Zoom TM-01 Tri Metal

Not easy to get a good sound out of this - at first. This is a good thing because everyone's ear is different, and we all like different things. Take your time with it and you will be rewarded. Easy to use, though, it has 6 knobs, all clearly labelled. The manual is clear and concise

I'm actually using this through a bass amp, a Crate BX-50, with a MARS Music store brand guitar (I'm a bass player first). SD Hot Rails in the Neck, EMG81 in the bridge. Previously for my distortion, I used a Metal Zone and a Sonic Maximizer (both knobs cranked), and the contour control maxed out on my amp, this was the only way to get a metal zone to sound amazing. I do not need to use the sonic maximizer with this unit. The Tri-Metal can give you the most brutal, heavy, bitiest, most chainsaw/buzzsaw sounding distortions you are looking for, or even be pretty smooth if thats what you want. This thing is just about one of the best distortion pedals on the market. I can roll the volume back on my guitar and it cleans up perfectly, dig in with the pick attack a little for some overdrive sounds, damned good for a stomp box. About palm muting: I used to use a Metal Zone and palm muting was effortless on that thing (ie made me lazy), had to actually take a few minutes to relearn how to do it right on this thing, else it sounds like mud, totally unprecise, which it IS NOT, if done correctly. Palm mute it right, and you will be rewarded with some of the heaviest, most throbbing chords of your life. Even a single note palm mute sounds thick.

Reliability? If you took a Boss (REKNOWNED for reliability) pedal and this thing and slammed them into eachother repeatedly, the Boss would be crying uncle before the Tri-Metal was scratched. Low profile, metal (most likely aluminum) case, painted black, big fat button to step on, big knobs, weighs a ton.

Never dealt with them

I play heavy metal, the heavier the better (but not Nu-Metal...who the hell started calling it that? "Nu"? sounds stupid, just call Heavy Rock or something, there's too many needless genre names anyways...'sides, most of this "Nu-Metal" ain't metal). This pedal can get you almost any heavy distortion you could think of, searing, blistering leads, heavy grinding rhythms, throbbing palm mutes...damn.

Let's see... it was at my door this morning, I plugged it in, eyeballed the knobs, started jammin', tweaked the "range" knob to the right...that was it. Personally, it's the best distortion pedal I've ever used. It came with a manual, I looked it over, how nice. My ears are my manual. It's a distortion pedal, with six knobs, and it required about 1/2 a second to give me the sound I want.

I'm using a cheap($50), piece of shit strat copy, which I installed a DiMarzio Tone Zone in about 12 years ago. It sounds great, I love it, and I don't have to worry about it getting scratched, nicked, whatever like I do with my others. Anyway, lately I've been using a Bad Horsie, into a Death Metal pedal (or an Akai D1 on an A/B set-up), with an old MXR 10-band EQ, into a Morley SLVO volume pedal, into a Boss ME-33 (for flange, delay, pitch shift, etc.), into a Randall RH200 (Musicians Friend), into a 4x12 cab (vintage 30's), and a 2x15 cab (Eminence). The Tri Metal pedal obviously blows away the Death Metal. Though, I do like the Death Metal, with an eq, it does a good job (for me). My rig is noisy (ME-33 is a pig, and I use Monster Cables), but when I played with just the Tri Metal, it was pretty quiet. This pedal is THE pedal I've been looking for, I mean it. I'm not trying to imitate any artist, I know what sound I like, and this pedal gives it to me.

It's heavy, very solid, good looking. If it breaks, you can beat the snot out of someone with it. Seriously, I'll bet this baby weighs in at two pounds. It's low, wide, and heavy. It stays put. The foot button is large, round, and easy to press. The knobs seem to be pretty solid. I would NEVER gig without a back-up of anything. Remember when "Mom" asked if you were wearing clean underwear? Hehe... always have a spare, especially when gigging, it's not fun to be caught with your pants down. That doesn't mean you have to buy two of everything, improvise, you're a guitarist, dammit!!! But don't roll into a gig with just one distortion pedal,

No need yet, this is my first Zoom prduct, time will tell.

I like to play heavy metal. This pedal is THE pedal for me. I have been playing since 1984, recording (for pleasure) since 1995. I was 16 when I started playing, I was into Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Ozzy, Dokken, Metallica, AC/DC, stuff like that. Now, 19 years later, I'm into playing some Satch, a little Demons & Wizards, a little Megadeth, some Queensryche. I have seven distortion pedals (DS-1 (Satch), Grunge ('eh), Death Metal (ok), Akai D1 (great for AC/DC, Def Leppard), Smash Box (dust collector), Rocktron Rampage ('eh), and an old Tube Screamer (needs work)), a couple of Dano's, three wah pedals (I like the Bad Horsie!), a Peavey Tube Fex with PFC 10 (needs work), Cakewalk Guitar Tracks Pro (PC, it FUCKING RULES!!!), Ibanez RG-470 (DiMarzio Super 3 in bridge, FRED in neck), Jackson RX10D (DiMarzio X2N), Washburn BT-2 (DiMarzio Evolution, sucks in this guitar), Gibson L6-S (stock!!!... oh so sweet), ESP GL-500T (Screamin' Demon), Ibanez Destroyer II (Super distortion), Gibson Flying V (mid-80's white, turning yellow, stock p'ups), the list goes on (I'm a pack-rat). If this pedal were lost (yeah, right!) or stolen, I'd buy another one. I bought this online, sight unseen, never played through it or heard what it sounds like. I liked the way it looked, and I liked what it promised to do (ah ha!). Well, this pedal is THE pedal for me, it gives me the sound I want, and looks good, too. Saturated, high-gain heavy metal distortion, this is it.

