@@SimonSmithGuitar I've gigged my handful times, and recordings and bought dozens of pedals, heads cables etc. All that shit breaks (guitar strings, batteries, heads, pedals etc). The one thing that's always worked were my "shit" boss pedals.
Boss used to be the gold standard. Guitarists coveted them. Some time in the noughties, they became unfashionable and people paid 3x for whatever was trendy. To replicate tones that were often created with Boss pedals in the first place.
Bollocks. Boss was never budget priced, apart from very few models, and has been firmly in the middle of the road as regards pricing. If you're referring to boutique pedal shoppers, that's a minority with more cash than common sense. Today, Boss is ovepriced compared to what it offers with most competitors for most effect types.
@@martinkrauser4029 I didn’t see this 6 years ago. Where did I say they were budget priced? I said they were the gold standard. That doesn’t mean they were cheap you muppet.
First positive video I've seen on the Metal Zone. Had mine for ages and I love it. I've been using Boss pedals for 20 odd years now and never had an issue. Guitar snobs do my head in!
straight up... boss pedals are indestructible, reliable, functional and easy to use. people who gripe about the tech specs are simply not people who need to play live very often, OR they aren't a proper player and they are relying on fancy tone boxes to hide poor playing
most of the time. however, i personally don't like the metal zone, or boss distortions in general. then again, I don't like distortions that much. Boss makes great pedals, but I don't like distortion. Their overdrive pedals are great; they can sound super heavy into a crunch channel on an amp
Hazen Stribling I gotta tell ya though,if you do intend to use distortion at some point and like the Marshall tone,the Xotic SL pedal which goes for only $124 will blow your mind. it also fits in the palm of your hand and is built like a tank and is actually heavy for its size. most other post amp distortion pedals aren't that great or simply come up short or sound pedestrian.
..or some people are assburgers, who often concentrate on little details (as I do). The boss NS2's loop really takes high treble away from guitar tone. It's especially noticeable if modern distortions are used. If you put distortions after the pedal everything's ok (because c'mon, many modern metal players boost their amp with TS or something similar, which takes off top end anyway).
I believe we as guitar players should not focus so much on gear as we should care about our phrasing and technique in order to sound good. We have this bad habit of thinking that if we get a 5150 and put a drive pedal in front of it you're gonna sound awesome which is not the case. In the end,it's all in the hands.
I didn't turn into a gear snob until I'd been playing 15 some years (been 20 some now). After a while, worrying about your technique gets old-whether it should or not-but you still want to worry about your hobby. Worrying about gear is a way to do that.
Gear makes the hobby fun and ever changing. If it weren't for gear snobs we wouldn't have 75% of the gear we have now. Variety is the spice of life man.
Very well said. Gear is definitely important, but your ability to play your instrument and ability to create your own style are vastly more important. I used to think if I had better gear, I’d sound better. Bullshit. Before I started to improve, I let a friend (who still to this day is light years ahead of me as a guitar player) play through my old rig several years ago. In all reality, my rig truly was pretty crappy, but this guy plugged in and made my rig sound like it belonged on some of my favorite records. I learned that day that gear is definitely important, but it sure as hell isn’t the most important.
i was looking a band live and looking 2 guys acoustic guitars 2 guys electrics 2 guys keyboards 1 guy drums 1 guy percussion 2 singers and my eyes were so pleased but my ears i was hearing nothing at all
Prince could also have bought any clothes he wanted but chose to look like an extra on the set of a bad Jane Austen film adaptation. And he was abusing Fentanyl like I do with potato chips, which led to his death way too early. The lesson being: don't emulate famous people blindly like they somehow know better. Because they don't.
No, his death came at exactly the right time. He did everything in his life to lead to that point. He created the right conditions for it. It happened. It wasnt early or untimely.
+Martin L You are so right. Only emulate famous people blindly when you don't know what you're doing...if you know that you don't know what you're doing...hmpf...lol...I had to do this...I know you statement is common sense...just wanted to mess things up a bit for fun. Peace.
Exactly! I played a DS-1 for years too until I got absolutely sick of that sound. Our tastes change! I had a short phase with a HM-2 Heavy Metal after that then moved to the Rockman Sustainor and used that for years. I didn't even like Boston... but loved that sound then. It was more of a complete preamp/compressor/distortion thing and I loved its clean tone as well. Plugged mine back in recently (no idea why I kept that and sold so much other gear) and I was like, "what the hell was I thinking!". It was an 80's sound. Now, I find it glassy, harsh and unnatural, clean or dirty and it really is. Tastes change, our ears evolve, this is all normal. I just started playing with my old band again and my Red Knobs Fender Twin is the only amp I had kept. While its dirt channel has plenty of gain, it really does mild to moderate breakup best. I never liked the "texture" of its distortion all that much although it's all tube (and loud as hell). I needed something else which would bet me into Marshal territory without busting the bank so I got the JHS Andy Timmons (AT) distortion after watching a ton of videos for different pedals and it sounds and especially feels killer. It costs more than a Boss pedal (but not crazy expensive), but to me, it sounds way better than any Boss distortion pedal I've ever used (I never owned a Metal Zone but I've plugged into one many times). The JHS AT is a different thing and it's where my tats is at now. I loved all my other distortions until I didn't. I do not foresee ditching the AT any time soon...
+rayvandragon Sd1 japan and taiwan , distortion, heavy metal, metal zone, fuzz fz2, stereo chorus...rc2 loop station, and gt5 pedalboard made in japan...I play always with a boss
Basically as a non boss fan nor hater I say, that 50% of those who hate on boss pedals hate them because they don't like them in their personal sound and it is really really important to have a "comfortable zone" to play in, the other 50% are just simply stupid unexperianced beginners who heard boss sucks. So, I complitely agree with you and the thing about the metal zone, it's pure crap ONLY if it's in the wrong hands!
I still use a Metal Zone. People compliment my tone and often ask what I'm using. I just say, MT-2 pedal; that's it (plus a JCM 2000 DSL). They always look shocked.
I agree. The MT2 pedal gets a lot of ire, and I suppose people really dial in terrible sounds with it. The JCM 2000 is a great amp, but it's designed for classic rock. I just guess a lot of metal bands we play with are surprised.
I hear you man. I'm running through an MT2, Boss Super Chorus, MXR six band eq and then a Randall BLOQ noise gate into a Blackstar HT-5R 1x12 combo (I'm a living room warrior, hahaha) and I'm damn pleased with the sound I'm getting out of that combination. Cheers!
JCM 2000 DSL 100 is great for full on Metal with a 1960A cab, has high gain channel but I found that the Crunch channel with an overdrive pedal &/or a Screamer pedal before that is supreme \m/
Back in my first band, before my guitarist got himself a marshall vs100 and cab, he was using a metal zone into my old peavey valve amp. I think the metal zone into tube amp tone was better than the cheap hybrid, so long as we played loud. The metal zone gave enough tone shaping to keep a thick and very distorted grunge sound from obliterating my bass.
At last - an experienced gigger using Boss pedals. Fantastic Simon. Thank you for uploading this. I have used them for years live and they are super reliable and sound great.
Thank you so much Simon ! I learnt so much from you. Normally I was using a different setting but tried your tweaks on the zone and worked so well, liked the tone so much ! Have a good day, and please keep posting
another thing people tend to forget (or dont know about it at all) is how the actual amp you play reacts to certain pedals, just go in to your local or fav guitar store, bring a metal zone with you or ask for one, try it on a solid state 50w+ amp, try it on a laney tube amp and a marshall tube amp, you'll get 3 different sounds with the very same pedal setting and i guarantee you wont like it all
One thing that worked for me back in the mid 80's for punk rock and crossover stuff was my old peavey special 130 and the BOSS HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal. I have a Keeley modded Metal zone that sounds decent through most of my amps
Which is why people often don't like the DS1. The DS1 was made to be run on a tube amp and will sound horrible on anything solid state for the most part.
I'm running a Boss Metal Zone through a Hartke GT100c (tube preamp) and it sounds super aggressive with loads of clarity and brutality, perfect for thrash and death metal. Anyone who says Boss sucks is running it through the wrong amp or they're not adjusting it right.
+Lavabug Not all swedes use HM-2s. The SOTS guitars used an HM-2 in the front and a MT-2 in the loop. In Flame's "Jester Race" has an MT-2 on it too. Heck, even Entombed stopped using the HM-2 years ago. The Metal Zone was already dissed and deemed uncool at the time, but it made its way on many albums indeed! :)
If I am not mistaken it was mentioned that that pedal was used in studio in a recent documentary on the making of the album. The documentary exists on you tube. I have had luck messing with that pedal on my board and remember taking a mental note when watching it because that record has been a favorite of mine since middle school. I have also been aware of the stigma of this pedal.
That's exactly what I thought. Running a Metal Zone thru an JCM800 would be like putting cheap chairs on your BMW and then thinking "man these chairs are not so bad after all, I'm having a great time riding them!".
That's an interesting point about buffers. I have an older DOD Grunge distortion pedal that never gets turned on but it stays at the front of my chain simply because it has a buffer and it makes my sound so much better. When I took it off, the sound was just not where it needed to be.
I agree 100%. The Metal Zone was my first introduction to parametric eq. That helped immensely in finding “my sound” later on. Steve Vai used a DS-1 for years before he decided to cash in on his fame w/ the Jemini pedal. Vai, Prince, VH, all are to have used boss at some point. They all could have used boss exclusively, sounded brilliant and different from each other. Because it‘s NOT all about what you have to work with, it’s about what you do w/ what you have to work with.
Agreed. I have a mix of pedals that are all on my board because of the way they sound. The funny thing about pedals and amplifiers is they have these little things on them called "knobs" and "switches"; they let you change the way they sound until it sounds good to you. Heady stuff, I know. Price tag does not equal tone.
People don't like Boss and a lot of other makers only because they are a big manufactured pedal. It just isn't cool enough for them. Most of the players that buy expensive boutique pedals want to be a snob and make themselves look important instead of playing great music. Like they have to have that vomit swirled paint job with "special" electronics inside to get one noise for 10 seconds of a song. When in reality most pedals are just based off of each other with minor variations in internal electronics.
Something to keep in mind about a lot of the boss pedals is that their pedals tend to also sound relatively good through bass as well, especially for stoner metal and doom metal, Al Cisneros uses a DS-1 as his main distortion pedal with Om and Sleep, and I'm fairly sure that Tim Bagshaw(used to be part of Electric Wizard.) used a boss FZ-2 as his fuzz(as did Jus Oborn.)
What's really weird is that it's older brother, the HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal is now suddenly in vogue as a pedal to run before an amp's distortion channel. That kinda blew me away as I always had hated the mushiness of that pedal. I do however love the MT-2 Metal Zone and have used that pedal in countless gigs and studio recordings. It all really depends on what kind of metal tone a person is into, but for that classic scooped mid high gain metal tone heard on countless death metal albums, you really can't go wrong with it. However it does sound much better going through a good all-tube halfstack with the 4x12 cabinet portion loaded with quality speakers. I used for years a Dean Markley RM-80 halfstack and it always thundered in live shows. Before then I used it through a Peavey Stereo Chorus 212 where it performed quite well, but just not as ballsy sounding as the halfstack of course. These days I run it through a Crate Stealth 50 watt head but through the same cabinet. While it's not my favorite metal pedal, it certain does the job and it's sweepable mid-range eq is something that very few metal distortion pedals have at that price point. To me it is a standard pedal for anyone serious about gigging in a metal band unless they are going for a very specific sound and use another pedal or they prefer their amp's built in distortion tones. If anything it makes for a great backup pedal in case your boutique pedal bites it. That being said, my favorite metal pedal is the Zoom 5000 Driver pedal. On it's Stack 2 setting, it is like a MT-2 on steroids with a much richer sound and has built in noise reduction and other distortion types as well.
