I just dug up the manual of my MT-2. It just says connect the OUTPUT jack to a guitar amplifier, without specifying whether to use the Input jack or the FX return. There are however detailed instructions on how and in which order to operate the EQ controls, which many of us probably should have read first before dialing in an awful tone and then complaining about how much the pedal sucks.
Simon Brunner I can vouch. This comment made me dig up my old manual too...at a glance it seemed like I already knew what was going on..but man was I wrong 😂 the ‘Sample Settings’ section is worth a look as well!
Thing is, boss knew that the smaller amps didn't have fx loops. And today we wouldn't have the shredders we have today if the instructions said put it in the loop.
Hell yeah, I run a tube screamer custom to a custom messa clone amp in a pedal, thru a suppressor right in my fx loop to the front of the amp. The thing is fricken beastly. Loads better than before my amps preamp
This is the most honest review of the MT-2. Some people may not like having to run it through the return, but in studio applications, it's a great tone to have in your arsenal when you want it.
Could be done, but i personally not a huge fan of it's eq, parametric part has too much space, which makes it hard to control, i would limit it's potential a bit and add bandwidth pot, and treble/bass i would replace with bandaxall (just because it's awesome).
The alternative band Placebo from the EU got the Metal Zone right. Funny, they didn't bother shredding or chugging, they just dialed in the right settings for them and it sounds freaking amazing.
In soviet russia they did not have Metal Zone. I come from soviet countrys and a soviet era.. We made our own guitars, our own FX, our own amps. Buying a western amp was IMPOSSIBLE! So how did these slavic metal bands get the sound?? They fucking made their own pedal or hi gain amp!
I have been using a Metal Zone for many years. I run direct into it and I run my 7 band EQ after that. It's been the main source of my tone and sound and will always be.
One of the coolest things about the pedal, in this particular instance, is that it physically changes the way you play guitar. Look at the end of the video, Ive never seen you look like that while you play, you take on a meaner surlier look, all thanks to the MT2
I’m neither a fan or a hater of the Metal Zone, but most people play these things with the distortion level well past 12:00, or even cranked, which leads to the fizzy bees sound. It has plenty of distortion, so keeping it below 12:00 is a great first step towards better tone.
I thought the original video was interesting too. Running it into the effect return does make it sound better in my opinion, but that EQ is super powerful so it’s easy to make it suck.
Here's what I've found with my amps and my pedals and my ears.... Every high gain / heavy distortion I own sounds a lot better in the FX Return. Every overdrive I have sounds better direct in the input.
My best friend treats the Metal Zone like the Discover card... He never leaves home without it. I always found with enough tweaking, you can get some great Metal rhythm sounds. However, I nicknamed it, "The Harmonic Thief". No matter where I set it's Eq, Vol & Gain or the amps controls(and trust me, I've tried every possible setting a hundred times over), the high harmonics, esp pinch harmonics, just went bye bye. I never tried the loop though. I'm sure that would've only helped.
As bad a wrap as the metal zone gets 16 year old me with my peavey rage 158 practice amp never once regretted owning it. Even after that when i moved up to a marshall valvestate 1 x12 combo it was still alright to use as a clean boost to pump that straight up into prime thrash territory and still fun to just crank up and bask in the angry bees. Not to mention back in those days it was the metal zone grunge distortion and the death metal distortion if ya wanted heavy distortion.
Holy Shit... I had to check to see if I wrote this comment...haha. I had the same setup (MZ + Rage), and then moved to a Valvestate 1x12. I also never regretted it. I'm sad that I've sold it long ago.
you are kinda right it was never sparkly clean that is also why it took the marshall from like rage against the machine gain to slayer territory. More overdrive than clean boost maybe but i thought it was much closer to a clean boost than an overdrive it for sure wasn't meant to be used that way but it sounded good at the time.
Ha! I had the same start too! But my valvestate was a 100 watt head and a 4x12 fender cab that a builder who was working on my parents house gave me. Two of the speakers were blown and all of the pots on the amp were crackly, but I loved it none the less!
Lo has estado haciendo bien, porque por el loop de efectos van los pedales de modulación, no la distorsión, es solo que este pedal funciona mejor por el loop de efectos.
Many years ago I had the Boss HM-1 Pedal. I wish I didn't get rid of it now. It's near impossible to find these days. Anyhow, I hated the sound of it until I threw it into the return of the effects loop. And there it was, that classic heavy metal with no sucky mush 🤘😛🤘
I saw the original demo. When he said he was running it into his loop, in immediately thought "why the hell would you do that for? Of course THAT'S goin to sound terrible." As soon as he hit the first chord, my jaw dropped. I don't play that type of music, but it sounded great.
I was impressed with the metal tone I got out of mine. I now use the distortion on my 6505 head as my daily rig.. But if I need an ultra portable setup for jamming, I can carry the metalzone and my tc gmajor anywhere that has a practise amp or even just a hi-fi, and I can moreorless mirror my main setup. Very useful
I think that “the trick” of this heavy distortion pedal is run directly through the return fx loop, but you can use it at the front of the Amp with a little bit of EQ: 8 to 10 o’clock (treble, middle and bass) & 9 to 12 o’clock for input volume should be perfect.
