BOSS HM-2

[StevenO]

Man, I've been putting off buying one of these for years! I have no idea why, but whenever I go to buy one, I always end up thinking "hmm, do I REALLY need this pedal?" and then I back out and put the money back in my pocket. Maybe in a few years when the pedal is worth thousands(highly unlikely), I'll buy one and then kick myself for not having bought one sooner.

Btw, I did this EXACT same thing, AGAIN, just a couple of weeks ago. 

[Amber]

This made me have a play with my HM-2 again.

I'm curious. This pedal needs a 12v ACA adaptor. Does that mean a 9v battery isn't enough to power it properly? It sounds good with a 9v but I curious if a 12v ACA would sound different or add more 'juice'.

I'm pretty dumb with electronics so please excuse my... well... dumbness.

[pullover]

It has an extra little circuit in it to lower the voltage down to 9v when the adapter is being used, so there shouldn't be much of a difference in adapter vs. battery. When you use battery, that extra little circuit does nothing.

[Superfuzz]

today I've started having a tremendous GAS for that ,it's so cheap too!!

So my doubts are:
1)How much it sucks my clean tone when it's OFF?
2)Doesn't exist any mod to let me use my standard 9V DC adaptor? I could use a 12V one but I've no more space on my pedalboard-mounted powerbar..

[Tweez]

There are mods to change Boss ACA pedals to accept standard PSA, I've seen a few in the past when googling. As for clean tone suckage, on mine it's negligible, I don't notice it anyway.

[Amber]

I bought a 9v for my HM-2 the other day. Forgot how great this pedal is. What I do is turn the distortion around 10/11, the hi and low pointing at each other, then I turn the hi to where it sounds good. It's a really responsive pedal, one little change does a lot.

[Tweez]

I bought a 9v for my HM-2 the other day. Forgot how great this pedal is. What I do is turn the distortion around 10/11, the hi and low pointing at each other, then I turn the hi to where it sounds good. It's a really responsive pedal, one little change does a lot.

Although there are only about 3 or 4 spots where the gain actually changes on the gain knob, there is no change from about 3 until 5 o clock (all the way up) but it's a fantastic pedal, a little bit more trebley than my Rat so it always gets regular use.

[Superfuzz]

I can't find a tutorial for upgrading  from ACA to PSA...I hope in Pullover!

[Tweez]

I've got to head off in a minute but I'll hunt one down later on, also, visit www.bossarea.com and go on the forum, there may well be an answer there.

[Superfuzz]

Yeah! here's the perfect thread from Bossarea.com
http://www.bossarea.com/forum/topic.asp ... hichpage=1
It seems that you don't need to mod the pedal if you power an old ACA with a standard 9V daisy chain (it must be a Daisychain  for sharing the same ground with the other pedals)

Now I can put the HM-2 in the "incoming stompboxes" list

[Tweez]

Yeah! here's the perfect thread from Bossarea.com
http://www.bossarea.com/forum/topic.asp ... hichpage=1
It seems that you don't need to mod the pedal if you power an old ACA with a standard 9V daisy chain (it must be a Daisychain  for sharing the same ground with the other pedals)

Now I can put the HM-2 in the "incoming stompboxes" list

I wouldn't advise doing the daisy chaining thing, it fried one of my Godlyke PA-9's and can break your pedal.

[Superfuzz]

Yeah! here's the perfect thread from Bossarea.com
http://www.bossarea.com/forum/topic.asp ... hichpage=1
It seems that you don't need to mod the pedal if you power an old ACA with a standard 9V daisy chain (it must be a Daisychain  for sharing the same ground with the other pedals)

Now I can put the HM-2 in the "incoming stompboxes" list

I wouldn't advise doing the daisy chaining thing, it fried one of my Godlyke PA-9's and can break your pedal.

URGH!!

[Amber]

I don't see how it could fry it. Could you explain how? This just made me realise how for some reason one day I could use my HM-2 with my 1 spot at rehearsal and then it sounded like an octave pedal - I wasn't using it with other pedals! I bought a rechargable 9v anyway.

[Tweez]

Your problem is probably due to the fact that you were underpowering it (Boss ACA pedals need a 12v supply, and a resistor takes that down to 9v before it gets to the board). As for the frying thing, I dunno but it broke it and I sent it back to Godlyke, they suggested that that was the problem after I told them the circumstances.

[pullover]

There used to be guides on how to convert the old boss pedals, but now everyone wants to charge you for it. From what I have read, there is a 470 ohm resistor and  a diode that need to be removed and replaced  or bypassed  by soldering a wire across them. The diode and resistor are the first two things in line from the power supply input so it shouldn't be hard to locate them.

http://www.stinkfoot.se/andreas/diy/art ... sadapt.htm

JUST FOUND, THIS LOOK HERE FOR MOD INSTRUCTIONS:
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/i ... ic=35965.0