Absolutely. And what really cracks me up is if you look at the circuits, components, build quality. Elite custom mods to pedals, etc. Buffers that cost $100, and only are buffers... made up of $8 of components... since that's all it takes to build a high quality buffer. People are funny... and boutique pedal builders are pretty amusing too.
As an audio engineer I can say 99% of people invent 'tone coloration' that just plain isn't there. Hell, I've A/B tested some of my gearhead buddies and they can't tell what's what. People swear up and down that their personal favorite brand is way better, but it's a pretty damn safe bet all the 'tone' they get out of it is based on the logo. Of course, you can say that about anything: Clothes, cars, coffee... Are there differences between pieces of gear? Sure. Are they as big a difference as the price difference? 9 times outta 10: Nope. Are they as big as the acoustic differences the VENUE introduces? Oh fuck, no. Are they noticeable when you're standing four feet from an amp you've got cranked up till it's literally damaging your hearing every time you play? Abso-fucking-lutely not. Just remember: The 'warmest' most 'natural' tone you can achieve is by shoving one's head up one's own ass - and fuck me, just about everyone seems to have figured that one out!
My first pedal was a Boss DS-1, and I still have it to this day. It delivers the goods every time I use it. I believe Steve Vai and Joe Satriani also use a DS-1 in their signal path. I also like the Power Stack and Combo Drive because they have a very amp-like sound.
This info is really helpful especially about the different types of environments that music is played in. Also to me, creativity is the most important aspect of music before tone. I think guitarists worry far more about tone than any audience ever will. I know great tone is fun and can inspire creativity but we criticize each other's gear far too much while the audience is simply just waiting to hear more music. I say if you don't want to use a certain type of gear ok, just don't use it but then no need to jump all over another musician who decides to use that gear for his/her music. if that person's music doesn't sound good to you just listen to someone else's music instead or focus more on your own music.
I like how my OD-1 is still working since day one. Even had a leaky battery once but the design kept the acid out. It is simply perfect. Btw I think COSM it partly to blame, yet they are on the rebound with the Waza line.
Thanks for clearing up all the fuss I've been having lately in my head. Recently bought my first half stack and found the gain channel to not have enough "bite" for me personally and I've been scouring the internet lately trying to rectify whether the expensive pedals are worth their price, especially when I see and hear $100 and under pedals that sound good to me
I'm a bass player and occasional guitarist. As a guitarist I bought several boss pedals. Now, admittedly, I didn't have much experience or cash so it more because they were reasonably priced than any other reason. Now, cut to ten years later and I'm playing bass is pretty much all my musical endeavors. I've used and Ashdown and a tone city distortion on my pedal board. Both no longer work, so now I'm back to using my old SD1 and DS1, as well as my NS2 and (japanese made ;-P ) BF2, as well as a few other pedals. Those Boss pedals are fantastic! Never experienced a metal zone, so don't have an unbiased opinion on them.
yes, i have boss od3, boss ds1 (with my mods), boss mt2, boss ch1, boss dd1, and mxr phase 90 (r28 mod). I am so happy with my tone... and yeah schecter guitar and laney amp. (i have some digitech pedals, and EHX chorus nano clone cheap and noisy) I have compared the boss pedal with digitech pedal: my clean tone (when pedal is not switched on)is unchanged with the boss pedals, BUT with the digitech clean tone is losing high frequencies. And boss pedals are not noisy.
I agree with you on this. I own a Boss DS-1 Distortion (which hasn't been getting used that much lately since I've bought a Big Muff, but that's irrelevant), a Boss DD-3 Digital Delay, and a Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor, and they all work great. Boss is just a really good company, and it wouldn't be tough to understand why Boss is one of the most popular companies for effects pedals
I don't use a metal zone particularly. I have a boss me-80 and I assume the "metal" setting was made to replicate the boss metal zone, but I really like how it sounds. I just put it into a really low gain channel on my amp (just enough so if you hit the strings pretty hard youll get some break up) and boost it using the metal zone. it's pretty cool and I say give it a shot if you've previously gone in through a clean channel.
I know I'm late to this thread but I have a 90s-era MetalZone I bought used for $20 and it still works and sounds like new. I got a new DS-1 for $37.99 and it's awesome (though I don't like how it sounds with certain amps). BOSS is BOSS.
boss are very dynamic, so it is easy to fuck up the tone. but if dialed in correctly, boss is as good as any other pedals. infact, i was able to get the rust in peace tone, and after a few tweaks i was also able to get a thick modern metal tone...and even get a bluesy rock tone..very dynamic and wide range of flexibility..boss pedals need just a little more effort in dialing a tone. but theyre good
I agree with you fully. Unfortunately having to sell off some of my pedals (space issues). The DD-3 Delay, SD-1 Super OD, and the CE-5 Chorus Ensemble are absolutely brilliant. I own some others too, including the MT-2 - and I dig it. When you turn the MT-2 Distortion all the way down, you also end up with an interesting boost pedal.
If someone is fighting with their tube amp trying to get better articulation, especially on fast palm muted notes, please be aware that it will not happen. Electric guitars low notes simply do not have enough presence in the frequency ranges needed for articulation (800hz-4k). This is why blues plays swear by the mid-boosted articulation of the tube screamer. Like the Tube Screamer, the Metal Zone shoves those frequencies that don't just drive the tubes, but drive our ears, giving it more presence articulation than any other pedal. The trick with the Metal Zone is that since the mids are so strong, the consonant ranges (4-5k) might need to be reduced. Run it into clean or very slightly warm tubes, the fuzz disappears, and it becomes almost silky.
I bought my first Boss DS1 in 1981. I still use it all the time. It has never failed even after thousands of shows. And most of all, it still sounds great.
Preach it! I've got the same TU-2 tuner that I bought in 1998. Never had a single issue. Also, I bought a DD-20 in 2005. Used it for a couple years, then got into a programming techy phase and bought an Eventide Timefactor. When that phase was over, I missed the simplicity of the DD-20. I sold the Timefactor and bought another DD-20. I find my pedalboard is steadily converting back to Boss all the time. Just really fantastic and durable pedals. As you said...through a decent tube amp. That is where the rubber meets the road.
I've always used a boss metal zone as a low end boost always into my rectifier. when people ask what pedals I use to get my crushing sound I just say metal zone as a boost into my rectum fryer. and there like wow.
Someone landed me a Metal Zone so I could try it with my synths! With the EQ, you can tweak the sound a lot and come up with very nice distorsion tones. The key is to not crank it up to much and use a noise gate. It works great in parallel processing too.
Thanks for this video, Simon! I have been at this point for awhile where I felt like the tone I had was good, but everybody kept bashing the pedal (not my sound) and I had almost given up on it. I was about to go and test out some "better" (more expensive) gear just to compensate. your video has shed new light on this, possibly saving me some money, frustration, and teaching me a lesson in personal growth and taste. thanks, man! keep the videos going!
I've been looking around for a new distortion pedal since mine went out, hoping to find the best option. I've heard a lot of blather in reviews. You really shed light on the situation, thanks!
I built the same 3-pedal setup last year, tuner, NS-2, and Metal Zone, placed in front of my JCM2000. This was to create a pedalboard JUST for a death metal rhythm tone, not for anything else. Works perfectly with no hassles and no menus. The fact that no one ever gave you any shit about Boss pedals at shows or in the studio or whatever is probably not due to everyone thinking highly of them, I would think it has more to do with people who had those views using their filter and keeping their opinions to themselves about it because they didn't want to be rude. I can't imagine any social situation where I just finished playing a show and some dude comes up and says "did you know those aren't true bypass??" and hoping to actually have any kind of conversation after that.
Its weird for me.In the early 90's my metal zone was the best thing ever,I could get thet dime/metalica/death metal/sepultura type sound all in that one box,I agree it can take a bit of time to dial it in before I was happy. I tried my mates metal zone couple months ago and well,I hated it,it was real hard to get that old feeling back that the metal zone used to give me. Maybe because my musical taiste and style has changed a lot,But deep down I miss those old metal zone days ;) P.s- I have a boss blues driver,best pedal on my board.
I find it the same with MXR Fullbore Metal. Everyone has something bad to say about it but you can dial in an awesome tone with it. It takes time tweaking the pedal and amp. Fullbore metal has awesome mids and can be used for hard rock all the way to death metal. What's not to like there are plenty of options.
I use a boss rv6 and ns2 in my pedal board and they both work brilliantly. There is nothing to complain about in both performance and build quality, the real question is should a pedal suit the guitar and amp setup as certain amps and guitars produce different frequencies. Personally I really like there delays and reverbs ,to me they do not colour your sound just add to it.
Very well said, Simon. Being "only" an average guitarist, I have owned my Metal Zone since the mid 90's also. I have tried, and unfortunately, purchased many other distortion pedals over the years. But I always come back to my Boss. It is reliable, and gives me the EXACT tone thats in my head. Boss rules!
I think the key here is that they were going through a killer amp and cab. Most people had an MT-2 (or another Boss distortion pedal) when they were younger and ran it into their Crate combo amp, not realizing what was actually causing their tone to suffer.
Hey Simon, love your channel man! So, last friday (the 29th of December) I played my first gig in my life with my band that I joined recently and I used my Metal Zone for the distortion. You know what? The people in the audience later said to me that my tone worked far better than the ones of the guys that played in the bands before mine. And we didn't even do a soundcheck because there was no time, but the overall mix worked well even with 2 guitar players in the same band. It is a truly good pedal (it was my dad's in the 90s, so very durable and reliable too!), people who bash it don't know what they're talking about! Rock on mate!!! \m/
You are awesome. You said everything that I wanna say about Boss pedals. i like them a lot and have quiet a few of them. NEVER had a problem with any. And because I have at least two in my pedal board, I never had to worry about the length of the cables altering the tone.(hail to buffer pedals)
The reason buffers are being used now, is because people tend to have more pedals on their board and signal loss is an issue. Same thing with a live rig - you'll most often have long cable runs on stage and you'll need that buffer. Playing alone at home with a few pedals and short cable runs, you can hear all the subtle differences and you'll probably notice a difference with true bypass.
The only reason I gave up my Metal Zone is that it was too touch sensitive. Just a hair off one of the parameters it's a totally different sound. I just needed something simpler. Honestly, I was impressed how versatile the MT-2 actually was.
I just bought a Boss Ninja 50 watt amp and when you open up the Computer effects and settings Program they have bunches of Boss pedal simulators it like being in Guitar Center all alone having a blast . Even the Effects I would never use are quality plus they boost better then a pedal into the amp . Boss Metal Zones have been a Metal staple of Guitarists boards for many years !!!
