging it from my cord and down stairs, i know it would survive

Never dealt with them, but people often complain about whammy problems that the company costs a fortune about...

This pedal is very unlikely to be damaged. If it is, you probably have a cooked tranny or broken solder, EASILY FIXABLE. How likely is a digital chip to crap out, really?

For metal, this is the pinnacle of distortion pedals. For all you Blues and Classical fans that bought this (idiots), it obviously isn't going to work. Chicken pickers, stay away. :P

I have been playing for about a year now, and have 2 other metal pedals. this is the one, people.

I would buy it that very day if i lost it. too valuable not to have.

I love its full, powerful tone. I love its incredible options. my gripe? it needs memory, so you can several distortions :)

As compared to other products? Metal zone = weaker distortion, limited sound, very noisy. Danelectro Black Coffee = weaker distortion, very limited sound, useless treble knob. DOD death metal = weaker distortion, limited sound, noisy. Mega Distortion = don't even get me started. Line 6 distortions = not strong enough, very adjustable, also silent. Voodoo distortion = noisy, not strong enough, limited adjustments, feedback king. X(

Something i wish it had? how about an attachable arm, so it can reach up and hammer with me while playing himsa? find me a pedal with that, and i'll take back what i've said.

This thing MAKES the music, doesn't get in the way (except if you're a clumsy bass player) and has no bypass problems at all.

Buy this pedal.

Very easy to use. There's 4 knobs: Level, Low, High, and Morph. Couldn't be anymore straight forward

Ibanez RG 550(with Duncan SH-4 JB bridge pick-up) & Ibanez SZ320bk (stock SZ pick-ups) -> Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor -> Then through the NS-2's FX Loop -> Boss MT-2 Metal Zone (I now only use this for a crappy lo-fi sound) -> Digitech XMM X-SERIES METAL MASTER -> Boss GE-7 EQ -> Boss BF-2 Flanger -> back to NS-2 return -> Peavey Special 112 160w head (used to be a combo amp, now a head) Preamp out -> ADA MicroTube 200 Power Amp.

The XMM is the most brutal dist. pedal I've ever heard. Extremely thick sound. I can match the Chimaira guitar sound no problem.
I used to use the Metal Zone pedal as my main dist., but now its the XMM all the way. I gave the pedal a 9 instead of a 10 because of the fact that you definately need a Noise Suppressor while running this pedal. It also helps to have an EQ pedal to push it a little bit more. When I bought this pedal, I tested it against a Metal Zone, a Boss MD-2 Mega Distortion (biggest piece of crap I've ever heard... unless you like fuzz), and the MXR M-151 Doubleshot Distortion. The XMM was in a world all its own and destroyed the others IMO. I havent used the CIT cabinet modeling output yet, so I cant comment on that.
It's has such a tight bottom end, that this will definately be my sound, unless something better comes out, but I doubt that will happen. When you play a chugging or palm muted riff, you can feel it all through the floor. My buddy told me one day when I was playing that he could feel the drive way outside my house rumbling when he was walking up to my door.
Amazing pedal, especially if you cant afford a triple Rectifier, or 5150 head.

This pedal is so sturdy, that if you strapped it to a nuclear bomb, it would still be in tact after it went off. Its considerably heavier (in weight) than any of my boss pedals. Havent had any problems with reliability.

Heavent had to call for support

If you want a completely sick tone, without spending thousands of dollars on a really good head... then get this pedal. But like I said, be prepared to forkout more $$ for a Noise Suppressor. Will be worth it to pick up an EQ pedal as well. You can get tons of different tones with the "Morph" knob. I set mine at 3/4 of the way. At 100%, it can get to be a bit too much.... but its fun to mess around with.
I recommend this pedal to anyone who is looking for the ultimate heavy distortion sound... I love Chimaira, and I can get thier sound with this pedal.
Once again, I give it a 9 out of 10 for the simple fact that this pedal really needs a noise suppresor. other than that, it would be a 10.

It had 4 knobs. I repeat it has 4 knobs. The first one is the volume, pretty much, of the distortion pedal. The highs are treble, the lows are the bass, morph is pretty much a mids level. It's the easiest thing to use. You just have to mess with the levels.

AMAZING! I put everything on full except the level, which I leave off. It really just boosts my clean channel and gives it a brutal distortion. It's the only thing I use in front of my amp. Only pedal I use at all. Crate GX130C Head is my power amp and my Behringer 4X12 (nuts), all with the metal master in front. Man it's crushing.

I've had the pedal for a year, thing owns. I use the adapter pack so I don't have to worry about batteries running out or the sound changing due to power loss. It's gonna kill everyone.

None

No other words can describe the brutal sound that I get out of this bad boy. Jesus Christ would smile at my tone.

Pretty simple. Morph knob basically produces midrange sound when turned to the left, and scoops the sound as you turn to the right. Not so much morphing about it as scooping.

Well I'm using a crappy setup, so that might explain SOME problems with the tone.

This thing only dirts up the high-end. The entire low end is so uncrunchy and so muddy that I can hardly imagine this thing living to its name. The highs definately got some roughness, but are extremely thin and wimpy sounding. Kind of like a really sharp plastic knife.

The thing is affect by a horrible case of carpet distortion, that is, it does not change with what your playing. You would get a similar effect by putting a broken tv next to your microphone along with the amp, and squeezing the signal hard through a compressor.

Well I threw it against a wall one day. I threw it against a wall a few other days too. Seems to fare pretty well with that, so I guess a 9 here.

Never tried, so can't contribute.

What style of music do you play? Is this a good match?
I play lots of different stuff. Not really alternative, but an alternative to alternative. Just kidding=P

How long have you been playing? What other gear do you own?
I've been playing long enough to know this thing sucks. Only good piece of gear I own is a nifty Fender bassman, which does a good job of hiding this pedals problems.

If it were lost or stolen, whether I bought it back or not would depend on my income at the time. Right now, Hell nah.

what do you love about it? What do you hate? What is your favorite feature?
I like that it works. I like that it has some power. I don't like that I could have gotten much better for cheaper. My favorite feature is the treble knob, cause its the only thing the box does well.

Did you compare it to other products? Which ones? Why did you choose this one?
Compared it against a friends DOD grunge, (which a remake is now being produced by digitech) with the grunge you easily get more bang for your buck.

Anything you wish it had?
I wish it had a self destruction switch. That way I could throw it at the neighboors dog and run next it scares the bejeezuz outta me.

Does it help you make music, or does it get in the way?
It helps me make music because its the only distortion pedal I own.

a semi-decent pedal to use. Controls for Low and High a Volume knob and a positively ridiculously useless "morph" knob. IN my opinion the diffirent knobs only give u 2 tones.. toneless buzz, and a tin-can like feed-back ridden screech. BUt i did give it and 8 because even an inbred hamster could operate this "thing".

Theres so much i could say about how terrible this pedal sounds so i'll start with the positive features. When the amp is turned down dreadfully lowit sounds pretty good. but when playing with the amp up to an audible level this box sounds like...for lack of a better word..crap. The massive abount of gain makes it impossible to distinguish different chords and the extremely high treble doesn't at all sound like the low end, chunky metal sounds of today. If i turn down the treble and crank the bass up to 11 it gives me this very unappealing, "playing in a tin can" type sound. to sum it all up...this box plain old screams a very un attractive scream.

I play mostly metal music and have stepped on this thing like a gorilla and it hasn't died on me yet...so i suppose it's somewhat reliable.

About a 3 months ago i sent a message to digitech via e-mail.. The message simply asked what kind of adapter should i use with the box..i still haven't got a response yet..

If u are into toneless garage metal punk like stuff...this is your pedal..if u think this pedal will give u metallica,slipknot,godsmack like tones...forget it..

I own a fender strat with seymour duncan humbuckers..a line 6 spyder II 212..and Frantone Fuzz box (excellant box)..and that piece of crap metal peasant thing.

IF it were stolen i would give the thief a big hug.

I love the fact that if i encounter a hip-hop lover i can probably paralyze him with it. (this thing is built like a tank)

I despise about 90% of the box's functions.

I chose this box mostly because i only tried it with very low volume and as i stated before, it sounds good with low volume.

i wish it had much move low end chunkiness. the sound is just too high and painful..

