One of the most polarising questions we've ever heard, 'which is better, the Boss Metal Zone or the MXR Fullbore Metal?' Bob gives you a demo of both so you can decide for yourself.
There seems to be a common theme between the Boss pedals and MXR pedals, particularly with their distortion pedals. Boss is much easier, more plug and play and don’t require fine tune tweaking. MXR can take a few hours of dialing in that tone you’re looking for
I've yet to see a review that truly represented the full bore I tried it at gc expecting to hate it and ended up buying it it sounds really good in person I only wish it could get a little more mellow but hey it's name says it all
As a tip, if you are going to compare two pedals, you are going to want to show the ranges of the pedals instead of leaving them on settings. Also, the pedal should be between the guitar and the input on the amp, not in the effects loop for demoing them. You can use them in an effects loop if that is what you like, but it is not ideal for demoing a pedal.
The Metal Zone has the heavy Mid EQ, which is essential when you're with a band. The fullbore sounds like a scooped Line 6 you'd practice with alone in your room. When you are using a Mesa Boogie Dual Rec all you need is an overdrive pedal though.
Depends on the player,...I played in a Tampa band for a short while called After Death,...the main guitarist that wrote all the songs played a digital Boss pedal-board through his Dual Rectifier on the clean channel,....he swore he hear a diference,...he had a very good ear for that style of music and has played in a half dozen different successful metal bands in the area and played on dozens of albums.
+Robert Rossignol unless you play the Floridan death metal sound which is using a metal zone as a low boost gain off valume up knobs around 9 or 12. decide cannibal corpse sounds
Personally if I had a choice to use one of these or an Overdrive pedal, the choice for me is clear. I'm going to use an overdrive pedal to boost the high gain channel. Keeping the EQ relatively balanced, without scooping the mids. Cuz it isn't metal if you can't hear me in the mix.
He just has the gains on the pedal turned up to high,....the metal zone is a versatile pedal it certainly wont work for classic rock or blues no matter how you set it,.....but I use it once in a while for heavy rock, I use to use the Mega Distortion,...that one seems too muddy, I'm not a big fan of the stock DS 1,...but I have one modded to an 808 and I use it once in a while also,....if you play a variety of music no one gain pedal will do it all.
ALL MXR pedals sound great,...the only problem I have with them is all of mine have broke except for my EVH phase 90 and my hand wired phase 90,....the Boss pedals may not sound quite as good,......but they never seem to break.
fullbore is a bit more organic sounding compared to metal zone, zone is more mid-scooped butta somehow sounds bigger and massive, both are great pedals just depends on taste...
Terrible review, you should have changed the settings instead of leaving it on those atrocious settings. Fullbore is better but it sounds bad in this video. Also you have a Dual Rec head and you're using high gain distortion pedals??
yeah man, to hell with this dudes doing reviews with 500% of gain, and no mids, no highs, etc. All you have to do is decide what pedal fits your needs, and please, oh please: DO NOT WATCH ANY RU-vid REVIEW. ;)
Fulbore is slightly more fuzzy. Fulbore sounds more compressed. I'm gonna have to say I like fulbore better. Tc electronic fangs is heavier than both. I just bought me one. It's really insane. If you are reading this try a tc electronic fangs distortion. Only 50 dollars. And way heavy.
Hi Bob, it looks like you were ahead of everyone. Since Ola Englund released his video on the Metal Zone plugged into the return of the loop, everyone discovers that the MT-2 is a great pedal ! I can't stand these idiots who talk about extreme metal pedals and who know nothing (I think of this CSGuitar guy). Thanks to you, I didn't wait for Ola to plug my Fullbore in the return of my Orange CR120. The tone is fantastic.
Actually The Rectifier already has alot of gain in it.So the Metal Zone sounds better here.But if you use any of these 2 pedals on the amp with lesser gain than the Rectifier i am sure the Fullbore would sound better.The fullbore has more gain in it as compared to the Metal Zone.
just my personal impression here is that one pedal's equalizer had to be set in a way that it sounds pretty close to exactly the same like the other one, in the video they sound pretty different eg the fullbore seems to have stronger mids, so the comparison seems to me a bit inaccurate Thanatos lead guitarist of PHALANX
Guys fucking stop arguing on which pedal is the best one when you can swith on your brains, look at the settings on the mxr and understand he absolutely FUCKED THEM UP. Mids almost maxex out, lows and highs almost at minimum settings what the fuck is that setup.. the metalzone is setup properly but just needs some adjustments and well it's just too cheap too sound really good (i don't mean it sounds bad, juste not like a properly setup MXR)... I tested the mxr and i can tell you, if you like being able to set everything, having a noise gate, boost etc it's just amazing. From Iron Maiden, to Metallica, to Megadeth or A7x you can get very close to these sounds with the mxr it's very versatile. But it costs a lot :/, in france it's like 140 bucks
when you hook up to the return for your metal pedals will that work for other pedals as well and can you plug directly to the return on your amp or do you need other connections to make the metal sound to be more direct? :)
+Andre .S You'll also need an EMG81, which really helps a lot to get the Metallica tone. (Unless, you mean the really old stuff like 'Kill 'em All' which is medium output passive pickups. It's EMG81 from Ride the Lightning and all the stuff that comes after it.) What you need is a pedal that simulates a 'Mesa-Boogie Triple-Rectifier'-like sound (oddly enough it's the amp in this vid) - The Joyo California Sound is what you want to get - Best price / performance - The BOSS MT-2 has too much gain, as does the MXR FBM. This might sound weird, but Metallica isn't really that high gain as it might sound. It's tightly mixed layered gain, but not super duper high gain to begin with.
+Nightingale1887 Thanks, A few months ago I bought MXR FBM I use with TS9, and do not regret the pedal MXR FBM is very good, much better than any review it has in the RU-vid. Now this month I changed my pickups I put EMG James HET Set, now got even better.
***** Personally, I didn't really like it, the MXR FBM. Metal pedals are just right or can of bees to me. I dig the old Boss HM-2 too. Check that one out, it's classic Swedish chainsaw death metal tone. Might be or might not be up your alley.
Wow!the metal zone is so great with the right sort of gear.why did boss even make the metal core to begin with?that fullbore pedal is also all u really need.if u want just sheer pantera metal.u good to go!🤘🏻🙌🏻
Have both pedals, love them both but not worth the money, donner metal head and joyo extreme metal and behringer ultra metal sound almost exact for $30 each. Don't need a high end name to get the metal tone your looking for... Everyone has been ragging on the metal zone since it came out, if you take the time to set it up right it still to this day is an awesome pedal... \m/
You spoke for like 5 minutes, jeeeeezz.... give me my time back..... lmao..... I mean, seriously, a demo video that lasts under 6 minutes and you speak for what seemed like 5 of them... for crying out loud.... good luck....!!
Why are they in the fx loop , Surely it's just not good 🙀 And I'm a fan of metal don't play loads but I enjoy it , but both these pedals sound like utter poop
worst comparison video ever. eq settings are not the same or even similar and you can't determine each pedals range anyway when you play just a chugging riff on the lower frets.
u sure u have it turned down enuff your yapping was louder,,,,,,,also the digital metalizer shits on the metal zone ...u never set the fullbore properly worst setting i have ever heard on any demo
