Boss - Metal Zone MT2 mods

A forum devoted to mod, tips and suggestions for upgrading and rehousing your VERY CHEAP commercial stompbox to near boutique excellence.
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darrenbkl@gmail.com
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Post by darrenbkl@gmail.com »

Hi all,as we know the MT2 sounds like a dead wood, what can we do to improve the sounds?
and is there anyway to change it to truebypass? using DPDT switch.

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darrenbkl@gmail.com
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Post by darrenbkl@gmail.com »

anyway,if I want to mod it into truebypass switching, replace the Fet switching circuit with a TB one will it affect the sound or tone?

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mojah63
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Post by mojah63 »

Try the forum over at http://www.bossarea.com There are a few threads discussing MT-2 mods. I personally have found it's hard to polish a turd... Mine's is still a work in progress..

P

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darrenbkl@gmail.com
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Post by darrenbkl@gmail.com »

Image

tis is the schematic anyway,wat to do with the FET transistor at the input there???

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devastator
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Post by devastator »

hi, some mods :
Diezel mod:

C35 : remove
C34 .047uF
C25 : remove
these three mods remove harsh

C42 1uf
D3 DEL
D4 1n4001
------ make the sound more dynamic and full
C36 .1uf----- EQ more usefull

Boogie/Bogner mod:

C35 a enlever
C34 .047uF
C36 1uF
D3 led
D4 1n4001

EN PLUS:
R46 increase values, more pre-distortion + mids
R41 reduce value you obtain more distortion (470ohms to start)


Mods don't have the same sound of diezel amp or Bogner amp, but it can be better tant the stock sound.



Keeley mod:

C20 .22uf
c42 .1uf
c37 , c39 , c17 , c11 1uf
c8 .22uf
c9 .1uf
c20 .22uf
d3 , d4 LED

Image

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darrenbkl@gmail.com
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Post by darrenbkl@gmail.com »

COOL,thx :D
the keeley mod is it the same as the real one?

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plexilover
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Post by plexilover »

hey guys, a friend of mine got a mt-2 and asked me for modding...
he wants a sound that is more alive, smoother, more tubelike, not this sterile one, is there anyone who know a good mod? maybe Monte Allums?

thanks

andy

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analogguru
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Post by analogguru »

The best mod i would suggest is:
1.) lift C 034 at the side of pin 6 from U3
.....solder a wire to the free end of C034
.....solder a wire in the empty hole
.....connect those 2 wires to a switch

With this mod you can switch on/off the pre-distortion eq

2.) lift C020 and C024 from the pcb at the side of pin 6 of U4
.....solder a wire to the free end of C020
.....solder the wire to a switch
.....solder a wire to the free end of C024
.....solder this wire to a nother switch
.....solder a wire in the empty hole
.....solder this wire to the free contact of both switches.

With this mod you can play around with the post-distortion-eq.

analogguru
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plexilover
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Post by plexilover »

thanks, anyone heard of the jcm boogie mod?

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mojah63
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Post by mojah63 »

There is one cap that doesn't seem to get changed in the big mods that puzzles me. It's C033. The way I look at the schematic it forms a high pass filter close to the pre distortion notch gyrator frequency. So in essence it too forms part of the pre distortion eq... The Dano Fab Tone has the pre gyrator like the metal zone but it's "C033" cap is larger .033uf (compared to .015uf in the MZ) lowering the high pass filter cut off frequency. The MZ never seems to have the bass response as the Fab Tone even when disabling the gyrators via lifting the caps.

PS I did the Monte Mod... It's pretty useless... But you get all the parts to do it + he does answer his emails.... YMMV

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plexilover
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Post by plexilover »

any other ideas of getting the mt-2 more smoothy?

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mojah63
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Post by mojah63 »

plexilover wrote:any other ideas of getting the mt-2 more smoothy?
What have you done already? See the mt-2 thread at http://www.bossarea.com too Moonwatcher, on that site did some mods to calm down the treble along with gyrator disabling. Basically he at least doubled all the small pf cap values on the opamp bypass circuits. I tried that myself and I thought it made the treble calmer /smoother . When you are pulling components and experimenting do yourself a favor and get some inline sockets. Like Mouser 575-113120 Cut them and solder them on your board, now you can just plug in your changes and adjust to taste. Nobody here can tell you what exactly will work for you. Everyones playing style, equipment, and tastes are different.

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darrenbkl@gmail.com
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Post by darrenbkl@gmail.com »

how to solder a PCB safely without damage it?

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Post by soulsonic »

darrenbkl@gmail.com wrote:how to solder a PCB safely without damage it?
Avoid excessive heat. Most desoldering can be done easily at 370 degrees Celsius, which should be safe enough as long as you don't heat the components for too long of a period. Heat for only a few seconds at a time; just long enough to melt the solder for removal. If solder is hard to remove, sometimes adding some fresh solder to it will make it easier to come off. I use a spring-loaded desoldering pump to remove the solder.
The main thing to avoid is too much heat on the board. Most Boss circuit boards are well-made, so you shouldn't have too much trouble with them being damaged easily. Even if the tracks do begin to lift off the board from heat damage, they can usually still be used as long as the trace isn't broken.
"Analog electronics in music is dead. Analog effects pedal design is a dead art." - Fran

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adam
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Post by adam »

Does anyone know how to perform the actual keeley mod with the twilight switch?

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XevKai
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Post by XevKai »

Excuse my ignorance but in the Diezel mod above you list:

-------
C42 1uf
D3 DEL
D4 1n4001
-------

Is the D3 position a misprint and it's supposed to be LED? Or what exactly is a DEL?

Thanks! I did the first half of the mod and it's sounding better just form that!

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A150PoundGuy
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Post by A150PoundGuy »

XevKai wrote:Excuse my ignorance but in the Diezel mod above you list:

-------
C42 1uf
D3 DEL
D4 1n4001
-------

Is the D3 position a misprint and it's supposed to be LED? Or what exactly is a DEL?

Thanks! I did the first half of the mod and it's sounding better just form that!
A DEL is a LED in french!

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XevKai
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Post by XevKai »

Got it and did the mod! Actually was kinda cool, way better than a normal metal zone. With the Diezel mod did anyone else notice when you get the distortion up to max you get an almost clipped compressor type sound?

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Post by ebuprofen »

analogguru wrote: 2.) lift C020 and C024 from the pcb at the side of pin 6 of U4
.....solder a wire to the free end of C020
.....solder the wire to a switch
.....solder a wire to the free end of C024
.....solder this wire to a nother switch
.....solder a wire in the empty hole
.....solder this wire to the free contact of both switches.

With this mod you can play around with the post-distortion-eq.

analogguru
this one is good :D

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claytushaywood
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Post by claytushaywood »

What is the value of r46? You say to increase value to increase distortion but I accidentally soldered it off when I was trying to remove c35 and it is gone

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