I have the Digit ech Metal Machine, I bought it for self oscillation feedback loops. It's also great as a distortion on acoustic instruments and drone synthetic. Apparently is unloved by many guitarists for bad tone. I saw someone recently run it in the effects loop and it had a great sound. I have loads of effects and audio junk from charity shops that I repair for soundscape experimental work. Most stuff won't work together, especially in the same way a (heavily post) produced tuber video does. The trick is pairing and understanding how the gear works and the make up of its sound. Then you get the magic. As our Lord Miles Davies once said, it's all in the tone.
BOSS DS1 is another that sounds brittle and harsh through the front of an amp.. I expect through the FX loop it'll sound much thicker.. Perhaps then we shouldn't plug in effetcts pedals at all into the input of a guitar amp but through the FX Loop of a guitar amp?
i got a modded metal zone i liked it so much. it was a mod from pedal hackers based on the combined tonal experience that particular builder had. sounds like a 6505 with a good tube preamp
I’ve used a MT2 into a korg Pandora for quiet practice for years using it more like this as a “channel” for an amp vs a dirt box into a dirty channel. I also back the gain off quite a bit and get a pretty good sound out of it. Also when I was young and seriously broke I used it straight into an old pioneer stereo receiver as I didn’t have an amp it actually sounded really good that way.
I noticed a different sound when going into the fx loop return with my pedal. Two reasons are the clean channel we use for pedals on most amps will give a broken, slightly distorted sound at higher volumes, the fx return does not seem to do this, second, when going through the fx loop return my reverb is bypassed, I liked the sound difference going through the loop except losing the reverb.
@@ceoofworldpeace8901 just toss it, or keep it should you wish to undo the mod. Don't bridge the two empty solder points either, it somehow works like that.
Classic Marilyn Manson Tone was all about the MT-2, Electro Harmonix Sovetek "(Green)" Bigmuff PI, as well as a DOD Bass Grunge pedal. I love the old Manson sound. Most of the groups I like were always using Boss pedals. So, for me though many hate the MT-2, it is a pedal I find quite useful.Great video, keep up the great work.
I bought one of these pedals back in 2008 and was never really able to get a decent sound out of it. I only found out about this whole 'plug it into the loop return' in the past month. Now I gotta get a hold of one of these pedals before they go up in value. Or, I could get a regular 'preamp distortion' pedal like a sane individual.
I always wanted a METUL ZOOONE just to have one (good and bad are all relative to use, and I like 'bad' equipment a lot), but used this way it practically gave me a whole new amp to play around with. Now I have my original generic EVH clone AND a super high-gain whatever-you-wanna-compare-it-to amp for what ended up to be $50! Hell, my cheap amp's preamp can be a pseudo-overdrive and/or get into ridiculous, experimental noise territory cranked up when driving the MT-2, but, strangely, doesn't sound as good the other way around. Design mistake or not, I love the MT-2 fx loop phenomenon.
Makes sense, plugging staight nto the power amp gives additional headroom, it also bypasses the eq, on the other hand you should be able to get similar results with super clean amp, or rather amp set super clean.
it's missing real tube crunch dont you think? by the way we in the old days had the distortion at max on this and the thing no one is trying but was key back in the day was putting a Boss equalizer after the pedal, ;) and there you go. get it right people. and it was in front if I remember correctly. but the EQ made a huge boost and the difference was there, hope this helps.
It's totally normal that the sound is bigger : the clean preamps adds an eq to the sound, especially some trebble and presence. By bypassing the preamp, you bypass an eq section and the sound is fater. But in counterpart, you have no clean, or a bad and non ajustable clean tone, and the volume of the transistor pedal+poweramp instead of the volume of pedal+preamp+poweramp. I'm not sure the volume of transistor would be as correct as a tube volume when pushed high. Perhaps the alternative could be to take an eq post distortion and to set it in order to revert what the preamp eq does (cutting some bass and some trebble) to get the same flat sound as in the loop but with more tube volume (?).
By going into the return you are basically just using a power amp. The flip side is you can bypass a solid state power amp with using the send of your effects loop to return of another amp. Great for adding power to a lunch box amp
With my joyo zombie I found the metal zone sounds better plugged into the front of the amp then it does in the return. I didn't want to tweak any of my knobs though.
@@zombiemontage with other amps that I've tried I've found the metal zone sounded better through the return. With the joyo it's not so, to my ears anyway. I think it has more to do with the joyo return than the metal zone.
Gonna try this tomorrow... Super interesting. Only been using one for around 30years I guess it's normal I wouldn't have got around to it yet....!!!!🍀 Best regards from the UK 🍀
It cuts that high end that people seem to hate so much. That box of bees effect. I kinda dig that nastiness but I gotta admit, it sounds amazing in the loop.
in my opinion, it just so happens that it works better on the loop of the amp, but i think that boss never intended to use it as a preamp cause distortion pedals back in the day are meant to be in front of the amp
I dont get it,I've had one over 13 years and I love the way it sounds! The adjustments are VERY sensitive but mine sounds great. Also I really liked the way It sounded when you just plugged in the front. Maybe I'm tone deaf lol
I actually preferred the sound from the front too. I like the sharp growl. Through the effects loop it was warmer but lacked the cut in my view. I just bought one today. Itll be in front of my Marshall MG15 practice amp
Most Dirt-pedals will not sound good in the return. But it's always worth a try, of course. If it's not suitable you will usually end up with a weaker tone and in most of the cases a cut of the high frequencies. This is what I experienced. The real problem is that you don't really have a usable clean tone. It will be very direct, PU into Poweramp.
