Rocktron Metal Planet

Basic controls but it can take some time and a good ear to dial in your tone. The volume knob has the right amount of output. The tone knobs are so sensitive that every performance, practice or recording I really have to recreate my sound from scratch. The positive is that you can make it sound good though a slew of amps.

I play various Humbucker guitars through my pedalboard into a original Carvin x100b (6l6) head and a Marshall 4x12 with Celestion 75 watters. Once I dial in my sound, it kicks ass...Big Sound. It has one sound but does it really well. Another thing that I like about The Metal Planet is that even if you turn the distortion all the way up it still sounds good (not fuzzy). I usually have my drive between 10:00 and 2:00. If you like having a loud clean amp like a Twin Reverb, Traynor, or a Jazz Chorus this pedal is the deal. I have tried a lot of pedals of over the past few months and the Metal Planet won. Here is a list of the runners up from best to least favorite.. Hardwire Valve Distortion, Metal Muff, Tube King, Metal Zone, Distortion Factory, Satchurator. I'll give a good 9 rating because of the low noise. It really was the deal maker. There is no gate that you hear opening and closing like the Tube King. It just has good electronics.

Seem to work everytime so far. I like the blue LED.

I will give the Metal Planet an 8 due to its believable rock/metal tone, strong output, and quietness. One thing that I'm not crazy about is the extreme of tonal range of the eq pots...But it rocks. It does that...

It has 6 knobs> level, bass, hi, middle, middle freq and level, quite standard for all those metal distortions. So, there are simpler pedals around, but that is really not of great importance.

Very good sounding, full, saturated, powerful ss distortion, I don't find it thin or cold. Very high output also, I play with level on 9 o'clock.

Lot of people compare it to boss MT-2. I actualy took boss from friend of mine to do parallel test. Used Ibanez with peavey bandit, marshal valvestate and fender 15g amps. Puting all pot on 12 o'clock, metal zone will sound better for my liking. But, when you start making own tone, you notice MT-2 always keeps that very high annoying hshshsh treble, that rocktron doesn't have at all. That hshshsh makes easier for beginners to make some decent metal tone, but I dislike it as it sounds very artificial. Also, moving middle sweep on MT gives little result, on rocktron, that thing really works. You can make that extremely bassy sound(that MT can't do), but also very trebly dist, without loosing on sound quality. Considering this pedal is quite cheaper than boss, I am very happy salesman recommended it instead of boss.

It has quite enough gain, not too much. When playing extreme metal, I find 3 o'clock just enough. Lowering gain down will give good distortion for some rock or blues stuff. Together with eq section it makes this thing very versatile.

I play mostly metal, and that is what for I am using it. This is very good pedal. I played it trough lot of amps, from Fender 15g to Marshall JCM. Always performed well.

Built very well, metal casing, pots are sturdy. I have it for 3 years already, not a single problem.

Never dealt with them.

Yes you can get a really good sound out of it. Fortunately, this pedal is calibrated such that if every knob is in the 12:00 position, the user is already in the ballpark to hone their sound. I'll have to give this category an "7" just because the user has to take time to "tweak the sound." Also, the eq knobs are extremely sensitive so each time you gig you have to really dial in in precisely. It is not the pedal's fault it just the nature of having a pedal with a good amount of control.

I use various humbucker guitars>Carvin X100b head (old school 6l6's) and a Marshall 1960a cab. I play 10% clean, 60% rock distortion, and 30% with metal tones. I have used a vintage rat with a ts9 as well a the new Zoom G2 to try to get by with metal tones in that 30%. That wasn't hacking it so over the last several months I was on the quest for the right pedal for metal tones. I bought the Rocktron Metal Planet from Craigslist. This (Metal Planet) pedal has the right amount of 'snarl' without being to "nasally" or fizzy. I was on the fence between The Metal Planet, the Metal Muff and the Digitek Valve Distortion. Eventually the Metal Planet won. I've tried over 15 distortion pedal over the past four months. It was extremely close. You might be thinking that the Hardwire Valve Distortion does not even belong in the comparison but your are wrong. That pedal is in between the 80's Rat's and the Nu Metal with having the circuitry for very responsive playability. I tried Digitek's Hardwire "metal pedal" and didn't like it at all. It was very much like the Metal Zone...just too much "in your face." I know that is what some want. I wanted a believeble chest cracking metal tone that really could deliver the eq even when the distortion level is at 10:00. I really wanted to hear the tone of my guitar as well a good distortion. I also needed a pedal that can be "eq'd" to match my Rat and Tube Screamer so when I perform the songs don't sound drastically different. That was important. I give it and "8." I think that it is a really good pedal and I fully intend on giging and recording with it. But I have tried some $250 pedal that would make you cream your jeans. Just too damn expensive. If you have a solid state amp I'd go for a Valve King or another 12ax7 pedal to get that sound. I stayed away from them because my amp is very tubey and thought that an extra tube would swamp out the sound.

