Rocktek Metal Worker

nitraus · Post by **nitraus** » 20 Dec 2011, 23:47

A friend of mine had this nice pedal which sounded cool, so I found one on ebay and bought it for super cheap.
Obviously, it doesn't sound the same. Also, my friend relocated in another city so it would be really hard to get his pedal and check for differencies.

I'm an absolute noob in modding pedals, so my question is if anybody had known and possibly modded it. I attach a shoot of the PCB hoping it helps a bit.

Thanks folks!

JiM · Post by **JiM** » 21 Dec 2011, 00:44

I would have to take it from my pedalboard to check inside, but from memory that PCB looks quite similar to the one of the Rocktek Distortion. Maybe the difference only lies in some component values ?

A picture of the other side (copper traces) is indispensable for any tracing attempt, and the values of those vertical resistors can't be read ...

nitraus · Post by **nitraus** » 21 Dec 2011, 11:38

nice hint, i checked out your rocktek distortion schematic and they really look the same except for some particulars (in example IC1 is a 6458 on the metal worker).
by the way, I forgot to say that I'm pretty sure my pedal is not a metal worker since the plastic chassis reports DIR-01, while the pcb reports DIZ-02 on both sides; metal worker is MWR-01 and has 4 pots instead of three, so i guess they simply flipped the name plate on my pedal.

anyway i've managed to scan also the traces side of the pcb, here it comes.

DrNomis · Post by **DrNomis** » 21 Dec 2011, 12:35

I used to own a Rocktech Metal Worker pedal, but mine had 4 knobs rather than three, the knobs were marked Dist., High, Low, and Volume, as far as I can remember, the thing I liked most about it was the smooth-sounding Distortion, I'm guessing that they might have used CMOS chips, such as the CD4007 as the distortion generator....

nitraus · Post by **nitraus** » 21 Dec 2011, 13:14

yep, i liked my friend's one too because of its smooth and full bodied distortion, exactly the opposite of mine

JiM · Post by **JiM** » 22 Dec 2011, 11:01

nitraus wrote:nice hint, i checked out your rocktek distortion schematic and they really look the same except for some particulars (in example IC1 is a 6458 on the metal worker).
by the way, I forgot to say that I'm pretty sure my pedal is not a metal worker since the plastic chassis reports DIR-01, while the pcb reports DIZ-02 on both sides; metal worker is MWR-01 and has 4 pots instead of three, so i guess they simply flipped the name plate on my pedal.

anyway i've managed to scan also the traces side of the pcb, here it comes.

According to this e-bay listing, which features gutshots, your pedal is indeed a Rocktek Distortion.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.d ... 0776097541
See this thread for analysis and mods : https://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3763

nitraus · Post by **nitraus** » 22 Dec 2011, 13:46

Yep, I had already. Thanks a lot anyway!

Huevo · Post by **Huevo** » 06 May 2020, 15:52

Hi there!

I am new here.

Ihave a metal worker which I bough when I was a Kid, and honestly Ihave never used until today. I have beeen playing for a while and happy with it. But for me i prefer something more like over Drive or less distorsión. Any mod that you think I could make to this pedal to make it more manageable?

I attach two pictures from the circuit board I found in internet.

Regards

Huevo · Post by **Huevo** » 22 Jun 2020, 21:57

Any help please... ?
Trying to find the schematic but not successful so far.

Post by **The G** » 23 Jun 2020, 09:29

Hey Huevo,
I'd like to try tracing your pedal.
For that, high resolution images of both sides of the board would be needed - the pictures you posted are way too small. Try to take the pictures as similar as you can, because I'll overlap one onto the other.
Also, many of the resistors are vertically mounted, so you'll be needed to read/measure/provide good images of some parts for their values.

LATER EDIT: this guy made a nice comparison to Boss HM-2 (even measured EQ response):