Metalzone Vs High Gain Amp - Can You Tell Which Is Which?

[@houseofglass21]

Metal Zone setting one was the best by far. More open sounding, the rest were congested and nasally sounding, including some of the high gain amps.

[@ilikepotatoes1345]

Absolutely, the Metal Zone sounded really rich and saturated, the amps sounded flat and really boxy. Very impressed with the Metal Zone's sound in this video.

[@TxBassMan31]

Tones 3 and 5 were my favorites because they had the decent bite that is needed to be heard in a band situation or mix. All the rest sounded like muddy bedroom tone.

[@scottyd2262]

I didn't like the way that you were looking at me in tone 3 & 6... You wanna go ?

[@joefordish]

Scotty D i laughed out loud when i read that!

[@aaronsg71]

😂 exactly

[@jeroen4722]

LOL

[@brycedadevil2146]

😂😂😂

[@kesamek8537]

Superb video, legit comparisons, fearless content. Excellent.

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

Kesa Mek Thanks Kesa mate

[@destroso]

I guessed 2, 3 and 5 for metal zone. Tone 1 was my favorite.

[@leftundersun]

Bro, wtf, I was about to comment exactly the same thing 😂

[@MaaZeus]

I got them all right! Even though you tried to make the tone 3 a bit fatter and "tubey" the whole thing still had the nasal quality and focus was still in the treble, typical of Metal Zone pedal that is. BTW a little hint, try to use Metal Zone as a preamp through the FX Return of your amp, I have found it reduces the nasal and trebley quality of MT-2 a lot, making it much more amp-like. Hell it would have probably made the test much harder too, if not impossible. :) Try it out for shits and giggles some day.

[@Carnelust]

It'd be really neat if you could post the time-stamps for the different tones in the description, it makes it really easy to A/B the different tones, but great video regardless!

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

Carnelust Added

[@brendanlahey4697]

tone 1 metal zone was my favorite for sure, I need to re buy this pedal I sold it over a year ago cause I couldn't get a good tone with it but maybe I should be more patient and try to dial something in

[@JoeBaermann]

The MT-2 can be tweaked to give some quite pleasant distortion, patience when dialing them knobs and trying to get some good sounds out of it is the key. A little tip: Always have a drum and bass track in the background while dialing in, you want to make sure it sounds good together with the rest of a band without any instrument drowning the other.

[@Timbo6669]

me too...Iv owned two and sold two....Dammit...Now i have a versatile amp with a send/return fx loop i want it back so bad and thy'v gone up in cost...

[@shadomal]

Great vid, you caught me on the tone number 1, that setting i liked and would definitely use rather than an unpreferred amp!

[@funny-hippo2995]

3:20 - I was SO expecting a breakdown lol

[@SketchEtcher]

Never owned an amp, probably never will since I’m not a pro (I was a pro drummer before my injury, now I’m a basement guitarist LOL). Anyways, all I own is a speaker cabinet and a Metal Zone pedal. When I heard #1 and how warm it was I thought for sure it was an amp, and I got super jealous. It seemed quite a bit superior to the others IMO, so I will be trying those settings. Thank you!

[@darrkstarg]

I had this pedal in the 90's. It was capable of some great distortion, but took quite a bit of tweaking to get there.

[@timbuk1126]

I think they sound decent with all the knobs at noon. I'm a thrash/death guy

[@TheRealCaptainFreedom]

I think Metal Zone works best as a loop/pre-amp.

[@zAvAvAz]

thats right, and for everyone's information all of my EQ is: the mic, speakers, guitar, strings, pickups, cabinet room and amp head, the only pre and post eq is the equalizers in front of the amp and in the FX loop, ( insert metal zone here) no pre or post EQ processing allowed at all in the studio, room, stage, or up front house, mixing boards , you name it , that is the rule. the front house must match the stage sound of my amp or else.

