View other reviews for this product:
TheStratGuy
Published on 02/08/08 at 02:30
The Zoom Tri Metal is (how surprisingly!) a heavy-rock-oriented analog distortion pedal. Regarding controls we have the usual Gain & Level knobs, plus the classic Treble-Middle-Bass trilogy with a (very efficient) Range control for the mid frequencies. The pedal's case seems sturdy (probably even more than a Boss, which says a lot), the (big) on/off switch looks a bit unusual but seems reliable too.
According to the manual this stompbox was designed to handle the low frequencies of 7-string guitars -- I don't own one to test though.
This model was manufactured in Japan.
UTILIZATION
Obviously it takes more time to find your sound than it would on a mere Level-Tone-Drive (classic) distortion box... but if you have at least a bit of experience with that kind of settings it shouldn't be too much of a problem.
As usual with distortions the manual provides mostly very basic informations, plus a few examples of settings here and there. Nothing to complain about.
SOUND QUALITY
I use this pedal with a (mexican) Fender Fat Strat equipped with a Seymour Duncan SH4JB humbucker, into a SansAmp GT2 in clean (Tweed) setting which goes direct into the board, sometimes with a Small Clone between the Tri-Metal and GT2.
As the name "Tri-Metal" indicates, this box simulates three stages of distortion at once (I'm not too much into tube-amps technical informations but I assume the three stages correspond to two preamp tubes stages distorting plus the traditional crunch provided by power tubes). I can hardly compare it with "the real deal" (hey, I never played on a metal-plated or snake-skinned tube-powered beast!), anyway it provides a thick, mean, heavy and rather dynamic sound. Even with the drive level set low don't expect a clean sound out of it. It definitely sounds WAY hotter and versatile than EHX's Metal Muff, and provides a more "modern", tight sound compared with the Mesa (California) or Marshall (British) simulations on Tech 21's SansAmp GT2. As long as you want a modern distortion sound it will do the job, not only for metal but also punk, grunge, power pop and most certainly several other styles -- well, at least, that's as long as you concentrate on rhythm sounds...
Indeed, Zoom came up with what could have been a brilliant idea but in the end proves itself a major source of disappointment: they included a sort of internal noise reducer, which indeed succeeds in providing a surprisingly noise-free and hiss-free sound (I don't even need to use my ISP Decimator when the TM-01 is on), BUT in the same time it tends to reduce dramatically the sustain... had the circuit been equipped with an on/off switch so as to control this factor this might have been the PERFECT pedal for huge distortion sounds, but unfortunately it seems to me that this pedal will hardly be useful for soloing, even with a compressor or booster/overdrive in front of it.
OVERALL OPINION
This stompbox was discontinued a few years ago, not sure exactly when though. I bought it used two months ago for 40€ (approximately 60$/30£), a very good price in my opinion.
At first I had a VERY bad image of Zoom for the disastrous quality of the digital guitar multi-effect units they once built (the 505&606 series), but I still gave this one a try and indeed, as far as analog distortions are concerned, Zoom rocks! Too bad they didn't provide a way to deactivate this sustain-killing "low noise" function, which would have been a tremendous add to this pedal's versatility, but as far as I'm concerned it's not that much of a problem since I mostly play power chord-based rhythms.
According to the manual this stompbox was designed to handle the low frequencies of 7-string guitars -- I don't own one to test though.
This model was manufactured in Japan.
UTILIZATION
Obviously it takes more time to find your sound than it would on a mere Level-Tone-Drive (classic) distortion box... but if you have at least a bit of experience with that kind of settings it shouldn't be too much of a problem.
As usual with distortions the manual provides mostly very basic informations, plus a few examples of settings here and there. Nothing to complain about.
SOUND QUALITY
I use this pedal with a (mexican) Fender Fat Strat equipped with a Seymour Duncan SH4JB humbucker, into a SansAmp GT2 in clean (Tweed) setting which goes direct into the board, sometimes with a Small Clone between the Tri-Metal and GT2.
As the name "Tri-Metal" indicates, this box simulates three stages of distortion at once (I'm not too much into tube-amps technical informations but I assume the three stages correspond to two preamp tubes stages distorting plus the traditional crunch provided by power tubes). I can hardly compare it with "the real deal" (hey, I never played on a metal-plated or snake-skinned tube-powered beast!), anyway it provides a thick, mean, heavy and rather dynamic sound. Even with the drive level set low don't expect a clean sound out of it. It definitely sounds WAY hotter and versatile than EHX's Metal Muff, and provides a more "modern", tight sound compared with the Mesa (California) or Marshall (British) simulations on Tech 21's SansAmp GT2. As long as you want a modern distortion sound it will do the job, not only for metal but also punk, grunge, power pop and most certainly several other styles -- well, at least, that's as long as you concentrate on rhythm sounds...
Indeed, Zoom came up with what could have been a brilliant idea but in the end proves itself a major source of disappointment: they included a sort of internal noise reducer, which indeed succeeds in providing a surprisingly noise-free and hiss-free sound (I don't even need to use my ISP Decimator when the TM-01 is on), BUT in the same time it tends to reduce dramatically the sustain... had the circuit been equipped with an on/off switch so as to control this factor this might have been the PERFECT pedal for huge distortion sounds, but unfortunately it seems to me that this pedal will hardly be useful for soloing, even with a compressor or booster/overdrive in front of it.
OVERALL OPINION
This stompbox was discontinued a few years ago, not sure exactly when though. I bought it used two months ago for 40€ (approximately 60$/30£), a very good price in my opinion.
At first I had a VERY bad image of Zoom for the disastrous quality of the digital guitar multi-effect units they once built (the 505&606 series), but I still gave this one a try and indeed, as far as analog distortions are concerned, Zoom rocks! Too bad they didn't provide a way to deactivate this sustain-killing "low noise" function, which would have been a tremendous add to this pedal's versatility, but as far as I'm concerned it's not that much of a problem since I mostly play power chord-based rhythms.