Rocktron Metal Planet

Very easy to use. The mid and mid-freq knobs offer a great deal of flexibility over the tone.

Three guitars used with this: Fender MIM Fat Strat, Epiphone '67 Flying V Reissue, Gibson X-Pplorer Pro. Effects chain: Guitar--> Fender PT-100 tuner--> Digitech Screamin' Blues--> Metal Planet--> Marshall AVT50 amp. DOD Ice Box Chorus running through effetcs loop. Metal Planet is not noisy, even at higher gain settings. Much more versatile than the Boss MT-2. Gives a great tone for any kind of metal or hard rock. Pumping up some of the mids and lowering the distortion can give me a nice crunchy EVH type sound for leads. Turning up the low and mid, while putting the mid-freq just a hair below 12:00 gives a huge scooped rhythm sound. The mid-freq overall is a bit touchy though, and doesn't take much to dramatically alter the sound one way or the other.

Have had no trouble at all.

I emailed the company with questions before purchasing the pedal and they responded quickly.

Overall I am very pleased with the Metal Planet in the two months I have had it. Good for both modern scooped metal and 70s/80s hard rock, but not a great fit for lower gain or overdrive type sounds. The pedal is built like a tank with its metal casing and is fairly large compared to other pedals. Would definitely recommend this pedal.

This is an update to my previous review (Anonymous at 09/09/2004 22:09). I have had this 6 months, and it has grown on me a lot. IE: Last time, I said I hated the lack of sustain, but that was also in my "scooped" days, when my mids were at 3ish. Blah. Anyways, I have this set at 5 on Bass, 7 on Treble, 7 on Mids, 3-5 on mid freq, 3-7 on Distortion, and Level at 1.5 to 3. My amps settings are Bass: 6, Mids: 7-9, Treble: 7-9, and Presence: 2-9. My gain section on my Peavey Rockmaster head is at Preamp: 4, Pump: 3, Postamp: 2. I have, since my last update, gotten the Peavey Rockmaster head, a Laney 2x12" 8-ohm cab, and a Hamer Vector Cherry Sunburst with Flamed Maple top and a red body and set neck. The pickups in both my LTD MH-201 and this guitar are Duncan Design HB 102's based on Seymour Duncan's Jazz set. The Vector's, however, are a covered version. The sound of this pedal with my equipment is so versatile, the next step up would be a Rectofier tube head with 4 power and 4 or 5 pre amp tubes with built in distortion. I, by the way, am thinking of getting a B-52 ST-100A or B-52 AT-100 all tube rectofier head.

The Rocktron Metal Planet was simple to get a good sound out of, and surprising, the high is barely lower than the bass (so maybe it is parametric, sounds like it.) Set your mids where you wish, and then set the mid freq. The mid freq. is great, and has a wide variety from fuzz to radio transmitter, and any other good distortion I can think of in between. I haven't messed with the amp from the last pedal I used, but it sounds good still. Can do metallica and the stuff everyone else said, but for me, doesnt have the bite of metallica, and for others it has as good as it could get, I suppose I could get more precise. Overall, I think a drummer could use it. The manual, at first, seems lacking. If after your messing with the Planet for a few minutes, and still can't get something good, I'd suggest fixing up your amp a little better (whether dialing in a better tone or better amp) or thinking of early guitar retirement. Yes, very good manual. Explains the knobs and points em out. (Only gets a 10 because of the vast variety of distortions, could be a be all end all type pedal but Rampage I think would go good with it. Read on for other good stuff this can do)

Im using an ESP LTD MH-201 with stock (duncan design hb-102s [SD Jazz copies]) and a drive CD-300 8G. This isn't very noisy, but I haven't used it at really high volumes yet. I assume it couldn't be too much louder. If so, get a noise gate, (Hush C maybe?). For me, they sound great, they work for my music perfectly, which is prog thrash going into odd black or death metal bridges in a thrash/speed metal style. I can get all the sounds people said before plus a few missed. Can do the radio transmitter that I have seen in a few other reviews (in random reviews), so I guess people use that to color a rhythm guitar (Annihilator use this technique well.) I can get my more preferred spin of my favorite artists sound, and could possible get closer like I said. Slayer, Testament, Metallica, Megadeth, Annihilator, Sepultura, Pantera (not a fave, but CFH is good, and can do it), Anthrax, possibly Centinex if I tried (haven't yet), but (from my knowledge) can't do the Judas Priest sound, but I'd contribute some of that to the twang of a fender. The distortions (the mid freq. has a better more wide variety of the morph knob on a DigiTech, and doesnt sound so digital [is the Metal Planet digital?]) on this fine pedal. 8.5, but I'll be generous and round up as math says. By the way, try coloring your amp distortion, and even use the pedal on the clean channel. Nice.