Last thing...IF U WANT TO PLAY LOUD AND CLEARLY DO NOT GET THIS PEDAL...but don't take my word 4 it..go out and try this pedal at concert volume...you'll see....i think..

if u know of any distortion boxes to suit my needs instant message me at Leadfender420

Fuckin simple...but it does come with instructions for all the retards.

i like the morph knob which give you a nice smooth distortion.
i play a BC Rich Warlock NJ and use a 10w practice amp and a 75w Randall RG75DG2. Never cuts out, no noise, no static, just clean distortion.

i have used this at a few gigs without problems. of course i have to use the AC adapter, because this little fucker eats batteries.

i had a problem when i purchased the pedal. it was making a weird rotary sound. i went onto the Digitech website and looked through the message boards. tons of people were having the same problem. all i had to do was take out the battery and use the ac adapter, and its been wrking great ever since.

I play mostly Death, Black, Prog and Grind:
Abazagorath, Dimmu Borgir, Burzum, Dub Buk, Horna, Windir, Immortal, Ildjarn, Darkthrone Between the Buried and Me, Ion Dissonence, Shadows FAll, The Black Dahlia Murder, Grand Belial's Key, Must Missa, Otep, Morbid Angel, Circle of Dead Children, Children of Bodem, Mastadon, Mnemic, Satyricon, Nile, Chimaira, Himsa, Finntroll, Atreyu etc...

So after searching around for the right distortion, i came across the Metal Zone, and said "nice!" then the guy at the guitar store showed me the Metal Master, and Dam! its very versitile. you control the amount of distirtion, and this one goes past 10!

Simple...it comes with instruction on how to get 4 different types of distortion. Tour of Hell is a good one.

Souds great, clean heavy distortion.

The only problem i have had with this pedal, is not being able to turn it off or back on......unplugging it works great! if your going to use this pedal, fuck batteries....your gonna wanna pick up an AC Adapter with this.

i emailed Digitech with my problems and recieved a reply 2 weeks later....too bad the pedal was brought back a week earlier. They told me to get it replaced, i did, same shit.

I play mainly heavy music, (Cannibal Corpse, Suidakra, Fintroll, Dimmu Borgir, Kataklysm, Black Dahlia Murder, In Flames, Lamb of God, Emperor, Ildjarn, Burzum, Dark Funeral, Opeth etc... so that was the reason for buying this pedal...it was very versitile in adjusting to the amount of distortion i needed. i wasnt getting a good sound with a DOD, so i switched. This pedal gives me a good sound, but not for long. Such a faulty product should be recalled and fixed.

Good sound, bad pedal.

This things pretty easy to use. Morph is pretty cool. you can overdrive to a searing crunch.

I play my Epiphone Les Paul With EMG's Through this into a Randall Titan and it works out okay. This thing sounds okay but it lacks what a good pedal should have: Muscle. That's why I prefer BOSS. For the same price, you can have A BOSS Metal Zone Pedal which is better in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, I like the tone of this pedal but it's lacking a "soul" in some sense. I'll give it a higher rating based on the Razor tone.

This things fucken' tougher than all hell. I bet I could throw it off the Allenton tower and it would still work.

Never dealt with them

It's not bad. I prefer BOSS but this thing carries it's own. This thing cut through the mix when I was playing against a Peavey 5150 so, I'll give it some credit.

it's as simple as it looks...

I only bought mine a week ago, at the start i had to play with it for quite a while to get a decent sound. personaly i don't think it's much different to the metal zone - i don't think it's the heavest sound out there but it's not bad. i recommend just haveing a go of a few pedals and just pickin the one that has the sound your after. it is a tiny bit noisy as well. all in all not bad but it's not as heavy as some of the other reviews suggest.

so far so good. it's only out of the box a week though.... here's hopein. it does seem very solid though.

don't know....

it is a decent pedal. hard enough to get the sound i was lookin for. alot has to do with the settings on your amp as well though. try it, you like it, you buy it, simple! think it's crap don't. i haven't giged with it yet so i'll just wait and see what the feed back is like on that front. if it got stolen i'd have a good look around and see what else is on offer.

I think the Morph knob is really just a pre-programmed mid-modifying knob, as I can get many of the sounds it provides with my EQ and a specific setting, but it makes getting a good sound so much easier plus some extra. And that's where this pedal aces. You get a good package with this, and all the sounds are at the turn of a knob. And, like someone else said, the Low and High knobs on this thing work beautifully and are perfectly set for metal, as opposed to the Boss tone knobs that I always find to be boosting too many high mids and not enough higher frequencies and defined lows. As long as you have a decent amp that doesn't tend to boost those high mids excessively (i.e., NOT my friend's Roland jazz chorus amp), this pedal works great in about any situation, with an EQ-pedal or not, although it will require a slight amount of tweaking when switching amps, but that's a given. The only thing that makes it slightly frustrating is the Mixer output, which is nice but needs better implementation.

I play an ESP LTD EC-100 into this, then a Boss GE-7 and a Peavey bass amp (and I've tried it with others of better quality, this one is temporary). The sound quality of the normal output is great, with fine sustain. There is a frequency somewhere in the mids that seems to be over-accentuated and that pisses me off, but only a little, sort of a slightly hollow sound, especially with the Morph knob at 12h or less, but it might be from my guitar (hard to tell). It's more noticeable through the mixer output. There is some noise, but nowhere near as bad as my MD-2 or the FX86 (though don't put single-coils through this, at least not without a noise gate). Go over to the digitech website and listen to the flash demo. That's exactly how it sounds on its own using the mixer output. I use it mostly with the morph knob to the right, the high knob at 3h and the low knob at 1h. If you've ever listened to "Slaughter of the Soul" by At The Gates, that's pretty much the sound I get, though with a simple turn of a knob I can get a more 'traditional' scooped metal sound for things like Children of Bodom. The rightest Morph settings are extremely useful for getting that deep death metal downtuned sound without actually downtuning your guitar. I've also gotten a very unique metal sound I can't really describe by putting the dist. knob all the way to the left and EQ-ing it like mad after (can't remember the settings, though). The distortion is far from fuzzy. It's very 'clear', and the level of gain is set perfectly. I have no complaints about the lack of a gain knob, because it's ajusted so there's no fuzz and yet stays heavy enough (i.e., the metal zone has a gain knob, but everytime I hear it it sounds like the player can't tweak it right to minimize fuzz). Pretty much all the sounds are real metal, but if you EQ it right, the counter-clockwise settings on the morph knob can get you some rock and punk sounds. In jamming situations, you can get sounds that blend in as well as sounds that cut through, though not excessively. I have recently played with this live for the first time, and even though my sound was not perfect, it was extremely clear and went very well with my style (there was a lot of feedback when not playing at that volume level, but there was a shitload of gear involved so it probably can't be traced down to this only). Everybody else was using Metal Zones at that show except me, and I was one of the few who didn't get that fuzz in their sound, and it cut through generally better and had much stronger low end. But sadly, no, it won't preserve your guitar's sound though. I mean, you'll notice the difference between single coils and humbuckers, but the definition will remain the same. In fact, the first time I used this, it was while shopping for a new guitar, and this made it hard to distinguish character in them. And I tried at least 6 or 7 through this. But I'm not looking for subtle nuances in a death metal pedal, so it's something I end(ed) up ignoring. Let's face it, if you listen to Cryptopsy to try to find the subtle tones in the guitarist's riffs, you're probably missing the point.

I compared this to the Boss Metal Zone (slightly fuzzy, has nasal quality to it), Danelectro Black Coffee (not horrible, only average, was cheap though), the Boss MD-2 Mega distortion (horrible pedal for guitar which I have owned for two years, far from metal, fuzzy; not bad for bass though), the DOD FX86 Death-metal (too limited and noisy, plus you can get its sounds with the MM) and the Danelectro Fabtone (great, and I almost bought it, but for my applicatons, the MM seemed more suitable). In general, despite its overwhelmingly high price, the MM beats them all. I still wouldn't call it perfect though. The palm-muting sound, no matter what setting, tends to stay the same, sort of like a 'chink' sound like someone said, very metal and great for grinding, but I haven't managed to get that 'rolling' kind of pm like I once did with my

Have had it for half-a year, no problems yet. The switch is a little annoying though, like some have said, DOD-like (i.e., too small and the spring too rigid). I like the knobs though, they have a nice feel to them, and it's survived well up until now. I use the adapter I was pretty much forced to buy from the store (that warranty crap again).

Well, I haven't talked to them, but I bought this pedal full price and the store didn't even have the box or manual, which sometimes disturbs me, knowing this was 200$ canadian with the adapter (and on sale?!?!).

For metal, this thing is great going into an amp. You can't go wrong with it, whether you have an EQ pedal or not (though don't put it through a rock amp if you don't). The only thing that pissed me off was the mixer output which some people are bound to love anyhow, and the ridiculous price I paid for it (and it was the lowest-costing digitech pedal I found!). I would only buy this again if I found it much cheaper, otherwise, I'd get a Fabtone if I can find one or try a Zoom Tri-Metal or Hyperlead if any are still around. The bottom line is that I could live without this, but it would make getting a good metal sound much, much harder and costly.