[@gtr1963]

Agreed

[@wesleyhann480]

Pleasantly surprised, glad to be wrong for once. I had tone two nailed, but the rest were a loss. Well done, man

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

Cheers bro

[@Dez0rdre]

I'm In love with the Tone 2!! :) Great video, As Always!! \m/

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

AzzGaard Thanks matey

[@killdoskilldos9295]

is it MT-2?

[@RockerDave12]

#6 - seemed to sum up all the tones before it. #5 came in a close second. But #6 was the winner, in my ears.

[@nicholasdaronch6156]

Super interesting content! Thank you Simon!

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

Nicholas Da Ronch Thanks mate

[@patrickmcmanus5373]

I have a Heavy Metal E10MT which I presume is a first generation metal zone clone from Freedom Guitar company. So I found it easy to guess the first tone. Thanks for the video

[@LiechtensteinGuy]

#5 is my favourite. And I'm surprised it's a DSL. Amazing!

[@brandonstafford4054]

I could tell that tone 1 and 3 were the MT-2. I was surprised to find that tone 2 was since that was my second favorite. On that note I wasn't too surprised when my favorite tone ended up being the Marshall.

[@zAvAvAz]

Great! awesome video thank you simon smith! i liked setting 3 and that is tone 3, the one that complimented it best was tone number 6 the orange rockerverb, orange with their solid state pre amp know how was able to make a nice tube amp pre amp that is not entirely unlike the metal zone itself as far as sound similarities. i felt that :for the settings on the tone 4 and tone 5 amp heads the attack was quite too soft don't know if teqchnique caused it, the pedal did not suffer the issue in comparison .

[@Tomcat82]

My bullshit Metal Zone rig that I spent hours tweaking to be a decent sounding bedroom amp: Boss MT-2 -> Mesa graphic EQ -> EH 5mm

[@Nick-Nasty]

nice, i definitely couldn't pick them all apart. but i'm happy to see that my favorite tone was the metal zone, that's cool. i use a metal zone myself, and think it sounds good.

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

+Nick 🤘

[@a.n.t.94]

No wonder I don't use Orange. After that Marshall tone I was shure it was the Metal Zone. But I have to admit, sound 2 fooled me a bit, good setting.

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

Thanks mate

[@Azuma1973]

Ha... you said you were "Shure"!!

[@a.n.t.94]

any problem with that? -signed Sean Connery

[@michaelmiller7909]

I, personally, think orange are awful. That's just my opinion though.

[@xanataph]

"Metalzone is a bit like Marmite"...! lol You got yourself a new subscriber! :)

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

+xanataph Haha, thanks mate!

[@stevebrule9343]

Awesome content

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

Steve Brule Thanks mate

[@2songs1kvlt27]

Metal Zone, Metal Zone, Orange, DSL, Tubemeister, Metal Zone.

[@joshludge]

I like the tone, i thought its an amp overdrive but its nice. But i still prefer amp overdrive

[@iwilrage]

people in videos say people hate the pedal but I have never heard anyone say they hate the pedal...as a metal pedal it is great

[@bastianmaoro8278]

1 - 2 and 5 mt2 (my guess). Tube amp 3 and 6. For sure 2 it's quite easy to see that solid state type of sound.

[@MyfatherseyesR]

Thank you for this video, very instructive ! My order is (best to worst) : 3 1 6 5 4 2 Finally, it's just a matter of settings :) Do you have hints to setup the Metal Muff like the 3rd tone ?

[@dextermarlowe9750]

got the MT2 tones right! i didn't care for the rest, weirdly enough! great test!

[@Albee213]

Everyone take note, his gain for the MT2 was not past noon, and that in my opinion is still too high, but that's the first part of using the MT2. Never ever run the gain past noon. The next part is sculpting the mid range and the freq response to fir your amp and plying style. I think the MT2 is best used on shitty sounding amps and then amps with a really good clean channel. I am unable to get a good tone with my single channel JCM 900 MKIII, but maybe I just havnt tried hard enough. On my JCM 2000 TSL it is brutal.

[@morbidalex666]

I've owned a mt-2 for ages and i could tell the two first clips were it. After some ABing, the third became obvious too.

