NPD: Boss MT-2W Metal Zone Waza Edition

[D_Malone]

Yep, I got me a Metal Zone. Bring on the snarky comments.

While I do appreciate some metal, I’m not a metal guy, and our band doesn’t play metal. I bought the MT-2W for a high gain lead sound and I gotta say I’m digging it.

The custom mode completely transforms this pedal, unlike some other Waza editions. It’s not subtle. It goes from a can of bees in the standard mode to a much rounder, amp-like sound in the custom mode.

The greatest feature of this pedal is the 3 band EQ with semi-parametric midrange control. The controls are very sensitive and it’s a little difficult to dial in, but it’s worth the effort.

Most of the demos online just showcase the metal sounds, but it’s actually a really flexible pedal that can cover a lot of ground.

In this demo they attempt to dial in the MT-2W to match some classic dirt pedals, with a surprising amount of success. If anything, it demonstrates the pedal’s range, which is impressive.



Time will tell if it earns a place on my board, but so far it has exceeded my expectations. It’s a really great pedal, believe it or not.

 

[1 21 gigawatts]

I just watched a YouTube video where Ola Englund reviewed the Metal Zone (non Waza). He ran it into the effects loop of his amp and it sounded incredible. He then ran it into the front of the clean channel, and it sounded completely different (the tinny sound that it is infamous for). Stange that it reacts so differently; almost like it was designed to be a preamp.

 

[D_Malone]

I just watched a YouTube video where Ola Englund reviewed the Metal Zone (non Waza). He ran it into the effects loop of his amp and it sounded incredible. He then ran it into the front of the clean channel, and it sounded completely different (the tinny sound that it is infamous for). Stange that it reacts so differently; almost like it was designed to be a preamp.

Yeah, that’s a thing some people do. I’ve never tried it. The custom setting on the Waza turns it into a more typical distortion/OD.

 

[omahaaudio]

Yep, I got me a Metal Zone. Bring on the snarky comments.

Your sad and sorry life is all the comment the world needs...

 

[RetroTeleRod]

Congrats!

 

[bluesholyman]

Yep, I got me a Metal Zone. Bring on the snarky comments.

Congrats! Not much of a MZ fan but might give it ago. For what it does, I'll probably keep sonically distanced.

 

[1 21 gigawatts]

After seeing the aforementioned Ola video, if my amp had an effects loop, I'd buy the MZ to use as a preamp when I felt like playing through a modern high gain amp.

 

[D_Malone]

Congrats! Not much of a MZ fan but might give it ago. For what it does, I'll probably keep sonically distanced.

The Waza version can do everything from low gain OD, to classic rock distortion, to scooped metal mayhem.

My only issue with it is that the Q on the mids frequency control is too narrow. It creates a sharp spike instead of a nice round hump. Kinda difficult to dial in. But, it is surprisingly versatile and doesn’t have to sound like metal if you don’t want it to.

 

[11 Gauge]

My only issue with it is that the Q on the mids frequency control is too narrow. It creates a sharp spike instead of a nice round hump. Kinda difficult to dial in. But, it is surprisingly versatile and doesn’t have to sound like metal if you don’t want it to.

I got a MT-2 many years ago, sorta kinda just to say that I had one in my Boss collection.

The pedal has a LOT of circuitry that IMO is basically very black or white, and the mids freq control is a great example of that.

Other than that, there are a lot of filters in the circuit that seem to have been intentionally tuned to bring out too much of just about everything. There's a pre-gain/pre-clip stage that emphasizes mids, but it's kind of at the wrong frequency for anything other than SS-sounding metal. There's also an active 'notch' filter that ends up overemphasizing the bass and treble in a non-amplike way (so that it happens regardless of your actual amp's volume). And to be clear, this notch filter is completely separate from the bass and treble controls.

There's also a bunch of gain stages in the MT-2, even though it's really just one or two of them where the clipping/harmonics are supposed to happen. Part of the problem comes in the form of there being op amp clipping (which is generally bad), but the other is that Boss didn't really put any significant filtering at these stages to tamp down all of the high frequency buzziness.

...I guess that if someone wants a sort of caricature of a metal sound, the original MT-2 works great for that, but IMO nothing else.

I've worked and reworked my MT-2 a bunch of times over the years, and finally got it to sound good for IMO mostly non-metal applications, although it would probably be alright for a bit of the classic or old stuff. I also got the mids frequency control to finally behave like it sounds like you're hoping it might, but it honestly took a lot of work.

I'd imagine there's only so much stuff that the Waza crew could change and still allow for an original MT-2 setting, which made the mids frequency control a sort of casualty of the war, so to speak.

Slightly off-topic - the old Danelectro Fab Tone (the big maroon pedal) has about 70% of the MT-2's circuitry in it. Talk about a buzz machine, especially since you can't adjust the mids at all! I just wanted to mention that it's possible to make the Fab Tone also sound great for fat/warm/not buzzy/'not chuggy' sounds by applying the same changes.

Anyway, that's kind of cool to hear that the Waza mode is drastically different, in a 'not necessarily metal' good kind of way.

 

[johnny k]

I have one and i like it. I don't play through it because i am into country music, but it is not half as bad as what people say. I have got a pink berhinger heavy metal and a eyemaster, the metal zone sounds better to me.

 

[D_Malone]

I got a MT-2 many years ago, sorta kinda just to say that I had one in my Boss collection.

