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.