I love my NS2. I have some very nasty self oscillating fuzz, and it stops all the sound when I am not playing in loop mode. Not aware of another pedal that does this. It's also the most smooth and unobtrusive noise suppression pedal out there. It just does what it says on the box with no issues.
Hi Simon! I bought mine after i saw your videos with Boss Metal zone. I just love this pedal. Great videos and great information regarding this pedal. Keep up the good work. Rock on \m/!
I recently purchased a MT2 and MD2 , i think they are both great pedals , you need to just set them up right and adjust to suit your amp.People need to remember that if your trying to get a sound that is similar to bands recording it will be difficult without using that exact gear . I played around with the MT2 and was able to get a decent Metallica MOP Sound, Black Album sound , AJFA sound - everything . Its all in the player , and what is suitable to your ears . Analog sound is much much better then digital . I also once used a Behringer Ultra Metal and combined with an Digitech RP50 and it sounded amazing .
I agree. I have a few Boss pedals that I love. the MT-2 has taken a back seat only out of personal preference (to a Wampler triple wreck), but I still love my power driver circa 1997 :)
For the price, Boss can't be beaten. I've had a phase where I had to buy boutique pedals and in all honesty, I went back to Boss pedals for the quality, durability and just the amazing sound you get for those prices. I think it's also interesting to know that Steve Vai, Prince, Robert Smith and Omar Rodriguez Lopez to name a few uses Boss pedals and their tone is amazing.
For the price, it has been beaten over and over and over the past two decades, but extolling the affordability of Boss in the era of the Chinese onslaught is really a doubtful proposition.
I disagree. In terms of value for the money, I think Boss is still the best on the market. Those pedals are practically unbreakable and just sounds good. So many artists still uses them, I wouldn't be afraid for their future.
There are pedals at a fifth (!) of the price that sound just as great and are just as durable. Boss is usually a solid choice, but is no value purchase, apart from a few notable exceptions.
Rowin 301B / Donner Morpher Nux Time Force / Donner Black Arts Donner Yellow Fall Donner Boost Killer Danelectro Fish & Chips Caline Pure Sky Joyo Dynamic Compressor Joyo Husky Drive Biyang OD-8 / OD-12 ... and lots and lots of other pedals.
I use the Boss tuner TU3, pink label RV3, OC3 and GE7 on my board. Also really like GR55, GP10, AD-8, GT10 and GT10B. Great tools tbh if you know what you're doing. I think the change came because everyone was using them and so there was a demand in the market for "other" brands. To be "different" so to speak. Over half my pedal-board isn't Boss, but, what is there works great.
If it can do what I ask of it, if it can bring out the tone that is in my head, if I can drop it by accident and not get a heart attack, and if it is going to sereve me for years and years than it is a pedal for me. Boss makes such a pedal. It is called ODB-3 Bass Overdrive and it is like a small yellow tank. I also have their tuner and EQ pedal and I am thinking about getting an octaver. The only thing not Boss is the 105Q Bass Wah.
I like this video man it's always nice to hear people that have some logic and actually think about what they're being told and what they're saying and I actually got a brand new metal zone today and it sounds great and as a beginner it encourages me to play the guitar more often and learn more challenging songs that I wouldn't have even thought of before getting it
I only use one pedal, the Boss BD2. I have tried lots of others but this one just gives me the warmth I'm looking for. I have it 15 years and it still hasn't let me down yet. My buddies DS1 is from the early 90s, it had 2 broken knobs and wasn't working so good after some very heavy use, at a convention, Boss repaired it for free... they won my respect that day.
What a great video. Loads of common sense applied here. I gig with a Blackstar HT100 head and best thing for slicing through the mix for lead parts is by hitting the front of the amp with a Boss SD-1. I love boss pedals.
About the buffers, not all buffers are equal. The ones in some pedals aren't very transparent (they will alter your tone). Having a buffer (that is, a pedal which is not true bypass, or a dedicated buffer) at the start of your chain is good as it raises the impedance of your signal. Having lots of buffers has no benifits and will eventually affect your tone, although that shouldn't be an issue with just three pedals. I agree with you that there's nothing wrong with boss pedals in general though. On the mt-2: I've heard some good tones come out of it, but found it very hard to find them myself (I didn't spend much time on it though). In that regard I think it's not suitable for newcomers, they're much better off with something that sounds good at any setting.
I use a Super Overdrive as a boost for the Metal Zone. No problems at all. I run mine straight into a power amp. And like with Simon, no one ever said anything bad about my sound or gear. I have tried various high gain amps that sound good, but they are very expensive and too massive to carry around, so I am very content with what I have. I agree with the comments that say that people who complain about pedals or other gear should instead devote more time to try to listen and dial different tones.
I bought a Boss Heavy Metal Pedal II back in the early 80's (actually it was their 3 millionth unit, I still have the brass plaque to prove it). Phil Campbell of Motorhead, a good friend of mine, once asked how I got my sound, at the time I was using and H|H IC100S (with variable sustain) and used the Heavy Metal Pedal II as a boost while playing lead, and I got an awesome sound. As it happens, I now also have the Boss Chorus Ensemble, Boss DD-7 Delay and Boss RV-6 Reverb and I love em. I've even put them all in a Boss BCB-60 pedal board/case. By the way, my Boss Heavy Metal Pedal II is still working a treat. No I do not work for Boss, just in case you were going to ask lol. I just like a well built long lasting product, which incidentally is what Boss produce.
The problem with the Metal Zone is it's so easy to fuck up. You can get some great sounds out of if, but its so easy to get it wrong and mess it up. Apart from that, nothing really wrong with Boss pedals imo! I personally don't like the Tuner that much but that's more down to the fact that its quite hard to see sometimes imo (I'm short sighted haha) but they have some great pedals! The RV-3, Giga Delay (which seems to not be produced anymore sadly 😞), Adaptive Distortion and Tera Echo are all great and I'd love them! (Well except for the AD, I love my Tube Screamer too much 😜). Wouldn't mind trying the MZ out though, just to get some very harsh tones, not as a main though
+Mike Mellor I just had my metalzone modded and it's way better. All the harshness is gone. It's q good pedal just needs some tweaking for sure. Even stock it's very useful. Your rig us a huge part too
SAW AN OLA VIDEO WHERE HE WAS SHOWED INSTEAD OF USING THE METAL ZONE IN THE AMP INPUT, INSTEAD PLUGGING IT IN THE SEND/RETURN. THE SOUND WAS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT AND REALLY SOUNDED MUCH BETTER THAN I THOUGHT A METAL ZONE COULD SOUND. WHY IS THAT, SURELY THE WHOLE POINT OF THE SEND/RETURN CHAIN IS THAT IT IS PASSING THE DIRECT GUITAR SIGNAL TO THE SEND/RETURN AND THEN PUTTING THE RETURN CHANNEL THROUGH THE AMP. DO YOU KNOW WHY IT WOULD GIVE A DIFFERENT SOUND. IS THE AMP SENDING THE GUITAR BOOSTED TO LINE LEVEL, OR IS THERE SOME PRE AMP STAGE BEFORE THE SIGNAL GOES TO THE SEND. REALLY INTERESTED AS GOT A BOSS GT100 AND BLEW AN INPUT CHANNEL ON AN AMP BY PLUGGING GUITAR INTO AMP THROUGH PEDAL. AND LATER AFTER NOTICING THAT THE CHANNEL HAD BEEN DAMAGED, I READ UP AND DISCOVERED THE THE OUTPUT FROM THE MULTI FX IS TOO HIGH FOR THE AMP CHANNEL AND MULTI FX ARE SUPPOSED TO BE PUT IN THE SEND/RETURN LOOP. HOW DO YOU MAKE SURE YOU SEND AS HOT A SIGNAL AS POSSIBLE INTO THE AMP WITHOUT IT BEING AT A LEVEL THAT WILL ALSO DAMAGE THE AMP. AS IF I HAD A TUBE SCREAMER AND COBOLT STRINGS THEN WOULD HAVE A MUCH MUCH HIGHER GAIN LEVEL ON THE INPUT, WHICH WOULD DRIVE THE TUBES BETTER BUT HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU'VE GONE TOO FAR AND ARE ABOUT TO GET AN EXPENSIVE REPAIR BILL FOR OVERLOADING YOUR AMP INPUT. MANY THANKS SI. AND YEAH NEVER THOUGHT SNUB HAD A BAD GUITAR SOUND OR NOTICED THAT YOU WERE USING A METAL ZONE. OH YEAH THE METAL ZONE, SO I DID HAVE A METAL ZONE OVER 20 YEARS AGO AND THOUGH I THINK I USED IT FOR MY FIRST FEW GIGS, I DO REMEMBER CONSTANTLY FIDDLING AND NEVER FINDING A SOUND I LIKED, OR FINDING A SOUND NOTING DOWN THE SETTINGS, THEN WHEN I WAS SOMEWHERE ELSE LISTENING WITH CLEAN EARS WOULD CHANGE MY MIND OR HAVE NOT DIALLED IT IN QUITE RIGHT. JUST STARTED LOOKING AT AMP RIG FOR GIGGING AGAIN ONCE THE PLAGUE HAS RESEEDED. AND SO REALLY LIKE MESA - DUAL RECTIFIER AND ALSO PEAVEY - 5150 FOR VERY DIFFERENT REASONS. WHEN I GOT MY FIRST GIG AMP AS COULDN'T AFFORD DUAL RECTIFIER AT THE TIME, I GOT THE CLOSEST I COULD TO IT WHICH WAS THE FIRST GENERATION DIGITAL AMP, LINE6 - FLEXITONE 2. AS IT HAD A DUAL RECTIFIER SETTING. AMP WAS GREAT FOR GIGGING AND WHEN MICED UP SOUND NOT PERFECT ANYWAY SO WAS FINE, BUT WHERE IT REALLY SHOWED UP WAS WHEN I TRIED TO RECORD, OUR OTHER GUITARIST GOT THESE REALLY NICE RICH, WARM, FULL SOUND ON HIS TAKES, BUT WE SPENT HOURS TRYING TO DIAL IN A GOOD SOUND ON MY AMP AND IT ALWAYS SOUNDED MUDDY, THE TONE WAS ALMOST THERE BUT ALWAYS SOMETHING MISSING IN THE SOUND, SO NOT RICH OR FULL ENOUGH. NOW WE ARE 20 YEARS ON AND TECHNOLOGY HAS ADVANCED SO I WAS ALSO WONDERING IF YOU THINK IT HAS CAUGHT UP AND IF THERE IS NO LONGER A NEED TO SPEND A LOT OF MONEY ON A VALVE AMP HEAD AND HAVE TO CARRY A HEAVY PIECE OF KIT AND BE CAREFUL NOT TO BREAK VALVES AND HAVE TO REPLACE VALVES, AND HAVING TO TURN UP AMP TO NEIGHBOUR ANNOYING LEVELS TO GET TONE OR IF YOU ARE BETTER OFF SPENDING LESS MONEY AND GETTING A MUCH LIGHTER KEMPER HEAD THAT HAS NO VALVES AND CAN HAVE PROFILES OF ALL YOUR FANTASY AMPS LOADED INTO IT SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO MAKE THE COLD CHOICE BETWEEN THE RICH TONE OF THE DUAL RECTIFIER OR THE AGGRESSION OF THE 5150. AS YOU CAN HAVE BOTH AND SWITCH BETWEEN WHENEVER YOU LIKE. ALSO HM2 HAS SEVERAL MUSICAL GENRES DEDICATED TO IT AND IS STILL IN USE TO THIS DAY BY MANY MANY GUITARISTS. SWEDISH DEATH METAL TONE WAS HM2 WITH EVERYTHING SET TO 11. AND ALSO MY GUITARIST IN ONE OF MY CURRENT BANDS USES A METAL ZONE AND VERY RARELY HAS PROBLEMS GETTING HIS SOUND OUT OF IT. I THINK THAT I DO HAVE A BIT OF AN ANTI METAL ZONE BIAS AS I REALLY STRUGGLED TO CONTROL IT AND GET THE SOUND I WANTED FROM IT CONSISTENTLY, SO STILL GOT THAT PTSD, BUT AS YOU SAY IF YOU DON'T LOOK AT SOMEONE'S PEDALS AND YOU ARE PLAYED A LOAD OF GUITARISTS THAT ARE USING A METAL ZONE AND A LOAD THAT AREN'T, I WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO SAY WHICH WERE USING THE METAL ZONE PROBABLY AND THE GUITARISTS THAT I THOUGHT HAD THE WORST SOUND WOULD PROBABLY JUST BE RANDOM AND NOT JUST THE METAL ZONE GUYS.
