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.