Pretty easy you just gotta play around with it. The manual is good. It actually gives you four suggested settings to play around with.

I play an Ibanez RG to this to my peavey xxl 2x12 combo it sounds wonderful. I went online and looked at the digitech artist pages and it showed jack owens(cannibal corpse) setting and i dialed it in and adjusted the lows and level and got a WONDERFUL METAL hint METAL distortion. If your gonna try to play hendrix with this dont go on here and give it a bad review. With my set up its not noisy at all. Not gonna give it a 10 because i dont think any distortion pedal is a 10. This is just my distortion until i can afford a high gain boogie or diezel. Only bad thing is the level is pretty much a volume and it has no mid control.

Seems to be built pretty good. Dont kno where the battery goes tho because i dont mess with batteries in pedals just get the adapter. Doesnt slide around. I would gig without a backup.

havent dealt with them yet.

I play metal and hard rock. Classic rock every now and then but my amp handles that distortion. Ive been playing about 2 1/2 years and finnaly got a very good distortion with this. IF it where stolen iid buy it again and a back up just in case. I wish it had a mid control. Sounds like the metal zone with a more balls out approuch to metal distortion.

easy to set up but you will never get quite the correct sound
without more gear,see below

pete back guitar with duncan pickups and gotoh locking trem. best guitar ive ever played.boss ns2.metal master.boss ch1.and soon to come
boss eq7.going into 2 marshal valvestate amps.
this pedal is so noisy it was useless,i did not think even a noise gate would tame it. however the ns2 solved all my problems.
I tune down to d to play symphony x stuff and this pedal is just superb for big chords and palm muting i have got a decent sound from it.not totaly happy with it on its own i dont think you can eq it enough but when the boss eq comes i think it will be great.the most brutal distortion i have used.

NA
only had it a few weeks,ok so far

i play metal and learning to play neo classical shred.ithink the metal master will be great for the job but you must use a noise gate and some extra eq because in my opinion its not quite good enough on it own.i would buy it again cos with a bit of tweeking its gonna be great.been playing over 20years and have never had as much distortion
sounds great with the d tuning.

Easy

I play an esp-100 with a dimebucker in the bridge into a randall rg75. Decent set-up.

First off this pedal was one of the noisiest pedals i have played through. All i heard was a bunch of humming. I'd turn down the low on the pedal and the hum would go away...but then i'd have no low end. This pedal has a shitload of gain on it. A mid scoop would have been nice. It sounded like someone left a wah pedal on over top of it. I played on it for about an hour and it really upset me it was that bad. It probably wouldnt be as bad if you through a noise gate in front of it but i'm reviewing this pedal as it is alone. I don't recommend this pedal. In fact i dont recommend any distortion pedal. Get a nice amp.

Well the 9volt didnt work and i've read about some of the footswitches not working right so i dont know.

Don't buy it. The only thing the morph knob is, is a contour knob. I cant stress how noisy it was. Even with the guitar turned down it was humming away. Maybe it was just my pedal? A bad one maybe. BUT IT SUCKED.

Very easy.. altho the manual book didn't help at all...

My gear i use is B.C. Rich bronze Warlock, A cheap Rogue 100watt amp and this pedal a digitech metal master pedal... This pedal is great.. i'm not dissin it at all but... it really doesn't have enuff distortion enuff gain.. and is to thin and doesn't really sound metal it sounds more punk or rockish... i'm gonna get a zoom tri-metal pedal cus that pedal is more me more BRUTAL... yeah by the way im in a band... i proboaly give this pedal to my rythem guitarist because i love the sound this pedal gives off but just not my taste.. oh yeah by the way... it totaly distroyed my amps standerd overdrive... then when i just plug my guitar into my amp without the pedal i get a really crappy noise as before i bought the pedal .. the overdrive was really amazin .. i didn't find that out till now.. but yeah it might be my cheap $200 100 watt amp

i maybe could use it live.. but i would have to mess with it for like 30 minutes before a show because the sound you had last night may not be the same sound in the mornin.. if you know what i mean it thens to witch around every once an a while.. but again it might just be my cheap amp...

uh no comment here

I play Metal .. stuff like Slayer, Hatebreed, Unearth, God forbid, Sepultura, Slipknot, Himsa, really heavy kind of stuff .. but it was really hard to play all of that stuff with this pedal.. but it did turn my cheap fuzzy radio pickin up 100 watt amp in soundin like a real $450.00 120 watt amp with real clean sound.. yeah again this pedal is just to thin for my taste.. but i do concider it for metal rythem guitarist... you kinda have to hear it for yourself

Four easy knobs, there's nothing to it.

With Jackson DXMG I'd give this pedal a 10, with JX10 a 9. Awesome pedal for the balls-to-the-wall-sound, it's a heavy metal pedal definitely. Do not go playing jazz with this thing. I like the nasal mid-range sound of this, suits my style perfectly. I use a separate P.A. system for the guitar and the emulated amp output works perfectly - I can go direct to board and yet sound street-credible. This pedal is one of the noisiest I've met, though (that's why a 9). Suggest you by a noise gate, too.

You couldn't break it even if you wanted to. It's metal inside, it's metal outside. I've had the pedal six months now, and if it got stolen or broken (unlikely) I'd get another one.

Haven't had to deal with them.

I play only and only metal and for that XMM is made for. I've played on/off for 18 years, everything from neo-classical to black metal and this pedal can do it all. I've had dozens of pedals from Boss and Zoom but this thing finally gave me the perfect sound. I still use my ancient Zoom 2020 with the XMM for delay, chorus & reverb.

Easy as pie to dial in tones. I was pretty curious to hear that it had no gain nob, but it is advertised as a "heavy metal pedal", so there you go.

For what it claims, the Metal Master-in my opinion-does what it sets out to do; it gives you metal. The morph nob is used to dial in the various "metal" settings. I find that setting the morph nob at the 12 O'clock position gives me my prefered tone. The pedal sounds pretty good to me on my rig (RG75 solid state amp), however I use an EQ booster (both GE-7, my back-up, and a MXR 10-band EQ) after the Metal Master to boost the signal and this is the real difference for me. I really cant understate how important an EQ pedal makes any distortion or overdrive pedal really come alive, and I've always used EQ in my signal chain just for that purpose alone. I've played the Metal Master without EQ and frankly it doesn't cut through enough, but throwing EQ in the chain makes it come alive. I also throw in a Digi-Delay to fatten up the tone and it works pretty well in that respect, too.

I work at a well known music store and I've seen these things sell like hot cakes, and because of my financial woes I decided to invest in one until I can assemble my dream rig. I'm an "accessories", thrice certified, so I'm familiar with a whole plethora of pedals and so on, and my personal-professional opinion on this subject is-since people really have gripes with this pedal or dont really understand the dynamics of pedal placement in a signal chain-you should really consider investing in an EQ pedal to boost the level and tone of this pedal, and you're really going to need some good pick-ups as well to complement the Metal Master. Many stock guitar pick-ups are muddy at high volumes when used with high gain (however, ESP does install decent stock humbucking pick-ups in their guitars for starters). I'll say it again: if you're going to invest in this pedal, get an EQ pedal and get some good humbucking pick-ups (at least for the bridge). Alone I'd give this pedal a 5, but throwing in good pick-ups and EQ, I'd give about an 8.5, and that's not too bad for a pedal. But after all this is my own opinion. Some people will curse this thing to hell & damnation to no end. Go with what you like.

Just a note on this: get rid of the battery and use an ac adaptor. It will save you time and a headache. It's also worth coating the inside of the footswitches moving parts with a little lubricating oil to keep the on/off switching consistent.

Haven't dealt with them.

I like it. I'm an old school fellow, not much into nu-metal or punk, so you know where I'm comming from. It works for me and that's fine. Can dial up anything from Black Sabbath (in conjuction with my guitars' tone nobs) to Slayer, classic heavy to modern heavy can be achieved-you just got to know the tricks.

Very easy nothing hard at all, 3 of the basic knobs and the morph knob.

Ok, here is my hook up:
schecter hotrod '39 --> Metal Master --> Dunlop Crybaby original --> Peavey Studio pro 112
ive tried tons of distortions, this is one of the best (nothing close to a mesa boogie though) it has an awesome crunch, but at some settings it gets way to mucky.

well so far, yes. i have and i will again, just make sure that you got a power supply because ,like all x-series pedals, it eats batteries. Metal casing, built like a tank and ive never had a problum with it.

never had to talk to them, shows how reliable it is.

well i play in a thrash metal band, so natural we play metal. this pedal is great for the job. i played for about 3-4 years now adn i said the other stuff i own. if it was stolen id buy a new one mostly because of the morph knob and the great crunch it gives off.

