Zoom TM-01 Tri Metal

Not difficult to use. Usable sounds throughout its range. Manual is fine.

I play a modded Charvette bolt-on LP style guitar (bought in Japan, very unusual Charvette)w/ a single Fury 50's Rocker in the bridge, as well as a beautiful early 70's Yamaha SG 85 w/ the stock high-output humbuckers (basically a souped-up LP Special). I play into a 60 watt 112 Fender Concert (Rivera designed-1983) combo. The Tri-Metal sounds great through a decent tube amp. The dirty channel on the Concert is great for blues and classic rock a la Led Zep, but doesn't go boom enough for a real aggro metal sound. With the TM in the string, the Concert rips. Beware though- this is built for metal. It is not going to give you a subtle OD sound. It's voiced more like a rectifier and has a massive low-end boost that, when coupled with the tubes in the Concert, fucking SHREDS. I wouldn't put this through a solid-state amp- I think it would sound a bit cold. I usually only set the gain at around 9 o'clock and jack up the master on my Concert. If darkness has a voice, this is it. Nasty. I play in a band and we do alot of heavy rock as well as old school hardcore punk stuff, and the TM delivers. I am also a big fan of Death & Grind- Carcass, Napalm Death and Cannibal Corpse- this unit nails it. Plus, it's 100% analog. It sounds processed and compressed... but in a good way, in my opinion. There is, however, a strong organic component to the sound, but this might come from the Fender. I have also played it through a JCM 800 w/ a 412 and it sounds very nice, though perhaps a bit lacking in defintion. When I use it, people are always asking if I'm detuned, but I'm not. It makes even standard tuning monstrously heavy. Also, it is very quiet. I have owned several pedals- a CRAPPY Zoom GFX 707 (Yikes!), a Guyatone Steve Salas Distortion, a Boss HM-2 and a Tube Works Real Tube. This compares favourably to all of them. For a non-tube analog distortion pedal, you could do alot worse. I have also used it for recording (mic'd my amp and a Fender Stage 60- another tube amp) and it sounded almost like a wall of Marshalls.) If you contact me, I can send you a sample song and you can check it out. I have been playing since I was 14, and I'm 31 now. I am no expert, but I'm pretty finicky about my tone, so the rating below is VERY high for me.

Well built, very heavy, no fear about damaging it. Looks nice, too.

A simply awaesome pedal. Dedicated to metal!

manual.. what the heck.. it isn't even in english! who cares.... just plug it in.. and you're on your way.. as many pple have said above, twelve o clock.. and tweak your way around.. easy peasy. : ) the day '10' comes about for ease of use is when you feed a guitar sound into a pedal, and the pedal emulates the exact sound....

guitar>>>tm 01>>>>amp. i've fed an RG 450 through this, a Gib LP special. and a Gib Nighthawk.. awesome dude.. i sold my MT2 to get this pedal instead.. this is a new industry standard.. it's so quiet!! i leave my strings alone.. and what comes out? nothing! it's quiet.. really quiet.. i've got a jackhammer, and a ts-9 too.. so basically.. i've got almost every distortion i want.. except for a mesa.. then again.. what the heck....i'm happy.. it's a really good pedal, really.. throw the metalzone away.....clarity of notes..... seriously.. are you looking for ts-9 quality of sound definition? it's a fucking metal pedal.....

i would use this without a backup.....the only thing that gets to me is that the knobs turn about very easily.... so.. one knock may blast your sound into mudland.. oh well....if not, it's solid.... really solid.. full bodied metal casing.. i seriously prefer this to the MT2, by alot......

?! go to the place you bought it from.. i'm not sending it all the way to japan!

i play indie, emo, punk, a little metal and paul gilbert kinda stuff...... and blues too.. i wont touch blues with anything but my ts9.... but this pedal is really great.. seriously.. move the knobs around.. and it's really versitile.. i like this alot.. makes me like to play.... my friend bought my metalzone from me.. so i went out and bought this..a nd made 10 bux for myself.. fantastic.. i really like this pedal.. rich..creamy.. and very nice textures coming out of this little box.... buy it if you've lost your mt2.. really.. what the hell.... just buy it whether you've lost your mt2 or not..

