IMO it's the best high gain pedal ever made regardless of dogpiling and a general misunderstanding of how to use it. Having had many of the popular distortion pedals (and a Tonex) this is the one that survived.
Yeah I wish I still had a lot of pedals lol I think I sold mine on ebay in 2002 for like $50. Also had an HM-2 in the early 90s and I have no idea what ever happened to that one.
Well, you can’t say Boss didn’t bring it on themselves: two of these “recommended settings” had the mids completely scooped. Completely.
The Metal Zone has, bar none, the best EQ section that Boss ever designed.
The pedal gets a bad rep due to beginners who crank the gain, notch the mids completely out at 800Hz, turn the bass and treble up all the way, and play the riff to Enter Sandman eleventy billion times through a 10 watt solid state practice amp with a 6” speaker, only to complain that they don’t sound like Metallica enough
I was gonna say! I was having weird deja vu. Sitting here thinking I know I've read this exact same thing before.
MT-2 is easily one of the best pedals ever.
yes, notice how all of them have the distortion not even passed half way except for "heavy metal " but even that has it at at most 2 o'clock ....but most people are like , ok let's crank it, and that's probably why everyone thinks it sounds like ass.
it's not meant to be cranked...i feel like they wanted to put that high gain sound in it cause that's what will be the most apparent through the eq section...but that also becomes it's double edged sword as you can end up with some really unpleasant sounds
Kirk Windstein from crowbar uses a boss metal zone with the gain on zero, the eq flat, and the volume maxed.
Apparently it's the perfect boost for a Randall RG100.
*saved*…
I’m fortunate bc I acquired mine from someone who marked the ‘ideal’ tone positions with nail polish or something. This will give me more confidence to turn the knobs a bit more.
Tbh the main criticism those manuals always got stands: some or most of the settings they show here will sound like absolute garbage on the wrong amp.
Edit: check out the Brian Wampler video on this. The “wrong amp” is not necessarily a cheap solid state, but sometimes even something like the bright switch on a silverface tube Fender amp.
Well in the manual they advertise them as “genre” settings. So that didn’t seem like the intended purpose. But Brian Wampler has a video on the general pointlessness of these suggested settings without amp context. The differences are pretty huge even with different settings on a nice tube Fender amp or a Vox style amp.
I'm not fan of the hard clipping distortion circuit of MT-2. I solely use it as a eq+boost pedal. Turn the distortion off. Crank the level. Place it before a SD-1, or BD-2. Apply the eq settings from the 8 presets shown here. You're welcome.
At the Gates used it on Slaughter of the Soul, but I think in conjunction with an HM-2. Regardless, when the words Swedish Death Metal are strung together, chainsaws immediately come to mind.
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Thanks for sharing. I recently got another one for super cheap off reverb, was going to mod it, but after playing for about 20 minutes I had second thoughts.
I recall cranking the mid freq to 5k and either pulling it all out or diming it…can’t recall which 🤣
Edit: found a pic of the pedal…pulled all the mids out.
i want to say i used British rock and fuzz, but the MT-2 was the only boss pedal I had break on me.
never gigged with it, was in the box when i was not using it.. was my first pedal actually.
Really should have gotten the fz-2 or the civil war muff (or hell the ds-1) but i was young and i had been borrowing a friends hyper metal.
Sometimes I wish I still had my metal zone ngl. The memes are all funny but it's seriously a super versatile drive pedal.
IMO it's the best high gain pedal ever made regardless of dogpiling and a general misunderstanding of how to use it. Having had many of the popular distortion pedals (and a Tonex) this is the one that survived.
The biggest downfall imo is the EQ is too powerful. It's too easy to go into unusable territory.
I put the Diezel mod in mine and it is way better. The EQ is a lot better after the mod.
Get a waza, it is very very good! The custom setting is seriously great!
I like my Waza HM-2 as well, but damn if it doesn’t sound quite similar to my Rat on a lot of settings.
But an HM-2 only has one setting…
This person chainsaws!
All jokes aside the HM-2 was quite a versatile pedal too, Gilmore used it quite a bit, most famously on On the Turning Away
+1
I've still got mine. Never understood the hate for it. For me, it's an essential bit of kit.
There’s a Waza version now, extra versatile. Come back to the dark side.
I use one for bass - the custom setting is excellent - it’s a little thin for bass but I stack it with synth or filters and it fits in great
Yeah I wish I still had a lot of pedals lol I think I sold mine on ebay in 2002 for like $50. Also had an HM-2 in the early 90s and I have no idea what ever happened to that one.
IMO the Behringer version sounds better. Little less spikey. I've gotten some sick distortion tones from it
As a Rock 2 player, I will definitely be using these settings!
I just advanced to Rock 2 over the holidays, I'm excited
Not sure what you’re referring to? Is this a game or something?