You have to step on the switch to change the channel. When if you don't fully engage the switch but still hear it "click" it sometimes doesn't change the channel. I've figured this out and it is not a problem.

Don't know. It is my first Rocktron product.

I play in the band Opus Grey. I've been playing for 25 years.
I like the believable metal distortion and the eq control of this pedal. I think that the range of the level and drive controls is "right on" and the eq section really works!. I forgot to mention that the pedal is really quit. It's weird. There is no Hush or Gate going on that I can hear, just good circuitry. It will be my "balls out" sound for quite a while.

It's very easy - 6 knobs - a lot of variety.
I didn't have the manual, because I bought it used, but who actually uses them anyway?

I'm using Peavey Bandit 112 (at home), different Marshalls, Crates, Line6 etc. A lot of different amps and a lot of different guitars (Gibson Les Paul, Ibanez S470, custom made Explorer, etc)

This Distortion is THE THING! It actually surprised me, because I had no Idea that a Rocktron can sound that good. The tone is Beefy and rich and with a huge bite. If you're playing rhythm (palm muting, heavy riffs,...) this really kicks *** to most of other distortion giants, such as Dime distortion, Metal Muff, Vox Bulldog (I have owned them all, so I know what I'm talking about). When playing leads, you might want to have something softer sounding (I use Metal muff), because this Rocktron really bites.

In a metal box it's just like a tank.

Never dealt with them.

I've been playing and testing gear for a while, I also make and repair guitars and other string instruments myself. Mostly I play metal, gothic metal, neoclassical and medieval stuff.

I've owned and tested a LOT of distortion and overdrive pedals, such like Metal Muff, Boss Metal zone, DS-1, ds-2, Marshall Jackhammer, Marshall guv'nor, Vox Bulldog, and other pedals from Digitech, SansAmp, DOD, etc. I can say that for rhythm playing this pedal is better than anyone of them. Although you still could put an Equalizer to produce even better sound (like you should do to all distortion pedals, because noone of them is perfect).

This stompbox perfectly suits my style of music. Before I got it I really thought that there's nothing better then Metal Muff, bet when I compared them, this thing just crushed that Muff into pieces. The Metal Muff is a lot muddier and softer sounding (doesn't matter how the EQ is set) than Rocktron Metal Planet. Like I said before - it's a beast! If you're playing metal this definitely should be on your pedalboard!

I'll give it a 10 because I have understood that a pedal can't be good playing rhythm and solo pieces at the same time and settings, so you have to choose one of these two things. And this is perfect for rhythm, so it deserves a 10.

Bass, Mid (with a parametric sweep) Treble, Gain and Volume controls. How much easier could it be? Gave it to my cat and he figure it ou in two minutes. Took me about 5.

Wow.....just wow. Massive amounts of a nice earthy gain. VERY reminicient of the Ultra Channel my Peavey Triple XXX head. I decided to quite gigging about 3 years ago and sold everything but 1 guitar. Lately I've had the itch to play, but didn't want to shell out the big bucks for and tube head, and high end effects. I watched a demo of the Metal planet and the Silver Dragon on youtube. Although I was tempted by the silver dragon it was really more than I needed, and the dual gain switch didn't really appeal to me. So I bought the Metal Planet, and wow......am I happy I did.

A reviewer below me nailed it when he said, "this pedal is everything my Boss Metal Zone should have been."

Massive chest thumping lows, tons of gain. Sounds great at gigging volume. Head and shoulders above any other high gain distortion pedals I've played/heard. And quiet too!

Only had it a week or so. Sturdy switch and metal chasis. Looks like it'll survive being stepped on, tripped over, beer spills, all the usual gigging hazards.

Never dealt with them.

Since I'm buying all new gear I decided to give rocktron a try. Never owned their gear before because it seemed marketed more towards the low-end crowd. Being a gigging musician I just never considered their stuff. In the past month I've purchased the X-tune pedal, Rocktron Utopia wah, and the Metal Planet. So far I have not been disappointed.

Bad points:

1)These pedals are large. About twice the size as a boss pedal.

2) For as large as these are you'd think the in/out jacks and DC-in would be located on the top of the unit instead of the sides, so that you could conserve pedalboard space by placing them closer together. This is my biggest gripe about these pedals.