I've found so many sounds i've liked through this pedal. Play with the knobs a little bit, and the volume and tone on the guitar, and get some cool sounds. easy to find a cool sound

I play this with an Ibanez AX220qm, a dunlop crybaby wah, and a marshall VS265. The sound quality is good, just a little trouble projecting, which is easily fixed by boosting the volume.

BATTERIES IN THIS THING SUCK. can only get about an hour out of a battery. plus, it broke on me during one of my band's gigs...way to piss me off...

They are great, when i broke my pedal, they sent me replacement switches free.

I play all styles of music, mostly classic metal, some grunge and punk, some modern metal, no nu-metal though..., and it works well for me, as long as it would be more reliable. If it were stolen, I'd buy a new one.

Quite easy. A few knobs and a pedal.

It sounds okay, but doesn't project out or get through any onstage noise. Really it's got a decent sound, I would consider using it for studio work, but not for live stuff.

It's built like a tank (like all X-series) but it sucks batteries down like crazy. I've go through almost an entire battery for each hour of operation, and when the battery dies, it makes this funky, clicking sound, really annoying.

Never spoke with them.

I play everything, from blues to metal to punk, and this work okay for metal, and decently for punk. As I said, it just doesn't punch through any type of noise. I'm going to trade it in, as soon as I decide on a replacement. If someone stole it, I'd probably find them, thank them, then warn them of how crappy it really is.

very easy, nothing else to say

IM using a Jackson KV-2 USA, with a tech 21 amp and a mesaboogie amp one time and I think that IT's good for a crapy guitar and a crapy amp, it's just for practicing ... by the way use it just to play alone because when you use it with a band the sound don't pass trough, it's like a noisy bee or a chainsaw... it miss middle frequency !!! If you want a VERY GOOD DISTORTION, BUY A MESA BOOGIE RECTIFIER (DOUBLE,TRIPLE,etc.) and buy a BOSS DS-1 FOR A BOOST IN YOUR SOLOS THAT'S IT !!!!!!

I've been playing the guitar for 8 years. Im playing metal,death,rock,blues and jazz and this effect box is CRAPY!!! But I have to say that this one is better than the METAL ZONE !

amazingly easy to set up, i like the low a little more than half way up, and the high almost all the way up, with the morph anywhere from 1/2 to 3/4 they way up

i love it, im using a peavey mace amp and a DeArmand guitar with stock pickups, i can get any sound i want out of this pedal, from sabbath to anthrax to slayer its nuts. i play alot of thrash metal and crust punk its perfect for it. ive tried this pedal with an epiphone explorer and its sounds amazin also.

im not sure if i would use it at a show without at a power cord seeing as how it sucks the life out of the batteries.

very helpful, something went wrong with it, im not sure what though, no power went to it with a battery or power chord. i called them up, they said i could send it in to them, or take it to the place i bought it and they would arrange to have it fixed for free.

like i said i play alot of thrash metal (anthrax, slayer, nuclear assault etc..) its perfect for it. ive been playing for around 5 years, i havent really tried many other pedals because im broke, i have a dod supra distortion and this blows it away, ive used boss distortions and dod heavy metal and i love this. i love everything about it, strong as a fucking tank, the morph knob is nuts. if this was stolen, i would track whoever stole it down and beat them sensless with it because it is so god damn strong, if i couldnt find them i would definitly buy another.

This is probably the best digital distortion pedal I have ever used. Its lacking in one thing, clarity. Now dont get me wrong, this pedal is very clear but what i mean is its very hard to set your amp up so it doesnt sound mushy. Massive crunch and bass. The morph knob is a miracle. Never had so many sounds in one pedal.

Perfect reliablilty, cept you cant ever use a battery with it, drains it in no time flat

Never dealt with em

Great pedal, heavily recommended.

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.

Simple enough to use. THe dials included level (volume) High, low, and morph (serves as a distortion nob)

I have to question the integrity of the reviewers who choose to give this stomp box glowing reviews because this thing sounds as artificial as most mediocre distortion stomp boxes I heard. A typical characteristic of a bad stomp box is when it eliminates the tone of your guitar which is what this thing does along with the Metal Zone which is another worthless pedal I tried. That brings me to my next point which is that this pedal produces a synthesizer type sound when playing anything on the high strings. As a result, the detail for each note sounds flat and stale which makes your playing lack character. Even the low strings sound bottomed out. I guess the reason why many people like this pedal is due to the powerfull palm mute crunch along with the power chord crunch it produces but, the sound quality lacks clarity and chunkyness.

I like playing all Metallica songs up to the black album and even St. Anger and this thing doesn't even come close to producing that. Anyone who says they can play Metallica on this needs to get thier ears checked. May be this thing is good for Nu Metal but, I think Nu metal is watered down talentless metal anyway so any of you that like Slipknot and Mudvayne deserve this crap to go along with that shitty music which plays two chord muffled distortion.
I recommend the Sansamp GT-2 for those of you that want a professional metal tone as opposed to those who are blinded by the overwhelming distortion of this stomp box which just produces loud noise as opposed to music. I'm also looking into the Jackhammer as a possible replacement to this. I figure marshall's pedals can atleast add to a guitar and amps tone rather drowning out the sound from your guitar and amp.

Simple and easy to use

Here we go !! I just wish everyone would consider that no two sets of ears hear the same thing! that being said, I have yet to get a bad sound out of this pedal! now if you start cranking knobs to the max it will suck just like 99% of all other pedals that don't sound good running at 100%, one thing I do is run it at 12v instead of 9v, for me it sounds better, this is the best sounding Metal pedal I have ever heard, killer bottom! no mush! even sub-bass! I've tried all the others, Finally someone did it right! I use a Crate GT50H,Randall 1000 pro 2H,both through a Madison 4x12 slant cab loaded with Celestion V30 on the top and Eminance Delta 12A's, the cabinet is ported down to 50HZ.It is humbucker freindly, single coils just don't sound right at any setting that's why I use a Dean ML loaded with a Dimarzio Drop Sonic in the bridge "Killer PU!" I also use a Baritone strat with the same Dimarzio tuned down to A, the ML I tune to D

So far so good, I've never had a problem with any DigiTec products

Never needed , so can't say.

Nothing is perfect, but for me this pedal just flat gets it !! Price could be a bit lower and probably will drop when the new wears off in a year or so,If lost stolen or broken I would buy another right away.

Easy as any other distortion/overdrive pedal. No gain knob, but it's OK, you can use your guitar's volume knob to adjust gain : )

It's obvious for me that some morons don't deserve such a good pedal. I quote: "I am using it with an ESP LTD EX-100 with EMG HZ's and a Crate GFX-15 practice amp". For Satan's sake!! A 15 Watt Crate practice amp?? Get serious man, nothing will sound good with such a poor metalhead's setup! Use at least a JCM900 Marshall if you expect to be heard. That only means one thing: those morons don't play live. This pedal is for live playing, 100% recommended, 100% tested and approved.

The distortion is not fuzzy unless you're a sloppy player or play "Nu-Metal" (well, this one is a consequence of the first, or is it the contrary?; what was first, the egg or the chicken?? ha ha ha). This pedal has a very good sound and ok, it's noisy, but so any other distortion pedal with this much gain. The sound is clear and focused, but again, that depends on the player and his/her setup.

Look what's next: "The distortion isn't super brutal like I hoped, its fuzzy. This thing sucks for lead playing... There is no sustain for leads or clarity. I tune down pretty low so I can play: Mudvayne, Slipknot, Godsmack, Killswitch Engage, P.O.D, 40 Below Summer, Static-X, Disturbed,System of a Down..." What a moron, and he/she claims to be a metalhead!! The distortion is BRUTAL, it works beautifuly with low-tuned guitars. It's designed to play real METAL: DIMMU BORGIR, KRISIUN, NILE, EXHUMED, MORTICIAN, HYPOCRISY, CANNIBAL CORPSE, DYING FETUS...

The sound is mean, full and with a lot of presence (it must be my american hand-made neck-thru BC RICH with Duncans, maybe : ) ) A huge step beyond the MT2, believe me. It sounds good with the morph knob fully clockwise, almost reminds me a Mesa Boogie; the other sounds are more 80's Metal (nice but not my kind).

A VERY FINE PEDAL!!!

No problems so far with mine... But I've heard of some faulty pedals' switches.