[@morbidalex666]

Great vid BTW!!

[@hissori2978]

I like setting 2 and the Marshall.

[@kinio3867]

I liked most 2,3 and 5 tone. I'm suprised that MZ can sound that good.

[@CLaw-tb5gg]

The Metal Zone, like any cheap distortion pedal, sounds like it has a fairly sharp EQ bump somewhere in the mids, almost like a subtle cocked wah.

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

That's the hardest thing to get rid of in the MT-2

[@trillrifaxegrindor4411]

i got the first 2 knowing it was a metal zone but it did sound great,please try to put it in as a pre amp on any of your amps,this is supposed to sound incredible.

[@robertknight7976]

*wonders if I've missed the Orange tone* *is hit with a wall of doom* Ah yeah, that'll be the Orange tone :')

[@tobyearth]

My main takeaway here was, "Wow he got an MZ to sound somewhat palatable, I should watch more of this guy's videos." My guesses were: tone 1 MZ tone 2 absolutely MZ tone 3 MZ or DSL tone 4 H&K - flubby low end from the small poweramp section tone 5 rockerverb or DSL tone 6 MZ or DSL The only MZ sound that sounded half-decent to me was #3 but even then I was thinking "boy that DSL must be dialed to shit".

[@megahurtz30]

Nice video! Tell me, why are the Metal Zone settings that you show near the end, with Level at minimum? You didn't use it that way, did you?

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

The level would have been set to a decent volume. Not sure why this was like that. I don't remember moving the level down.

[@sweetgyy]

I have the metal zone .. I find to be the best pedal I've ever tried . I just got the boss katana and the metal zone still beats it , well it's my opinion . i listen to metal and stuff .

[@xXDarkxIdealsXx]

Guesses: 1 is pedal 2 is amp 3 is pedal 4 is amp 5 is amp 6 is pedal On a side note I have that exact same burst color PRS Single Cut (if yours is the 245 anyway) Edit: Welp, not bad i suppose. Got the h&k right from hearing my Triamp Mk3 over and over lately lol. Although not really surprised already knew the metalzone can be made into a good sounding boost if you know what to tweak etc..

[@cameronjenkins6748]

Speaking of Marmite, Simon, do you love it or do you hate it? Also, I initially thought that tone 3 was the Rockerverb with the gain on 10.

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

Cameron Jenkins I love Marmite!! You?

[@cameronjenkins6748]

I'm an American, but I also happen to love Marmite.

[@guilhermesoares319]

I was just sure that 2 was MT2, the other ones I couldn't tell. But I never tried one personally, I'm just looking on the internet for a pedal.

[@aheadofmetal]

What was the metal zone played through? Effects loop?

[@destruya]

My MT2 knobs are all bent from it being so old and stepped on. All depends on what amp you use I guess. I love mine.

[@destruya]

Recently bought a Randall RGOD because of your out of hand video. Cheers!

[@ΓΙΑΝΝΗΣΜΑΡΑΓΚΑΚΗΣ]

thanks for thy info my lord. could you show us some good pedals to catch up a sound like old school bm and teach at the same time Satanic Warmaster The Burning Eyes Of The Werewolf ? Thanks And Hails From HEllas \m/

[@23905970]

I think everything except tone 2 and 3 sounds good. 2 and 3 sounds very much like the typical metal zone tone that beginner guitar players get lol

[@PapaWheelie1]

Off topic - you have some serious video skills, framing, lighting, etc is on + the defocus during the titles is a nice touch.

[@taleofrevenge]

What way do you have the metalzone hooked up? Is it direct as a preamp, or into a clean channel of another amp?

[@karim6119]

He said into the clean section of an amp, so the metalzone didnt act as a preamp which is a HUGE mistake

[@bastianmaoro8278]

@@karim6119 omg thats old thing now it's a big hype.

[@edgarparada3946]

I liked tone 2 and 3.

[@panakinanakin]

What was the Metalzone played through?