This pedal is very easy to use if you know what your doing. The range and mid are perfect to tweak the sound of distortion you want.

DAMN.....this is probably the best distortion i could ask for from this pedal (on it's own) it took me about half an hour to tweak this pedal just the way i wanted it too. AND IT SOUNDS FUCKIN AWESOME! I gave it a 9 because it does get a little muddy with everything cranked....i wish it went to 11...

I would use this without a backup because this thing could not be backed up. You would have to back it up with another Tri-Metal pedal (at least i would at shows)

I play metal with melodic and dissinant undertones (Tool, A Perfect Circle, Sevendust). This is the perfect pedal. I've been playing for about 5 years now. Attach this pedal with a Boss Delay and your fuckin rockin with some crazy sounds. If i lost this pedal i would buy it again, if someone stole it i would give them a fork in the eye.

The distortion on here cannot be matched and i suggest you buy it!

This pedal is great if you wanna go for the Pantera/Iced Earth sound.....but the problem is that there are 4 knobs..and personally that would take quite alot of tweaking to get the sound you wish to get..
Zoom added a setting in the booklet which i always use.
The manual is just like the normal booklets you find when you buy electronic gadgets..

i'm using American Traditional Stratocaster -> Zoom Tri-Metal - > Marshall AVT 20..Fantastic..i'm addicted to the sound this beast produces...
Amazingly for a heavy metal distortion pedal, there is not even a single noise thats comes out....
If you wanna get the metallica/pantera/iced earth sound, don't bother searching other pedals, you would need this..NOTHING ELSE..

It would survive even a plane crashed one it..
So far i have been using this pedal for all my jamming session, and it has not failed me.so no backup for me,

Never dealt with them.

I play anything that is rock n roll...i play metal too and this is an excellant pedal for metal..but not very good with other stuff such as blues or punk.(IN MY OPINION)..
i have been playing for about 3 years now..i have a DOD thrashmaster and that is just thrash..
if it was stolen, i would certainly buy it:)

preety easy to use, but it will take you a while to get the exact sound you want. I dont think anyone should need a manual for this beast

im playing an ibanez rg270 fitted with a DiMarzio evolution in the bridge into a crate g120c. This thing produces unbeleivable sound, if you think a boss mt-2 is a badass distortion, you havent heard this thing, its so creamy + chunky , massive tight lowend with nice trebble, i use this to get good low end crunch for bands like new found glory ( i know this is a metal pedal, but i use it in a punk/emo band)

i dont think you could break this thing if you tried

this pedal is great for any style of music that demands fat chunky gain soaked guitars

Alot of tweaking possibilities here which means that a lot of trial and errorwas involved in getting the sound I wanted. But when I did....WOW!

The sound of this pedal definitely leans towards the rectifier sound. It's dark and imposing,brutal and everything that a heavy metal pedal should sound like.Palm muting works great for me so I don't get why some reviews have a problem there. The bass is really chunky and powerful and I can get unbelievable sustain if I whack the gain levels up. Really quiet too. I don't know if its got a bulit in noisegate and I don't really care. This pedal sounds totally awesome for Thrash and Death Metal. Just don't buy it for an all purpose distortion . It's a metal monster.It says it's made in Japan but that's a lie. This ferocious brute was made by the dark lord on his dark throne in the depths of Mordor!

I can hardly believe how solid this pedal is, and from Zoom of all companies too! It will last forever unless you destroy it by casting it into the fires of Mount Doom.

This is easily the best distortion pedal around just now, but remember. ITS ONLY FOR METAL!! ( did I say that already?)

This thing is very easy to use.

Okay here we go. I went looking for the ultimate distortion pedal. I started with the visualsound jekyll&hyde pedal that at the time I thought sounded killer. Then I went to the fulltone distortion pro, thinking that this high end company would supply me with all the distortion I could ever need.Wrong!!!!! Then I went to the boss MD-2 nu-metal distortion pedal. I thought that this pedal was the end all of distortion pedals until I tried the trimetal pedal. I shit you not this is the best metal pedal of all time, that I have tried.The bottom line on this pedal is options. You can dial in a shit load of sounds from this thing. Oh and the palm mutting thing, I don't have a problem with this at all. Palm mutting is awesome!