There is a trend of videos now liking the Boss Metal Zone pedal, instead of normally hating on it. Props to all the real people who used it and loved it no matter what someone on TH-cam said. Turn that gain up people, and have fun!
I have this pedal any pedal with level control can be played this way and you can achieve the exact same tone by adjusting the level knob either way you plug it in but line in will go further toward the angry wasp sound
I think a metal zone often sounds bad into a fender preamp due to the lack of mids and the high end, one person that uses a metal zone and ive always liked is Craig Nicholls from The Vines tone and he uses Marshall Super Lead which of course doesnt have the same high end and plenty of mids.
People always went crazy about the MT2. I have and used one since 1991. The only issue with the pedal is that its EQ is VERY POWERFULL. People are going crazy with the "Fx return connection". The only thing you have to do is think how a power amp actually sounds: Very even, unfiltered and DARK. But when people connect the MT2 IN FRONT, they setup the CLEAN channel first into a bright nice clean, then plug the MT2 so they can have "2 channels" and it sounds like shit. Just plug your MT2 on your clean channel, then suit the EQ of your clean channel to complement the MT2 (making it for a dark even tone), then adjust your MT2 EQ to your liking. For reference..the MT2 in front of a very dark sounding amp (like the Buggera 15w for example) sounds great....
Metal zone requires the good path that kills the bee attack. I ended to use it on the drive channel rather than clearn one. Also requires a speaker able to cope with metal tone. Had a Peavey Bandit 112 that supported well this pedal with its Scorpion speaker. Tried it on some bluesy stuff and it sucks of course any any high gain sounding preamp.
lots of metal bands use bass amps or guitar amps into bass cabs.. I've tried it myself plugged in my VOX VT50 into my Fender Rumble 4x10 bass cab.. omg it sounded richer but lost much of the brightness though. Was much louder too..
I've never used one, but I can promise that 11 year old beginner guitarist me would have plugged a metal zone straight into the front of an amp and loved every second.
To me using the send/return with it gives a better sound. The trouble on stock Metal Zone is the infamous "wah" sensation that on some settings can be useful. I checked on TH-cam an inexpensive easy mod, the "Covid Mod" that turns the angry bee sound in a more balanced, even on eq, beautiful palette from hard rock to metal. Just try and let me know what do You think....
If I had to guess. I'd say whenever they were breadboarding and tweaking the schematic for the metal zone they were probably going directly to desk instead of to the front of an amp. Thus they tweaked it to sound best that way. Just an assumption on my part.
having doing this since 94 with all kinds of pedals & effects. bypassing the preamp avoids the original signal from being over processed hence the (angry bees in a can effect) lol.. i use the eq and te volume of my pedal as my preamp thats essentially what ur doing by bypassing the preamp anyways.. sounds thicker & more crunchy more of twhat the original sound was intended to sound like
I didn't say anything cause of the backlash i got back in 2005/2006. A friend had a Metal Zone and an amp with it connected just to the return. So I've sat waiting for this day. And you know what I want to cry in pity. Pity that none of the idiots would even attempt it. Now if you want since you know that the Metal Zone is a pedal preamp, depending on if you place things before and after it, you can get different tones from your pedals depending on EQ and level of distortion on the pedal.
Hello, i have a fernandes fa15 guitar amp with an 8ohm speaker, i suspect 35watts, not sure because it doesn't say anywhere. Can i replace it with an 8ohm 50watt speaker or with a higher watt like 80 or 100watt?
so what about the Send in the F/X loop? I'm missing something here...the Send and Return is the In and the Out...how are you hooking the pedal up? Did I miss something in your explanation? thanks.
I wonder if the Metal Zone or its infamous predecessor the Heavy Metal were designed to work with amplifiers that did not break so easily at reasonable volume and required all the high output pick-ups and boosters possible.Maybe this is why it sounds terrible when plugged into modern pre-amps that are designed to behave differently.
That is pretty much how the 5150 is designed and its probably the most popular metal amp. The distortion most use for Metal is from the preamp, not from driving the tubes too hard.
Yep! In my experience into not high gain amps, and with lower gain pickups it's a "Metallic in a box" thing, but into a high gain amp with a high out put pickup it squishes and over compresses iMO
its pretty certain that the metalzone was indeed designed as a preamp pedal since it was released in 1991, back at that time the only "high gain" amps were the jcm 800 and the Mesa MKII C+, both of which were really more Crunchy amps that needed a distortion pedal to actually be high gain, and the extremely expensive Soldano SLO-100(modified and rebadged Mesa MKII C+) and equally extremely expensive Mesa MK IV the rectifier series, 5150, Bogner Ecstasy and Diezel VH4 didnt come until a year after the MT-2 so the little pedal made extreme metal a lot more reachable at a lower price point
Great! Of course these pedals were not designed for exclusive new amplifiers, they were targeted at the broader market for those who wanted to emulate what they heard on records. Now that someone has explained the history, it is pretty clear these pedals crank it up to 11 (or is it even 21?) when used together with what was designed later on to replace them. Add a booster to an amplifier with an integrated booster and you get a caricature.
