Line 6 Tonecore series Uber Metal

E

EugeneSmasher

New member
Hello,

Decided to review my one and only pedal - Line 6 Uber metal. For your info, I wanted to trade it for another pedal but after a while, I decided I loved it too much. I highly recommend this pedal for all you metalheads.

The basics
The Uber Metal is far from a DS-1, its a high-gain distortion aimed at the heavy metal department. It ranges from heavy overdrive to death metal. It features:
- Six knobs - the usual treble, mids and bass,
- Level, scoop and drive,
- Distortion levels - metal (solid state), pulverize (trebly for glam rock, etc) and insane (tube),
- Noisegate (3 modes)

Tweakability
This pedal has a wide range of tonal options. It doesn't have its own personality, you have to tweak to your own preferred tone, so actually it gives a lot of freedom and distinction to your guitar sound. Maxing the scoop gives a very tube sound, lowering it gives a mix between tube and solid state. Drive ranges from medium distortion to hard distortion. For me, I've found my preferred tone after quite a while of tweaking.

Tone
This pedal has actually a very tube distortion kinda sound. I can't get a full solid state tone out of it, but this property makes this pedal really desirable because the nicest distortion around is tube distortion. Other than that, you can tweak around and get different tones. But as said before, it can give an overdriven sound as well.

Durability
This is a true, authentic stompbox - made of solid metal, heavy duty hinge. But you have to press quite hard to activate / deactivate actually.

Indicators
A single bulb that glows green when the pedal is activated. It does not glow when pedal is not activated.

Okay, so yeah.

What I like
- Tube distortion sound
- Clarity of tone even on high gain
- Noisegate capability
- Overdrive capability
- Solid and durable build
- Indicator to indicate if pedal is activated / deactivated

What I dislike
- Lack of full solid state capability
- Eats battery really fast (please, get an adaptor)
- Complicated because of wide range of tones

Look elsewhere...
- For solid state capability

Get this if...
- You play modern and classic metal, heavy / hard rock, death metal, hard and heavy tube sounds
- If you want a distortion/noisegate 2-in-1 pedal.

Price / where to buy
- City Music
- Ebenex
Price is around $170. Not boutique, not entry-level either. Workhorse pedal.

Testing was done with my Ibanez GSA60, Sound Drive SG-10 amp and trusty tone drive cables. Also used an RG321 which unfortunately does not belong to me.
 
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Truely. the ubermetal is very gd fr all metalheads compare to the boss metalzone. try palm muting. best experience ever ! i bought it fr 130 at city music. buy it now, the promotion is gonna end soon. trust me Uber metal PWNS
 
take note that the ubermetal is a digital pedal, not analog. well, i had this pedal for 3 years but sold it off already. Recomended.
 
You keep saying that it gives off a "tube-like" distortion, yet you never mention what amp did you test this on, let alone the guitars you use..
 
Whoops! I forgot!

I use it alongside my Ibanez GSA60, through Tone Drive cables and Sound Drive SG-10 amplifier. Its a solid-state amp. I also used an Ibanez RG321 which unfortunately doesn't belong to me.

It gives a tube like distortion, but it can sound a bit solid state when tweaked. Its all in that scoop knob. But to add to that, it only sounds nice when scoop is between 5-10. 5 is at solid state like sound, while 7-10 is more tube.
 
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EugeneSmasher said:
The basics
The Uber Metal is far from a DS-1, its a high-gain distortion aimed at the heavy metal department. It ranges from heavy overdrive to death metal. It features:
- Six knobs - the usual treble, mids and bass,
- Level, scoop and drive,
- Distortion levels - metal (solid state), pulverize (trebly for glam rock, etc) and insane (tube),
- Noisegate (3 modes)
Click to expand...

I would like to add something:

A further explanation on the knobs on this pedal is warranted, especially the MID and SCOOP knobs. I shall compare it to the knobs of the Boss MT-2 Metalzone, as the latter being the arguable standard pedal for metal through the years.

MID - It is the equivalent to the MID FREQ knob on the Boss MT-2 Metalzone ie it is used to shape the mid frequency of the tone.

