I've hit rock bottom

[ThisDyingSoul76]

My G.A.S. Has gotten so bad, I've got an urge to get a Metal Zone or even a Metal Clone.

After being at a friend's the other week and using his metal zone, I realized the big mistake most people make with it is they crank too much bass and scoop too many mids.

Now I'm curious what kind of sound I can get from one now that I have a decent tube amp instead of the solid state amp I had 25 years ago.

Am I completely insane for even considering revisiting the Metal Zone?

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: I've hit rock bottom

Get help, son.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: I've hit rock bottom

Consult forum pedal expert, Nathan Brown.

 

[GuitarFanatic]

Re: I've hit rock bottom

Consult forum pedal expert, Nathan Brown.

Thank you.mAnd yes, a graphic EQ helps with the Metal Zone.


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[Demanic]

Re: I've hit rock bottom

I love mine, but I had it modded by Keeley back when they did such things. I agree that you need to be careful with the settings. Use your ears, not your eyes.

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[Silence Kid]

Re: I've hit rock bottom

There's a really good video on YouTube of someone making it barely sound better than a Behringer pedal through knob tweaking.

I sort of like the challenge of making "crappy" gear sound good; in my experience, a big difference between some gear termed good/bad is that "good" gear makes it impossible to eff things, whereas "bad" things give you more freedom, which people don't take the time to learn how to use. Uhh actually I take it back, I've played plenty of pedals that sounded "bad" no matter where the knobs were set

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: I've hit rock bottom

IMO, part of what the boutique builders do is narrow the available range of EQ options. Compare TS9 to Fulldrive 2, the Tube Screamer's time sounds good right between 10 o'clock and 11 o'clock and that's about it. The Fulldrive moves the affected frequency a little higher and spreads the sweet spot over the whole sweep.

In that vein, the Metal Zone's tone control sweeps are SO wide, a lot of the resulting tones are not good. Combine that with the potentially fuzzy high end, and you see how it got its reputation.

A mod kit like Monte Allums or the online tutorials and a careful hand can coax some useable high gain tones out of it.

 

[Demanic]

Re: I've hit rock bottom

Some genres of metal like a sizzly high end and non existent mids.

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[PFDarkside]

Re: I've hit rock bottom

Like Pantera?

 

[Demanic]

Re: I've hit rock bottom

Well, they're one of the more well known ones. I've heard plenty of underground metal bands of various genres use the cat dragster tone. It's not meant to sound good in a conventional sense. I suppose it's actually meant to inflict pain.

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[ThisDyingSoul76]

Re: I've hit rock bottom

I think I'm definitely going to revisit this much despised pedal of my past. I can't shake the feeling that between the fact I ditched solid state amps years ago for all tube and 25 years of tone chasing and knob tweaking may allow me to get sounds out of this that are usable.

I think the key is in the midrange and I think the problem most people who have tried it is that they tend to go "ALL THE GAIN, ALL THE GAIN... No mids, all the gain". Low gain on the stock pedal sucks too, but the right amount and using more mids might make it usable.

 

[Brandenburg]

Re: I've hit rock bottom

all i can think of is this song when i see the thread title

 

[ThisDyingSoul76]

Re: I've hit rock bottom

Heh... After unsuccessfully attempting to figure out what was wrong with a friends harmony pedal (no loose wires and all the components were surface mount... I don't have a magnifying glass strong enough or hands steady enough to work that ****. Lol) he gave me a Signalflex EQ Distortion and a first generation Boss Turbo Distortion for my troubles. All I had to do was Bend the contact inside the input Jack and tighten it down on the Signalflex pedal to get it working.

The Signalflex is basically a Metal Zone copy. Testing it out tonight I managed to get a decent sound from it... Cranked tube amp on verge of overdrive, slight level boost on the pedal, lots of mids, bass just about on the 1 o'clock position, treble varied depending on the position of the mid freq knob... Just enough treble for some slight sizzle and to remove the muddiness; and gain about 12 o'clock. Gotta say, either it's not an exact clone of the crappy pedal I remember using in the early 90's or its simply because I was doing it wrong. Pretty impressed. Even got some tones from it that reminded me of the distorted tones typically heard on prog rock albums of the 80's (think Toto's Tow The Line or Yes's Owner Of A Lonely Heart).

 

[Falloffthebonetone]

Re: I've hit rock bottom

I think the BIGGEST mistake most make with the MZ is trying to get a metal distortion rhythm tone out of it. I always got the impression that it was a metal lead pedal and something you really only kick on to bust out a super saturated solo.

 

[Artie]

Re: I've hit rock bottom

Remember, the tone control on your axe is your friend. Also, I'm thinking that Signal Flex and my Johnson DEQ2 are the same pedal:

 

[ThisDyingSoul76]

Re: I've hit rock bottom

Yeah, someone rebranded it for sure.

And yeah, I bet it really was intended for searing lead tones as opposed to rhythm tones. They are the easiest to get with it. Ultimately it comes down to scooping out to much mids and/or not correctly dialing in the mid freq knob.

I managed to get a decent rhythm tone yesterday with it as well as several "effect" tones that would be useful in small doses.

I remember even using a graphic EQ with mine back in the day to scoop the mids even further; but what I probably should have done was use it as a mid boost ... Or if scooping high mids, raise the low mids. And a key thing here would be to turn off the EQ when playing rhythm or lead depending if it is set for a rhythm scoop or a lead boost

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: I've hit rock bottom

I don't use dirt pedals. Ever. But back around 1994 or '95 I spent a day with a borrowed Metal Zone and I came up with a seriously huge crunch tone from that sucker. I was in an industrial band at the time and the other guitar player was using it into a pre-master volume Fender Twin and getting a really good sound so I'd figure I might have a go at it. Ultimately I ended up sticking with the amp gain from my Randall RG100ES, but I tweaked the knobs to get my amp to sound as thick and full as the Metal Zone into the amp clean.

Like everyone is saying, it was all a matter of getting all the knobs into the right ranges. The first person who clones the circuit and limits the range of the controls within pleasing extremes like PFDarkside suggested will be a hero!

And I have to admit, over the years I've tried plenty of pedals that I thought had "something wrong with them" or sucked because they only sounded good with one or more knobs cranked all the way down or up. I'm smarter now but it took a LONG time to figure out that it doesn't matter what the numbers on the knobs say if it sounds good.

 

[dotsdad]

Re: I've hit rock bottom

There's a reason you can find them on Craigslist and Feebay for only 20 bucks...

 

[ThisDyingSoul76]

Re: I've hit rock bottom

I have to admit, over the years I've tried plenty of pedals that I thought had "something wrong with them" or sucked because they only sounded good with one or more knobs cranked all the way down or up. I'm smarter now but it took a LONG time to figure out that it doesn't matter what the numbers on the knobs say if it sounds good.

A lot people are guilty of that. When I see people make comments like "it's too dark. The only way I can get the tone I want is with the treble up full" or "I have to put the tone knob all the down in order to make it sound good because it's too bright"; I can't help but say "Did you get the sound you want? If the answer is yes, the gear is not the problem."

 

[Lysergene]

Re: I've hit rock bottom

I used a MZ for years, was guilty of scooping too much at home and then losing every note at practice. I then brought the mids back in and it was fine.

If it works for you then use it, right?