Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This is the only Line6 product I have ever purchased and probably ever will. I have never been impressed by Line6 pedals or amps or anything else they make. This distortion pedal, however, is the best of all the distortion pedals I've tested. (DOD death metal, digitech metal master, metal muff w/top boost, boss metal zone, ibanez sm7, digitech gnx/rp series, boss gt 6, line6 podxt live)
Six knobs may seem like it's overdone, but they all have an important part. Three-band eq, scoop on the mid range (you can get SICK tones) gain setting and level. It also has a switch with three different distortion tones. The metal is more of an 80's hair/glam metal sound, it's pretty thin and flat, sounds about like Sonata Arctica.
The pulverize setting is what I mainly use. It's your standard heavy thrash sound, like dragging a concrete block across broken glass. This is where you get your Metallica, Lamb of God, Rammstein, Megadeth, etc. You know, whatever is heavy and sounds like bones breaking.
The insane tone is similar except it takes all the extra high end that's not really adding anything to the sound and sticks it on the bottom. It's extra thick and warm and heavy. I use it for some things but with my setup (ibanez rg1550 prestige w/emg's all around through an old twin triode crate with celestions) it's got too much low end boom to shred. It's fine just for slower Bloody Kisses style elegy type music but not so much Cradle of Filth or Dimmu Borgir thrash.
The general tone is not so much a Line6 tone, it's the tone of your guitar being distorted and then sent through your amp. If you like the tone of your guitar and the tone of your amp you should be fine because the pedal does not override either of them, it just adds on.
Another feature that is very nice is the built-in noise gate. You can turn it off and get all that raw hiss static or you can put it on setting one which takes about half of the extra noise out and quiets it down and the second setting which effectively eliminates all unwanted noise and makes it a little tighter and slightly compressed. Turning the gate all the way on does take off sustain and makes harmonics not as audible, but how long do you need to sustain 8th and 16th notes?
As far as the construction goes, it's solid. It probably weighs about three pounds. I've had mine for a couple years now and I have never had any trouble with the jacks, the switches, or the foot switch. The knobs are a little on the delicate side, they sometimes are a bit loose and wiggly but they haven't broken off or stopped functioning in any way. The battery compartment is under the switch as normal but it's not so bad, you just gotta pinch in the circle deals on either side to get it open. I've got a PSU so I never need to go in there anyway.
I have yet to find a pedal that sounds as good or better (or an amp with on-board distortion for that matter) than this one. There are more out there I haven't tried, I'd really like to try some of the tube distortions and others I've heard of -- Rocktron Metal Planet, Guyatone MM-X Metal Monster, Nady TD-1 Tube Distortion, BBE Crusher High Gain Distortion Pedal, Rocktron Silver Dragon Tube Distortion Pedal, Pigtronix OFO Disnortion -- to see if they've got more of what I want like the Line6 does (or better).
Click Here to see more reviews about:
Line 6 Uber MetalSo much gain, so little time.The high-gain model in the ToneCore pedal line, Uber Metal brings you massive amounts of gain in one tiny, tough package.You can chose from some of the best Line 6 high-gain tones including Metal, Pulverize, and Insane.Also included with the Uber Metal is a built-in selectable noise gate, and scoop control for massive tonal contouring.
Get 44% OFF
Click here for more information about Line 6 Uber Metal