I have a metal zone and I run it in the fx loop of my peavey too and sounds sick. But a problem surfaces when you wanna play a song like an justice for all where the clean tone is blaring and when you engage the pedal you get the right volume. Really annoying bc everyone I talk to says it’s supposed to be in front of the amp so yea that’ll fix the volume issue but then the distorted sound will sound like dogshit:/
Yes. The return is a power amp input only and runs wide open on amps with no master volume. When you "turn off" the pedal, the volume knob on your guitar will be your amps master volume, so if you have your guitar volume on 10, and switch the pedal to clean, you'll blow your hair back! 😀 If your amp has a master volume, then the volume will be limited by that obviously.
I liked it better in front, I like angry bees, I've had an MT2 for 20 years, it's mainly people who don't like extreme metal who put it down, if it's not for you there are a million others out there, I love the Boss Metal Zone
I wonder if this pedal is similar to the DS-1 in regards to what I discovered, you need to use a guitar with very low output pickups, the input of the DS-1 hates everything coming into it that is hotter. I will also try the DS-1 into the effects return
![ILLSLICK - KILLSHOT REMIX [FULL VERSION]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RIK8RrqIAzE/mqdefault.jpg)
I just dug up the manual of my MT-2. It just says connect the OUTPUT jack to a guitar amplifier, without specifying whether to use the Input jack or the FX return. There are however detailed instructions on how and in which order to operate the EQ controls, which many of us probably should have read first before dialing in an awful tone and then complaining about how much the pedal sucks.
Simon Brunner I can vouch. This comment made me dig up my old manual too...at a glance it seemed like I already knew what was going on..but man was I wrong 😂 the ‘Sample Settings’ section is worth a look as well!
Thing is, boss knew that the smaller amps didn't have fx loops. And today we wouldn't have the shredders we have today if the instructions said put it in the loop.
I read this and got my manual. The heavy medal "settings" were better than the way I was using it for months. Thanks!
right. I love this pedal because I know how to read. This pedal has always ruled in my world.
@@Jay-cr6mx Careful! Heavy medals weigh you down! D:
There's loads of "preamp" pedals now... seems Boss via accident or purpose got there 25 years ago :)
Yeah sadly this was a thing. And it took 25 years before anyone actually tried to see if it was actually true.
I had a Two Notes Le Lead for a while. Sounded like total shit unless it was going into an FX return. Then it was tits. But nowhere else.
Maybe the boss factory forgot to put the note "preamp pedal only" inside the box..#wondering
Hell yeah, I run a tube screamer custom to a custom messa clone amp in a pedal, thru a suppressor right in my fx loop to the front of the amp. The thing is fricken beastly. Loads better than before my amps preamp
just threw the metal muff into the fx return of the micro dark, :D sounds like a mesa now
This is the most honest review of the MT-2. Some people may not like having to run it through the return, but in studio applications, it's a great tone to have in your arsenal when you want it.
The Metal Zone is a magnificent pedal, one of a kind like everything from Boss. an ideal pedal for Extreme Metal. Boss is the BEST.
uhm... what about HM-2?
I pray for some pedal builder to make an op-amp Big Muff with the MZ EQ.
now we're getting somewhere
Could be done, but i personally not a huge fan of it's eq, parametric part has too much space, which makes it hard to control, i would limit it's potential a bit and add bandwidth pot, and treble/bass i would replace with bandaxall (just because it's awesome).
Stone Deaf´s fig fumb got quite good EQ capabilities I think.
Put a tube screamer in front of your big muff. Really helps with that mid scoop and the insane low-end a BMP tends to have.
The alternative band Placebo from the EU got the Metal Zone right. Funny, they didn't bother shredding or chugging, they just dialed in the right settings for them and it sounds freaking amazing.
That's a very fun fact. Thank you.
Great band! Didn’t know they used metal zone
In Soviet Russia the Metal Zone sucks you.
apeekaboo you must buy MT-2 or GULAG. In Soviet Russia MT-2 sells.
In Russia is where great amp designer resides....Mercuriall......pass it on
Yerasov rocks :)
In soviet russia they did not have Metal Zone. I come from soviet countrys and a soviet era.. We made our own guitars, our own FX, our own amps. Buying a western amp was IMPOSSIBLE! So how did these slavic metal bands get the sound?? They fucking made their own pedal or hi gain amp!
Oooooo that sounds noice
I have been using a Metal Zone for many years. I run direct into it and I run my 7 band EQ after that. It's been the main source of my tone and sound and will always be.
Do you run into the front or in the loop?
I do the EXACT same thing... and it sounded MUCH better after adding the EQ with it...
@@danielcollins8306 I ran it into the front
One of the coolest things about the pedal, in this particular instance, is that it physically changes the way you play guitar.
Look at the end of the video, Ive never seen you look like that while you play, you take on a meaner surlier look, all thanks to the MT2
I’m neither a fan or a hater of the Metal Zone, but most people play these things with the distortion level well past 12:00, or even cranked, which leads to the fizzy bees sound. It has plenty of distortion, so keeping it below 12:00 is a great first step towards better tone.
the "fizzy bees" sound is because people wrongly have been putting the pedal in the front of the amp via the Input. Instead of the FX Return.