This thing could survive a Iraqi scud missle attack.

overall I love this pedal. this thing rocks.I am in love with this pedal!!! The control of this pedal is unbelievable.The fulltone distortion pro totally sucks for metal,the boss MD-2 totally and I mean totally sucks compared to this!

6 knobs: gain, treble, middle, range, bass, level.
the "range" knob adjusts the crossover point for the "middle" knob.

this pedal has tons of gain. the tone is excellent, and it's variable over a huge spectrum thanks to the "range" knob. the pedal blends well with an amps distortion but sounds best just used through the clean channel (or the drive channel with only a small amount of gain dialed in).

the tm01 has incredible sustain, i can hold a chord for 10 seconds with no problem. i suppose the neck-thru guitar helps, but it adds lots more sustain anyway.

solid. can't see it breaking.

n/a

i bought both the tri-metal and the dod fx86b death metal pedal. both are high-gain distortion monsters, but here's the differences: the tri-metal has more bass and has a far greater adjustable range. the fx86b has slightly more gain, but it's alway on the verge of feedback, and there's no adjustment knob for gain, just level(output volume) and 3 eq knobs.

the zoom is far quieter than the dod. the dod compresses the signal and has ever so slight digital artifacts (synth like sound) on the high end. not objectionable, but still perceptable at times, especially low volumes. the dod does the scooped mids better than the zoom because, ironically, it compresses the signal (cuts the bass especially). the zoom does the scooped sound well too but sounds like it has a little too much bass freqency range when a/b'ed with the dod.

actually anyone who wants a high-gain pedal should buy both of these, and with the zoom at $59 and the dod at $49, why-the-hell-not!

but if i was going to buy only one, the tri-metal is the one i'd get.
why? cos the tone is better and it has a gain knob.

i wouldn't say this is very easy to use, but its not the worst ive come across by a longshot, however, getting the sound you want may take a while.

for amps im using marshall avt50 head w/ a 412a cab and the guitar is an esp ltd 255. this is all but completely silent. the treble is a bit 'fizzy' sounding regardless of the gain. the bass and mids are pretty rich in general and the sound is the slightest bit processed. this may be part of the sacrifice of having an extremely well defined low-end, though; every note is heard and none are muddied over. i wouldn't recommend this for your zep or nirvana cover band, but if you're gonna play some morbid angel and the like, this will easily give you as much crunch as you need with only a little patience.

its solid metal and has a better feel than any boss ive ever seen. ive had no problems ever after two years. i would never gig without a backup if i could help it, but my backup would just be another one of these.

I just want to add a few further comments an observations to my review sent in on 11/08/2002.

* The Tri-Metal definitely does not have a built-in noisegate, and Zoom don't claim that it has. The manual states that it's built around a low noise circuit. That was my mistake. Apologies if that misled anyone. In practical terms though, it doesn't reallymatter because whatever you want to call it, it works very well.

* It does have a true bypass inasmuch as the input signal isn't affected when the pedal is switched out. Neither I or any of my guitar-playing friends can detect any significant degradation when the pedal is in the signal path.

*The Tonebone Hot British I only know by reputation. The Bjf Dyna Red is a pedal that I was fortunate enough to have an extended loan of earlier this year. It's a superb pedal (and so it should be at over $200 - The Hot British is also over $200) and very versatile, but by no stretchof the imagination is it a heavy metal pedal. Mainstream rock is where it excels. I compared the Tri-Metal with the Boss MD-2 when I bought it because firstly , it's in the same price sector, and secondly the guy in the store recommended it to me( paid to push Boss pedals maybe?) as " Boss's new metal pedal" That was his description though Boss's own descriptions back it up. Whatever anyone else may think of the MD-2 in any other application, it falls short as a metal pedal which is what it's being marketed as, so don't blame me for any shortcomings that I found in it.

* The idea that your sound will mysteriously vanish into a band mix is a bit of a myth, a half-truth if you like. Any pedal will do this if the sound is overly scooped either by it's own controls or with a separate equaliser pedal.The solution is simple. Just dial in more midtones. You don't have to stick with a scooped sound if you don't want to. I gig with this pedal regularly and it not only cuts through, it cuts through with real presence and authority in a way that few if any of it's competitors can manage. I used a Smashbox until about a year ago. It was a good pedal and I liked it enough to return two of them to the store,until I finally got one that would keep on working after a few days use. While it was terrific for playing Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and stuff like that, I just outgrew it when I started to play my own material and needed something heavier. But it's still a good pedal even though I don't really use it much these days.

* I don't have any problems with fizzy treble unless I dial it in too much and overscoop the midtones so I can only assume that these things are dependant on the rest of the equipment that other people are using with it. The fact is if a pedal works with your equipment then that's fine. If not, then it doesn't really matter what anybody else uses. It just doesn't work for you. The Tri-Metal works for me, and it works incredibly well. I can't say any more than that.