This one can be tricky to get right. You really have to experiment to get it to sound it's best with your equipment.

Just stick with it KJ and you will soon find that The Tri Metal totally annihilates the Metal Zone when it's set just right.For starters keep the Bass around twelve o'clock or slightly higher which is plenty, Treble about the same or slightly less, Gain probably no higher than Ten o'clock.Dont scoop the mids too much but start off with both the controls around one o'clock. This should be a good jump off point for tweaking around but remember that slight changes to the settings can have quite a noticable effect on the sound. Yes the gain factor is high but it's not a fake processed sound like the Metal Zone gives.It's got real balls. It really doesn't sound its very best through a small practice amp, especially a solid state one but through a big good quality amp [in my case a Marshall Triple Super Lead 100 stack] it sounds bloody amazing.Strangely enough though everybody I know who plays guitar agrees that the Metal Zone is mainly useful for low volume practice and absolutely worthless as a gigging tool. A useful tip to control the high gain structure is to use the Volume control on your guitar.It seems obvious enough but very few people seem to do that.Since I got this pedal my Metal zone just gathers dust!

I think we all agree on that one.

I play Metal[obviously} and this pedal is just great for that. Its what it's made for.I can accept that it might not be for everybody because some people will find it just too heavy for them in which case might I reccomend the Boss MD2 Mega Distortion pedal which doesn't have the super-heavy sound of the Tri Metal but is still a really nice pedal and much much better than the Metal Zone in my opinion.Like I said before since I got the Tri Metal my old Metal Zone doesn't get used any more.

This pedal was a little on the disappointing end. There is too much gain to be usuable. I can only hear mud, when I play in a band situation, no clarity to any notes. Only if you're into the Slipknot thing I guess. I actually got better tone with a metalzone with a 6 band eq supporting it.

I'm playing a Charvel guitar with seymour duncan 59 in the neck and Duncan Distortion at the bridge. Though a Randall RG100ES. The distortion from the head actually had better gain tones with eq's in front and in the loop with a sonic max. So it's not my setup that i'm using, like I said before i've had satistactory tones with a bass metal zone with this set up also.

Oh it's definetly reliable. you could chuck this thing out of the car and off the freeway at highspeeds and still have it in great shape. It's something like 2 lbs.

Never dealt with as of yet. I've only had this pedal for about 2 months.

I'm playing a fast, heavy metal style. in the lines of recent Testament, Slayer, and Fear Factory. I've been playing for 12 years, but I'd still use this pedal for other things, not for band situations though. Good for practice amps at low volumes or bedroom wailing.

i had it about 15 months and i find its v.easy to use. the mids controls can take a bit of playin around but on the whole its a piece of cake.best place to start is with everythin in the straight up 12oclock position and tweek from there..

i got this cause i wanted a total evil distortion pedal cause i play in a death metal band and this was the heaviest and most brutal one i could find. I cant even turn the bottom up more than 2oclock its so ballsy.I still aint heard any pedal that compares for sheer inyour face . in fact it sounds like it could tear you a new one in 0.1 seconds flat no kiddin. i recently checked out the boss metal zone which i always avoided on account of it gets such bad reviews everywhere. now i know why. the metal zone sounds like real feeble shit compared to the trimetal. it just cant hang with this bad mofo of a pedal. havnt found anything else that can so far.

never let me down yet and it gets used all the time.

perfect for death metal...warning. do not buy this one for blues or bon jovi type shit.this is a metal pedal absolutely.if you like the darker heavier side of metal though it will turn any amp you care to name into godzilla.

Very easy to use but a bit hard to find your own sound as the controls are very sensitive and has a wide range of tonal possibilities.