I thought the original video was interesting too. Running it into the effect return does make it sound better in my opinion, but that EQ is super powerful so it’s easy to make it suck.
I got a Marshall DSL1... and running a metal zone into the return. It's pretty hilarious, and awesome. 1 Watt Metal Zone is what's up.
Yeah! I’ve been doing it through the loop for years! Using it as a preamp makes it live up to its name!
lol..Ola really started a thing here
Yeah. Pretty much a historic video.
na meanwhile I saw Brian Wamplers Vid on using Distortion Pedals as preamps...it was uploaded in march this year - watch?v=nRoBDmO2oGI&t
Absolutely not. I ever use my Metal Zone straight into a Carvin PowerAMp. It's a old thing.
No, cannibal corpse and crowbar started something.
Here's what I've found with my amps and my pedals and my ears.... Every high gain / heavy distortion I own sounds a lot better in the FX Return. Every overdrive I have sounds better direct in the input.
Do you plug the metal zone just directly into the return without using the send ?
@@Macrohard_On_Fire yes.
you've contradicted yourself there.. which is it? @David Dexter
Best description ever of how distortion sounds in my head! I wish I was a graphic designer to interpret that
My best friend treats the Metal Zone like the Discover card... He never leaves home without it. I always found with enough tweaking, you can get some great Metal rhythm sounds. However, I nicknamed it, "The Harmonic Thief". No matter where I set it's Eq, Vol & Gain or the amps controls(and trust me, I've tried every possible setting a hundred times over), the high harmonics, esp pinch harmonics, just went bye bye. I never tried the loop though. I'm sure that would've only helped.
As bad a wrap as the metal zone gets 16 year old me with my peavey rage 158 practice amp never once regretted owning it. Even after that when i moved up to a marshall valvestate 1 x12 combo it was still alright to use as a clean boost to pump that straight up into prime thrash territory and still fun to just crank up and bask in the angry bees. Not to mention back in those days it was the metal zone grunge distortion and the death metal distortion if ya wanted heavy distortion.
Holy Shit... I had to check to see if I wrote this comment...haha. I had the same setup (MZ + Rage), and then moved to a Valvestate 1x12. I also never regretted it. I'm sad that I've sold it long ago.
yeah man didn't know how good that valvestate was till it was gone my self .
The mt2 cannot do clean boost even with the gain knob zeroed it still breaks up
you are kinda right it was never sparkly clean that is also why it took the marshall from like rage against the machine gain to slayer territory. More overdrive than clean boost maybe but i thought it was much closer to a clean boost than an overdrive it for sure wasn't meant to be used that way but it sounded good at the time.
Ha! I had the same start too! But my valvestate was a 100 watt head and a 4x12 fender cab that a builder who was working on my parents house gave me. Two of the speakers were blown and all of the pots on the amp were crackly, but I loved it none the less!
I can’t believe I’ve been doing it wrong all these decades! Thank you!😅
Lo has estado haciendo bien, porque por el loop de efectos van los pedales de modulación, no la distorsión, es solo que este pedal funciona mejor por el loop de efectos.
I checked the manual. It specifically tells you to put it in the front of your amp.
Many years ago I had the Boss HM-1 Pedal. I wish I didn't get rid of it now. It's near impossible to find these days. Anyhow, I hated the sound of it until I threw it into the return of the effects loop. And there it was, that classic heavy metal with no sucky mush 🤘😛🤘
Very powerful eq...so you have to be careful tweeking the tone. Sounds awesome into anything set right...love it...🎸
I saw the original demo. When he said he was running it into his loop, in immediately thought "why the hell would you do that for? Of course THAT'S goin to sound terrible." As soon as he hit the first chord, my jaw dropped. I don't play that type of music, but it sounded great.
I was impressed with the metal tone I got out of mine. I now use the distortion on my 6505 head as my daily rig.. But if I need an ultra portable setup for jamming, I can carry the metalzone and my tc gmajor anywhere that has a practise amp or even just a hi-fi, and I can moreorless mirror my main setup. Very useful
Same!
I think that “the trick” of this heavy distortion pedal is run directly through the return fx loop, but you can use it at the front of the Amp with a little bit of EQ: 8 to 10 o’clock (treble, middle and bass) & 9 to 12 o’clock for input volume should be perfect.
I have the Digit ech Metal Machine, I bought it for self oscillation feedback loops. It's also great as a distortion on acoustic instruments and drone synthetic. Apparently is unloved by many guitarists for bad tone. I saw someone recently run it in the effects loop and it had a great sound. I have loads of effects and audio junk from charity shops that I repair for soundscape experimental work. Most stuff won't work together, especially in the same way a (heavily post) produced tuber video does. The trick is pairing and understanding how the gear works and the make up of its sound. Then you get the magic. As our Lord Miles Davies once said, it's all in the tone.
This I found out 20 years ago, but held tight. Peavey VTM60 stacks are the key here...they love Boss pedals!
Wonder what the HM2 sounds like when bypassing a pre-amp now.
Deet Cologon hmmmm
Done that with its clone, the Behringer HM300!
All I can say is WOW! 🤘
BOSS DS1 is another that sounds brittle and harsh through the front of an amp.. I expect through the FX loop it'll sound much thicker.. Perhaps then we shouldn't plug in effetcts pedals at all into the input of a guitar amp but through the FX Loop of a guitar amp?