BOSS pedals are really good. For a bass player like myself BOSS offers some really good tones in their accesories. The odb-3 is a solid overdrive and very easy to use (although i have a MXR bass overdrive, the odb-3 is really good).
i have both boutique and standard the pedals in my arsenal and still to this day gravitate to my metal zone for heavy distortion, sounds great through a fender twin as well as a marshal no buffer needed
Those are the exact same pedals I use. On the MT-2 I turn the distortion all the way down, and the level all the way up, and run it through the green channel of a Marshall DSL100 and that's it. It's a very robust setup. I honestly cannot understand the flak that the Metal Zone gets on a regular basis.
I love Boss pedals. I've always found them to be right in the middle as far as pricing goes. When I first started playing guitar, DOD was the cheaper brand (first pedal was a Thrash Master), but now I guess it would be Digitech, which I believe is the same company. My pedal board is mostly Boss with the exception of an MXR Wylde OD, which was modeled after the Boss SD-1, and an MXR 10-Band EQ. As far as the MT-2, Crowbar gets a great tone with them.
I think they sound great...if you obviously adjust them. But honestly I've seen many videos of them and at 12 o'clock they sound like what I want from a pedal. I'm just a beginner, I got a used Epiphone Explorer and Amp for my birthday around 2001 in my early teens and gave up after a while. But now at 27 I've played it to help record songs as a creative way to soothe my depression and lower my high anxiety/panic attacks. Out of my old amp, I got a Motörhead-like sound that I'm happy with but I want to experiment and get to a Pantera/Metallica sound. I'm ordering the Metal Core because I heard it's easier for beginners and the volumes a little better. I can't way to play it.
My favourite overdrive is the Boss OD-3 and the DS-1 for distortion. I have an old Japanese tubescreamer but the OD-3 is so much richer. The DS-1 has a smooth distortion and beautiful violin sustain. I dial my gear in properly!!!
Brilliant, well said. I'm still using a Metal zone (modded i confess) as well as a chorus ensemble and dd7. All great pedals. Never had any problems in the 10 or so years I've had them. All well gigged and used to death.
I was a former elitist. My primary distortion pedals is a Digitech Death Metal now, and I used a Big Muff before. The Muff definitely sounds better, but with a Death Metal, or a Metal Zone you can actually CONTROL your sound.
Agreed - a lot of Kool Aid has been consumed for the pedal buzz-word of the moment. In the 80's I had 3 DOD pedals: (red) distortion, (yellow) overdrive, and (blue) chorus, because that's what I could get/afford. Same as you, no one ever critiqued my sound. Presently, I have a mix of pedals that sound good to MY ear, which is what matters to me. My small blues/rock setup is: Boss TU3, BBE Soul Vibe, Way Huge Pork Loin, Boss DD7 into a modded Fender Pro Junior, mic'd up. Recently, the guitarist from one of the other bands on the bill came up to me scratching his head and was like, "you're getting that sound from that?" This was in a small club, where his 100W head/4x12 could only be on 1 on the master volume, which I guess doesn't bring out the true-bypass character of the 12 super boutique pedals on his board. But, I guess that's his thing. Stay off of the forums and go try pedals so you can decide for yourself. Great video Simon. Cheers.
Joe Satriani got his distortion exclusively from the BOSS DS-1 until 2008 when he started working with VOX. (Steve Vai still uses one.) Joe and Steve also have used and still use the BOSS delay and/or chorus pedals. Prince exclusively used an original Metal Zone pedal to achieve his distortion tone since first it was released back in the '80s, as well as various other BOSS pedals throughout his career. And the BOSS tuner pedal has been a standard on nearly every guitar player's pedalboard for decades. BOSS pedals are great!! ...And so is your video, Simon!! Thank you for making it!! (-:
I have a Japanese made Boss HM-2, it only has one setting but its one of the best pedals I have ever owned, and I have quite a pile. Instant awesome, just add stomp. I have a Mesa amp but I still sometimes use my DS-1 for lead sounds. Sure there are boutique pedals that do sound better, but they cost four times as much.
I've gone full circle in a quarter of a century of playing, I started with Boss and I recently got back to it, also i have always gravitated to Roland products, now with Boss amps and waza pedals Roland once more reclaimed the glory of tone.
Of the boss pedals I've used I have had good experiences with all of them. I love my sd-1 for mid boosting and adding grit and I wouldn't get rid of it and my cs-3 and ceb-3 don't leave my bass board. Even though I don't use it much at all my ds-1 does make a great bass drive and I even regret selling my oc-3 to get a digitech whammy. I've always found a use for these pedals and it's to bad so many people avoid them because they're not true bypass or because they're mass produced overseas.
I have boss pedals I have had for nearly 30 years that still work fine, including the classic compression/sustainer Gilmour used, there is no substitute.
The thing is with Boss is that they are the standard sound. They usually sound good when given enough time to play around with them but sometimes, it can get a bit samey and not providing something different to everyone else. I personally prefer EHX for many a few my pedals (fuzz, modulation) but Boss pedals can do a very good job. They are also almost indestructible which is another plus.
I've been playing for about 9 months with a death metal pedal, which ive been told sucks. The first time people hear me play they always say, "wow you've gotten really good in only X months" and "that pedal sounds bad ass".
Thank you for posting this, Simon. Everything you're saying is RIGHT ON. To the extent to where I've found myself going back to Boss pedals... because the newer "better", "true bypass" pedals are pure shit. Many, to be fair, I think have some great sounds, but they've cut every corner to make them within a price point. That can come back to bite you. For instance: I'm a jazz guitarist that began to rely heavy on my MXR 78 Custom Badass (redbox). I absolutely refused to do a gig without that pedal because rolling the tone and distortion back and hitting the crunch switch made it into a brilliant lead boost). Thought I had the perfect pedal until things changed: started giving me problems - tone sucking, cutting in and out (at recorded gigs), and the switch became microphonic. I'm thinking it will be no problem to fix it though, of course, it was: these new shit pedals have most of the components bolted, screwed, nailed, and soldered to the board on the inside making them almost impossible to work on. I was playing gigs nonstop at the time and I went from really loving that pedal to feeling extremely let down by such a terrible way to do business. I tseemed like the goal was to buy multiple pedals every few years which reeks of greed. I reached out to MXR/Dunlop and they basically suggested buying a new pedal or paying $55 (without shipping) for them to "inspect it". It was less than a year and a half old. During this time all I could think was: "Stevie Ray Vaughan's old tubescreamers are not only still working (over 35 years later in some cases), though one, until a few years ago, was still on some guys board." The old Boss and to a lesser extent Ibanez Pedals got them right not just in terms of sound but design. I've went back to Boss pedals with a passion. I learned that the MXR has essentially the same circuit as the DS-1 and after some mods from Analogman here in the states, my DS-1 sounds ever ybit as good for a powerful lead boast as the 78. Once I became used to it I believe the Modded DS-1 actually sounds BETTER, and being that I literally spent $25 for a used DS-1 before mods means I can get as many as I want and they'll last, for all intent and purposes, for a lifetime. I also bought a Boss SD-1 and had it modded by Analog man to TS-808 specs. It sounded good before though to specs, it sounds AMAZING. I literally keep my DS-1 and SD-1 linked together (kind of like a Jemini Distortion from Ibanez) and between the two of them can get any sound I'd ever want between my unaffected signal, the DS-1, and the SD-1. I'm not trying to rant though it disgusts me that Boss pedals are getting such a bad wrap. They have so many great sounding affordable pedals that you can find exactly what you want. If you really want to get surgical there's a hundred modders who can squeeze even more juice out of them. Go Boss - they will not let you down.
Great video man. Sometimes guitarists need to stop with the snobbery and use their ears more. Great video I shared it. :-)
Thanks man! :0)
What a compliment to get this comment from "In the Blues", a great channel!
@@SimonSmithGuitar I've gigged my handful times, and recordings and bought dozens of pedals, heads cables etc. All that shit breaks (guitar strings, batteries, heads, pedals etc). The one thing that's always worked were my "shit" boss pedals.
People who can't play well blame gear. People who sound great do so on any gear they use.
irondarwin1 Agreed look up Zakk wylde playing MIB on a hello kitty guitar for God sakes
"People who can't play well blame gear."
Very true, I can't play andI sound crap no matter what I use:-)
Me too
irondarwin1 like ola englund he makes everything sound good
Thank you Sir!
Boss used to be the gold standard. Guitarists coveted them. Some time in the noughties, they became unfashionable and people paid 3x for whatever was trendy. To replicate tones that were often created with Boss pedals in the first place.
Agreed!!
Bollocks. Boss was never budget priced, apart from very few models, and has been firmly in the middle of the road as regards pricing. If you're referring to boutique pedal shoppers, that's a minority with more cash than common sense.
Today, Boss is ovepriced compared to what it offers with most competitors for most effect types.
Exactly!!! So silly!
@@martinkrauser4029 I didn’t see this 6 years ago. Where did I say they were budget priced? I said they were the gold standard. That doesn’t mean they were cheap you muppet.
First positive video I've seen on the Metal Zone. Had mine for ages and I love it. I've been using Boss pedals for 20 odd years now and never had an issue. Guitar snobs do my head in!
\m/
we always just called it the treble zone.
i had the frommel mod great pedal great mod
Hell yeah same here
Yep, i've used mine since they came out. You just have to know how to use it.
straight up... boss pedals are indestructible, reliable, functional and easy to use. people who gripe about the tech specs are simply not people who need to play live very often, OR they aren't a proper player and they are relying on fancy tone boxes to hide poor playing
:0)
And also not crazy expensive like some other similar pedals
most of the time.
however, i personally don't like the metal zone, or boss distortions in general. then again, I don't like distortions that much.
Boss makes great pedals, but I don't like distortion.
Their overdrive pedals are great; they can sound super heavy into a crunch channel on an amp
Hazen Stribling
I gotta tell ya though,if you do intend to use distortion at some point and like the Marshall tone,the Xotic SL pedal which goes for only $124 will blow your mind. it also fits in the palm of your hand and is built like a tank and is actually heavy for its size.
most other post amp distortion pedals aren't that great or simply come up short or sound pedestrian.