If you like extreme music and have a decent setup, this one will please you, guaranteed. If you have a brutal tube amp, you can use it as a trhird or fourth channel, is tht decent. I'm surprised that Digitech finally released something crushing distortion-wise. Nice job, mates!!

Has level, low and high tone and morph knob. Just set knobs however sounds best to you.

I play an Epiphone Les Paul Custom through a Pignose 60w one twelve tube amp. Use Ibanez TS9-DX for overdrive and the Metal Master for distortion. I place the Metal Master first then the TS9-DX. This gives me three levels of overdrive/distortion. Metal Master works well with the TS9-DX engaged, gives me a good middle ground distortion. The only complaint I have is the Metal Master can be a little hissy sounding when engaged and not playing but I've found some of this is related to my pickups. Other than that sounds good. Played it against a Boss Metal Zone in the store and liked the Metal Master sound a little more.

If used with just battery power I've had the pedal freak out on me. But powered with an 9v adapter has been so far so good. I would gig without a backup.

Have talked to Digitech about how the pedal freaked out when I was using just battery. Have been very helpful told me to try power supply and if that didn't work to send to them for repair.

Good pedal for playing heavier styles of music as well as just good hard rock. Works well for soloing. If it were lost or stolen I might try another pedal just because there are so many pedal options and I have tried so few. I like the morph knob gives you a good variery of distortion. Also like to set the low eq knob on 9 or 10, this gives you a deep stack distortion. All in all a good pedal, does what is says and a little more.

It is super easy to get a good sound out of it, I just took it right out of the box without even reading the manual and bam, better distortion. The morph knob is pretty cool. I just wish it had a gain knob, thats about it...

I am using it with an ESP LTD EX-100 with EMG HZ's and a Crate GFX-15 practice amp. It does not hiss at all, but when I have the volume of my amp at three and the volume of the pedal at just below three, it farts out like a son of a bitch, any higher then it's just feedback. The distortion isn't super brutal like I hoped, its fuzzy. This thing sucks for lead playing, I tried for almost an hour to find an acceptable setting, but I just couldnt. There is no sustain for leads or clarity. I tune down pretty low so I can play: Mudvayne, Slipknot, Godsmack, Killswitch Engage, P.O.D, 40 Below Summer, Static-X, Disturbed,System of a Down (you get the idea). Black album Metallica is the exception for tuning. Pretty much drop C and B, and it is just pure mud, mud mud mud and fuzz...maybe it is just my amp or guitar or both, but damn...This thing cannot go loud without farting out and feeding back, but what can you expect when using it with a practice amp...

I think it's pretty tough and dependable. I can't really gig with it cause I don't have a loud amp...had the thing for 2 years,it's a mini tank.

never delt with em...

I have been playing for 4 years now and I am super duper good. I am a viscious metalhead. I own nothing else besides the amp, guitar and pedal. I guess this is an alright-temporary match for what I play..If it were stolen I wouldn't buy it again because I am wicked broke. I am not super pleased with this pedal, but it will do. The morph knob and the little red light when I turn the pedal on are the coolest features about it. I was going to get a DOD Metal Pedal, but the dude from Guitar Center steered me away from it. I just wish it had a gain knob and no fuzzy distortion because that REALLY takes away from the tone...I can't create music with this thing, it just messes up all the ideas I get in my head. I am gonna keep this until I get a bigger amp though. rock on

its pretty easy to use. hook it up to your signal chain, and shred away

the sound quality on this is pretty good for a pedal. I havent had good results with distortion pedals seeing how they cut the volume on high powered tube amps by atleast 30%, im always looking for something more gain saturated, crunchier, and louder. i was going for more of a searing, punishing wall of gain on this pedal, but obviously you're not going to get the sound of a certain lesser known german amp manufacturer without buying the amp.

i've dropped it occasionally, so its pretty solid. i should maybe get a power supply before doing anything else, as it eats through batteries.

digitech's customer support was never that great.

i play alot of extreme metal (death, black, grind). and the pedal does its job to an extent. don't expect to sound as brutal as Nile.

This is what blows the boss metal zone away. it takes no effort to get a good sound out of this pedal! don't even need to look at the manual just experiment with it and you'll get it

i'm using an Ibanez PGM30 and a standard fender strat thru a Boss Chromatic Tuner -> Boss Super OverDrive -> DigiTech Metal Master -> DigiTech Digidelay -> Boss Chorus Ensemble CE-5 -> Peavey Studio Pro 112.

Is it noisy? come on it's a high gain metal pedal of course there's gotta be some hiss but when you're playing you can't hear it at all. this pedal is 10X better than the metal zone i had before and no matter how you tweak it you get a great tone unlike the metal zone which sounds like a fuzz box. Not the metal master..it doesn't sound fuzzy and it certainly will give you the best metal sound coming from a stomp box

alright here's to all who say the drawback is: USE AN AC ADAPTOR...NEVER BATTERIES with this pedal..it'll stop working and do strange things when run on batteries. this pedal draws about 80mA of current so be sure your power supply has enough output left if you use it to power more than one effect

never dealt with them..but i give them a 5 just for putting the manuals on there website

this is a great pedal any metal lover should own it...i give it a 9 cuz nothing's perfect

Very easy, Level knob, high and low adjust, and a morph knob. Not hard at all to figure out some good settings.

I really like this pedal. I a/b it with a boss metal zone, and the metal master blew it away. If you are looking for brutal distortion, this will do. It can get you very close to sounding like all your favorite metal bands. Plus with the high, low, and morph knobs you can dial in your own sound. Very good for soloing, a ton of sustian.
I have found to really do this pedal justice you need to use it with a tube amp. I tried it with a tube and a solid state amp, and the tube amp sound a lot better (and I mean a LOT!). I found that good pickups help a bunch too. Cheaper pickups will feed back at higher volumes (anything higher than bedroom). Great Pedal!

I have had it for about 6 months with no problems. I highly recomend an ac adaptor. It will go through batteries like crazy. Built tuff.

Never needed it.

If you want a very heavy pedal, this is imoo is the best. I love mine! I give it a 9 because nothing is a ten.

Very Simple, Level, Low, Hi, Morph (Color)
An idiot can have no problem setting this up.
The two side panel springs for battery change is annoying. But I use adapters so I only had to deal with it once :)

Great great sound. You can get a HUGE variety of metal distortion on this. Works extremely well with Delay. Great clean tone. And no hiss or buzz when the guitar volume is off. I highly recommend it for metal players out there.

Curious question to those who gave this product a bad rating for reliability. WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU PEOPLE DO TO IT?!?! I've owned this pedal for very very long and never had a single damn problem at all. Ive played tons of gigs with it and no problem. Do you people chuck it at walls, sit on the pedal, or take shits on it?!?! This pedal is extremely durable unless u do one of the following listed above.

Never had to deal with it, because I take care of my equipment.

Perfectly matches my style (Progressive Metal) However it gives lots of other tones and sounds. I've been using this pedal very long and have experimented with it until I found "My Distortion Tone" GREAT GREAT PEDAL. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND FOR METALHEADS.

im using a 10w amp by Dean Markly, and the guitar im using is a Slammer XP-Stardard.

ive only had this for a bout a month, its still going strong.

i haven thad to call up for help. But im sure their nice...cummon is Digitech, one of the best guitar effects companys around today.

I dont know what all these pepole are sayin on here. You can all eat a sack of dicks. If ur into playing Cannibal Corpse, The Haunted, Strapping Young Lad, Dying Fetus, Dimmu Borgir, OTEP or Cradle of Filth style music then BUY it. If ur gonna play Linkin Park or Good Charlott or sum Rollingstones type shit, then stay the hell away from it, you pussies should be using an Aria Ultra Metal Pedal...and even thats too good for ur fuckin pussy music. If ur into the true heavy music, then buy it. This is probably the best death metal pedal available. And who cares if its hard to replace the god dam battery, its sounds is soo fuckin heavy, you will cry once u got it on the right settings. Go to www.Digitech.com and check out this pedal there. They've got sounds clips and even show you how to set up the sic efect called "Tour of Hell" or summin. Check it out. Once you've heard this thing U WILL BUY IT!!!!

As easy as any distortion pedal. Just watch out for the right output (amp/console). Changing batteries is boring but I doubt that you can run this pedal on batteries alone ($$$$)

Killer distortion (when it works) for any kind of Metal, from Maiden and Priest to Sepultura and Slayer to Nile and Cannibal Corpse. Better than the MT2, 1000 times (again, when it works)! Clear distorted (does it make sense??) sound, aggresive and chunky. The better your setup (PU's, guitar, amp, effects, cables, etc.), the better it sounds, but that'sa given doesn't it?

