Having watched that Metalzone video, a couple more observations and an unrequested history lesson.
All guitar amps have two stages, pre-amp and power-amp. Each is an independent amplification circuit, built around vacuum tubes, transistors or a digital simulation of one of those. The short version is the pre-amp shapes the tone of your guitar, and the power-amp adds the volume - think of them as the mixing desk and the PA system. Distortion comes about when a signal gets run too hot through a vacuum tube or transistor (or, as is less appreciated, a speaker), resulting in clipping of the signal. The more clipping, the more distortion.
There's a bit more to it though, as distortion sounds very different based on where it comes from.
The classic 'classic rock' sound is power-amp distortion from a big vacuum tube amp (generally a Marshall Plexi, but also Fenders, Voxes and Hiwatts) running into multiple 12 inch speakers in a big, sealed hardwood box, all at the absolute limit of their power capacity. Over time people started to want more and/or different distortion, and without that necessity of maximum volume, so started running hotter signals into their amplifers, through more sensitive guitar pickups, and pedals, ranging from simple input signal boosters, through the gentle distortion and mid-boost of something like a Tubescreamer (because it makes your vacuum tube amp scream, eh) to the total flatline distortion of fuzz pedals.
Amplifier manufacturers responded by essentially building additional distortion capacity into their pre-amps, typically by adding a volume regulator between pre-amp and power-amp so you could jack the former right up without pushing the latter too hard. The Marshall JCM800 is one of these, and became the classic 80s rock and metal sound. It's not perfect though - while pre-amp distortion, through pedal or amp is easier to get as it isn't beholden to volume, it has a different character; smoother than the ragged edge you get from hot power-amp tubes.
Your Metalzone is just another sort of pre-amp, but one that buries the guitar under a chainsaw. If you run it through another pre-amp, particularly a high-gain metal-oriented one, you're essentially doing the same thing twice, losing your breadth of tone and coming out with the tinny buzz that gives it such a bad name. Similarly though, you can lose that tone in the rest of the amplifier - the power amp, the speakers, and the cabinet they sit in. The less powerful the amp and (particularly) the smaller the speaker, the less capable it is of pushing that full range of sound out.
All guitar amps have two stages, pre-amp and power-amp. Each is an independent amplification circuit, built around vacuum tubes, transistors or a digital simulation of one of those. The short version is the pre-amp shapes the tone of your guitar, and the power-amp adds the volume - think of them as the mixing desk and the PA system. Distortion comes about when a signal gets run too hot through a vacuum tube or transistor (or, as is less appreciated, a speaker), resulting in clipping of the signal. The more clipping, the more distortion.
There's a bit more to it though, as distortion sounds very different based on where it comes from.
The classic 'classic rock' sound is power-amp distortion from a big vacuum tube amp (generally a Marshall Plexi, but also Fenders, Voxes and Hiwatts) running into multiple 12 inch speakers in a big, sealed hardwood box, all at the absolute limit of their power capacity. Over time people started to want more and/or different distortion, and without that necessity of maximum volume, so started running hotter signals into their amplifers, through more sensitive guitar pickups, and pedals, ranging from simple input signal boosters, through the gentle distortion and mid-boost of something like a Tubescreamer (because it makes your vacuum tube amp scream, eh) to the total flatline distortion of fuzz pedals.
Amplifier manufacturers responded by essentially building additional distortion capacity into their pre-amps, typically by adding a volume regulator between pre-amp and power-amp so you could jack the former right up without pushing the latter too hard. The Marshall JCM800 is one of these, and became the classic 80s rock and metal sound. It's not perfect though - while pre-amp distortion, through pedal or amp is easier to get as it isn't beholden to volume, it has a different character; smoother than the ragged edge you get from hot power-amp tubes.
Your Metalzone is just another sort of pre-amp, but one that buries the guitar under a chainsaw. If you run it through another pre-amp, particularly a high-gain metal-oriented one, you're essentially doing the same thing twice, losing your breadth of tone and coming out with the tinny buzz that gives it such a bad name. Similarly though, you can lose that tone in the rest of the amplifier - the power amp, the speakers, and the cabinet they sit in. The less powerful the amp and (particularly) the smaller the speaker, the less capable it is of pushing that full range of sound out.
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