..or some people are assburgers, who often concentrate on little details (as I do). The boss NS2's loop really takes high treble away from guitar tone. It's especially noticeable if modern distortions are used. If you put distortions after the pedal everything's ok (because c'mon, many modern metal players boost their amp with TS or something similar, which takes off top end anyway).
I believe we as guitar players should not focus so much on gear as we should care about our phrasing and technique in order to sound good. We have this bad habit of thinking that if we get a 5150 and put a drive pedal in front of it you're gonna sound awesome which is not the case. In the end,it's all in the hands.
but as a musician you should get the gear that compliments your playing
I didn't turn into a gear snob until I'd been playing 15 some years (been 20 some now). After a while, worrying about your technique gets old-whether it should or not-but you still want to worry about your hobby. Worrying about gear is a way to do that.
Gear makes the hobby fun and ever changing. If it weren't for gear snobs we wouldn't have 75% of the gear we have now.
Variety is the spice of life man.
Very well said. Gear is definitely important, but your ability to play your instrument and ability to create your own style are vastly more important. I used to think if I had better gear, I’d sound better. Bullshit. Before I started to improve, I let a friend (who still to this day is light years ahead of me as a guitar player) play through my old rig several years ago. In all reality, my rig truly was pretty crappy, but this guy plugged in and made my rig sound like it belonged on some of my favorite records. I learned that day that gear is definitely important, but it sure as hell isn’t the most important.
People these days listen with their eyes!!!
True
i was looking a band live and looking
2 guys acoustic guitars 2 guys electrics 2 guys keyboards 1 guy drums 1 guy percussion 2 singers
and my eyes were so pleased but my ears i was hearing nothing at all
and their wallet also seem like it.
MY BELOVED EVER FIRST PEDAL THE: BOSS MT-2 METAL ZONE
Prince could buy any pedal (or pedalmaker ;-) in this world, but he uses nothing but BOSS pedals on his board...
True! Rip prince by the way
Prince could also have bought any clothes he wanted but chose to look like an extra on the set of a bad Jane Austen film adaptation. And he was abusing Fentanyl like I do with potato chips, which led to his death way too early.
The lesson being: don't emulate famous people blindly like they somehow know better. Because they don't.
Martin L k
No, his death came at exactly the right time. He did everything in his life to lead to that point. He created the right conditions for it. It happened. It wasnt early or untimely.
+Martin L You are so right. Only emulate famous people blindly when you don't know what you're doing...if you know that you don't know what you're doing...hmpf...lol...I had to do this...I know you statement is common sense...just wanted to mess things up a bit for fun. Peace.
Boss DS-1 is still one of the best distortions I ever had, doesn't fit my style anymore, but still a great pedal.
Exactly! I played a DS-1 for years too until I got absolutely sick of that sound. Our tastes change! I had a short phase with a HM-2 Heavy Metal after that then moved to the Rockman Sustainor and used that for years. I didn't even like Boston... but loved that sound then. It was more of a complete preamp/compressor/distortion thing and I loved its clean tone as well. Plugged mine back in recently (no idea why I kept that and sold so much other gear) and I was like, "what the hell was I thinking!". It was an 80's sound. Now, I find it glassy, harsh and unnatural, clean or dirty and it really is. Tastes change, our ears evolve, this is all normal.
I just started playing with my old band again and my Red Knobs Fender Twin is the only amp I had kept. While its dirt channel has plenty of gain, it really does mild to moderate breakup best. I never liked the "texture" of its distortion all that much although it's all tube (and loud as hell). I needed something else which would bet me into Marshal territory without busting the bank so I got the JHS Andy Timmons (AT) distortion after watching a ton of videos for different pedals and it sounds and especially feels killer. It costs more than a Boss pedal (but not crazy expensive), but to me, it sounds way better than any Boss distortion pedal I've ever used (I never owned a Metal Zone but I've plugged into one many times).
The JHS AT is a different thing and it's where my tats is at now. I loved all my other distortions until I didn't. I do not foresee ditching the AT any time soon...
Yeah I don't understand why people rag on the DS1. Its a great grungy rock sound.
boss ds-1 great pedal loads of distortion(the older models),i use it on bass,our guitarist used it,toured they got beat to shit, never failed though.
yeah, i tore out the d4 and d5 transistors and it sounds even way better than it already was
+rayvandragon Sd1 japan and taiwan , distortion, heavy metal, metal zone, fuzz fz2, stereo chorus...rc2 loop station, and gt5 pedalboard made in japan...I play always with a boss
Basically as a non boss fan nor hater I say, that 50% of those who hate on boss pedals hate them because they don't like them in their personal sound and it is really really important to have a "comfortable zone" to play in, the other 50% are just simply stupid unexperianced beginners who heard boss sucks. So, I complitely agree with you and the thing about the metal zone, it's pure crap ONLY if it's in the wrong hands!
Thanks for the comment mate
:)
I still use a Metal Zone. People compliment my tone and often ask what I'm using. I just say, MT-2 pedal; that's it (plus a JCM 2000 DSL). They always look shocked.
I fail to see how that combination COULDN'T kick ass.
I agree. The MT2 pedal gets a lot of ire, and I suppose people really dial in terrible sounds with it. The JCM 2000 is a great amp, but it's designed for classic rock. I just guess a lot of metal bands we play with are surprised.
I hear you man. I'm running through an MT2, Boss Super Chorus, MXR six band eq and then a Randall BLOQ noise gate into a Blackstar HT-5R 1x12 combo (I'm a living room warrior, hahaha) and I'm damn pleased with the sound I'm getting out of that combination. Cheers!
JCM 2000 DSL 100 is great for full on Metal with a 1960A cab, has high gain channel but I found that the Crunch channel with an overdrive pedal &/or a Screamer pedal before that is supreme \m/
Back in my first band, before my guitarist got himself a marshall vs100 and cab, he was using a metal zone into my old peavey valve amp. I think the metal zone into tube amp tone was better than the cheap hybrid, so long as we played loud. The metal zone gave enough tone shaping to keep a thick and very distorted grunge sound from obliterating my bass.
At last - an experienced gigger using Boss pedals. Fantastic Simon. Thank you for uploading this. I have used them for years live and they are super reliable and sound great.
Thank you so much Simon ! I learnt so much from you. Normally I was using a different setting but tried your tweaks on the zone and worked so well, liked the tone so much ! Have a good day, and please keep posting
another thing people tend to forget (or dont know about it at all) is how the actual amp you play reacts to certain pedals, just go in to your local or fav guitar store, bring a metal zone with you or ask for one, try it on a solid state 50w+ amp, try it on a laney tube amp and a marshall tube amp, you'll get 3 different sounds with the very same pedal setting and i guarantee you wont like it all
oh yea, even the pickups effect it... and the most suprising, a shitty quality cable can mess up the whole thing too
Very good point!
well that for sure. each amp have different filter caps and different speakers causing different eqs and input impedance
One thing that worked for me back in the mid 80's for punk rock and crossover stuff was my old peavey special 130 and the BOSS HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal. I have a Keeley modded Metal zone that sounds decent through most of my amps
Which is why people often don't like the DS1. The DS1 was made to be run on a tube amp and will sound horrible on anything solid state for the most part.
I'm running a Boss Metal Zone through a Hartke GT100c (tube preamp) and it sounds super aggressive with loads of clarity and brutality, perfect for thrash and death metal. Anyone who says Boss sucks is running it through the wrong amp or they're not adjusting it right.
That pedal has a parametric eq on it and loads of bass/treble, if you can't get a good sound on it there's something wrong.
If Boss isn’t available, I use DigiTech. I hear TC Electronic and Electro-Harmonix are also really good.
Deicide used metalzones on one of their albums I think. The entire Swedish DM scene used Boss HM-2's.
metal zone was used on At the Gates' 'Slaughter of the Soul' record
Patrick Duggan Are you sure? Thought ATG always used the Boss HM-2's like all the other swedish bands.
+Lavabug Not all swedes use HM-2s. The SOTS guitars used an HM-2 in the front and a MT-2 in the loop. In Flame's "Jester Race" has an MT-2 on it too. Heck, even Entombed stopped using the HM-2 years ago. The Metal Zone was already dissed and deemed uncool at the time, but it made its way on many albums indeed! :)
If I am not mistaken it was mentioned that that pedal was used in studio in a recent documentary on the making of the album. The documentary exists on you tube. I have had luck messing with that pedal on my board and remember taking a mental note when watching it because that record has been a favorite of mine since middle school. I have also been aware of the stigma of this pedal.
Patrick Duggan I watched that documentary a while back, it is very good. They go into a lot of detail.
I believe that it is almost imposible to make a JCM 800 sound bad so that is a large part of your experience
bobowrath sovine really? i see and hear a jcm 800 sounds horrible in bad hands
bad hands, you mean like they can't play? That is what Crate practice amps are for
+bobowrath sovine
Should I feel ashamed to own a Crate 15w practice amp as my first amp?
no, that is quite a good amp for a beginner
That's exactly what I thought. Running a Metal Zone thru an JCM800 would be like putting cheap chairs on your BMW and then thinking "man these chairs are not so bad after all, I'm having a great time riding them!".
That's an interesting point about buffers. I have an older DOD Grunge distortion pedal that never gets turned on but it stays at the front of my chain simply because it has a buffer and it makes my sound so much better. When I took it off, the sound was just not where it needed to be.
I agree 100%. The Metal Zone was my first introduction to parametric eq. That helped immensely in finding “my sound” later on. Steve Vai used a DS-1 for years before he decided to cash in on his fame w/ the Jemini pedal. Vai, Prince, VH, all are to have used boss at some point. They all could have used boss exclusively, sounded brilliant and different from each other. Because it‘s NOT all about what you have to work with, it’s about what you do w/ what you have to work with.
Agreed. I have a mix of pedals that are all on my board because of the way they sound. The funny thing about pedals and amplifiers is they have these little things on them called "knobs" and "switches"; they let you change the way they sound until it sounds good to you. Heady stuff, I know. Price tag does not equal tone.
People don't like Boss and a lot of other makers only because they are a big manufactured pedal. It just isn't cool enough for them. Most of the players that buy expensive boutique pedals want to be a snob and make themselves look important instead of playing great music. Like they have to have that vomit swirled paint job with "special" electronics inside to get one noise for 10 seconds of a song. When in reality most pedals are just based off of each other with minor variations in internal electronics.
I don't like them because I played them and didn't like them lol... I preferred my amp without them.
Something to keep in mind about a lot of the boss pedals is that their pedals tend to also sound relatively good through bass as well, especially for stoner metal and doom metal, Al Cisneros uses a DS-1 as his main distortion pedal with Om and Sleep, and I'm fairly sure that Tim Bagshaw(used to be part of Electric Wizard.) used a boss FZ-2 as his fuzz(as did Jus Oborn.)