This just blew my mind....
@@LFC-Star Nah, there's still heaps of good things that come from running effects in front. Boosting preamp gain comes to mind.
i got a modded metal zone i liked it so much. it was a mod from pedal hackers based on the combined tonal experience that particular builder had. sounds like a 6505 with a good tube preamp
I have a 6505, and end up using a metalzone into my fender twin. It isnt quite as good at distortion, but I’m able to get way better cleans now
I’ve used a MT2 into a korg Pandora for quiet practice for years using it more like this as a “channel” for an amp vs a dirt box into a dirty channel. I also back the gain off quite a bit and get a pretty good sound out of it. Also when I was young and seriously broke I used it straight into an old pioneer stereo receiver as I didn’t have an amp it actually sounded really good that way.
When I was a wee lad, I'd pair one with a GE-7 in the loop of my Peavey Transtube 212 and it worked decently. I never put it in front of the amp...
I used to put a dod 10 band eq in the loop of my transtube bandit 112, such a great line of amps.
I noticed a different sound when going into the fx loop return with my pedal. Two reasons are the clean channel we use for pedals on most amps will give a broken, slightly distorted sound at higher volumes, the fx return does not seem to do this, second, when going through the fx loop return my reverb is bypassed, I liked the sound difference going through the loop except losing the reverb.
THE X-MEN RIFF AT THE END! SUBBED!
i bought one when it first came out....still have it and its still one of my favorites
There's a capacitor labeled C35 on the main board of the metal zone. Removing this cap vastly improves the tone!
Do you have to replace it or just toss it?
@@ceoofworldpeace8901 just toss it, or keep it should you wish to undo the mod. Don't bridge the two empty solder points either, it somehow works like that.
Also, replace the clipping diodes with LEDs. It'll be much better, like a proco rat on steroids
@@joseislanio8910 I'll have to try that!
Classic Marilyn Manson Tone was all about the MT-2, Electro Harmonix Sovetek "(Green)" Bigmuff PI, as well as a DOD Bass Grunge pedal. I love the old Manson sound. Most of the groups I like were always using Boss pedals. So, for me though many hate the MT-2, it is a pedal I find quite useful.Great video, keep up the great work.
Considering how much gain this pedal has, it makes sense to use it on the return.
I bought one of these pedals back in 2008 and was never really able to get a decent sound out of it. I only found out about this whole 'plug it into the loop return' in the past month. Now I gotta get a hold of one of these pedals before they go up in value.
Or, I could get a regular 'preamp distortion' pedal like a sane individual.
Or go with a Berhinger UM300
I always wanted a METUL ZOOONE just to have one (good and bad are all relative to use, and I like 'bad' equipment a lot), but used this way it practically gave me a whole new amp to play around with. Now I have my original generic EVH clone AND a super high-gain whatever-you-wanna-compare-it-to amp for what ended up to be $50!
Hell, my cheap amp's preamp can be a pseudo-overdrive and/or get into ridiculous, experimental noise territory cranked up when driving the MT-2, but, strangely, doesn't sound as good the other way around.
Design mistake or not, I love the MT-2 fx loop phenomenon.
I had no idea about the straight into return thing. I remember I always wanted to try my effects loop but only had 2 cords
maybe you should put all your pedals through it?
Makes sense, plugging staight nto the power amp gives additional headroom, it also bypasses the eq, on the other hand you should be able to get similar results with super clean amp, or rather amp set super clean.
it's missing real tube crunch dont you think? by the way we in the old days had the distortion at max on this and the thing no one is trying but was key back in the day was putting a Boss equalizer after the pedal, ;) and there you go. get it right people. and it was in front if I remember correctly. but the EQ made a huge boost and the difference was there, hope this helps.
If you think about it, the Metal Zone is like a preamp with the 4 band EQ and all. What do you know! Sounds pretty good.
It's totally normal that the sound is bigger : the clean preamps adds an eq to the sound, especially some trebble and presence. By bypassing the preamp, you bypass an eq section and the sound is fater. But in counterpart, you have no clean, or a bad and non ajustable clean tone, and the volume of the transistor pedal+poweramp instead of the volume of pedal+preamp+poweramp. I'm not sure the volume of transistor would be as correct as a tube volume when pushed high. Perhaps the alternative could be to take an eq post distortion and to set it in order to revert what the preamp eq does (cutting some bass and some trebble) to get the same flat sound as in the loop but with more tube volume (?).
By going into the return you are basically just using a power amp. The flip side is you can bypass a solid state power amp with using the send of your effects loop to return of another amp. Great for adding power to a lunch box amp
With my joyo zombie I found the metal zone sounds better plugged into the front of the amp then it does in the return. I didn't want to tweak any of my knobs though.
Maybe because it needs a valve power amp to push in order to sound good
@@zombiemontage with other amps that I've tried I've found the metal zone sounded better through the return. With the joyo it's not so, to my ears anyway. I think it has more to do with the joyo return than the metal zone.
Gonna try this tomorrow... Super interesting.
