best Metal Zone replacement

[Wounded Paw]

our lead guitar guy needs a new pedal, lost his Metal Zone at an outta town show last weekend.  Dr. Boogey seems to be the suggested replacement for me to make.  Anything with a few less pots and trimmers that will get that kinda sound?

[Crawf]

Johnson/Watson/AXL Distortion EQ similar circuit sounds killer and cheap,can be modded like Metal Zone-see indy guitarist for cool mods, cheers Crawf. 

[aron]

Why not just buy another one? Hard to beat the metal zone EQ.

[Processaurus]

Hard to beat the metal zone EQ.

I was thinking of getting some PCBs made of the metal zone EQ, as a generic building block to use with other distortions.  Seems like you can pretty much get close to any kind of basic equalization with parametric sweepable mids and hi/lo shelving.  Imagine a Big muff with the metal zone EQ, it would be great!

[jmasciswannabe]

Yes, I like that idea very much.

[tranceracer]

I know there was an EQ thread the other day, but I'm curious if ss there a "metal zone" eq pcb and schematic out there? 

If there is, where can I find it or which one of the EQ schematics is it?

Thanks guys!
-tR

[ambulancevoice]

Joe D's Obsidian (FET version) aparently zvooks like a warmer metal zone, according to paul marossy.

from diyguitarist.com
"This is Joe Davisson's Obsidian Overdrive, Rev D.
It uses three 2N7000 MOSFETS and has quite a lot of gain. Sounds like a Boss Metal Zone, but is a little warmer sounding. It faithfully reproduces that 80's metal sound. It also sounds great for fusion lead type stuff. Unfortunately, it is plagued by a lot of white noise (hiss). The transistor version of this circuit sounds a lot better from what I hear.
I gutted this one and replaced the circuit with the Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer clone at GeneralGuitarGadgets.com"

[ambulancevoice]

btw, here is the metal zone schem
http://www.freeinfosociety.com/electronics/schemview.php?id=138

[stephanovitch]

The Zoom TM01 trimetal is a good substitute to MT2.
More bass and less noise.
http://www.neufgiga.com/index.php?m=c9ae77e8&a=7d397569&share=LNK47244719aa945e50d

[soulsonic]

There's also the Metal Muff, though I don't care for it's stock tone, it might be cool to do a DIY variation of it that has the same super distortion with a less "processed" tone.

[96ecss]

Joe D's Obsidian (FET version) aparently zvooks like a warmer metal zone, according to paul marossy.

from diyguitarist.com
"This is Joe Davisson's Obsidian Overdrive, Rev D.
It uses three 2N7000 MOSFETS and has quite a lot of gain. Sounds like a Boss Metal Zone, but is a little warmer sounding. It faithfully reproduces that 80's metal sound. It also sounds great for fusion lead type stuff. Unfortunately, it is plagued by a lot of white noise (hiss). The transistor version of this circuit sounds a lot better from what I hear.
I gutted this one and replaced the circuit with the Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer clone at GeneralGuitarGadgets.com"

I just did a pcb layout for the Obsidian T, which I beleive is the transistor version Paul refered to. I'll be building it in the next few days and if all goes well, I'll post the layout in my gallery.

Dave

[Paul Marossy]

The Obsidian Rev D (MOSFET version) was really noisy - it sounded like a super high gain pedal with a compressor in front of it. It did have a great tone, though. 

[Dave_B]

I built the positive ground mosfet version and didn't have an issue with noise.  Regarding the sound, my first inclination when plugging into it was to play Long way to Love.  With my setup (HB's into el34's), it's real close to the sound in that riff. 

Fun riff, questionable vocals.   

[petemoore]

  A Boss Metal Zone.
  After taking another good look at the schematic, I re-affirmed this in my mind.
  All that is a great deal, even new.
  I'm not a MZ fan, I had one here for a good while too a 'lent out for sale' type deal, kinda kool once in a while, synthy, very knob reactive, the other guitar player replaced his 1/only dist, a RAT with the MZ, ohhh...Strat, MZ into a Fender 4x10 tube amp ..whew.
  So I'm wondering if we want something MZ-like but not exactly an MZ.

[Paul Marossy]

I built the positive ground mosfet version and didn't have an issue with noise.

Huh, I never saw that version...

[ambulancevoice]

I built the positive ground mosfet version and didn't have an issue with noise.

Huh, I never saw that version...

i think he used BS250 p channel, like in the Massacre, because there very noiseless

[Dave_B]

i think he used BS250 p channel...

Yep, here it is.   Mine motorboats if you turn the gain up too high, but it's a fun box.

[96ecss]

I built the Obsidian T tonight. Definitely a great Heavy Metal pedal. It's on my test board and the family is asleep so I had to keep the volume low. It's great for heavy palm mute stuff and drop D riffs. I haven't played that stuff in years! It can do great scooped mids too. I think it would be a great Metal Zone replacement. I'm not saying it sounds just like one, but it's great for that kind of music.

I have the layout on a portable drive, not on my hard drive so I can't post it yet but I'll try to get it in my gallery by tomorrow. I'm also gonna try to do some sound samples of some of this stuff in the near future too.

Dave

[96ecss]

Here is the layout http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/v/Daves-Layouts/Obsidian+T.gif.html

Very easy build.

Dave

[RDV]

The Danelectro Fab Metal is the same pedal almost but with only the treble pot(the mid and lows are preset).

And it's dirt cheap.

RDV