Re-zoning

I used to own the non-Waza version of the Metal Zone (MT-2) during my early days of playing. It used to be my understanding of the most worthy metal type distortion out there. It delivers crushing riffs, heavy, doom-laden fills & searing solos- it was everything an angry guitar person would need without paying too much. In context, back then, the pedal market here offered very limited range of distortion pedal. BOSS & DOD were the staple, everything else was unheard of. Also, the amplifier market did not quite move beyond Peavey & Fender. Marshall was still in its Valvestate days & those were hits/ misses. 

Along the way, I began to incline towards the amp drive & pedal drive became a last resort. I can't stand how pedals turn distasteful once you bring the level up. It requires a setting recalibration of  other units in the chain as well. My pedal set up was bare minimum; a drive unit acting as a booster mostly & a tuner. That's it. The MT-2 was sold off to a friend (Zahid, are you reading this?) & it wasn't missed.

Come 2018, I'm pretty much still amp inclined but BOSS re-interpreted the MT-2 to become a Waza offering & it was worth checking out. The Waza treatment gave the pedal a modded voicing so players could choose between the traditional signals & the beefed up Waza mode. I do not wish to re-iterate how the MT-2 sounds like. It's a safe bet that many of us here have come across the MT-2 once & ended up as proud owners. The strength of the MT-2 in my opinion is its dual midrange control. Ironically, many players notch this down to zero for that mid-scooped voicing which always fail in a band setting, relegating the guitar tone to trace level signals, leaving the drummer in much limelight. The MT-2W offers a beefed up midrange, first & foremost. This means that players are more inclined to have midrange in their EQ considerations & not wiping it out entirely. There's a tad more poke here too so overall clarity is good, nothing muds out at higher level settings. Through my set up, I was more into making the treble end useful rather than messing with a tight/ loose bottom end & a useful midrange inclusion. 

The MT-2W is a keeper in the mean time. I'm using it in its Waza mode rather than the original circuitry but more importantly, it's not a reason for me to give up my amps. The pedal domain is still secondary to me, amps come first.