What's really weird is that it's older brother, the HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal is now suddenly in vogue as a pedal to run before an amp's distortion channel. That kinda blew me away as I always had hated the mushiness of that pedal. I do however love the MT-2 Metal Zone and have used that pedal in countless gigs and studio recordings. It all really depends on what kind of metal tone a person is into, but for that classic scooped mid high gain metal tone heard on countless death metal albums, you really can't go wrong with it. However it does sound much better going through a good all-tube halfstack with the 4x12 cabinet portion loaded with quality speakers. I used for years a Dean Markley RM-80 halfstack and it always thundered in live shows. Before then I used it through a Peavey Stereo Chorus 212 where it performed quite well, but just not as ballsy sounding as the halfstack of course. These days I run it through a Crate Stealth 50 watt head but through the same cabinet. While it's not my favorite metal pedal, it certain does the job and it's sweepable mid-range eq is something that very few metal distortion pedals have at that price point.
To me it is a standard pedal for anyone serious about gigging in a metal band unless they are going for a very specific sound and use another pedal or they prefer their amp's built in distortion tones. If anything it makes for a great backup pedal in case your boutique pedal bites it.
That being said, my favorite metal pedal is the Zoom 5000 Driver pedal. On it's Stack 2 setting, it is like a MT-2 on steroids with a much richer sound and has built in noise reduction and other distortion types as well.
Absolutely.
And what really cracks me up is if you look at the circuits, components, build quality.
Elite custom mods to pedals, etc.
Buffers that cost $100, and only are buffers... made up of $8 of components... since that's all it takes to build a high quality buffer. People are funny... and boutique pedal builders are pretty amusing too.
As an audio engineer I can say 99% of people invent 'tone coloration' that just plain isn't there. Hell, I've A/B tested some of my gearhead buddies and they can't tell what's what. People swear up and down that their personal favorite brand is way better, but it's a pretty damn safe bet all the 'tone' they get out of it is based on the logo.
Of course, you can say that about anything: Clothes, cars, coffee...
Are there differences between pieces of gear? Sure.
Are they as big a difference as the price difference? 9 times outta 10: Nope.
Are they as big as the acoustic differences the VENUE introduces? Oh fuck, no.
Are they noticeable when you're standing four feet from an amp you've got cranked up till it's literally damaging your hearing every time you play? Abso-fucking-lutely not.
Just remember: The 'warmest' most 'natural' tone you can achieve is by shoving one's head up one's own ass - and fuck me, just about everyone seems to have figured that one out!
My thoughts exactly!!
I am subscribing and I am not even done with your vid, Truth on Boss, love it!! I have been using the MT2 for YEARS as well, LOVE IT:)
Thanks Roland mate
My first pedal was a Boss DS-1, and I still have it to this day. It delivers the goods every time I use it. I believe Steve Vai and Joe Satriani also use a DS-1 in their signal path. I also like the Power Stack and Combo Drive because they have a very amp-like sound.
This info is really helpful especially about the different types of environments that music is played in. Also to me, creativity is the most important aspect of music before tone. I think guitarists worry far more about tone than any audience ever will. I know great tone is fun and can inspire creativity but we criticize each other's gear far too much while the audience is simply just waiting to hear more music. I say if you don't want to use a certain type of gear ok, just don't use it but then no need to jump all over another musician who decides to use that gear for his/her music. if that person's music doesn't sound good to you just listen to someone else's music instead or focus more on your own music.
I like how my OD-1 is still working since day one. Even had a leaky battery once but the design kept the acid out. It is simply perfect. Btw I think COSM it partly to blame, yet they are on the rebound with the Waza line.
Thanks for clearing up all the fuss I've been having lately in my head. Recently bought my first half stack and found the gain channel to not have enough "bite" for me personally and I've been scouring the internet lately trying to rectify whether the expensive pedals are worth their price, especially when I see and hear $100 and under pedals that sound good to me
:0)
I'm a bass player and occasional guitarist. As a guitarist I bought several boss pedals. Now, admittedly, I didn't have much experience or cash so it more because they were reasonably priced than any other reason. Now, cut to ten years later and I'm playing bass is pretty much all my musical endeavors. I've used and Ashdown and a tone city distortion on my pedal board. Both no longer work, so now I'm back to using my old SD1 and DS1, as well as my NS2 and (japanese made ;-P ) BF2, as well as a few other pedals. Those Boss pedals are fantastic! Never experienced a metal zone, so don't have an unbiased opinion on them.
yes, i have boss od3, boss ds1 (with my mods), boss mt2, boss ch1, boss dd1, and mxr phase 90 (r28 mod). I am so happy with my tone... and yeah schecter guitar and laney amp. (i have some digitech pedals, and EHX chorus nano clone cheap and noisy)
I have compared the boss pedal with digitech pedal: my clean tone (when pedal is not switched on)is unchanged with the boss pedals, BUT with the digitech clean tone is losing high frequencies. And boss pedals are not noisy.
I’ve still use my MZ that I bought in 91 when they came out, hardly any paint left on it. It’s easily one of the best pedals ever made.
I agree with you on this. I own a Boss DS-1 Distortion (which hasn't been getting used that much lately since I've bought a Big Muff, but that's irrelevant), a Boss DD-3 Digital Delay, and a Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor, and they all work great. Boss is just a really good company, and it wouldn't be tough to understand why Boss is one of the most popular companies for effects pedals
I don't use a metal zone particularly. I have a boss me-80 and I assume the "metal" setting was made to replicate the boss metal zone, but I really like how it sounds. I just put it into a really low gain channel on my amp (just enough so if you hit the strings pretty hard youll get some break up) and boost it using the metal zone. it's pretty cool and I say give it a shot if you've previously gone in through a clean channel.
I know I'm late to this thread but I have a 90s-era MetalZone I bought used for $20 and it still works and sounds like new. I got a new DS-1 for $37.99 and it's awesome (though I don't like how it sounds with certain amps). BOSS is BOSS.
boss are very dynamic, so it is easy to fuck up the tone. but if dialed in correctly, boss is as good as any other pedals. infact, i was able to get the rust in peace tone, and after a few tweaks i was also able to get a thick modern metal tone...and even get a bluesy rock tone..very dynamic and wide range of flexibility..boss pedals need just a little more effort in dialing a tone. but theyre good
I agree with you fully. Unfortunately having to sell off some of my pedals (space issues). The DD-3 Delay, SD-1 Super OD, and the CE-5 Chorus Ensemble are absolutely brilliant. I own some others too, including the MT-2 - and I dig it. When you turn the MT-2 Distortion all the way down, you also end up with an interesting boost pedal.
Love the CE-5, my first and last chorus pedal =). I think the only chorus pedal I'd consider trying aside from the CE5, would be the CE2.
+Rafael Matos It is very cool. Especially I you have it dialled low but permanently on.
If someone is fighting with their tube amp trying to get better articulation, especially on fast palm muted notes, please be aware that it will not happen. Electric guitars low notes simply do not have enough presence in the frequency ranges needed for articulation (800hz-4k). This is why blues plays swear by the mid-boosted articulation of the tube screamer. Like the Tube Screamer, the Metal Zone shoves those frequencies that don't just drive the tubes, but drive our ears, giving it more presence articulation than any other pedal. The trick with the Metal Zone is that since the mids are so strong, the consonant ranges (4-5k) might need to be reduced. Run it into clean or very slightly warm tubes, the fuzz disappears, and it becomes almost silky.
I bought my first Boss DS1 in 1981. I still use it all the time. It has never failed even after thousands of shows. And most of all, it still sounds great.
Great pedals. Mega reliable!!
Preach it! I've got the same TU-2 tuner that I bought in 1998. Never had a single issue. Also, I bought a DD-20 in 2005. Used it for a couple years, then got into a programming techy phase and bought an Eventide Timefactor. When that phase was over, I missed the simplicity of the DD-20. I sold the Timefactor and bought another DD-20. I find my pedalboard is steadily converting back to Boss all the time. Just really fantastic and durable pedals. As you said...through a decent tube amp. That is where the rubber meets the road.
I've always used a boss metal zone as a low end boost always into my rectifier. when people ask what pedals I use to get my crushing sound I just say metal zone as a boost into my rectum fryer. and there like wow.
Someone landed me a Metal Zone so I could try it with my synths! With the EQ, you can tweak the sound a lot and come up with very nice distorsion tones. The key is to not crank it up to much and use a noise gate. It works great in parallel processing too.
Thanks for this video, Simon! I have been at this point for awhile where I felt like the tone I had was good, but everybody kept bashing the pedal (not my sound) and I had almost given up on it. I was about to go and test out some "better" (more expensive) gear just to compensate. your video has shed new light on this, possibly saving me some money, frustration, and teaching me a lesson in personal growth and taste. thanks, man! keep the videos going!
I've been looking around for a new distortion pedal since mine went out, hoping to find the best option. I've heard a lot of blather in reviews. You really shed light on the situation, thanks!
No probs
I built the same 3-pedal setup last year, tuner, NS-2, and Metal Zone, placed in front of my JCM2000. This was to create a pedalboard JUST for a death metal rhythm tone, not for anything else. Works perfectly with no hassles and no menus.
The fact that no one ever gave you any shit about Boss pedals at shows or in the studio or whatever is probably not due to everyone thinking highly of them, I would think it has more to do with people who had those views using their filter and keeping their opinions to themselves about it because they didn't want to be rude. I can't imagine any social situation where I just finished playing a show and some dude comes up and says "did you know those aren't true bypass??" and hoping to actually have any kind of conversation after that.
Its weird for me.In the early 90's my metal zone was the best thing ever,I could get thet dime/metalica/death metal/sepultura type sound all in that one box,I agree it can take a bit of time to dial it in before I was happy.
I tried my mates metal zone couple months ago and well,I hated it,it was real hard to get that old feeling back that the metal zone used to give me.
Maybe because my musical taiste and style has changed a lot,But deep down I miss those old metal zone days ;)
P.s- I have a boss blues driver,best pedal on my board.
I find it the same with MXR Fullbore Metal. Everyone has something bad to say about it but you can dial in an awesome tone with it. It takes time tweaking the pedal and amp. Fullbore metal has awesome mids and can be used for hard rock all the way to death metal. What's not to like there are plenty of options.
I use a boss rv6 and ns2 in my pedal board and they both work brilliantly. There is nothing to complain about in both performance and build quality, the real question is should a pedal suit the guitar and amp setup as certain amps and guitars produce different frequencies. Personally I really like there delays and reverbs ,to me they do not colour your sound just add to it.
Very well said, Simon. Being "only" an average guitarist, I have owned my Metal Zone since the mid 90's also. I have tried, and unfortunately, purchased many other distortion pedals over the years. But I always come back to my Boss. It is reliable, and gives me the EXACT tone thats in my head. Boss rules!
I think the key here is that they were going through a killer amp and cab. Most people had an MT-2 (or another Boss distortion pedal) when they were younger and ran it into their Crate combo amp, not realizing what was actually causing their tone to suffer.
Hey Simon, love your channel man! So, last friday (the 29th of December) I played my first gig in my life with my band that I joined recently and I used my Metal Zone for the distortion. You know what? The people in the audience later said to me that my tone worked far better than the ones of the guys that played in the bands before mine. And we didn't even do a soundcheck because there was no time, but the overall mix worked well even with 2 guitar players in the same band. It is a truly good pedal (it was my dad's in the 90s, so very durable and reliable too!), people who bash it don't know what they're talking about! Rock on mate!!! \m/
Rock on Francesco mate. That's great to hear. The Metal Zone has one job, and in my view it does that very well!! Glad your gig went well buddy!!!