This is the best distortion pedal i've ever tried, period. I've had a Metalzone, a DOD death metal, a DS-1, a tubescreamer and i've heard many others but this pedal really is the perfect pedal for heavy metal. This thing is like the Metalzone but with more gain, power and bass but with less mids/nasally sound. I've had no problems with doing palm mutes like the others, i think it depends on the kind of guitar you have and the way you attack the strings with your pick.

The amounts of gain you can have is awesome and you can still hear every chord ring out with clarity even if it's all the way up, not unlike the Metalzone which is very fuzzy and thin sounding. Another cool thing is that this pedal is VERY quiet at all levels of gain. This pedal is good for most kinds of metal, you can have a tight and crunchy power/classic metal tone, scoop the mids for some chugging 80's thrash or you can turn up the gain and bass to have a brutal/biting death metal tone like Suffocation/Dying Fetus/Cryptopsy, etc.

This pedal surprised me when i saw it on the store because of its solid construction and ruggedness, unlike most of Zooms' earlier products particularly their plastic multi-effects line. I feel more comfortable and at ease when i press down hard on a solid pedal not a plastic toy.

I play mostly death and power metal like Cryptopsy, Death, Dying Fetus, Morbid Angel, Carcass, Obituary, Iced Earth, Hammerfall, etc. and this pedal can do all that convincingly. This pedal is for METAL, not blues, alternative or whatever...even when the gain is at level 1, it still sounds heavy. I definately recommend it to rhythm guitarists who worship heavy, grinding metal riffs...

update of my review (Anonymous at 02/21/2003 16:55)
I was complaining about the palm mutting and after that I wrote my review, i was even more angry about that. there were no life in my sound and the bass was crappier then ever. here's the big thing : the battery that comes with the pedal is a crappy carbone heavy dutty battery. change it for a alkaline battery or the power adapter. it REALY makes the difference! I you don't beleive me, go to analogman.com (they certify my statement).
a another thing : perfect for nu metal...that's it! you can get early metallica sound (master of pupets and before...before they switched for mesa)but for those who wants to sound like wylde or tool, go get the real thing or a amp simulator. Anyway, what's the point of copying the sounds of the others? :O)
peace

No problems, simply start with all the knobs at 12 o'clock and tweak from there until you find your sound.....

I've been using the Metalzone for years, and the tri-metal definitely made my metalzone sound thin in comparison....Actually allows your guitar tone to be heard, the metalzone covers it up. Very heavy sounding....some have complained about palm muting, these people obviously have poor technique...the palm mutes sound different than the metalzone, actually heavier, and I had no difficulty getting that sound right away...some people talked about extremely high levels of gain, my impression is that it has the same, if not a little less gain than my Metalzone, but it doesn't have that tinny, buzzy sound....highly recommend this pedal to use as your heavy distortion..

just got it...."built like a tank" would stand up to any boss pedal as far as solid construction..time will tell how well the circuits stand up to abuse, but I'm guessing I'll have no problems...

have not dealt with them....

my music is varied in influences such as Neurosis, Machinehead, The Cure, Depeche Mode, NIN, etc....I use the Tri-metal to handle the heavy sections and it does so perfectly...if you like the metalzone sound but felt it was a little thin and buzzy at high volumes, tri-metal is a perfect upgrade. I play a Fernandez Monterey guitar with EMG-81 pick-up and an LTD 7-string into......Ernie Ball Vol>535Q wah>Boss TU-2 Tuner>Boss SD-2 Dual Overdrive>TRI-METAL>Boss TM-2 Tremolo>Rockson Analog Delay>Boss DD-5>Line6 Echopro>Digitech GSP-5>poweramp>Randall Cab

PS: english is not my first language...please, be cool :O)
easy of use...well, if you used the MT-2, you know how the midrange works. for the rest (trebble, gain, bass, level) if you don't know how it works, go back to school.
the instructions are clear...but who cares about it anyway? you but the battery in it, tweek a little bit and that's it

first, I have to say, I play for my own pleasure. My stuff never Left my bedroom. But, I'm playing each and every night for about 12 years...so, I know a little bit about what is a good tone :O)
I'm currently using a gibson SG special (original pickups) with a marshall 80v (8080) and my pedals setting is SG --> TM-01 --> (other distorsion pedals) and my wah crybaby GCB-95 (effect loop or in line in...).