Only been using one for around 30years I guess it's normal I wouldn't have got around to it yet....!!!!🍀
Best regards from the UK 🍀
It cuts that high end that people seem to hate so much. That box of bees effect. I kinda dig that nastiness but I gotta admit, it sounds amazing in the loop.
in my opinion, it just so happens that it works better on the loop of the amp, but i think that boss never intended to use it as a preamp cause distortion pedals back in the day are meant to be in front of the amp
I was going to to sell my metal zone. Guess its time to give it another shot
especially if you've an FX loop in your amp :).
I dont get it,I've had one over 13 years and I love the way it sounds! The adjustments are VERY sensitive but mine sounds great. Also I really liked the way It sounded when you just plugged in the front. Maybe I'm tone deaf lol
I run mine through the front, and the eq settings from the manual make a difference.
I actually preferred the sound from the front too. I like the sharp growl. Through the effects loop it was warmer but lacked the cut in my view. I just bought one today. Itll be in front of my Marshall MG15 practice amp
I just ran my Metal Muff into the return on my Bugera G5. Very different sound. I think I like it. It has a lot more bass , but it isn't too muddy.
Most Dirt-pedals will not sound good in the return. But it's always worth a try, of course. If it's not suitable you will usually end up with a weaker tone and in most of the cases a cut of the high frequencies. This is what I experienced. The real problem is that you don't really have a usable clean tone. It will be very direct, PU into Poweramp.
There is a trend of videos now liking the Boss Metal Zone pedal, instead of normally hating on it. Props to all the real people who used it and loved it no matter what someone on TH-cam said. Turn that gain up people, and have fun!
Hey, forgot, good video though! Love the shirt!!
I play a Mesa Flux Five in the front of my Mesa Mark Five 25...the most KILLER sound i've ever had from any rig i've owned.
I have this pedal any pedal with level control can be played this way and you can achieve the exact same tone by adjusting the level knob either way you plug it in but line in will go further toward the angry wasp sound
the time this pedal was desingned they usualy hadnt preamps
so it makes perfect sense, but who thinks of that.
Anyways, great sound
so BOSS were ahead of their time with MT2.. :).. So with many amp's with an FX's loop would be hard rocking metal amp's :).
The Japanese man
Off to try this at home...maybe it'll make my Mesa Stiletto actually sound good.
I know this is 2 years old...but how did it sound
@@DowntunedDevil Tell ya what, I'll make some time to hook it back up and record an A/B comparison for you.
One of THE BEST BOOST pedals out there.
I think a metal zone often sounds bad into a fender preamp due to the lack of mids and the high end, one person that uses a metal zone and ive always liked is Craig Nicholls from The Vines tone and he uses Marshall Super Lead which of course doesnt have the same high end and plenty of mids.
Ryan Waste from Municipal Waste uses a metalzone through a 2203 JCM800, Mesa Dual Rec and Randal RG100H
Only bacon frying sound I enjoy is what comes from the stove top! Not the front input of my cab! Effect return is the way to go with this pedal!
You sounded really good! Great video, I just feel a bit sorry for the other video where I said that the signal path was wrong x)
Keep rocking :)
its a bummer anytime i have to redo a video.
People always went crazy about the MT2. I have and used one since 1991. The only issue with the pedal is that its EQ is VERY POWERFULL. People are going crazy with the "Fx return connection". The only thing you have to do is think how a power amp actually sounds: Very even, unfiltered and DARK. But when people connect the MT2 IN FRONT, they setup the CLEAN channel first into a bright nice clean, then plug the MT2 so they can have "2 channels" and it sounds like shit. Just plug your MT2 on your clean channel, then suit the EQ of your clean channel to complement the MT2 (making it for a dark even tone), then adjust your MT2 EQ to your liking. For reference..the MT2 in front of a very dark sounding amp (like the Buggera 15w for example) sounds great....
Play that pedal in the 90s and i want to try that experiment. just bought used one for cheap. Will try tomorow
Metal zone requires the good path that kills the bee attack.
I ended to use it on the drive channel rather than clearn one. Also requires a speaker able to cope with metal tone.
Had a Peavey Bandit 112 that supported well this pedal with its Scorpion speaker. Tried it on some bluesy stuff and it sucks of course any any high gain sounding preamp.
I used a metalzone into a cheap fender bass amp. I thought it sounded cool.
lots of metal bands use bass amps or guitar amps into bass cabs.. I've tried it myself plugged in my VOX VT50 into my Fender Rumble 4x10 bass cab.. omg it sounded richer but lost much of the brightness though. Was much louder too..
You can use it as a boost in front of an amp, provided you know how to actually use a parametric EQ and how to set it for boost use.
Love the dinosaurs! ❤️
I've never used one, but I can promise that 11 year old beginner guitarist me would have plugged a metal zone straight into the front of an amp and loved every second.
Not all effects loop are created equal. Hight quality loops with High Impedance / dB line level select will give you better options to experiment.
I've also been under that inception. I've also been under that impression.
To me using the send/return with it gives a better sound.
The trouble on stock Metal Zone is the infamous "wah" sensation that on some settings can be useful.
I checked on TH-cam an inexpensive easy mod, the "Covid Mod" that turns the angry bee sound in a more balanced, even on eq, beautiful palette from hard rock to metal.
Just try and let me know what do You think....