A past reviewer made me weary of the button, no problems yet though. I have a DC adapter, so possibly gig without a backup (be prepared).

The company was half informative, but I was half ignorant (I was under the impression an adapter was AC and they can be DC). I soon got my answer, and got the pedal.

I play prog thrash, not power metal, not nu metal, progressing in a thrash/speed metal manner. Great match for me. I've been playing 2 and a half years. I also own a kinda bad marshall g15cd-r. If it were stolen, I'd buy another one, or steal it back from the clepto who tried taking it. If I came across an Akai G-Drive for 70, I dunno what I'd get. I like the sounds it gives, and it's (I think) parametric, can also color amps distortion. I hate the sustain, get the rampage (I have a feeling it'd make it sustain more, plus it'd work for a lead pedal. My favorite feature would be whatever gives it such a good distortion, better than what 90 bucks will get me (digitech and boss are good, but didn't fit my style, not that it didnt work for the previous person.) The value was why I chose this. $70+good sound=great value. I wish it had the Rampage as a lead second channel (such as the Doubleshot, but not just like it in terms of sound and design, just two switchs and the two seperate channels.) It actually makes me like what I play (DigiTech got in the way.)

Easy to use,yes...it's a stupid stompbox.Easy to get a good sound of,
i'm not too sure about that...

This one reminds me the Metal Zone i had 10 years ago,maybe a bit better ( more bass and output ).So if you have to choose between
the Zone or the Planet,go with the Planet,it's cheaper as well.
But try it before buying,i didn't,it now collects dust.Like the Metal Zone,it's very fizzy and it's noisy as hell.I'm much happier with my Digitech Metal Master.Sorry Rocktron.

It looks sturdy,but it's made in China so who knows.Anyway i don't care,mine's for sale.

Bought it out of curiosity since it was cheap and i wanted another
heavy-sounding pedal that could do metal and hard rock,my Digitech
Metal Master is thrash-metal all the way,nothing else,but i love it.
I haven't had the chance to try the Metal Planet prior to buying (got it via Pedalgeek).It's not a terribly bad pedal,maybe i was expecting too much for $60.I just don't like it.

This pedal has a lot of versatility, you can get a lot of great tones out of it. The manual is as discriptive as you'd want it I think.

I'm running a Washburn WG208 customized with my choice of Seymour Duncan humbuckers (it sounds great) through a Behringer GX212 (Great SS amp, buy a Behringer!) I was running my setup through a MXR 6-band EQ then to a Boss OS-2 into the amps flat EQ. I was suprised to find you dont need any more than it's 4-band EQ to get a good clear sound. This pedal kicks ass!! At first I would have said what the dude said about the pedal. But after playing with it straight into the amp you'll find some good tones. You can get a chunky AC/DC tone, Van Halen, definitely Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Judas Priest, Pantera etc. You can work it for Nirvana and bluesy stuff too I bet. If you need more distortion, your humbuckers are shit, or you don't know how to use an EQ. But for those who want a cool tone (which I use with my Seymour Duncan JB) its as follows: Distortion: MAXED (why settle for less :D) Bass: 1-2:00 Treb: 1-2:00 Mid: 9-10:00 Mid Freq: I like it around 10:00 - minimum availible.. except minimum seems TONE LACKING ;) but.. as we know.. some artists seem to like lacking tone). It's a great pedal, I A/Bed it with my old setup and I'm suprised at how much I like the pedal more after an hour... Think about working on some Testament or something to bomb the pedal with when you buy it, this pedal can do a lot of stuff, you can't really get a warm tone, but you can get a tone great for asskicking stuff. Funny to think there'd be anything better, this thing rocks!! I have yet to try the Keeley.. honestly this will do you don't really need anything better.. but better is better so take what you can get. About half way of the distortion is my OS-2 maxed out with the EQ providing mid/treble distortion (which I'm glad I can sway away from... Trebly (tinny) distortion is ick really.

