Powerful blue LED indicates modified goodness.
The Boss MT-2 Metal Zone distortion pedal is well known as a high gain, but very sterile sounding pedal. It’s good for bedroom metal, but not much else.
I had a Boss MT-2 Metal Zone distortion pedal sitting around so I thought I might see if I can make the pedal a bit more organic, and full sounding.
I did a search online for any interesting MT-2 mods and stumbled upon a thread on freestompboxes.org on Boss Metalzone MT2 mods.
I decided to try out the “Diezel mod listed in the thread. The modifications are as follows:
Diezel mod:
- C35: remove
- C34: 0.047uF MKT Capacitor
- C25: remove
These three mods remove the harshness somewhat.
- C42: 1uf MKT Capacitor
- D3: Red LED
- D4: 1n4001 diode
This makes the sound more dynamic and full.
- C36: 0.1uf MKT Capacitor
This makes the EQ more useful.
Modified Boss MT-2 PCB. Red LEDs make a huge difference.
So I made these changes, and found that the tone of the pedal was a little more organic than stock, but the distortion was still a bit too over the top. I decided to replace the 1n4001 diode with another red LED.
This change made a huge difference! There was a drop in the distortion available in the pedal, but what was left was much fatter and chunky. Don’t get me wrong, there is still enough dirt after the mod for big metal sounds, it’s just a lot bigger and thicker.
The pedal is still probably best for scooped metal sounds, as long as you don’t go silly with scooping the mids too much. Setting the mids at about 12 o’clock, and the low and highs between 4 and 5 o’clock, with the mid freq at 1 to 2 o’clock gave a nice modern metal tone without too much scooping going on.
The changes have also resulted in the MT-2 being a really good overdrive as well. I switched over to the dirty channel on my Blackstar HT-5, rolled the Dist knob back to zero, and adjusted the Level knob and found a beautiful, fat tone to accentuate my dirty channel. Best of all it doesn’t sound to blubbery either, it’s fat, but still nice and sharp around the edges.
So now my Boss MT-2 is far better sounding, but it still retains it’s modern scooped metal sound, albeit a far more organic real sounding one. I believe this pedal would sound a lot better as the basis for distorted guitar tones in a band setting than the stock pedal. The added benefit of a fat overdrive to boost an already distorted amp is fantastic too.
I’ll hopefully record some basic samples over the next day or so and upload them.
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Since this article was written I’ve made some more progress with my MT-2 mods. Check out my part 2 post for my updated mod list. I believe this is a far better sounding MT-2 modification.
[...] decided to revisit the previous mods I had done to my Boss MT-2 as I wasn’t completely happy with the sound as a distortion pedal. It was nice as an [...]
I also fitted a diezel mod (bought off ebay and sent from USA to U.K.) and I was very surprised just how much difference it makes- highly recommended!!! sounds waaay better than it did.
very inspiring!!!
Hi,
I m electronics Engg. When did I buy MT2 Boss Pedal, I thought its really good, but when I connected it to guitar and amplifier it gets humming without disturbing the strings, automatically it produce humming, then I used filter circuit in my guitar still it gives humming (Hiss-sound) then I searched the MT2 circuit diagram on internet, I saw the dual voltage power supply used for this MT2 circuit . its a design fault, it require dual 9V power supply, and in circuit they used only 9V battery, then how it will work. when I move the pot for such sound effect again it produce large distortion humming, at the recording time it irritating the player, then I try to contact BOSS Roland company but they didn’t gives me feedback, after all through it in garbage. If any kind of suggestion plz reply me.
I you read properly through this post, and the part 2 for it these mods make the pedal sound a lot better, and lower the noise an hiss quite considerably. Better quality capacitors do this for the most part. Try the mods and I think you’ll sort out your noise issues, and get a better sounding pedal too.
This may seem a strange question but I’m still fairly new to pedal mods. When you removed the components from C25 and C35 do you need to bridge them with a bit of wire or just leave then. Thanks in advance, I love the site by the way.
Hi Antony, no strange questions, we’re all newbies at some point. Thanks for the compliments too.
All you need to do is remove the capacitors, not need to bridge them.
What size LEDs did you use? I understand that red is best, but is size a relevant factor? My readings suggests not, but I wanted your take. Might as well use the stock red LED indicator light as one of the 2 clipping diodes if not, right?
Hi Steve, standard is 5mm red LEDs. These are cheap too. You can try the smaller 3mm, the difference may be negligible, or more apparent. Depends on the persons ears. Good luck!