Rocktron has the goods. I would have easily paid twice as much for these pedals after hearing them. Rocktron is doing a disservice by marketing these as low end gear.

I'm quickly becoming a Rocktron fan. I'd have bought the short timer delay, but I need longer delay times than 300ms. If your pedal-board space is not at a premium, and you want massive XXX/5150 style tones you should consider this pedal.

Check out the tones by doing a search for "metal planet" on youtube.

This pedal is very adjustable and easy to understand. My sound is from Black Sabbath to Lamb of God and this pedal delivers. Buy it!

I've already alluded to the fact that I can get the sound I want with it. I can even tame it down to mild overdrive but I'm using a Route 66 for that...the Metal Planet is for satisfying the monster. He hasn't been hungry since I added this pedal to my home-made board.
I mainly use a lefty Schecter Blackjack C-1 with Seymour Duncans (JB/'59) and they really compliment one another as the signal travels from a Morley Bad Horsie 2, the Route 66, the Metal Planet, and a Deep Blue chorus to a Tone Tubby filled Crate V30. No noise and varying the EQ controls gives a variety of colors. I've been using the distortion control from 12 to 3 and it's all the break-up i need. Great pedal...Buy it!

With several practices and gigs under it's belt, I have all the confidence in it and haven't even considered a back-up. Lot's of compliments and "where can i get one"

Well, I just contacted the artist relation guy at GHS and told him of how much i dig this pedal and he e-mailed right back......that's pretty typical of a company that makes the best strings (Boomers) and helps out the working musician

I've been playing distorted music for a long time. I've been using Boomers since the mid-70's and had my Mom worried playing Black Sabbaths' 1st album (she would say; why don't you play something from the Everly Bros.)I've sold and traded more left-handed guitars, good old tube amps and effects than i want to think about. I've been in and out of making music, but for my money and time, making hard rock and metal music is where it's at and the Metal Planet has found a permanent home. I hope to have a good tube head and 4 x12 cabinet soon, perhaps a Mesa Boogie or a Headstrong, until then the Crate V30 is doing a great job making alloy's. Buy the Metal Planet!

It's pretty easy to get a usable sound. I think on its own it's a little tame sounding to retain string definition, but if your amp is a little ragged, like a tube amp, set the volume high and it should sound great. I like to use this with my amps JCM800 esque breakup and this pedal with a Super Overdrive for leads. I also sometimes use the tube channel of my Rocktron Silver Dragon with the Metal Planet's distortion set low (to like 2-3). I give it an 8 because it has 6 knobs, though these same 6 knobs get it such a high score for tweekability.

I can get the sounds of my favorite artists because it is very versatile, but I prefer to go with my own personal preferences of tone. This pedal can oddly get an overdrive-esque sound with the distortion knob set low, or with it set high, can get face-melting gain. With an EQ or active pickups, this thing really smokes, but without these, you can also coax good tones. These just make them easier.

Rocktron is dependable stuff with metal cases and true bypass switches. This one has a stiffer button than my others, but makes a solid click everytime. I've had it for probably 2 years or so now.

They were quite helpful when I asked them about what kind of adapters their stompboxes needed. Only email I've ever had to send. I should send sometime though to see if I could get any tips for tone settings on this stompbox to see what they give me (and hopefully it isn't "experiment with the controls" because I want to know some crazy things this pedal can do.)

I play metal and this is a good match. It has nice chunky distortion and tons of versatility. Worth more than $70. I have been playing 5 years. If it were lost or stolen, I'd definitely get this over something like a Metal Zone. I love it's versatility, and my favorite feature is the mid frequency sweep knob. I compared it to the monstrosity that is a box of bees buzzing, with hissy mids, nasally treble, white noise mid frequency, and boxy bass, with a distortion that is extreme gain almost from the starting line, and you can hear the two cascading stages, almost like a compressor or noise reduction unit working poorly. This helps me make music as with my other two rocktron distortions and is a great pedal.

Simple, straightforward controls. Not much to really say here, a bit of knob tweaking on your side will need to be done obviously.

It does what it does well. I bought this to have an option for higher gain work without resorting to buying another amp, so I am certainly not expecting a pedal to end all pedals.

Set the distortion around 12 or 1 o' clock, and you get a good amount of chunk as well as retained string definition... a huge plus for me. Beyond that the pedals gain keeps increasing, but definition also starts taking a hit. The mid knobs on this pedal are a saving grace, and really help cut or add what you may or may not like. Running my pickups in split mode brings a nice amount of glassiness to the tone, and playing remains nice and controllable.