This thing is the size of two Digitech, DOD, Boss stompboxes scrunched together. It's got bigger knobs, it looks really slick. Mine came with an empty 9V (instead of being pissed i found it humorous :D) The Pedal could stand some damage I'm sure. Though I wouldn't want to see it damaged because it looks so damn cool! (Plus the blue LED.. which could like blind you lol but I turn off the lights in my room when i play because it looks so cool!

I've emailed the Rocktron dudes.... about which distortion pedal I should get.. I told them I wanted a pedal great for harmonics (and you can great harmonics) and they led me to this. I tried a Boss Metal Planet and I think this one is better, and you can't get a light distortion with the Boss (that doesn't mean the thing has more distortion than the Rocktron) They are nice people.. and they saved me $20, gave us better tone, wow, seems we should sway away from the Boss pedals a bit and see whats out there!

This pedal is great for Metal! I've been playing for 3 years.. and well.. I guess I can sell my other pedals now!! If it were stolen... I would track down the theive and make him pay me double and buy the pedal and buy another pedal... the pedal is quiet and SO nice! It's got the right amount of distortion, a great EQ. It can sparkle through a lot of bass (my neck SD Jazz) and you can achieve some cool bluesy solos. I don't dislike anything! My life seems to be all about tone and I dont need any help at all.. no problems here, the mid freq knob really affects the tone, watch for that! If you have $69.99 and $5.00 for shipping (NJ(where Zzounds.com is ;) -> WI took 3 days ground) then buy it!! You shouldn't regret it, I havent tried it with crap equipment.. but hell buy it anyways, and when you get better stuff you'll love it! (Monster cables/Planet Waves 1/4 - 1/4's, $200 amp... $150 Basswood/rosewood fretboard guitar, then $200 to replace all the pickups, then $70 for the Metal Planet.. and you've got great tone!) I've seen Damage Plan, Drowning Pool, Unearth, and Hatebreed on the Headbangers Ball tour. You can get all their tones (though for the Hatebreed you may have to boost the mids/treb to get their more unpleasant to the ear tone! (Everyone else sounded great.. but their tone just really works the ears.. it sucks! I believe they were the only ones who use EMGs, which just may have been what it was.. just a theory. (Damage Plan uses SDs, Drowning Pool uses Passive I believe, not sure about Unearth) Basically, you can get tone much greater than the rivaling bands, and you'll get tone that makes you want to play! I know I've been very nice to Rocktron.. but they have done nothing to dissatify me.. even the box it came in kicks ass :P

This pedal is easy as fuque to use. You can get pretty much any sound you want. Only an absolute idiot couldn't work it.

I use a Washburn Dime and a Mesa/Boogie Bass 400+ with the Diesel 2x15 cab. Yeah, yeah, I know its a bass amp, but it kicks the shizzouse outta any "guitar" amp I've played (or bass amp for that matter). But anyways, I can get pretty much anything from Black Sabbath, to Megadeth, to Intestinal Disgorge. Don't try to play bass through it though, I'd use a RAT for that.

No problems that i know of. I'd gig with it.

Never had to deal with them.

I play mostly Goregrind, Death Metal, and the likes. It works perfect for anything though, really, good match for me though. I've been playing for some time now, I own some stuff. Id buy it again if it got lost or stolen. I love the "Mid Freq." knob, it lets you tweak the entire tone to your liking. I don't like the blue "night-light" though, maybe itd be good for a laser-pointer. I compared it to other Rocktron pedals, and the RAT, and the BigMuff Pi, and various other pedals, this one outripped them all. It's an awesome pedal, if you "can't get a good sound" out of it, then maybe you should go back to your DS-1.

this pedal is very nice easy to understand. The manual however isn't much help... but i didn't buy it to read the manual... so yeah.

