Rocktron Metal Planet

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.

Very easy to get a wide range of sounds. Once you've mastered the mid-range versatility you'll find it can do a lot for you. Back off the mids for metal, put more mids if for lower distortion crunch.

I use a Les Paul through various amps. I can't get a good sound putting it straight into a small amp, but it works great through a higher wattage combo amp like a Peavey 85. For direct recording it sounds great looped into my GT-6 with amp/cabinet modeling. Looping it through the GT also improves my sound when playing through a little Fender practice amp.
No noise problems. I often wonder that all these complaints I read for almost any effect on the website are more operator error. I bought this pedal because it was clean and tight, noise-free, and not muddy at all. Just pay attention to your low end settings.

Very reliable. I do stomp on my stomp boxes. This one's bullet-proof.

I've been playing for 20 years, in and out of bands. Currently, I play for a church praise band. This pedal's great when we need the wall of sound power chords backing everything up, as well as for over-driven solos. Outside of that I play metal.
I love the tone and versatility.
Favorite feature: mid-range control.
At lower volumes it needs a compressor for sustain. It doesn't have much sustain in highs unless you're compressing or playing loud.

This pedal is sweet.It sounds very warm and prefessional. I play it through a VOX AC30 with seimour duncan sh-4 and sh-2. I tried the dunlop distorsion wich doesn't sound as sweet and well balanced.
The bass is so think and defined that makes the low strings attack very nice. The mid eq is really sweet, nice range of tone and the changes are not abrut but well balanced all the time. No noise at all and the drive gain is vere pregressive and distorts very pleasingly. Clarity and thick sounds. This pedal worth to try. It reminds me to the distorsions used by maiden in the somewere in time LP into sme of the mid settings. The highs are not strident or unpleassing bit clear and cristal clear.

perfect.

for metal this is the best I heard. But Not for overdistorted sounds but clean and defined sound.

Honestly folks, a potato could probaly figure out how to use this one. I got mine used without a manual although it is available at Rocktron's website. You've got a Level knob, a Low knob with an inset High knob, the Mid knob with an inset Mid Freq knob, and a Distortion knob along with the on/of stomp button. Input and output are clearly marked as well. It's pretty easy to get good sounds out of this box if you just spend about 2 minutes playing with the Mid Frequencies.

I play through an Ibanez Destroyer II 2002 re-issue with a Dimarzio PAF pro in the neck, a Dimarzio SuperDistortion in the bridge with a Kahler Pro trem bridge on it. I also play a 2004 Gibson Flying V, and a 1985 Ibanez Proline V. The guitar goes into the Rocktron Metal Planet, then into my Boss DD-6 Digital Delay and then into my Crate v16 Palomino all tube amp. I can, without hesitation, say that this little box is hands down my favorite distortion pedal I've yet played with. I can get the most razor sharp tones I've ever produced. If I put the Mid Freq at about 4.5, I can get the ultra-metallic Judas Priest tones with rediculous squealing pinch harmonics. If I turn the Mid Freq way down I can get a bassy growl. I tend to like bright tones as long as they have at least some of that beautiful tubey warmth. Most people tend to have problems with the pedal's mids because a lot of times they don't adjust their amp EQ settings. Rather than turning the bass up all the way, try pulling back a bit on the mids or the highs and vice versa. Folks, if you really want a death/thrash type of sound, don't play a Strat through this thing. Don't play through a tiny Squier 25 watt solid state amp and then blame the pedal when your tone sounds like crap. Pedals aren't a fix-all for crappy tone. Be willing to set aside a good half of an hour to play with entire range of sounds the pedal can give you. One last note, it's quiet; I get no unwanted fuzz with it. I've owned a Boss Metal Zone and it was so noisy it wasn't even worth it. If you play with the controls for a bit, you can also get some rich blues tones; something I could never do with the Boss Metal Zone or the wretched MXR Distortion Doubleshot.

The Metal Planiet is made out of cast aluminum and could probably be dropped out a second story window with no real damage done to it. It doesn't guzzle batteries like Digitech and Boss tend to do, so you should be able to do at least an entire set without running out of juice (I don't like power adapters because the cords get in my way) but you still should probably put a fresh battery in there before each gig. In any case I'd would use it on a gig without a backup (although they're so inexpensive that you might want to get another one anyways).

I play METAL and some blues. I've been playing for about 6 years now and this box has quickly become one of my favorite tools in creating a sound that is distinct. If it were stolen, I'd fork over another 40 or so get another used one (I almost never buy new equipment) and still come out ahead than buying many other distortion pedals. I can't emphasize enough the great METAL tone this box produces. With the Rocktron Metal Planet, I find myself wanting to play longer, and creating more music. Best of all, I feel like I've finally found MY tone; my own distinct tone. I no longer want to go out and buy new distortion pedals, I've found the one for me.

Easy! There are four knobs on it, two of them with a double function, so maybe you can say these are six alltogether.

Its the same with all effects: you have to try different positions to get your desired sound. With this effect it is as easy as it can be.

I am using this one with a Schecter Damien Guitar and a Hughes & Kettner Blue Edition 60R at home.

I read a comment by someone, who called the users that gave this pedal a good rating "nieve" and "non reliable".

Don't believe him! This one is the best Metal Distortion Pedal I can get. Why? I will tell you: This one has the most natural sound of all! No over-EQ'd sci-fi Distortion, no fuzzy and muddy "i wanna be heavy" garage sound. Just cristal clear, metallized distortion. And yes, it IS indeed better than the BOSS Metal Zone. Don't be blinded by the name BOSS. The MT-2 can distort, the Metal Planet can distort and rock, it is living music, breathing - ok, call me what you will, but this is it!!!

It's a tank. You can stomp on it as you like, use it for the heaviest gigs. Wanna destroy it? Go and get a A-Bomb! And by the way: Never had any problems with the electronic components either.

Was no need to contact them yet.

If you like a sharp and clear heavy sound, get this one. Havent used it with a Tube Amp yet, but it will shure do its job more than just good.