The pedal has a LOT of circuitry that IMO is basically very black or white, and the mids freq control is a great example of that.

Other than that, there are a lot of filters in the circuit that seem to have been intentionally tuned to bring out too much of just about everything. There's a pre-gain/pre-clip stage that emphasizes mids, but it's kind of at the wrong frequency for anything other than SS-sounding metal. There's also an active 'notch' filter that ends up overemphasizing the bass and treble in a non-amplike way (so that it happens regardless of your actual amp's volume). And to be clear, this notch filter is completely separate from the bass and treble controls.

There's also a bunch of gain stages in the MT-2, even though it's really just one or two of them where the clipping/harmonics are supposed to happen. Part of the problem comes in the form of there being op amp clipping (which is generally bad), but the other is that Boss didn't really put any significant filtering at these stages to tamp down all of the high frequency buzziness.

...I guess that if someone wants a sort of caricature of a metal sound, the original MT-2 works great for that, but IMO nothing else.

I've worked and reworked my MT-2 a bunch of times over the years, and finally got it to sound good for IMO mostly non-metal applications, although it would probably be alright for a bit of the classic or old stuff. I also got the mids frequency control to finally behave like it sounds like you're hoping it might, but it honestly took a lot of work.

I'd imagine there's only so much stuff that the Waza crew could change and still allow for an original MT-2 setting, which made the mids frequency control a sort of casualty of the war, so to speak.

Slightly off-topic - the old Danelectro Fab Tone (the big maroon pedal) has about 70% of the MT-2's circuitry in it. Talk about a buzz machine, especially since you can't adjust the mids at all! I just wanted to mention that it's possible to make the Fab Tone also sound great for fat/warm/not buzzy/'not chuggy' sounds by applying the same changes.

Anyway, that's kind of cool to hear that the Waza mode is drastically different, in a 'not necessarily metal' good kind of way.

The custom mode on the Waza completely re-voices the pedal. To my ears it adds lower mids and clarity, and tames the fizz. Makes it much more usable with various amps. From there the semi-parametric EQ is the same as in the standard mode, which is a ***** to dial in. If they widened the Q a bit on the mid freq control it would be much more user-friendly.

 

[Gaylord Amsterdam]

Yep, I got me a Metal Zone. Bring on the snarky comments.

While I do appreciate some metal, I’m not a metal guy, and our band doesn’t play metal. I bought the MT-2W for a high gain lead sound and I gotta say I’m digging it.

The custom mode completely transforms this pedal, unlike some other Waza editions. It’s not subtle. It goes from a can of bees in the standard mode to a much rounder, amp-like sound in the custom mode.

The greatest feature of this pedal is the 3 band EQ with semi-parametric midrange control. The controls are very sensitive and it’s a little difficult to dial in, but it’s worth the effort.

Most of the demos online just showcase the metal sounds, but it’s actually a really flexible pedal that can cover a lot of ground.

In this demo they attempt to dial in the MT-2W to match some classic dirt pedals, with a surprising amount of success. If anything, it demonstrates the pedal’s range, which is impressive.



Time will tell if it earns a place on my board, but so far it has exceeded my expectations. It’s a really great pedal, believe it or not.

Congrats, every gigging guitarist should own one. You never know when you might want to do a Mettalica or Beastie Boys cover and your regular non metal rig wont get you into that territory. Like you said its great for singing leads. If you roll the gain all the back and play with the EQ you can get some good 70s hard rock tones too.

Ive got one and I don't use it too often but its a life savor when I do.

 

[11 Gauge]

The custom mode on the Waza completely re-voices the pedal. To my ears it adds lower mids and clarity, and tames the fizz. Makes it much more usable with various amps. From there the semi-parametric EQ is the same as in the standard mode, which is a ***** to dial in. If they widened the Q a bit on the mid freq control it would be much more user-friendly.

I bet the switch for the Waza mode probably does the following:

- either lowers the corner freq of the pregain mid emphasis filter, or eliminates it altogether (the latter is part of many MT-2 mods)

- changes the corner frequencies and probably the Qs of the active notch filter (prob lower treble freq and higher bass freq, both with lower Qs)

...That would be enough in and of itself to make things sound very different, w/o the need to ever touch any of the actual tone control circuitry, which would honestly be a PITA to make switchable.

It's also entirely possible that there's switching of different clipping diode types (or combinations) for the Waza mode. Going from the stock antiparallel silicon pair to like either a quad of them (with two in series each way) or like a pair of LEDs should also reduce a bit of fizz, and possibly beef things up in the lower mids.

I have no idea how many 'poles' the switch for the two modes has, but that's what pretty much determines how many things you can change between modes. This is why some amps tend to have internal relays, as it expands how many things they can alter between channels.

Hey - maybe the Waza stuff does utilize electronic switching, because that's kind of how Boss has handled it in the past, especially with pedals where you can use the external switch. Then they could go hog wild...

 

[D_Malone]

After using the MT-2W (custom mode) at our last rehearsal I’ve come away impressed. If you take the time to dial in those midrange controls it sits beautifully in the mix.

With some delay and reverb I’m getting a pretty nice Gilmour-ish lead sound.

I like how it sounds with the guitar volume rolled back too. It doesn’t really clean up, but it does give a nice rhythm crunch and the tone is balanced.

Of all the Waza pedals I’ve tried I think the MT-2W offers the most from the custom setting.