I have an epiphone les paul runnin' through a spider 210... the reason i got this pedal was because the "insane" setting on the spider wasn't my preference..... it might be great for some people... but it wasn't my thing. this pedal has a more aggresive sound to it. I recently got a marshall valvestate head...... but have yet to run this pedal through it because it's still being shipped to my house! I don't have any noise problems with this pedal.... and i can't really get any sounds similar to any artists i listen to... mainly because of the rest of my gear.

this thing is built like a car... i would say a tank... but no... it's built like a well made car. I like the fact that it has the "round" button... as is more common with quality products... rather than the stompbox style digitech... boss... dod construction. I don't have anything against those pedals... as a matter of fact i have both a bass compressor and bass distortion from digitech and they're great...... it's just too bad they don't have the "round" button... oh well.

never dealt with them.

this thing is great.... it works for me... because 90% of everyone i know uses the boss metal zone like it's thee pedal to have. Personally i'm disgusted with that pedal... because i play bass in bands and guitar on my own... and every band i've played bass with has had that pedal.... and the only difference was who had the pedal in better condition... cause all they knew was low's up and hi's down... like that really works.

OK, YOU NEED TO PLAY WITH IT FOR A LITTLE TO GET THE SOUND YOU WANT,NO PROBLEM IT IT OVIOUS! THE MANUAL IS NOT TO INFORMATIVE BUT ITS GOOD FOR X-PLAINING WHAT THE KNOBS DO. I JUST PURSHASE IT NOT TOO LONG AND NO I DIDNT HAVE THE NEED TO UPGRADE IT. ITS NOT TO HARD TO FIX THE SOUND YOU WANT!!!

OK,OK THIS IS MY KICKER, OVIOUSLY IT DEPENDS ON WHAT EQUIPMENT YOU HAVE TO SOUND GOOD OK, SO THIS IS WHAT I HAVE AND I DO SOUND GOOD. I HAVE AN ASAT CLASSIC (G&L GUITARS). GOING TO A TUNER(PT-10)-VOX WHA-MARSHALL SHREDMASTER-MARSHALL BLUESBREAKER-ROCKTRON METAL PLANET-RAT DISTORTION-MXR DYNACOMP-DOD 440-BOSS TR2 TREMOLO-EHX SMALL CLONE-SOBBAT PHASE BREAKER-BOSS PS5 W/EXPRESSION PEDAL-BOSS DD6-DANELECTRO REEL ECHO-LITTLE LANILEY REVERB TO MY HEAVENLY REISSUE VOX AC30TBX. THIS SET UP AND PEDALS ARE NOT NOISY!!! THE SOUND IS NOT TOO LIMITED AT ALL, IT DEPENDS ON YOUR ORIGINALITY. I DONT PLAY METAL, I PLAY ALTERNATIVE POP ROCK,BLUES,AND INFLUENSES DOES VARY FROM BEATLES,RADIOHEAD,MUSE,SMASHING PUMPKINS,NIRVANA,GUSTAVO CERATI AND OTHERS,IT DOES SUIT THE SOUND...PERHAPS CAN SOUND LIKE THIS BANDS!!!!

IT LOOKS LIKE YOU CAN DEPEND ON IT, ITS IN A HEAVY DIECAST METAL MATERIAL SO IT IS HEAVY DUTY. I WILL USE ON A GIG WITHOUT A BACKUP!!!

I HAVN'T DEAL WITH THEM AND I GUESS I DONT NEED THEM....YET!!!

LIKE I SAID BEFORE I PLAY ORIGINAL MUSIC THAT FALLS IN THE ALTERNATIVE POP ROCK MUSIC. MY INFLUENCES ARE BEATLES,RADIOHEAD,MUSE,U2,NIRVANA,PUMPKINS,GUSTAVO CERATI,COLDPLAY AND MO'!!! I'D BEEN PLAYING SINCE 1990 WHEN I WAS 15YRS OLD.AS FAR AS GEAR I HAVE PROGRESS THRU THE YEARS. I THINK IF IT WAS TO BE STOLEN I WOULD BUY IT AGAIN UNLESS THERE IS SOMETHING BETTER THAN THIS ONE BUT LIKE I SAID UP TO DATE I HAVNT FIND ANYTHING BETTER THAN THIS WHEN IT COMES TO THE SOUND IM LOOKING FOR. I HAVE TRIED BOSS,DOD,DIGISHIT AND OTHERS AND THIS ONE IS IT, IT GIVES ME A BETTER SOUND THAN OTHERS LIKE METAL ZONE,MEGA DISTORTION,DS-2 AND MORE. I DO LIKE THE SOUND ON THIS DOG AND YOU HAVE MORE CONTROL ON THE SOUND THAN OTHER PEDALS. I DONT HATE OR DESLIKE ANYTHING FROM THIS PEDAL.IT DOES HELP ME MAKE MORE MUSIC AND A LITTLE HEAVY TONE NOT MUSICLY BUT TONEWISE. I CHOSE THIS ONE OVER OTHERS BECAUSE I CAN CONTROL THE TONE BETTER IT DOES HAVE THAT SCOOP MIDS AND IT DOESNT BLUR THE SOUND AT ALL LIKE THE METAL ZONE AND YOU CAN REALLY UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE PLAYING BECAUSE WHEN I PLAY THE DS-2 I CANT UNDERSTAND SHIT AND WITH THIS ONE IT DOES SOUND CLEAR AND OFF-COURSE WITH THE TYPE OF EQUIPMENT I HAVE ITS AWESOME!!!! ONE OTHER THING I WANNA AD IS "PEACE AND LOVE,BELIEVE IN GOD AND ROCK & ROLL"

