High gain madness: Busted out the big gun

OGG

OGG

Master of the Meh
While I await my incoming mystery dirt pedal, I had to have something with more sizzle than the Hot Head could provide. Had this puppy stashed away in a lonely place, it's just the ticket...

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I'm sure there are plenty of haters here, but for putting some serious bite in front of a Jazz Chorus Amp, few pedals can get you over the hump like this little beasty. It may be a bit much at full tilt boogie, but back it down a bit and it's a damn fine distortion unit. The fjooking fjury will be brought.
 
I still have bro in law's Digitech Metal Master. He liked all the compression from it. Made playing possible after the stroke.

I have a Rocktron Metal Planet. It's not half bad. Especially if you don't try to use it for metal, turn it way down.
 
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FWIW, I always found the best way to tame the can 'o bees that the MT2 is prone to sound like at full tilt is to run it into an EQ before the amp.

I'm still digging the Tight Metal Jr....great high gain pedal and the built in gate is pretty effective.
 
I bought the Digitech Hardwire Metal Distortion this year and like it a lot. Never tried the Metal Zone, but I think it's about the same concept and problem. With that many EQ and gain options you have a lot of ways to dial in a bad tone. You need to focus and listen a lot.
 
Knox in Box said:
I bought the Digitech Hardwire Metal Distortion this year and like it a lot. Never tried the Metal Zone, but I think it's about the same concept and problem. With that many EQ and gain options you have a lot of ways to dial in a bad tone. You need to focus and listen a lot.
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the problem w/ the MT-2, imo, is that the on-board tone controls don't cover the frequencies needed to dial out the buzzy stuff. Running it into a dedicated EQ w/ more bands/range gives you that control.
 
Knox in Box said:
I bought the Digitech Hardwire Metal Distortion this year and like it a lot. Never tried the Metal Zone, but I think it's about the same concept and problem. With that many EQ and gain options you have a lot of ways to dial in a bad tone. You need to focus and listen a lot.
Click to expand...
I have one too, and I agree (thought I never owned a metalzone and it's been well over a decade since I borrowed one from a friend).
 
Highernoon said:
I have one too, and I agree (thought I never owned a metalzone and it's been well over a decade since I borrowed one from a friend).
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I usually leave it on the loose setting as a Muff, though it doesn't do the "barely breaking up/dynamic" thing as well. it seems to start the gain like a Muff at 9 oclock. Gets boosted well also. It's so nice to be able to switch it over then and get my mosh on when I want without having to switch out pedals.
 
When I got it I used the tight mode almost exclusively at first (and I usually had the bass at max), it took me some time to get used to the loose setting.
 
Lerxst said:
the problem w/ the MT-2, imo, is that the on-board tone controls don't cover the frequencies needed to dial out the buzzy stuff. Running it into a dedicated EQ w/ more bands/range gives you that control.
Click to expand...
I just watched an episode of The Pedal Show where they compared a stock MT-2 to one modded by Analog Man. All he did was tame the bees a little, and it sounded killer.
Lerxst said:
FWIW, I always found the best way to tame the can 'o bees that the MT2 is prone to sound like at full tilt is to run it into an EQ before the amp.

I'm still digging the Tight Metal Jr....great high gain pedal and the built in gate is pretty effective.
Click to expand...
That's a good option. I remember running the Boss 7 band with mine back in the day.
Knox in Box said:
I bought the Digitech Hardwire Metal Distortion this year and like it a lot. Never tried the Metal Zone, but I think it's about the same concept and problem. With that many EQ and gain options you have a lot of ways to dial in a bad tone. You need to focus and listen a lot.
Click to expand...
This is both true, and not. If anything, the consensus was that the EQ was too broad, albeit parametric. It made dialing in a sweet spot something of a challenge. Again, this where a notched, graphic EQ can save your bacon. The guys were able to actually coax some pretty amazing sounds out of the stock unit, but it took a deft touch on the controls.

BTW, I am now ADDICTED to The Pedal Show. OMFG are those guys awesome.

Speaking of the "tight metal" mentioned above, they ran a huge comparison between the two MT-2s, the full size tight metal and full size fat metal as well as a Wampler and the DOD Bonecrusher. At the end of the day, they all do basically the same range of sounds but with various degrees of midrange bite. The tight and fat metal pedals with the onboard gate and boost section were damn nice, but I don't even want to know what they cost. Besides, I'm far from a Metal guy. Give me a Rat with some fangs, and I'm good. I can achieve that with the MT-2 dialed back. Few others can get there. I really miss my old hot rodded Rat.
 
Shit, I keep one on the board and even boost it with a DS1 and/or a SD1 at times.
OGG said:
While I await my incoming mystery dirt pedal, I had to have something with more sizzle than the Hot Head could provide. Had this puppy stashed away in a lonely place, it's just the ticket...

f66032db04812740a3c985f456150abb.jpg


I'm sure there are plenty of haters here, but for putting some serious bite in front of a Jazz Chorus Amp, few pedals can get you over the hump like this little beasty. It may be a bit much at full tilt boogie, but back it down a bit and it's a damn fine distortion unit. The fjooking fjury will be brought.
Click to expand...
 
I just spent about 90 minutes with it. I forgot just how insane the amount of gain this thing has. Gebus!
 
Knox in Box said:
I bought the Digitech Hardwire Metal Distortion this year and like it a lot. Never tried the Metal Zone, but I think it's about the same concept and problem. With that many EQ and gain options you have a lot of ways to dial in a bad tone. You need to focus and listen a lot.
Click to expand...

Every one of the Hardwire pedals I've tried has been pretty good (Delay, Tube Overdrive, Tremolo).
 
OGG said:
Speaking of the "tight metal" mentioned above, they ran a huge comparison between the two MT-2s, the full size tight metal and full size fat metal as well as a Wampler and the DOD Bonecrusher. At the end of the day, they all do basically the same range of sounds but with various degrees of midrange bite. The tight and fat metal pedals with the onboard gate and boost section were damn nice, but I don't even want to know what they cost. Besides, I'm far from a Metal guy. Give me a Rat with some fangs, and I'm good. I can achieve that with the MT-2 dialed back. Few others can get there. I really miss my old hot rodded Rat.
Click to expand...

I didn't watch part 1 (as good as those guys are, when it comes to metal tones & technique, they made the right decision to bring Rabea in for part 2)

Part 2 however, is worthwhile:


You can distinctly hear how Analogman dials out some of that upper mid/high end squelch out of the MT-2 & give it some more beans in the mid...but it still has some of that slightly hollow/flub in the bass.
I liked the catapulp tones better than the triple wreck...the wreck, to me, has a tendency to get sloppy on the low end.
The boneshaker is something I really want to try in person; in this video it's got some artifacts in the low end I haven't heard in other demos.
 
Lerxst said:
I didn't watch part 1 (as good as those guys are, when it comes to metal tones & technique, they made the right decision to bring Rabea in for part 2)

Part 2 however, is worthwhile:


You can distinctly hear how Analogman dials out some of that upper mid/high end squelch out of the MT-2 & give it some more beans in the mid...but it still has some of that slightly hollow/flub in the bass.
I liked the catapulp tones better than the triple wreck...the wreck, to me, has a tendency to get sloppy on the low end.
The boneshaker is something I really want to try in person; in this video it's got some artifacts in the low end I haven't heard in other demos.
Click to expand...


dammit :mad:

ow I want the amptweaker tight metal pro :love:

Very surprised about some of the killer tones they manage to get out of the Metal Zone. All I ever got is bees bees and more bees
 
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