Total shit!!! I agree with another user, the switch is useless for clean/distorted type of songs. It's total shit, what a shame. Too much noise, too.

This is a fair contendant to the Zoom Tri-Metal. Sorry for the switch, if it wouldn't for that, it would be a total winner.

I really like the X series , I think for the cash , they sound great , they are easy to use , Digitech has alot of sample settings on their website to get u started

The sound on this baby just kills , the way I use this pedal , I have a koch powertone II which is a great amp a Gain lovers delite , with 2 gain channels one regular gain ala Marshall the other one a ultra gain ala hot rodded Soldano type , and of course the clean channel , I wanted a 3rd gain channel with a different type of gain sound , thus I keep the metal master on the clean channel , Im using a GCX pro , so I keep the pedal on all the time and am able to switch on and off at will from the ground controler
my rig currently consists of a TC Electronics G Major processor , which is Excellent , which replaced alot of the other x series , pedals , which like I said are good quality but the Gmaj is superior to stomp boxs , a fulltone clyde deluxe wah , a whammy , the metal master and Ill rotate a few of my many pedals just to use them ,
I play Hard Rock , Blues anything from cream to maiden to UFO to mercyful Fate ,sabbath , hendrix , trower and so on and on , mostly Gibsons

heres where it does take a wack , digitech builds shit , my digitech whammy was on the fritz after a year , Ive had 2 X series pedals need minor repairs after only a few months , so built well theyre not , and they eat batteries for snacks average battery life is 20 minutes , the only way I use them is like I said , constantly on and controled by the GCX , I think it would be fine that way , because the GCx powers it and 7 other effects up , And if it craped out My Powertone is ballsy enuff to handle it without it , I just like it because it gives a 3rrd option if I want a different tone

never dealth with em ,

Ive been playing forever , such wish I sounded like it , lol , I have a gazillion pedals some boss , MXR , fulltones , alot of have retired to my recent purchase of the TC Gmaj , which is great in my humble opinion ,
The sound on the metal master I think is great , as I think the digitech X series I think are all great sounding , But you have to have a juice box or pedal power or u will go thru a gangload of batterys .

Very easy, good sounds on almost any setting. Lacks the gain knob though... It has 2 outputs, one to the amp, the other for recording direct (surprisingly nice-sounding), so you've gotta be careful when connecting it, but besides that, it's a piece of cake. The manual is well written but not a must, just plug n' play.

I compared it A/B with a BOSS MT-2, and the MetalMaster crushed it in every aspect: clarity of sound, aggressiveness, power, crunch, sustain, palm-muted, versatility (despite the limited eq.), and it looks killer too. I played a riff or a solo with the MT-2 and the the same riff or solo with the same guitar (ESP LTD V100), same amp (PEAVEY Bandit, various MARSHALL), same cables (DIMARZIO) and the MetalMaster, an it was like removing a pillow from my amp (yeah, I know it sounds cliche, but in this case it is absolutely true!). It made my other effects in the chain sound better too ; )

BOOOOOO... that's where the charm of such a nice pedal ends... Poor (and I mean POOR, piece of crap) switching system, it may look very similar to a BOSS but believe me, it's not even as half as reliable, thus you can't play song with dirty/clean/dirty (or whatever, you get the point) consecutive changes without worring to sound like a dork on stage, because the switch won't engage. Plus, who in the Hell thought of such an awful battery access??, it's stupid, almost retarded, you need to push the locks with something, defying it's purpouse of convenience; at least you can use your hands alone with a BOSS, with the X-series you need a tool or something... : ( ... That's why I've never liked MXR, just lazyness.

I thought that this could be my main distortion, but due to it's faulty switch it will be deranged to practice status only.

no idea... do they have one??

If it wasn't for the awful switching problem, this would be a very nice main distortion, but in the mean time... only for bedroom practice (what a shame, it just sounds so fuckin' good at gig levels, I can tell!). Very modern Metal sound, it crushes hands down everything in the same niche.

Super easy to use, except for that new pop the pins to get the pedal out, i have to find a key or something to get it off

OH MY GOD!!! i played freak on a leash by korn and the one by metallica and it sounds so clear and just cuts through everything, specially for the one solo, everyone said it sounded studio quality, only thing is, turn it off when your playing and you have a pause, there's a lot of sound, so stop, unless you have noise gate

Very reliable

none

This is the best metal distortion pelda out there.....sell your boss metal zone, your ibanez smash box or whatever you have this kicks all of their asses!!

Easy to use? Ya step on it and go. Simple.

Ok, here's a tip for anyone who is having microphonic feedback (the shitty kind). A.) Take the pick up cover off of your humbucker. B.) Turn down the gain on your amp (ya I know thats not a cool thing to do but dial it back). That should help you. The hiss is a pain in the ass but I found that after a little eq-ing (spend some time with you amps other controls) you could 'lessen' it. Buy a noise gate, or a rocktron hush unit to kill the hiss.

I found that, after playing it through my JCM900 stack, I dialed up a Hetfield (MesaBoogie MKII) tone without the EMG pick ups. I play a Les Paul so the sound is real fat. My strat has a cool tone through it too...almost a petruci sound. Get rid of the hiss and I'll give it a higher score.

Heavy? yep. Does that mean rugged? Nah. But I think it'll last since I take care of my gear.

Never called em...did'nt have to. You get a 5 just for having a customer service. I'll add or deduct if ever use them.

I play metal, hard rock (modern, 80's, and 90's). The sound is crucial to cover most of what I play. I like new distortion pedals every now and then, it gets me in a creative mood.

very easy, level(volume), high, low, and morph

great for what it cost, switched from a boss metalzone to this

i play stuff from atreyu, to pantera, to hatebreed, to metallica and it works great

if your looking for any kind of metal or agressive punk and dont have a big budget for a triple rectifer this petal works great, if it only had some type of tube simulation it would be a portable orgasum

if you use it with a chorus petal it makes a great great sound when you let a note ring

the ONLY down sides to this petal are 1. lots of feedback when you arn't playing and 2. sounds to solid statey, it woudl really kick ass if it sounded more like tube high gain distortion

never had it cut out

never needed to contact them

Until you can aford a the expensive stuff this is the way to go.

Very easy to manipulate, you don't need a manual, unless your're a drummer ha ha ha ha! : ) Kidding aside, this pedal sounds good right-off-the-bat. In fact, it sounds really good in more than one or two settings (MT2... anybody???), and that is a good thing (lots of options). For the uninitiated: the MORPH knob is sort of an advanced color mix; the lack of a gain knob is not a loss really, 'cause I later realized that this is the less used knob on a heavy distortion pedal, everytime is full-up, so it doesn't matter. The eq. options are limited (low & high and that's it) but useful indeed.

My current setup: Kramer Vanguard/Yamaha RGX621/BC Rich Mockingbird w/EMG81 - Digitech Metal Master - Ibanez DE7 - Ibanez FL9 (a jewel!) - Boss CH3 (another gem) - whatever amp is supplied at the venue. This thing is the shit for playing Brutal Death Metal. You can cover a VAST spectrum of sounds, from Motley Crue to Judas Priest, from vintage Slayer to Morbid Angel, from Cannibal Corpse to Nile to Suffocation. It sounds good in front of any amp, PLUS the fact that you can go direct to the board using it's special output; I tried that when recording guitars for our second album, just to have a laugh, and wonder what??? Everyone was blown away, including myself. That damn thing really works!!

The obvious point of reference... against the much overpriced and lately very underrated Boss Metal Zone: Yes, the Metal Master sounds better, crispier and fuller, more consistent and most important: CLEAR! The MT2 has better eq options but lots of annoying settings, the Metal Master sounds good almost any way you put it. I'm planning to add an eq. pedal to my setup just to improve my sound a little bit more.

The output volume is lower than the MT2's in comparisson, but better sounding overall, and you can always use the Master Volume on the amp... The sound could use a little more punch; I want to try a Zoom Tri-Metal just to hear how do they stand one another, I've hear loads of nice things about the Zoom.

Don't know what to think really. Seem as rugged or more than a typical BOSS, but the foot switch just sucks. Sometimes I have to push it twice in a row to turn it off. I hope that this doesn't become a recurrent problem. I need to gig to support our album, and I sold my old MT2, so no backup (this thing better work good day in and day out!!)

Haven't tried yet.