6 knobs total, one switch, one in, and one out. Not much to it. The EQ is very active so it makes it easy to dial in wide ramges of gain and tones. The midrange control is critical in getting a good tone out of any distortion stage, and with the right settings this thing kills. If you're a beginner or if you hate tweaking tone (or if you're a brainless inverterbrate like that second guy down there) you might get confused but I love fooling with EQ so it was easy for me. Nevertheless the knobs are clearly labeled and the two concentric knobs (4 total) are larger than a Boss's so they're easier to grab.

I was at Guitar Center when I tested it, and as this pedal is brand new the Rocktron representative himself was there to give a demo use to customers. Upon asking what kind of tones this is designed to get he straight-up told me, "This is a rip-off of a Boss MT2 with a few changes in the circuitry." ooookay..... Just for fun I a/b'ed it with an MT2 (which is one of my favorite hi-gain pedals) just to see how different (or similar) it was.

I was surprised to find that it was BETTER than the MT2! for three reasons:

1. The raw tone has more natural bass, which gives it a ballsier low end. This ends the complaints about the general thinness that an MT2 is sometimes guilty of.
2. The drive control has a wider range than the MT2; everything from full-on Pantera-ish scream to a mild distortion. The MT2 seems to have nowhere between 0 and 10.
3. The sound cleans up niceley as you back off the guitar's volume, the MT2 seems to have trouble doing that.

In short, you get an MT2 that has a greater range of drive and a rounder, more fuller tone. It makes it sound more like the Keeley MT2 but it's less expensive.

Built like a tank although I'm suspicious of those MXR-style switches for their reliability. But I shouldn't be putting the cart before the horse as this thing was pretty solid.

I talked to the Rocktron rep and he was very friendly, informative, and helpful. Never had to deal with Rocktron before regarding anything else, though.

I bought one on the spot after demoing it... I've always liked MT2's but the occasional thinness scares me away. This pedal fixes that with more low end and adds some nice crunch tones along the way between "Off" and "Nuclear War." We have a winner! Oh yeah the MT2 retails for $159 and sells at GC for $89... FULL RETAIL is $99 and that's what I paid. It'll probably get reduced down to $79 for the Guitar Center price but it was too good to wait.

Very easy to use. Just dial in the amount of distortion you want and let 'er rip. Nothing fancy about it, and perfect for any player who does not want to spend time with a manual.

I don't know what the retard who wrote the last review was smoking, but this is a great sounding pedal. He obviously can't spell and has his head up his ass. Try this thing with a Marshall or a Boogie or any other combo amp you can get your hands on and it turns the amp into a raving screaming metal machine. And yes I would gig with it. No problem there. Beats the hell out of a lot of other distortions on the market out there.

Haven't had it long enough to rate this yet. But most Rocktron stuff I have dealt with has been very reliable in the past.

Rocktron has always been one of the best for product and customer support, and it doesn't matter if you call about a stomp box or a midi controller. They treat it all the same.

I'd favorably compare this to any distortion box out there. For the price, you'd be hard pressed to beat this. Great distortions, very satisfying tone and works fine with any amp I tried, including my cheapest practice amp. I tried it with a strat and with a Les Paul and with an Ibanez guitar and it sounded fine in all cases.