Truth has been spoken
You are awesome. You said everything that I wanna say about Boss pedals. i like them a lot and have quiet a few of them. NEVER had a problem with any. And because I have at least two in my pedal board, I never had to worry about the length of the cables altering the tone.(hail to buffer pedals)
:0)
The reason buffers are being used now, is because people tend to have more pedals on their board and signal loss is an issue. Same thing with a live rig - you'll most often have long cable runs on stage and you'll need that buffer.
Playing alone at home with a few pedals and short cable runs, you can hear all the subtle differences and you'll probably notice a difference with true bypass.
The only reason I gave up my Metal Zone is that it was too touch sensitive. Just a hair off one of the parameters it's a totally different sound. I just needed something simpler. Honestly, I was impressed how versatile the MT-2 actually was.
I just bought a Boss Ninja 50 watt amp and when you open up the Computer effects and settings Program they have bunches of Boss pedal simulators it like being in Guitar Center all alone having a blast . Even the Effects I would never use are quality plus they boost better then a pedal into the amp . Boss Metal Zones have been a Metal staple of Guitarists boards for many years !!!
I love my NS2. I have some very nasty self oscillating fuzz, and it stops all the sound when I am not playing in loop mode. Not aware of another pedal that does this. It's also the most smooth and unobtrusive noise suppression pedal out there. It just does what it says on the box with no issues.
Hi Simon!
I bought mine after i saw your videos with Boss Metal zone. I just love this pedal.
Great videos and great information regarding this pedal. Keep up the good work.
Rock on \m/!
I recently purchased a MT2 and MD2 , i think they are both great pedals , you need to just set them up right and adjust to suit your amp.People need to remember that if your trying to get a sound that is similar to bands recording it will be difficult without using that exact gear . I played around with the MT2 and was able to get a decent Metallica MOP Sound, Black Album sound , AJFA sound - everything . Its all in the player , and what is suitable to your ears . Analog sound is much much better then digital . I also once used a Behringer Ultra Metal and combined with an Digitech RP50 and it sounded amazing .
Thank you for this video sir!
I have (and use all the time) a BOSS flanger BF-2 and a BOSS Phaser PH-3, love them both
I agree. I have a few Boss pedals that I love. the MT-2 has taken a back seat only out of personal preference (to a Wampler triple wreck), but I still love my power driver circa 1997 :)
For the price, Boss can't be beaten. I've had a phase where I had to buy boutique pedals and in all honesty, I went back to Boss pedals for the quality, durability and just the amazing sound you get for those prices. I think it's also interesting to know that Steve Vai, Prince, Robert Smith and Omar Rodriguez Lopez to name a few uses Boss pedals and their tone is amazing.
For the price, it has been beaten over and over and over the past two decades, but extolling the affordability of Boss in the era of the Chinese onslaught is really a doubtful proposition.
I disagree. In terms of value for the money, I think Boss is still the best on the market. Those pedals are practically unbreakable and just sounds good. So many artists still uses them, I wouldn't be afraid for their future.
There are pedals at a fifth (!) of the price that sound just as great and are just as durable. Boss is usually a solid choice, but is no value purchase, apart from a few notable exceptions.
Okay, give me a few examples. I'm open to take a listen and check em out.
Rowin 301B / Donner Morpher
Nux Time Force / Donner Black Arts
Donner Yellow Fall
Donner Boost Killer
Danelectro Fish & Chips
Caline Pure Sky
Joyo Dynamic Compressor
Joyo Husky Drive
Biyang OD-8 / OD-12
... and lots and lots of other pedals.
I use the Boss tuner TU3, pink label RV3, OC3 and GE7 on my board. Also really like GR55, GP10, AD-8, GT10 and GT10B. Great tools tbh if you know what you're doing. I think the change came because everyone was using them and so there was a demand in the market for "other" brands. To be "different" so to speak. Over half my pedal-board isn't Boss, but, what is there works great.
If it can do what I ask of it, if it can bring out the tone that is in my head, if I can drop it by accident and not get a heart attack, and if it is going to sereve me for years and years than it is a pedal for me. Boss makes such a pedal. It is called ODB-3 Bass Overdrive and it is like a small yellow tank. I also have their tuner and EQ pedal and I am thinking about getting an octaver. The only thing not Boss is the 105Q Bass Wah.
I like this video man it's always nice to hear people that have some logic and actually think about what they're being told and what they're saying and I actually got a brand new metal zone today and it sounds great and as a beginner it encourages me to play the guitar more often and learn more challenging songs that I wouldn't have even thought of before getting it
Good stuff!!
I only use one pedal, the Boss BD2. I have tried lots of others but this one just gives me the warmth I'm looking for. I have it 15 years and it still hasn't let me down yet. My buddies DS1 is from the early 90s, it had 2 broken knobs and wasn't working so good after some very heavy use, at a convention, Boss repaired it for free... they won my respect that day.
I know one effects pedal modder who uses an unmodded mt2 in the studio and live gig.
What a great video. Loads of common sense applied here. I gig with a Blackstar HT100 head and best thing for slicing through the mix for lead parts is by hitting the front of the amp with a Boss SD-1. I love boss pedals.
Thanks
What was your band so I can check out your music?
About the buffers, not all buffers are equal. The ones in some pedals aren't very transparent (they will alter your tone). Having a buffer (that is, a pedal which is not true bypass, or a dedicated buffer) at the start of your chain is good as it raises the impedance of your signal. Having lots of buffers has no benifits and will eventually affect your tone, although that shouldn't be an issue with just three pedals. I agree with you that there's nothing wrong with boss pedals in general though. On the mt-2: I've heard some good tones come out of it, but found it very hard to find them myself (I didn't spend much time on it though). In that regard I think it's not suitable for newcomers, they're much better off with something that sounds good at any setting.
I use a Super Overdrive as a boost for the Metal Zone. No problems at all. I run mine straight into a power amp. And like with Simon, no one ever said anything bad about my sound or gear. I have tried various high gain amps that sound good, but they are very expensive and too massive to carry around, so I am very content with what I have. I agree with the comments that say that people who complain about pedals or other gear should instead devote more time to try to listen and dial different tones.
I bought a Boss Heavy Metal Pedal II back in the early 80's (actually it was their 3 millionth unit, I still have the brass plaque to prove it). Phil Campbell of Motorhead, a good friend of mine, once asked how I got my sound, at the time I was using and H|H IC100S (with variable sustain) and used the Heavy Metal Pedal II as a boost while playing lead, and I got an awesome sound. As it happens, I now also have the Boss Chorus Ensemble, Boss DD-7 Delay and Boss RV-6 Reverb and I love em. I've even put them all in a Boss BCB-60 pedal board/case. By the way, my Boss Heavy Metal Pedal II is still working a treat. No I do not work for Boss, just in case you were going to ask lol. I just like a well built long lasting product, which incidentally is what Boss produce.
The problem with the Metal Zone is it's so easy to fuck up. You can get some great sounds out of if, but its so easy to get it wrong and mess it up. Apart from that, nothing really wrong with Boss pedals imo! I personally don't like the Tuner that much but that's more down to the fact that its quite hard to see sometimes imo (I'm short sighted haha) but they have some great pedals! The RV-3, Giga Delay (which seems to not be produced anymore sadly 😞), Adaptive Distortion and Tera Echo are all great and I'd love them! (Well except for the AD, I love my Tube Screamer too much 😜). Wouldn't mind trying the MZ out though, just to get some very harsh tones, not as a main though
RV-6 I mean haha
+Mike Mellor I just had my metalzone modded and it's way better. All the harshness is gone. It's q good pedal just needs some tweaking for sure. Even stock it's very useful. Your rig us a huge part too
SAW AN OLA VIDEO WHERE HE WAS SHOWED INSTEAD OF USING THE METAL ZONE IN THE AMP INPUT, INSTEAD PLUGGING IT IN THE SEND/RETURN. THE SOUND WAS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT AND REALLY SOUNDED MUCH BETTER THAN I THOUGHT A METAL ZONE COULD SOUND.
WHY IS THAT, SURELY THE WHOLE POINT OF THE SEND/RETURN CHAIN IS THAT IT IS PASSING THE DIRECT GUITAR SIGNAL TO THE SEND/RETURN AND THEN PUTTING THE RETURN CHANNEL THROUGH THE AMP. DO YOU KNOW WHY IT WOULD GIVE A DIFFERENT SOUND. IS THE AMP SENDING THE GUITAR BOOSTED TO LINE LEVEL, OR IS THERE SOME PRE AMP STAGE BEFORE THE SIGNAL GOES TO THE SEND.
REALLY INTERESTED AS GOT A BOSS GT100 AND BLEW AN INPUT CHANNEL ON AN AMP BY PLUGGING GUITAR INTO AMP THROUGH PEDAL. AND LATER AFTER NOTICING THAT THE CHANNEL HAD BEEN DAMAGED, I READ UP AND DISCOVERED THE THE OUTPUT FROM THE MULTI FX IS TOO HIGH FOR THE AMP CHANNEL AND MULTI FX ARE SUPPOSED TO BE PUT IN THE SEND/RETURN LOOP.
HOW DO YOU MAKE SURE YOU SEND AS HOT A SIGNAL AS POSSIBLE INTO THE AMP WITHOUT IT BEING AT A LEVEL THAT WILL ALSO DAMAGE THE AMP. AS IF I HAD A TUBE SCREAMER AND COBOLT STRINGS THEN WOULD HAVE A MUCH MUCH HIGHER GAIN LEVEL ON THE INPUT, WHICH WOULD DRIVE THE TUBES BETTER BUT HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU'VE GONE TOO FAR AND ARE ABOUT TO GET AN EXPENSIVE REPAIR BILL FOR OVERLOADING YOUR AMP INPUT.
MANY THANKS SI. AND YEAH NEVER THOUGHT SNUB HAD A BAD GUITAR SOUND OR NOTICED THAT YOU WERE USING A METAL ZONE. OH YEAH THE METAL ZONE, SO I DID HAVE A METAL ZONE OVER 20 YEARS AGO AND THOUGH I THINK I USED IT FOR MY FIRST FEW GIGS, I DO REMEMBER CONSTANTLY FIDDLING AND NEVER FINDING A SOUND I LIKED, OR FINDING A SOUND NOTING DOWN THE SETTINGS, THEN WHEN I WAS SOMEWHERE ELSE LISTENING WITH CLEAN EARS WOULD CHANGE MY MIND OR HAVE NOT DIALLED IT IN QUITE RIGHT.