I play Death Metal and this thing delivers. Good for palm muting, for fast pickining riffs and for soloing. Very clear sound, very articulate and heavy. From pussy-Marshall to masculine-Mesa Boogie is all here. If you're into Nile, Mortician, Dying Fetus, Krisiun, Cephalic Carnage, Vader, Bloodbath etc. this is a really nice buy. Highly recommended. I deduct a point for reliability.

this pedal does what it says that it does, which is give you the most heavy ass riffing capabilities possible. pretty simple to use, have not used the simulations capabilities yet.

i like it, it is heavy sounding. i bought it to use with my peavey rage so i don't have to keep my half stack out. the morph knob is great and flexible. if you want fender sounds don't buy this pedal.

seems dependable

if you like heavy metal and want that marshall or mesa sound go for this pedal.

the metal master is very easy to get up and running. it takes a while to get the tone you want out of it. other than that, easy.

i'm using a peavey studio pro 112 amp and a peavey raptor guitar in a S-S-S configuration.

the quality of the actual distortion is very good. Testament is my favorite band, and i had no problem dialing in the "practice what you preach" tone. at the full counter-clockwise position, i can even play some blues. granted, it doesn't sound great, but it's fun.

the hiss is almost unbearable unless i switch my pickups to the neck-middle or the bridge-middle positions, (effectively "bucking the hum").

it's a very durable pedal. it's heavy and doesn't slide around at all. it's absolutely perfect for home use.

if you're going to gig with this pedal, make sure you have the adapter or a large suppy of good 9-volts on hand. this pedal goes through batteries like water.

never had to deal with them.

i've been playing for a little over 2 years, so i may not be the foremost authority on effects, but it does what i need it to. the harmonics are great as is the sustain. by turning up the morph knob about 1/4 of the way you can even get a good tone for solo work. if it were stolen, i'd buy another one.

i compared it to the "DOD death metal", the "Boss DS-1", and the "Boss Metal Zone". the digitech had the best sound quality in my opinion. it's a lot chunkier than the DS-1, and less muddy than the DOD pedal.

i play a lot of old school thrash metal (slayer, testament, overkill, anthrax, napalm death), and this is a perfect pedal for that type of music. the lack of a gain knob isn't that big of a deal. if you want a more versatile pedal, you shouldn't buy something called "metal master".

As easy as any other pedal

Sound quality is bad... Huge noise floor that causes feedback
at stage volume - and not cool, controlable feedback. I could
get a good distortion, but the ocean of noise behind it is just
unacceptable. I returned the pedal asap. I know that the RP series
has some good sounds, I was disappointed that it did not carry
over to the x-series pedal line.

Nice heavy-duty case, but the dual-spring release to get to
the battery compartment is annoying.

Unknown.

Sound quality is my bottom line, and this pedal doesn't make
the grade. I think DigiTech needed some more R&D on this series
of effects; good idea, poor execution.

Well, it's a distortion. The lack of a gain knob is immediately apparent, and I'd gladly swap the level control for it. Other than that, couldn't be simpler - low end, high end, and 'morph', which is really just a color control.

The standard output is what you'd expect - nice gainy signal with a bit of crackle. The 'mixer' output - which is meant to be the cabinet modelling - is pretty damn neat too, but its a shame there isn't some kind of sub-mix you can do to alter the final signal. I guess an EQ pedal or whatever board you are plugging it into will do the trick.
There seems to be a high-pitched frequency that just pops up now and then for no good reason, coming from the unit itself. Quite annoying at times.

This pedal started screwing up the first time I used it. It gets stuck in 'on' mode, the lights are all stuck on, and then it starts making the weirdest ring-mod appregio type sounds. Which WOULD be pretty damn cool, but its completely random and uncontrollable, so no dice. I'd never 'gig' with this thing. Like russian roulette.

I took it back to the store a week after I got it, cause of the weird problem described above. I probably just got a dud, but that sorta blew the buzz on the whole pedal -- they're gonna try and fix it [ha!] but I think I'll end up exchanging it for something else.

This pedal delivers what it promises -- a wide range of thick metal tones. But overall, it's nothing that hasnt been done before better and cheaper. The cabinet modelling is really the only gimmick this has going for it, and you'd be better off with a standalone unit for that anyway [it sounds kinda like a Sansamp Classic or GT2]. I can imitate almost any sound this pedal can do with either a Boss HM-2, or a Tokai TDS-1. Their 'color' knobs are just as powerful as the mis-labelled 'morph' knob.

Easy as it gets. Not very versatile

This pedal basically has two sounds that I use. A seriously heavy Marshall or a seriously heavy Mesa. That's it. Everything else sounds crappy. The Marshall is between 1 and 2 o'clock. The Mesa is full clockwise. Bass all the way up and treble about 2 o'clock. I play an Ibanez RG with Duncan Distortions into that and a chorus pedal straight into an SWR Workingman's 4004 Bass head with two Mesa 4x10 bass cabinets. Yeah, it's overkill but I like.

Yeah

I play bass in one band (Tool/Deftones-ish) and guitar in another (Slayer/Suffocation/Opeth-ish) and I use pretty much the same rig for both. I don't care if I don't have a tube in my whole rig...people need to get away from that idea cuz about 99% of the population couldn't tell the difference anyway. Excellent sound for some heavy grinding and shredding. Decent for solos but I'd prefer an old Boss Heavy Metal for that stuff. The XMM sounds a lot better than the Metal Zone and just as good as any amps distortion.

Really easy to use, It has 4 knobs Level,Low,Hi,and Morph. It has a manual, Sort of, But if you need a manual for a pedal.. you dont need a guitar.

I'm Using a BC Rich Platinum Warlock with a Rogue CS-100R 2x12' Combo Amp. It isnt really that noisy at all, a little hiss, but no big deal. The Effects are awesome, The Morph knob is great, I can get the good Thick sound I want, Since I play Death Metal, I use a good Amount of Palm Muting, and this Pedal is a god send for Palm muting! I can get some Great Sounds From Bands That I Listen to Like Mortician, GoreLord, Cannibal Corpse, Six Feet Under...etc. It is amazing for Death Metal! The Distortion is great, you can do bends, hammerons, pull offs. it just all sounds good, To me. I love the pedal. and for people that say there isnt a gain knob..does it really matter? If you want a Pedal for Metal, This is a good buy.

This Pedal Seems Very Dependable, Its in a metal Casing. I would definently use this without a back-up. (but make sure you have Energizer Batteries on Yand, this pedal eats them Alive.. and as far as I have seem Energizers are the best for this pedal.)

I havnt ever used Customer Services..so I dunno.

I play Death Metal, and This Pedal Delivers, I have been playing 2 and half to 3 years. I have a DOD Death Metal Pedal, and The Metal Master Makes it sound weak. I also Played with the Metal Zone, Which is a good Pedal. But I think Teh Metal Master has a heavier sound, WHich is awesome. If It was stolen, Yes I would buy it again. I love how good of distortion i get from it, Especially for Palm Muting, Its Amazing how good it is for palming. I hate how it eats batteries, but I'm getting a PS200r power supply for it soon, so That wont matter much longer. I love the morph knob, you can get a variety pof metal sounds out of it.
I compared it to the DOD Death Metal PEdal, and The Boss Matal Zone. And This Pedal is superior to them for the music I play. I cant think of anything I wished it had.. altho a mid would be nice I guess.. but Mid doesnt really matter. It helps me make a great Low Tuned Distortion I Love. So Heavy. I recommend this pedal to someone looking for Metal Distotion, Especially Death-Metal.

Controls are self explanitory. Got a good sound out of it in seconds.

My setup is: Parker Fly Deluxe -> Metal Master -> Boss SD-1 -> Trace Elliot amp.
I give this pedal a 9 for distortion. Not much analog circuitry here. It digitizes the signal and completely changes your sound into powerful distortion with lots of low end for palm muting metal tunes. But it is noisy...there is a slight hiss when it is on unlike a Boss. The hiss sound is a light white noise if your amp is putting out a clean signal, so it isn't too bad. The midrange sounded muffled to me, so I put a Boss SD-1 (super overdrive) AFTER the pedal and got unbelievable note clarity and harmonics. I've found the combination of the two pedals gives me the widest range of distortions since the Metal Master doesn't allow you to lower the gain.

You cannot use just any power AC adaptor with this pedal or you will hear the 60Hz hum like crazy! I didn't want to spend the money Digitech wants for a their adaptor, so I bought a switching 9V power supply# AD-090-2 from circuitspecialists.com for $12 and got the cleanest power you can imagine. Now the unit is as quiet as if I was using a battery. (Unit needs about 100mA to run.)

I've owned one since they first were released and had no problems. Built well.

Not dealt with it. Web site has excellent demos and info however.

I play metal and found this pedal ideal with just the right kinds of distortion. I found it superior to all other distortion pedals for this purpose. You'll need to buy something like the Boss SD-1 if you want to get warm overdrive sounds which this pedal does not produce.