I had couple of distorsion pedals including the MT-2 for about 8 years (8 long years!). the TM-01 is the quiet disto pedals that I nerver see! just do the test : plug the MT-2 and TM-01 and switch on and off (not both of course) and hear the difference.
for the sound...first, for you people saying that the MT-2 sucks, your not totaly wrong. but, if you are looking for a mid 80 metal sound, go get a used MT-2 and you'll be satisfy. It's noisy, but not crap. But, if you are looking for a mesa/boogie-look-a-like sound (dream theater, metallica, disturbed) and you are a university student who that have 2000$ CAN and up to spend, go for the tri-metal! you can scoop the mids even more that you what! why the tri-metal? first, it's all analog and you can hear it of you know how digital sucks. second, 3 stages circuit of distorsions, the only pedal on the market with that feature (even the new MD-2 have only 2). so, it's quiet, loud, bassy.
cons : I was expecting more on the palm mutting departement. it's better than the MT-2 but not THAT much. but that subjective...go try it.

well...it looks like a brick and I'm pretty sure it's tought as this.

support for what? da, I don't know where to put the battery???

I mainly play rock, blues, metal of all sorts and some punk. the TM-01 rocks well, can be usefull for melo blues solo and defenitely rulez for metal (da!)! like I said, I play for about 12 years and I am a vintage/tube/analog fan and I hate those digital prossesor (wow! I now have 253 different disto and they all sucks!). I realy love that pedal. for the objectif side of what is call a GOOD sound (hiss, feedback, noise, etc.) that's the best pedal ever. for the subjective side, exept for the palm mutting that is a little weak (damn, I guess I'll have to get a mark IV to be satisfied!) the TM-01 is a good overall pedal sound

The Zoom manual is bullshit. Never mind cuz most of them are shit anyway. If you can't use this pedal then you better give up playing guitar right now. There is no mysterys involved in using distortion pedals and this one is easy to use as most other ones.. But tweeking around will tune your sound to perfection.

Before I got the Trimetal my rig looked like this ,,, Gibson Flying V with Bill Lawrence (the REAL ones) 500L at the neck and 500XL at the bridge>Dunlop 535q Wah>BossDS-1>Boss Metal Zone>Boss GE-7 Equalizer>Boss CE-5 chorus>Peavey 5150>Marshall 1960 4X12 cab. It now looks exacly the same except that I got a Trimetal in place of the Metal Zone. Let me tell you guys who are reading this that I sold my Metal Zone the day I got this pedal . It's like a whole completely different level of dstortion pedal. I have to keep the gain below 11 clock cuz it's so brutal and I found it worked out best to start out with everything in straight up position and tweek my way from there. This is not a general puropose distortion. Get a Boss DS-1 for that. But if you want it Ultra Heavy this baby delivers. I could not believe how much more heavy it was than my Metal Zone.This pedal crushes every other distortion pedal out there.It sounds mindblowing wth the GE-7 after it in my lineup. Try tuning down a step and playing Metallicas Sad But True or Machine Heads Ten Ton Hammer and youll soon see what I mean. It's HEAVVVEEEEE baby!

I never seen anything so solid as this, no exaggerations. Ive used it more than a year now and no problems at all.

All I can say is if your finding the Metal Zone to be a bit lightweight in the cojones department here's your solution right here. The Zoom Trimetal. The best comparison I can think of is if these two pedals was like television cops then the Metal Zone is like TJ Hooker, never goes wrong, dependable, predictable, gets the job done. The Trimetal is like Vic Mackey in a real bad mood ,,,vicious,totally badass,and will whip the butt of any other distortion pedal you can name.