JUST STARTED LOOKING AT AMP RIG FOR GIGGING AGAIN ONCE THE PLAGUE HAS RESEEDED. AND SO REALLY LIKE MESA - DUAL RECTIFIER AND ALSO PEAVEY - 5150 FOR VERY DIFFERENT REASONS. WHEN I GOT MY FIRST GIG AMP AS COULDN'T AFFORD DUAL RECTIFIER AT THE TIME, I GOT THE CLOSEST I COULD TO IT WHICH WAS THE FIRST GENERATION DIGITAL AMP, LINE6 - FLEXITONE 2. AS IT HAD A DUAL RECTIFIER SETTING. AMP WAS GREAT FOR GIGGING AND WHEN MICED UP SOUND NOT PERFECT ANYWAY SO WAS FINE, BUT WHERE IT REALLY SHOWED UP WAS WHEN I TRIED TO RECORD, OUR OTHER GUITARIST GOT THESE REALLY NICE RICH, WARM, FULL SOUND ON HIS TAKES, BUT WE SPENT HOURS TRYING TO DIAL IN A GOOD SOUND ON MY AMP AND IT ALWAYS SOUNDED MUDDY, THE TONE WAS ALMOST THERE BUT ALWAYS SOMETHING MISSING IN THE SOUND, SO NOT RICH OR FULL ENOUGH. NOW WE ARE 20 YEARS ON AND TECHNOLOGY HAS ADVANCED SO I WAS ALSO WONDERING IF YOU THINK IT HAS CAUGHT UP AND IF THERE IS NO LONGER A NEED TO SPEND A LOT OF MONEY ON A VALVE AMP HEAD AND HAVE TO CARRY A HEAVY PIECE OF KIT AND BE CAREFUL NOT TO BREAK VALVES AND HAVE TO REPLACE VALVES, AND HAVING TO TURN UP AMP TO NEIGHBOUR ANNOYING LEVELS TO GET TONE OR IF YOU ARE BETTER OFF SPENDING LESS MONEY AND GETTING A MUCH LIGHTER KEMPER HEAD THAT HAS NO VALVES AND CAN HAVE PROFILES OF ALL YOUR FANTASY AMPS LOADED INTO IT SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO MAKE THE COLD CHOICE BETWEEN THE RICH TONE OF THE DUAL RECTIFIER OR THE AGGRESSION OF THE 5150. AS YOU CAN HAVE BOTH AND SWITCH BETWEEN WHENEVER YOU LIKE.
ALSO HM2 HAS SEVERAL MUSICAL GENRES DEDICATED TO IT AND IS STILL IN USE TO THIS DAY BY MANY MANY GUITARISTS. SWEDISH DEATH METAL TONE WAS HM2 WITH EVERYTHING SET TO 11. AND ALSO MY GUITARIST IN ONE OF MY CURRENT BANDS USES A METAL ZONE AND VERY RARELY HAS PROBLEMS GETTING HIS SOUND OUT OF IT. I THINK THAT I DO HAVE A BIT OF AN ANTI METAL ZONE BIAS AS I REALLY STRUGGLED TO CONTROL IT AND GET THE SOUND I WANTED FROM IT CONSISTENTLY, SO STILL GOT THAT PTSD, BUT AS YOU SAY IF YOU DON'T LOOK AT SOMEONE'S PEDALS AND YOU ARE PLAYED A LOAD OF GUITARISTS THAT ARE USING A METAL ZONE AND A LOAD THAT AREN'T, I WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO SAY WHICH WERE USING THE METAL ZONE PROBABLY AND THE GUITARISTS THAT I THOUGHT HAD THE WORST SOUND WOULD PROBABLY JUST BE RANDOM AND NOT JUST THE METAL ZONE GUYS.
Both Ulver's Bergtatt and Nattens Madrigal are recorded with JCM800 and Metal Zone (and only that) - killer combo, period!
BOSS pedals are really good. For a bass player like myself BOSS offers some really good tones in their accesories. The odb-3 is a solid overdrive and very easy to use (although i have a MXR bass overdrive, the odb-3 is really good).
i have both boutique and standard the pedals in my arsenal and still to this day gravitate to my metal zone for heavy distortion, sounds great through a fender twin as well as a marshal no buffer needed
Those are the exact same pedals I use. On the MT-2 I turn the distortion all the way down, and the level all the way up, and run it through the green channel of a Marshall DSL100 and that's it. It's a very robust setup. I honestly cannot understand the flak that the Metal Zone gets on a regular basis.
I went along time in the 90s with just a metal zone and a boss eq. Never had a problem.
I love Boss pedals. I've always found them to be right in the middle as far as pricing goes. When I first started playing guitar, DOD was the cheaper brand (first pedal was a Thrash Master), but now I guess it would be Digitech, which I believe is the same company. My pedal board is mostly Boss with the exception of an MXR Wylde OD, which was modeled after the Boss SD-1, and an MXR 10-Band EQ. As far as the MT-2, Crowbar gets a great tone with them.
I have a Boss DS-1 modded by Keeley and I love it. I have a DD-7 that I love too.
I think they sound great...if you obviously adjust them. But honestly I've seen many videos of them and at 12 o'clock they sound like what I want from a pedal. I'm just a beginner, I got a used Epiphone Explorer and Amp for my birthday around 2001 in my early teens and gave up after a while. But now at 27 I've played it to help record songs as a creative way to soothe my depression and lower my high anxiety/panic attacks. Out of my old amp, I got a Motörhead-like sound that I'm happy with but I want to experiment and get to a Pantera/Metallica sound. I'm ordering the Metal Core because I heard it's easier for beginners and the volumes a little better. I can't way to play it.
My favourite overdrive is the Boss OD-3 and the DS-1 for distortion. I have an old Japanese tubescreamer but the OD-3 is so much richer. The DS-1 has a smooth distortion and beautiful violin sustain. I dial my gear in properly!!!
Brilliant, well said.
I'm still using a Metal zone (modded i confess) as well as a chorus ensemble and dd7. All great pedals. Never had any problems in the 10 or so years I've had them. All well gigged and used to death.
I was a former elitist. My primary distortion pedals is a Digitech Death Metal now, and I used a Big Muff before. The Muff definitely sounds better, but with a Death Metal, or a Metal Zone you can actually CONTROL your sound.
Agreed - a lot of Kool Aid has been consumed for the pedal buzz-word of the moment. In the 80's I had 3 DOD pedals: (red) distortion, (yellow) overdrive, and (blue) chorus, because that's what I could get/afford. Same as you, no one ever critiqued my sound. Presently, I have a mix of pedals that sound good to MY ear, which is what matters to me. My small blues/rock setup is: Boss TU3, BBE Soul Vibe, Way Huge Pork Loin, Boss DD7 into a modded Fender Pro Junior, mic'd up. Recently, the guitarist from one of the other bands on the bill came up to me scratching his head and was like, "you're getting that sound from that?" This was in a small club, where his 100W head/4x12 could only be on 1 on the master volume, which I guess doesn't bring out the true-bypass character of the 12 super boutique pedals on his board. But, I guess that's his thing.
Stay off of the forums and go try pedals so you can decide for yourself. Great video Simon. Cheers.
Amen to that brothef. Too many forum nerds in this world.
Joe Satriani got his distortion exclusively from the BOSS DS-1 until 2008 when he started working with VOX. (Steve Vai still uses one.) Joe and Steve also have used and still use the BOSS delay and/or chorus pedals. Prince exclusively used an original Metal Zone pedal to achieve his distortion tone since first it was released back in the '80s, as well as various other BOSS pedals throughout his career. And the BOSS tuner pedal has been a standard on nearly every guitar player's pedalboard for decades. BOSS pedals are great!! ...And so is your video, Simon!! Thank you for making it!! (-:
Had my Boss Turbo Overdrive since the late 80's. Still kicks ass.
I have a Japanese made Boss HM-2, it only has one setting but its one of the best pedals I have ever owned, and I have quite a pile. Instant awesome, just add stomp. I have a Mesa amp but I still sometimes use my DS-1 for lead sounds. Sure there are boutique pedals that do sound better, but they cost four times as much.
I've gone full circle in a quarter of a century of playing, I started with Boss and I recently got back to it, also i have always gravitated to Roland products, now with Boss amps and waza pedals Roland once more reclaimed the glory of tone.
Do you have any links to your performances or recordings with the pedal?
I am still using my 1982 Boss SD-1 , My 1985 Boss DD-2 , DS-1 , TU-2 .... They still work as great as the day I got them 30+ years ago .
Of the boss pedals I've used I have had good experiences with all of them. I love my sd-1 for mid boosting and adding grit and I wouldn't get rid of it and my cs-3 and ceb-3 don't leave my bass board. Even though I don't use it much at all my ds-1 does make a great bass drive and I even regret selling my oc-3 to get a digitech whammy. I've always found a use for these pedals and it's to bad so many people avoid them because they're not true bypass or because they're mass produced overseas.
I have boss pedals I have had for nearly 30 years that still work fine, including the classic compression/sustainer Gilmour used, there is no substitute.
The thing is with Boss is that they are the standard sound. They usually sound good when given enough time to play around with them but sometimes, it can get a bit samey and not providing something different to everyone else. I personally prefer EHX for many a few my pedals (fuzz, modulation) but Boss pedals can do a very good job. They are also almost indestructible which is another plus.
I've been playing for about 9 months with a death metal pedal, which ive been told sucks. The first time people hear me play they always say, "wow you've gotten really good in only X months" and "that pedal sounds bad ass".
Thank you for posting this, Simon. Everything you're saying is RIGHT ON. To the extent to where I've found myself going back to Boss pedals... because the newer "better", "true bypass" pedals are pure shit. Many, to be fair, I think have some great sounds, but they've cut every corner to make them within a price point. That can come back to bite you.
For instance: I'm a jazz guitarist that began to rely heavy on my MXR 78 Custom Badass (redbox). I absolutely refused to do a gig without that pedal because rolling the tone and distortion back and hitting the crunch switch made it into a brilliant lead boost). Thought I had the perfect pedal until things changed: started giving me problems - tone sucking, cutting in and out (at recorded gigs), and the switch became microphonic. I'm thinking it will be no problem to fix it though, of course, it was: these new shit pedals have most of the components bolted, screwed, nailed, and soldered to the board on the inside making them almost impossible to work on. I was playing gigs nonstop at the time and I went from really loving that pedal to feeling extremely let down by such a terrible way to do business. I tseemed like the goal was to buy multiple pedals every few years which reeks of greed. I reached out to MXR/Dunlop and they basically suggested buying a new pedal or paying $55 (without shipping) for them to "inspect it". It was less than a year and a half old. During this time all I could think was: "Stevie Ray Vaughan's old tubescreamers are not only still working (over 35 years later in some cases), though one, until a few years ago, was still on some guys board."
The old Boss and to a lesser extent Ibanez Pedals got them right not just in terms of sound but design. I've went back to Boss pedals with a passion. I learned that the MXR has essentially the same circuit as the DS-1 and after some mods from Analogman here in the states, my DS-1 sounds ever ybit as good for a powerful lead boast as the 78. Once I became used to it I believe the Modded DS-1 actually sounds BETTER, and being that I literally spent $25 for a used DS-1 before mods means I can get as many as I want and they'll last, for all intent and purposes, for a lifetime. I also bought a Boss SD-1 and had it modded by Analog man to TS-808 specs. It sounded good before though to specs, it sounds AMAZING. I literally keep my DS-1 and SD-1 linked together (kind of like a Jemini Distortion from Ibanez) and between the two of them can get any sound I'd ever want between my unaffected signal, the DS-1, and the SD-1. I'm not trying to rant though it disgusts me that Boss pedals are getting such a bad wrap. They have so many great sounding affordable pedals that you can find exactly what you want. If you really want to get surgical there's a hundred modders who can squeeze even more juice out of them. Go Boss - they will not let you down.
+jinjxmusic Well said!!!