[@jussihilden]

Is the mic pointing away from the speaker? Too much room in the sound, in my opinion. Anyway, great video :) Greetings from Finland

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

Thanks mate. Greetings

[@fortj3]

I actually liked 1 through 3 the best.

[@yegortimofeyenko8757]

Metal Zone is a great pedal, if you can figure out the settings. Tone 6 sucks on the video, but look at power amp volume: it's so low you can even see the notch in the screen. Plus the mids are way up so you are getting the worst of the preamp tone. I can get a way better tone out of my Rockerverb: you just need to turn power amp past noon. It was designed to sound great with power amp distortion. I had H&K GM Deluxe 40 and it was plain aweful for dirty tones with its thin preamp, boxy sound and thin sounding microphonic EL84 tubes. You should compare apples to apples and this guy totally thinned out good sounding amps. That being said, metal zone is great: it just has too many options making it hard for most people to figure out.

[@georgesaris9968]

What song is that? I like it, sounds like early technical death metal.

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

Just something I made up

[@nolanbourgouin9500]

I sense a HUGE kataklysm influence from the shadows n dust album

[@nolanbourgouin9500]

Check out kataklysm - face the face of war

[@nileleach9288]

I could make a great mix with any of those sounds. Fun video.

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

Thanks mate

[@Iggytommy]

i guessed almost 100% right. i liked the 3rd one to be by the far the best MZ one. i got 1 and 2, and 4 and 5 right. i'm not into metal sounds.

[@CarnivorousRoach]

you should use soundclips from your daw in this kinda videos, that's why your channel never go big like other guys.. you got a great channel as any though don't get me wrong.

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

CarnivorousRoach I use my DAW to record them buddy. What did you mean exactly?

[@TheRosswise]

It's possible to get AMAZING tones out of the Metal Zone, the problem is the Metal Zone quickly goes from amazing to completely fucking unusable as soon as you bump one of the EQ knobs. That being said, I thought Tone 1 was the best tone of the video. I am not a tube snob and prefer solid state amps for their reliability.

[@pgeorgak1]

Ok! Tone 5 sounded like hell.

[@littlebritain64]

The number 1 has clarity and punch. Is that a Boss? Wow..... I disliked the number 2. Not bad the other ones....

[@13guitard00d]

I thought 1,4 and 5 were the amps, while 2,3 and 6 were Metalzone.

[@jakeottinger7964]

The EQ is so very different but I thought that number two had to be the pedal because it was just SRI ksh and harshist edit: I thought you said 3 amps and I see people saying five amps so I just listened to the first three crap what's going on here

[@DoomBunnyKiller00]

Haha! Nice! I guessed 2, 3 & 6 correctly. I wasn't too sure what #1 was though & i had never heard what an H&K Tubemeister Deluxe 40 sounded like before but now i know. Good video. BTW, i liked 1 & 5 the most. 1 had the scooped mids sound but 5 has more (would be better in a live situation imo).

[@MrCaiokem1000]

Very good your sound i like it the metalzone is the pedal similar to panzer of war congratulations!

[@jordanmayer5932]

I'm gonna go cut my ears off now, thanks Simon.

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

Jordan Mayer Any time!!

[@taleofrevenge]

Tones 3, 5 and 6 were the best

[@lucioroberto]

Perfect!

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

Thanks mate

[@dolcevita9531]

favourite: #2, #3, #5, #6

[@davidcasares1060]

1 3 5 nice work!

[@AlexeyKardashin]

Awesome

[@NEUQUlNO]

La unica diferencia es que a mas volumen la distorcion de los amplis valvulares va a sonar cada vez mejor al contrario del pedal que pierde toda la definicion

[@oscarmadslien4853]

I definitely think that the main problem with the metal zone is that inexperienced metal players buy it and then put gain up to 10 and just leave it as that

[@matthewramroop]

Tone 5 👌

[@thiagohermes4806]

Uow! I hated the #1, liked the second one better than the others found the #3 and 4 ok and #6 almost as good as the second one. Conclusion; yeah, you can dig a good tone on MT-II somehow. But you adjusted those amps to make it sound ike metal zone, tha's cheating hahaha.