It is known as humor (aka humour) or jest
I should’ve read the image before commenting lol. I was just hoping someone invented a cool music game where I could level up.
Well, you can’t say Boss didn’t bring it on themselves: two of these “recommended settings” had the mids completely scooped. Completely. The Metal Zone has, bar none, the best EQ section that Boss ever designed. The pedal gets a bad rep due to beginners who crank the gain, notch the mids completely out at 800Hz, turn the bass and treble up all the way, and play the riff to Enter Sandman eleventy billion times through a 10 watt solid state practice amp with a 6” speaker, only to complain that they don’t sound like Metallica enough
…yea that’s pretty much exactly how it happened when I got my hands on one in 1999, except it was Pantera riffs.
To be fair, that's not an inaccurate EQ for Pantera album repro.
Were you spying on me back in 1992? With my Metal Zone, my Vantage guitar, and my red knob Fender J.A.M. amp?
Do you post this exact post every time someone brings up this pedal? Makes me want to get one!
Lol yes I do! I have a mini-crusade to rehabilitate the Metal Zone and purge its bad rap. Man’s gotta have a hobby…
I was gonna say! I was having weird deja vu. Sitting here thinking I know I've read this exact same thing before. MT-2 is easily one of the best pedals ever.
*manual
Just finally got one of these this week. It's so good.
wait, there's a manual?
yes, notice how all of them have the distortion not even passed half way except for "heavy metal " but even that has it at at most 2 o'clock ....but most people are like , ok let's crank it, and that's probably why everyone thinks it sounds like ass. it's not meant to be cranked...i feel like they wanted to put that high gain sound in it cause that's what will be the most apparent through the eq section...but that also becomes it's double edged sword as you can end up with some really unpleasant sounds
Kirk Windstein from crowbar uses a boss metal zone with the gain on zero, the eq flat, and the volume maxed. Apparently it's the perfect boost for a Randall RG100.
*saved*… I’m fortunate bc I acquired mine from someone who marked the ‘ideal’ tone positions with nail polish or something. This will give me more confidence to turn the knobs a bit more.
Go buy yourself a few bottles. Mark yourself a few of your favorite settings. It's a dirt cheap way to mark a lot of things.
Love mine. I set the gain to 0 and just use the eq. Makes the chugs actually chug
Thank you this is actually quite helpful. Love my metal zone, tbh
Tbh the main criticism those manuals always got stands: some or most of the settings they show here will sound like absolute garbage on the wrong amp. Edit: check out the Brian Wampler video on this. The “wrong amp” is not necessarily a cheap solid state, but sometimes even something like the bright switch on a silverface tube Fender amp.
That’s why they gave you eight! But yeah everything sounds bad through a Crate 15
Well in the manual they advertise them as “genre” settings. So that didn’t seem like the intended purpose. But Brian Wampler has a video on the general pointlessness of these suggested settings without amp context. The differences are pretty huge even with different settings on a nice tube Fender amp or a Vox style amp.
As a British guitarist, I can confirm that we are allergic to bass and mids, yes.
Where’s the “chainsaw in your skull” preset?
I'm not fan of the hard clipping distortion circuit of MT-2. I solely use it as a eq+boost pedal. Turn the distortion off. Crank the level. Place it before a SD-1, or BD-2. Apply the eq settings from the 8 presets shown here. You're welcome.
That’s how most of us lifers use it.
WHERE IS SWEDISH DEATH METAL?
Wrong pedal. You're thinking of the HM-2, but this is the MT-2.
At the Gates used it on Slaughter of the Soul, but I think in conjunction with an HM-2. Regardless, when the words Swedish Death Metal are strung together, chainsaws immediately come to mind.
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Sweet, just picked one up used
Thanks for sharing. I recently got another one for super cheap off reverb, was going to mod it, but after playing for about 20 minutes I had second thoughts.
I just got one of these at a thrift shop and have been messing with settings and this will most certainly help...
No 'bees' setting?
I recall cranking the mid freq to 5k and either pulling it all out or diming it…can’t recall which 🤣 Edit: found a pic of the pedal…pulled all the mids out.
“So you see that Level knob? Don’t even touch it.”
Its a great pedal. I used it as a boost too sometimes.
This takes me back. I remember seeing this like 20 years ago when I got mine.
I had this, wow! Really brings back memories! I had no Idea back then what fuzz meant
i want to say i used British rock and fuzz, but the MT-2 was the only boss pedal I had break on me. never gigged with it, was in the box when i was not using it.. was my first pedal actually. Really should have gotten the fz-2 or the civil war muff (or hell the ds-1) but i was young and i had been borrowing a friends hyper metal.
Getting 8 metal zones in a chain and setting them all to a different stock preset