Simple, Step on pedal to turn off and on. Level(How Loud when distortion is on) Low(Cut/or Boost) High(Cut/ or Boost) Morph(Shape what style of Distortion). Retaining pins on pedal allow fast and easy battery changes. Between the Low, High, and Morph knobs on the pedal along with my amp knobs I am able to obtain many different tones without an additional Graphic or Parametric EQ.

I play Jacksons(Warrior, Kelly, DR-7, DR-6, Dinky Rev Pro, and a Custom Charvel/Jackson) running through a Marshall MG-15ms mini-stack amp. I found the Metal Master a very Quiet, Viscious Toned pedal with very controllable harmonic feedback, that turned my novelty discussion piece single channel amp into a Practicle flexible and potent practice amp. I now have the flexibility of clean tones and the sound of a High Gain Amp at home during practice, the same as I do on stage with my Marshall 100 watt stack.

It seems as Durable as my Boss Pedals, as typical with Digitech pedals and Digital Effect Pedals, Batteries will be drained quickly, so either buy a power supply adapter, or Keep extra batteries handy. As for me I just plugged it into my Daisy chain along with my other new pedals on my new pedal board.

Knock on Wood, I have ever had the need to Call on them. And I've used Digitech gear ever since 1990

I play Metal, and this pedal suits me perfectly. I have been playing Since 1986. Ever since 1992 I have sworn by Dual and Triple Channel Tube amps along with Midi controlled Rack Gear to be the only Weapons of choice. Now after test driving the Metal Master along with my solid state 15 watt Mini Me 3" tall Marshall stack. I'm leaving the Full stack and Rack gear for the Stage/Studio, and Using the Metal Master at Home.

I use an American made Gibson Les Paul with ebony fretboards and an American Fender Strat. My main amp is a Matchless Chieftan but I also have a JCM 800 w/4X12 cab, Fender Tweed Deluxe and an old Ampeg B25. I use Monster cables.

I play professionally for audiences of up to 500 at a time. Tone and sound are VERY important to me.

Plugging this pedal in, I was amazed with how noisy it is. It's a white noise 'hiss' that is there even with the guitar volume on zero.

After a month, it started whistling! I moved the pedal and guitar far away from the amp thinking there was some kind of oscillation but this high pitched whistle noise was still there. It was coming from the pedal! I tried different guitar, cable and amp combinations but it was obviously the pedal. I changed the battery but the whistling was worse. I tried carbon, alkaline and lithium batteries but nothing helped.

My main metal pedals are an MXR Distortion plus and a Boss DS-2. They are much better than the Digitec offering.

Depend on it? LOL!

Never dealt with them.

I play classic rock & metal.

4 knobs, and even though I hate that they are plasic, I love the tightness to them...you won't lose your settings when you move it.

i'm playing this through a variety of amps, and it sounds pretty killer with all of them. The big shock for me was how good it sounded with my little Princeton Chorus...not very noisy at all, and with a bit of reverb, it made my little amp sound huge. I'm not sure I like the tones on the left side (counterclockwise), but as you turn the Morph knob to the right, it gets good about a third of the way, and goes through a bunch of good sounds from there.

Alot of people complain, but mine has held up so far...I wonder if people are running it off of batteries? The computer-processing stuff in it requires AC power, or those high-output batteries, or it sounds like junk.

Well, their website is pretty informative, and it looks like they have people from the company quickly answering questions posted on their message board.

Nice distortion...and teh next person who mentions the lack of a gain knob gets a thrashing!! It's metal, for Satan's sake, not your church picnic, so deal with it. Oh, and maybe if the people complaining knew how to work all those little knobs on their amp, it might sound better. I know I sound pissed off, but I happen to love this pedal. If I want a versatile pedal, I've got overdrive pedals for that. For just straight-up killer metal, this thing rocks!

easy easy

- 540s/dod fx7/metal master/v-4/#2 good 100w celestion copies

like how all distortions should be..
1. it serves its certain niche perfect and does not really go anywhere else
2. as it should be again..eq's and such greatly enhance this unit
3. fine with harmonics
4. not noisy

very sturdy..much better design and look over BOSS/DOD (but I like dod FX7 tho)

not yet

very good for raw yet refined thrash metal..(1 good step above slayers seasons of abyss..but a step below slayers reign in blood..
odd how slayers sound kind kinda weaker on a later album eh?)

without eq's and stuff you can't get that wacking off/WWF soundtrack/raised-pickup-truck commercial soundtrack/pantera sound

With four knobs it's really easy. The morph knob is awesome, you can get thrash metal, nu metal, classic fuzz, just basically any kind of metal you can think of

I'm using this with a Crate electra guitar thru the metal master thru my Fender M80, not a really good setup, but I'm getting some EMG's, so than it should be good after that. This thing definately beats out the metal zone, not that it's a bad pedal, but this one is higher in quality and sound, the metal zone is a toy.
PROS First and foremost, I don't know what kind of equipment you guys are using, but you must have crap pickups and guitars. This is a good pedal. It's called a metal master, it's not for playing poppy distorted stuff, it's for METAL, and it's a very diverse pedal for different metal sounds. Again it being a metal pedal, it hisses a bit, but hey, if you have a noisegate, it's not a problem. But all distortion pedals I have used, aka a lot, have hissed. BUY A NOISEGATE!!!
CONS Okay, it's a bit pricey, but you can't spend less than about 80 90 dollars anyway to buy a decent pedal, or you can get a used one, or ebay, or anything. If it had a gain knob, it would be the best pedal in the world hands down.

To hear some examples of what this thing can do go to
www.digitech.com and click on hear x series, or something like that

This thing is built better than a boss. You don't have to worry at all about breaking a screw or anything, the battery is well protected and is easy to get to. Digitech is definately setting a new standard with the battery excess compartment.
I have never gigged, but I guess you should always have a backup, but it's heavy (1.2 lbs) and made of metal, so it would be fine, even if you stomped on it.

I can't find the cerel number, which sucks. I have never dealt with them

I play any kind of metal, and some classic fuzzy stuff. This pedal is superb for this. I have been playing for 4 1/2 years. If it was stolen or lost, I would probably try to get one a little cheaper. I love the fact that it's so sturdy and I can dial in any distortion that I want. The best feature is the morph knob. Like I said with a gain knob, it would be king. It makes some killer music. Serisouly check this out, of course try it before you buy, or make sure you can return it if you don't like it. Everyone has different tastes. If it was a little cheaper it would get a 10. Seriously, email me if you have any questions.

C'mon.

NOISY. No DISTORTION CONTROL. GOOD FOR PRACTICE AMP USE BUT COMPLETLEY WORTHLESS IN A LIVE SETTING. BOSS METAL ZONE-2 IS MUCH MORE VERSATILE EVEN THOUGH IT IS NOT MY FAVORITE PEDAL EITHER. THIS SUCKER IS A DOG. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND IT IF DIGITECH PAID ME.

I DID MY ORIGINAL REVIEW OF THIS PRODUCT ON 08/11/02. SINCE THAT DAY, MY PEDAL DIED. NEVER LEFT MY HOME AND WAS ONLY USED WITH MY PRACTICE RIG AND IT DIED. UNFORTUNATELY, MY PEDAL HAD NO SERIAL NUMBER STICKER ON IT. I HAD TRIED TO TAKE IT BACK BEFORE IT DIED AND WAS DENIED. NOW I HAVE NO WARRANTY ON THIS SINCE I COULD NOT REGISTER THE DAMN THING. I NOW HAVE AN UTTERLY USELESS ( AND NOW BROKEN) PEDAL THAT I CANT EVEN SELL ON EBAY. I WOULD FEEL BAD TAKING SOMEONE'S MONEY FOR THIS PEDAL ANYWAYS.

SINCE I COULD NOT REGISTER FOR THE WARRANTY I DID NOT BOTHER TO CALL THEM. DIGITECH IS NORMALLY VERY FRIENDLY FROM PAST EXPERINCES. HOWEVER, I DONT WANT THEM TO FIX MY PEDAL ANYWAYS. I WOULD PREFER AN APOLOGY FOR THEM PUTTING THIS PEDAL ON THE MARKET.

JUNK. JUNK. JUNK. DIGITECH MISSED THE MARK WITH THIS PEDAL. STICK WITH YOUR BOSS PEDALS UNTIL THE ENTIRE R&D DEPARTMENT AT DIGITECH GETS FIRED AND THEY HIRE A WHOLE NEW STAFF. SHAME ON YOU DIGITECH!!!!!!!