I gave this a 8 because of its gain, eq, and suprisingly low noise factor. On the down side, it has a decidedly solid state sound (ie, somewhat 'thin' and artificial for lack of better descriptions), and general limited dynamics range.. but again, thus is the nature of a lot of distortion pedals. If I played with these sorts of tones as a majority of the time, the score actually be lower.. anyone who does would be well served to just saving up for a high gain tube head. But for me, its a good tool, at a reasonable price.

I currently run 2 heads.. a Valve Jr, and an Orange Tiny Terror, both through a 2/12 cabinet. I find this pedal to be good, and slightly different through each amp. My guitar is an Ibanez, using a SD JB bridge pickup and Jazz in the neck.

Just got it, and I do not gig, so I don't expect any issues. Seems quite well built, given its price. No complaints.

I suspect I'd gig with it with no worries.

n/a

This is a fairly good match for what I need.. for some solo work, and limited rhythm work. Again, if I had my druthers, I'd just use a higher gain head than either of the 2 I have now, but this is a good budget alternative.

I've been playing for about 12 years (though it certainly doesn't show),and play a mix of styles that lean a bit towards metal, but I guess you could lump some of it in as prog (The Atropos Project on Soundclick, if you're so inclined).

If it were stolen, I'd probably be tempted to try something else out.. who knows? There are lots of good products out there :)

The only other pedal I have, besides an eq, is a Fulltone OCD.. which, despite being about as one-trick as this Rocktron, isn't really comparable. Its a much grittier, lower gain sort of deal. Both have their role, and will both be used in future recordings.

So in summary... good pedal, not fantastic, but for the money is worth at least checking out.

well, this box has parametric eq's, you'll definately have to sit down with it for at least a few hours tweeking it, but once ya find that sweet spot, look out...it is sweet! I bought mine new but for some reason mine had no manual, but don't worry, do www.rocktron.com and download it!

man this pedal can have you going from today's hardest metalcore bands like hatebreed, sworn enemy, to earlier metal bands like iron maiden,
and preist...not to mention hard rock like ac/dc and danzig(john christ
needs more reconition!)...anyway, this pedal sounds great with chorus,delay eq's, anything really, it's so damn quiet! even with the distortion maxed and the level 3'o clock(I'm afraid to crank it past that), my settings are: level-half way, lows-1'oclock, highs-10'o clock, mid sweep-11'0 clock, mids-10'o clock, and dist. almost at max...
my setup with this pedal is: esp/ltd viper 400 w/emg 81 and 85's going into the metal planet, boss super chorus, ibanez de-7 delay then into a randall rh200 halfstack, sounds killer!!! like I said, THIS PEDAL IS EXTREMLY QUIET FOR THE AMOUNT OF GAIN IT PRODUCES! it crushes that MT-2 piece of poo...

BUILT LIKE A TANK! everything is solid, even the knobs feel nice and sturdy, no backup needed for this!

never had to deal with them...

for the style of music I play,(hardcore/thrash/neo-classical) this is about perfect...I've been playing for 15 yrs. and went through all kinds of dirt boxes over the course and this is by far one of the best!
the only thing that I can gripe about this pedal is that it's a little big, say about the size of 2 boss pedals, IF YOU PLAY HARDCORE OR METAL,
I STRONGLY SUGGEST YOU GET THIS PEDAL, YOU CAN FIND THEM ON EBAY FOR UNDER $70 BONES! a word of warning: DO NOT BOTHER WITH THE METAL ZONE!
IT SOUNDS LIKE BEES BUZZING AROUND IN A TIN CAN COMPARED TO THIS.

How could be not easy to use?
Just plug in and out and turn the knobs to get your favourite sound. That's it.

Often the metal planet is compared to the BOSS MT-2 (metal zone). Distortions are not very different; probably the mt-2 one is a little more aggressive...bust just a little and it depends to the equalization, too, not just to the distortion level.
But the best thing that the metal planet has is the output level. Simply terrifying! You could turn the level knob at just a quarter, to get a great sound definition and NO NOISE, at all!
To get the same distortion level with the mt-2 you must turn the level knob at least at half, so you start to have bad noises. With the metal planet, if you turn the level knob at half, you'd better go out of the room!

Didn't need any support. I don't know.

If you like aggressive metal distortion, the rocktron metal planet is all you need. It's one of the best distortion pedals on the market, even if the price is still low! (take a look on eBay...) The eq knobs can get you a grat range of sounds from the old-style runch to the heaviest saturated distortion. The amazing output will not cause you any bad noise. I've tried both the mt-2 and the metal planet and now I've decided to use the metal planet.