However, the range is smaller than the MT-2 (250Hz to 4Khz, as compared to 200Hz to 5Khz of the MT-2).

SCOOP - It is half way equivalent to the MIDDLE knob of the MT-2, with a very significant difference.

The MIDDLE knob of the MT-2 has the ability to both cut or boost the level of the middle frequency (clockwise to boost, anti clockwise to cut).

The SCOOP knob serves only to CUT the middle frequencies out. Hence, the more you turn it clockwise, the less mid frequency (or Scoop) you will get. Fully anti-clockwise, though, you will have a slight mid boost.

Because of that, the Ubermetal users will have a slight challenging task of being able to find the right setting to be able to cut through in a band situation. It is NOT impossible though, that is where the MID knob comes in handy.

And yes, Haziq is right. Ubermetal is definitely digital... which is GOOD because it doesn't pretend to be an MT-2 or any other better-than-thy-Metalzone clones. It offers a different voicing altogether from your standard analogue pedals. The built-in Noisegate function is very useful as well.

A good pedal for those who are not bothered by the whole analogue vs digital debate and believes that a good tone is a good tone regardless of how that signal is generated.
 
Wow. Thanks for the info. I'm using one and i really adore the wide range of tones the little baby can give,and offering a noise gate function,its even betta,I kinda find it quite versatile actually,except blues and quite soft stuff. =)
 
personal opinion?heres one

Sheesh..if the price is bout 170++..u just have to surreder another 15 bucks for an EHX metal muff..which i tink is way better..uber metal has this digital sounding distortion tt one might grow to hate.no offence to anyone who adores uber metal out there now.
 
Honestly, bro... I hate the Metal Muff, heh. Not a fuzz type person. And I actually like that digital crunch. It is a totally different voicing altogether.

Also, one thing good about the Ubermetal is that you are paying for the module AS WELL AS the stompbox unit. The module is interchangeable with any other Tonecore module, so you don't need to get the stompbox if you just needed a different effect.

So in a way, it might even cost you less than having multiple single pedals. :)
 
But then again,wouldn't having multiple Tonecore modules and just one stompbox be quite a waste of time in terms of changing each module,and besides,the user has to decide which Tonecore module he/she wants to use,meaning if he/she want's multiple Tonecore modules in the rig without touching it (the rig),it would be troublesome by getting multiple stompboxes right?

Advantages
- Saves cost
- Saves space if user has only one tonecore module to use in mind
- Modules being compact

Disadvantages
- Wastes time
- Troublesome if user wants to use more than one tonecore module in the rig
 
Its still up to the tone. There are those who find that the Uber Metal yields the tone they want. (Despite being digital, the Uber Metal still sounds way better than any of my FloorPOD MFX's high-gain modes, which are also digital).

Some would swear by the Uber Metal for that. Personally, I like the Uber Metal's tone but I preferred the tone of the HM-200, which happened to be quite a bit cheaper too, which is why I made the switch.

Ultimately, its all about individual preference. :cool:
 
Of course not. But that's taking the module changing example to the extreme sense of it.

Say I have one Tonecore stompbox unit, and I decide to just take out my guitar to jam some stuff on it and I want to have a metal tone. Ubermetal would be my module.

Then some where in the middle of it, I decided, nah, feel like a bit of crunch but not too much into metal territory (more like overdrive). Switch to the Crunchtone module.

Then I tell myself, a bit of funky auto wah effect. Snap in Otto Filter.

And, mind you, we are talking about the mono Tonecore stompbox. With the stereo unit, you pretty much have all the modules at your disposal.

I'm not saying that the Tonecore replaces every other pedal that is out there. Some of us uses multiple pedal chain, which of course is gonna be hell of a heavy pedal board if it's all Tonecore pedals. If require anything more than 2-3 Tonecore units, might as well get a POD XT Live or something :P

If you are a one or two pedals type person, though, you can give Tonecore pedals an audition. Of course, this is subjected to whether or not you like the tone the Tonecore unit provides. You can always sell or trade the module alone to see what the other modules have to offer, right?
 
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