If I had to guess. I'd say whenever they were breadboarding and tweaking the schematic for the metal zone they were probably going directly to desk instead of to the front of an amp. Thus they tweaked it to sound best that way. Just an assumption on my part.
having doing this since 94 with all kinds of pedals & effects. bypassing the preamp avoids the original signal from being over processed hence the (angry bees in a can effect) lol.. i use the eq and te volume of my pedal as my preamp thats essentially what ur doing by bypassing the preamp anyways.. sounds thicker & more crunchy more of twhat the original sound was intended to sound like
I didn't say anything cause of the backlash i got back in 2005/2006. A friend had a Metal Zone and an amp with it connected just to the return. So I've sat waiting for this day. And you know what I want to cry in pity. Pity that none of the idiots would even attempt it. Now if you want since you know that the Metal Zone is a pedal preamp, depending on if you place things before and after it, you can get different tones from your pedals depending on EQ and level of distortion on the pedal.
9:37 "This one's for you Morph!" best animated series ;)
You should plug that Pink Flaming'er shirt into the effects loop!!! I'll bet that will drive the hell out of that amp!! Nice video.
The purple lava, that's what I'm looking for...
This pedal is extremely versatile
Sounds pretty good like this
Hello, i have a fernandes fa15 guitar amp with an 8ohm speaker, i suspect 35watts, not sure because it doesn't say anywhere. Can i replace it with an 8ohm 50watt speaker or with a higher watt like 80 or 100watt?
I think it's better into the front of a dark / mild scoop amp. Think black star ht-5 or your average solid state amp.
7:06 sounds like you're describing a 1988 Trapper Keeper
so what about the Send in the F/X loop? I'm missing something here...the Send and Return is the In and the Out...how are you hooking the pedal up? Did I miss something in your explanation? thanks.
mz into the effect loop, and use a od808... this through a tripple rectifier and you got the corpse sound.... and that is fucking sick
I wonder if the Metal Zone or its infamous predecessor the Heavy Metal were designed to work with amplifiers that did not break so easily at reasonable volume and required all the high output pick-ups and boosters possible.Maybe this is why it sounds terrible when plugged into modern pre-amps that are designed to behave differently.
Sounds reasonable.
That is pretty much how the 5150 is designed and its probably the most popular metal amp. The distortion most use for Metal is from the preamp, not from driving the tubes too hard.
Yep! In my experience into not high gain amps, and with lower gain pickups it's a "Metallic in a box" thing, but into a high gain amp with a high out put pickup it squishes and over compresses iMO
its pretty certain that the metalzone was indeed designed as a preamp pedal since it was released in 1991, back at that time the only "high gain" amps were the jcm 800 and the Mesa MKII C+, both of which were really more Crunchy amps that needed a distortion pedal to actually be high gain, and the extremely expensive Soldano SLO-100(modified and rebadged Mesa MKII C+) and equally extremely expensive Mesa MK IV
the rectifier series, 5150, Bogner Ecstasy and Diezel VH4 didnt come until a year after the MT-2 so the little pedal made extreme metal a lot more reachable at a lower price point
Great! Of course these pedals were not designed for exclusive new amplifiers, they were targeted at the broader market for those who wanted to emulate what they heard on records.
Now that someone has explained the history, it is pretty clear these pedals crank it up to 11 (or is it even 21?) when used together with what was designed later on to replace them. Add a booster to an amplifier with an integrated booster and you get a caricature.
Gotta love the X men riff at the end.
Sounded good through the Peavey FX Loop. Maybe try a FRFR amp/speaker combo & see how THAT goes through the FX Loop?
Very interesting man.
I have a metal zone and I run it in the fx loop of my peavey too and sounds sick. But a problem surfaces when you wanna play a song like an justice for all where the clean tone is blaring and when you engage the pedal you get the right volume. Really annoying bc everyone I talk to says it’s supposed to be in front of the amp so yea that’ll fix the volume issue but then the distorted sound will sound like dogshit:/
Thank you for this video, and for your honesty and class in quoting Ola's name, (not like this shabby guy from CSGuitar).
sounds great if you connect the metal zone on the fx-loop
instead if you connect it on the front....
tho is not for everyone.
Does it bypass the preamp of the amplifier even if the pedal is turned off if they are only plugged directly into the return? Thanks.
Yes. The return is a power amp input only and runs wide open on amps with no master volume. When you "turn off" the pedal, the volume knob on your guitar will be your amps master volume, so if you have your guitar volume on 10, and switch the pedal to clean, you'll blow your hair back! 😀 If your amp has a master volume, then the volume will be limited by that obviously.
Would this work with similarly chainsawy distortion pedals? I have a fullbore kicking around and wanna try this with that
LSD FLashback kicks in @ 7:07
Output into return?
Input into send?
Guitar into front of amp?
Right?
I liked it better in front, I like angry bees, I've had an MT2 for 20 years, it's mainly people who don't like extreme metal who put it down, if it's not for you there are a million others out there, I love the Boss Metal Zone
I run the boss Blues driver into the Boss Metal Zone into the boss equalizer into all kinds of shit is fucking awesome
Thanx for great video ! How would u connect it, if you were playing a rack .. jmp 1 and power amp .. ?
Just sounds like a beefy stack... awesome...
I wonder if this pedal is similar to the DS-1 in regards to what I discovered, you need to use a guitar with very low output pickups, the input of the DS-1 hates everything coming into it that is hotter. I will also try the DS-1 into the effects return