Alright. I fully understand the situation. In your younger gear purchasing years you somehow acquired a Boss Metal Zone. Yes, it truly is one of the worst sounding pedals of all time, but Boss still manages to sell them by the bucket load to budding, young axe slingers.
They just don’t know any better yet… 😉
Well, don’t chuck that thing just yet! Despite its rather horrid “box of bees” sound, it is still a very robust Boss pedal with a small footprint, buffer and that lovely James Hetfield pedigree. Best yet, it can be morphed into a very good sounding distortion pedal. Yes, you heard it right here. The Boss Metal Zone can actually sound good.
For less than the cost of a nice boutique drive pedal you can have a durable, good sounding distortion that will make other gear heads confused and scared when they see the Zone on your board right next to your Klon Centaur. Especially when you run it into the front end of your Dumble.
First on the list, send that bad boy over to the legendary Analog Mike. He does a chip change, and various tweaks akin to his Tubescreamer Silver Mod to make the EQ section actually function instead of just sweeping back and forth over nothing. Kinda like that old guy at the beach with metal detector.
Secondly, you can send the pedal off to Keeley Electronics. Keeley dissected the MT2 circuit and found many harsh, brittle sounding components. Out with those, in with appropriately selected audiophile grade components. They also add a three way toggle switch to give the circuit even more versatility. The result is a brutally heavy distortion, with a very flexible EQ section.
More of a DIY guy? Enter Fromel Electronics Supreme Mod Kit. For $20 you get everything you need to turn your Boss MT2 into the fire breathing monster that it should be. These kits replace everything that makes this pedal gross and wrong. You end up with more gain, good useable EQ, amp like clipping, and those weird mids and horrible bees nest highs suddenly vanish. They will also do the mod for you if thats more your style.
There are a host of other mods and options for the Metal Zone all over the interwebs. Every thing from straight up removing certain components, to essentially installing new guts inside. I think that is going a little far, but hey, too each his own. The three options I highlighted are the most straightforward, and proven options that I am aware of. If you all like, I can go over some more of the most popular DIY mods in another post. Wanted to keep it easy as cake for now. If you want more details, let me know in the comments.
So don’t pitch that box of yellow jackets just yet dudes! You actually have a diamond in the rough on your hands.