[@arnyarny77]

so wher are the usual haters>?

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

Not sure. They normally come out of the woodwork pretty quickly.....

[@JRP3music]

It is all in how you use it...

[@SamuraiBud]

Tone 5 to 6 the rest are thin fizzy bees

[@MrTimjm009]

Just shows that the pedal IS good

[@JavonandBrad]

without looking, i guess 1, 2, 1. metal zone

[@JavonandBrad]

and wrong as hell i was

[@saintlotus93]

I thought 2, 3, and 5 were the metal zone.

[@VTuberDestrisOfficial]

Uhh...mate you've got that mic backwards

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

I know. I like the sound more. Darker, and more like micing the back of the cab

[@VTuberDestrisOfficial]

@@SimonSmithGuitar well if it works for you, works for you, personally if I wanted a darker tone I'd just put the mic farther from the cone but I'm just a nobody bedroom musician what do I know

[@rmp5s]

Gotta get some energy in your vid, man! You look like the camera is bothering you! :-D

[@comingapart]

i stopped listening after the 3rd one. i got confused.....

[@sauroros]

I cringe everytime someone plugs the metal zone in the clean channel and not the fx loop. Thanks Ola Englund.

[@bankal1442]

Well I guess you just should try to use it right :) I "cringe" everytime I see some cringy comment like yours ;)

[@sauroros]

I guess you plugged it in the clean channel aswell ;) good luck.

[@musick777]

Staring into the camera was way too weird

[@abcdefgh99697]

Marmite Zone

[@dainiusvysniauskas2049]

Yeah, tone #2 was obviously Metal Zone since it sounded really, really bad :D

[@dainiusvysniauskas2049]

@Artorias That might be right. Tho to my ears it sounded the worst out of all 3 MT settings

[@dainiusvysniauskas2049]

@Artorias You can sound nasty/raw without sounding like crap

[@ilikepotatoes1345]

Define a bad guitar sound.

[@dainiusvysniauskas2049]

@@ilikepotatoes1345 Bad guitar sound is the sound you don't enjoy, simple as that. I found tone #2 to have way too much fizzy top end. I usually like amps with mids/top end, but that sound sample is just a no go.

[@StudioChimps]

If you need to A/B then its already more about chatting shit. Tone is tone, you either like it or you dont. If a guitarist needs to A/B the pissed up audience really wont give a toss 😂😂😂😂 great vid.

[@GabrielSoares-xh4ej]

For me, All metalzone tones kk

[@gim5555]

I knew that first 3 was the metal zone because I didnt like it.

[@aarona.7422]

Got 2 right. An F

[@michaelmiller7909]

3&6 sounded like garbage, in my opinion. Didn't have a favorite but I definitely hate those two tones.

[@ballsofdoom3124]

#2 defiantly had that classic shitty bees fucking in a can metal zone sound. Lol

[@madbabykiller]

Great video.... pire.

[@SimonSmithGuitar]

Thanks Eric. What makes you think I"m a pire again? Do you know me?

[@madbabykiller]

I do know you, and I've seen you bite people necks and suck their blood, and do other pire like things...

[@angelr.navaart5616]

why the level so low?

[@martinbergmartinberg]

"Level" is the overall output of the MT-2. Lot of unsatisfied users of the MT-2 confuses the "Level" as gain, making you loose control of the large amount of gain provided by this pedal. If you push the level you can oversaturate the following input a lot. "Distortion" is the control of gain and clipping of the pedal. Many uses the all knobs on noon setting and get a very compressed by the overall output level being to high compared to a lot of fuss and overdrives. The input gain is hardwired in the MT-2 to a lot and then you can only control clipping to be some and much. This is confusing if you are used to "drive" the input of an amp. The MT-2 have a defined tone print you can further build on with the EQ. I got mine for many many years ago and have made some mods ot it along the way to be a bit more versatile. I really love the Metal Zone as it can sound "classic", defined brutal, give a lot of bottom end and also mess up any sound to be a total static hiss. Always fun to mess with.