BOSS MT-2 –Metal Zone Effects Pedal for Guitar and Bass. Legendary High-Gain Distortion Pedal with over 1 Million Sold. BOSS 5-Year Warranty.

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He rolled off the gain and maxed the volume to push the front of his amp. “There’s some pre-emphasis EQ that’s always present which adds clarity and harmonics even at low gain,” he says. However he now uses it differently. The dual-stage gain circuit of the Boss Metal Zone relies on two serially arranged distortion circuits with elaborate filtering that promise distinctive distortion. Depending on the position of the gain control, the MT-2 from Boss delivers a dense overdrive or an aggressive high-gain distortion with endless sustain. There's no release date yet for the album as of yet, though in a 2021 interview with Metal Kaoz, Gaster said it would arrive in early 2022. He also spoke of trialing new material in front of a crowd before putting it to record. Distortion stompboxes are quite straightforward. They’re designed to be plugged into the main input of your amplifier and engaged over a clean tone — adding tonnes of gain to your signal. Most distortion pedals also have fairly simple controls, often sporting ‘Level’, ‘Drive/Distortion’ and ‘Tone’ knobs.

No matter where you stand, with BOSS recently introducing a celebratory 30th-anniversary iteration, it’s the perfect time to reset the MT-2’s polarizing impact and formidable legacy. 1991: The Metal Zone Makes Its Debut Many of us are die-hard metal enthusiasts, so we understand the importance of achieving the crushingly heavy guitar tone. We leverage our extensive experience using guitar pedals in live performances, studio recordings, and rehearsals to identify the best products for our guides.Not everyone enjoys the Metal Zone’s over-the-edge quality. The Metal Zone divided opinion upon its launch. It divides opinion now. Just Google “Boss MT-2 Metal Zone” and the first suggested link that comes up under ‘People also asked’ reads, “Is the Boss Metal Zone that bad?” But its flexible EQ and gnarliness when provoked are what attract players such as Neil. Find out more about how we make our recommendations and how we testeach of the products in our buyer's guides. Related buying guides Ultimately, the best advice we can give is to forget the memes and experiment: the Metal Zone is a hugely powerful pedal, and taking the time to carefully tweak the EQ can – with a bit of patience – yield formidable results with just about any guitar rig. More recently, tech metal bands have leaned on modelling units like the Axe-FX series. Even so, many of the models used, like the FAS Modern, are simply hot-rodded emulations of classic metal amps, often with a boost in front.

Even at the highest gain settings, the low end remains full yet tight, focused, and well-defined, perfect for chugging out low-tuned riffs,” says Ikegami of the MT-2W’s Custom mode. “The sound also cleans up very nicely when reducing your guitar’s volume, putting an extremely balanced range of tones under your fingers.” Using an Overdrive pedal, like the Ibanez Tube Screamer, can help bring magic to an average guitar sound, but only if you know how to use one.

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The Metal Zone may be designed for more aggressive and hard-hitting musical genres, though it has become a hidden gem among soloists. The Metal Zone is renowned for its almost insane level of distortion. The power of the MT-2 is phenomenal and is used to achieve some of the most extreme tones possible from a distortion pedal. While pedal modding may sound daunting to a novice, pedals wouldn’t be what they are without it. Many manufacturers started off modifying classic pedals, some of which went on to become household names in the field. Since its debut 30 years ago, the MT-2 has added its patented layer of dense, saturated distortion to the rigs of bedroom beginners, professional-level guitarists, and modern-day YouTube sensations alike. Along the way, it weathered numerous musical-genre sea changes, made the jump from effects pedal to meme and Halloween costume, and even claimed the distinction of being bizarrely (and falsely) lin ked to the COVID-19 pandemic. You can of course buy Waza Craft versions of the BD-2 and MT-2 - which are both excellent also, while I still have something of a preference for their Keeley predecessors - which supposedly had significant influence on Boss’s own Waza engineering decisions. I also have the MT-2W, and fully intend to acquire a BD-2W at some stage for sake of completion - while I don’t really feel I need it right at this moment - as the Freak Fuzz Blues Driver is as close to welded into my pedal-chain as any pedal ever will be.

So in short: having an MT-2 on your pedalboard will give you a stronger signal, even if it’s switched off. Who’d have thought? 3: Modding the Metal Zone Kurt Ballou is a producer at GodCity studios in Salem, Massachusetts as well as a guitarist with Converge, and he's a master architect of heavy tones who knows gear better than most. He even makes his own pedals and guitars under God City Instruments name. While he's an aficionado of the Boss HM-2, for a while he used the MT-2 and like other heavyweight players on our list, he utilised it as a boost. Used judiciously, the Metal Zone can tighten up your amp’s sound. Some amplifiers just need a little guidance, a physical presence to tighten them up and make them seaworthy. The Metal Zone does that. This was how Weaver found the rhythm guitar tone on Two Hunters –an album that should be required study for anyone interested in extreme metal guitar.Engaging the MT-2W’s Custom mode voices the pedal for a huge, wide-ranging sound, making it ideal for nearly any current heavy style. The tone is natural and open, with increased dynamics and rounder lower mids than Standard mode. Even at the highest gain settings, the low end remains full yet tight, focused, and well-defined, perfect for chugging out low-tuned riffs. The sound also cleans up very nicely when reducing your guitar’s volume, putting an extremely balanced range of tones under your fingers. Waza Craft: The Art of Superior Tone Custom mode delivers full-throttle gain tones with wider range, increased dynamics, and tighter low end So what is a buffer pedal? Buffer pedals aim to reinforce your signal to prevent loss of volume or clarity. They prevent AC (alternating current) from entering a circuit, thus preventing your signal from being interrupted or affected. A stronger, clearer signal means better sound – it’s as simple as that. Boss pedals all have buffered bypass circuitry built-in, meaning that when they’re bypassed, they still act as buffers. The Metal Zone is almost always a key ingredient to the mix. The reason we’ve used it so often in the studio is because it just sounds so evil. And it’s very flexible Nathan Weaver, Wolves in the Throne Room The key magic was focusing and boosting midrange in the first gain stage to enhance the sweet spot for guitar sound. Then the MT-2 can provide singing sustain with any amp and [at any] volume.

The MT-2W reflects the progressive changes to the 21st century metal scene. Guitarists are now after tighter lows, punchier mids, dynamic gain and articulate highs, which is exactly what the MT-2W provides.Ultimate Metal Pedal Shootout! This is the ultimate metal pedal shootout, winner stays on edition!! Each round 2 pedals will go head to head but only the winner goes on to the next round, until we find out which contender is the ultimate heavy metal pedal! | https://tinyurl.com/2oj2m452 At the time of its release, it was the first pedal to feature dual-concentric pots. This means that one dial is split into two different parts, meaning you can adjust two different settings, without taking up too much space on the pedal. The MT-2 has two dual-concentric pots within its EQ section, with one control for High/Low gain and the other for Middle gain/Mid frequency. That begs the question: what is the MT-2’s signature sound? There’s certainly the sound it was designed for, but how players used it in the years to come suggested that this is a pedal of multitudes, a pedal for finding your signature sound. Now, take some time to really experiment with the EQ, bearing the above points in mind – particularly when using the pedal’s active EQ boosts to overdrive your amp, in conjunction with that highly tweakable midrange. Our preferred setting, in fact, uses the high and low band controls as a boost, with a heavy cut in the upper mids.