BOSS HM-2

[Amber]

Anyone got one of these? I have a Japan one that only sounds right with a battery. I love it, sounds amazing. I use it for recording when I was to get a Mesa style sound mixed a bit of Marshall. You can get a lot of sounds out of the pedal.

[daydreamdelay]

I had one a while back and really liked it.. perfect shoegazer distortion, nice searing distortion with a woolly fuzz quality like a Big Muff

[FireAarro]

Didn't MBV have one or something?

[Amber]

I can hear a MBV sound from it for sure. I really reacts differently with different amps.

UK band Biffy Clyro use them at their heavier chorus parts.

I also heard Joe Satriani used one direct to a board for his first album.

[daydreamdelay]

supposedly Belinda used them as did Adam from Swervedriver but that's according to guitar geek which isn't always accurate.. maybe evoluzione will pop in to confirm if she used it or not

[mezcalhead]

When I think Adam Franklin I tend to think DF-2 (Super Feedbacker & Distortion) although there is a HM-2 in his geek rig IIRC .. but mostly I think they probably relied on overdriving the Marshall/Vox amps ... a lot of the studio sound is probably down to Alan Moulder's production anyway.

[Superfuzz]

I also heard Joe Satriani used one direct to a board for his first album.

That's a BAD NEWS!!

[i love sharin foo]

I just bought one of these on eBay for pretty cheap. It was like a week or so ago, so it should be here pretty soon. Is there any difference between the Japanese and Taiwanese versions of this one? I know there isn't with most, but I don't know about this one in particular. In the end, it probably won't make any difference anyway, though. I've never had a Boss gain pedal that I've liked, so I don't know how well this will go over  . I'll post when it gets here.

Justin

[pullover]

Anyone got one of these? I have a Japan one that only sounds right with a battery. I love it, sounds amazing. I use it for recording when I was to get a Mesa style sound mixed a bit of Marshall. You can get a lot of sounds out of the pedal.

If it won't work with an adapter you might be using the wrong one. It needs an unregulated power supply, or the Boss ACA.

From BOSSarea.com
"Powering ACA pedals with a PSA power supply
Powering the older pedals designed for the 12V DC ACA adapter PSA adapter will not work very well. The older pedals contains a resistor and diode that will lower the internal voltage voltage supplied to the rest of the circuit. This will prevent the pedal from being fully powered and its LED will often fail to light up properly. The solution is to use a daisy chain and plug in another pedal designed for the newer PSA adapter. The lead between the two pedals will short the resistor diode pair and the pedal will receive full power."

[i love sharin foo]

If it won't work with an adapter you might be using the wrong one. It needs an unregulated power supply, or the Boss ACA.

I found that out firsthand with mine the other day. I just assumed it used the normal regulated power supply, so I tried it with my PedalPower II on the 'normal' setting. It did work, but it wasn't as loud as I expected and the LED barely lit up. So, I switched the power supply setting and it sounded much better. It does actually sound a fair bit like a Big Muff. I really like it so far. I think it is a really usable pedal. The tone controls are really effective which is nice.

Justin

[StevenO]

Justin, could you possibly compare the fab tone and the hm-2? which one do you like better? I have a fabtone and am not a huge fan of it and was thinking about trading it in for a boss hm2...

[i love sharin foo]

HAve you ever read the reviews of the Fabtone on HC? It is some of the funniest reading I have ever done, I think. But about the sounds...

I haven't had a chance to really use the HM-2 much, but even after an hour or two of use, it has proven to be MUCH more versatile than the Dano. The Fabtone does a good sound for what it does, but that's it. Also, it is really, really noisy at higher gain and feeds back (in a bad way) much too easily. The HM-2 is alot fatter and definitely more dynamic. It can still do a thinner, more harsh tone if you want though. It does seem to sound a bit like a more focused Big Muff. It isn't as brittle and harsh as I tend to assume most 'distortion' pedals are. It does seem to act  a little bit more like a fuzz than I expected. I think swapping a Fabtone for one wouldn't be a bad idea.

Justin

[daydreamdelay]

no idea of value but based on my experiences with those two I'd make that trade any day

[burker]

HAve you ever read the reviews of the Fabtone on HC? It is some of the funniest reading I have ever done, I think. But about the sounds...

I haven't had a chance to really use the HM-2 much, but even after an hour or two of use, it has proven to be MUCH more versatile than the Dano. The Fabtone does a good sound for what it does, but that's it. Also, it is really, really noisy at higher gain and feeds back (in a bad way) much too easily. The HM-2 is alot fatter and definitely more dynamic. It can still do a thinner, more harsh tone if you want though. It does seem to sound a bit like a more focused Big Muff. It isn't as brittle and harsh as I tend to assume most 'distortion' pedals are. It does seem to act  a little bit more like a fuzz than I expected. I think swapping a Fabtone for one wouldn't be a bad idea.

Justin

Yeah I had a fabtone and liked the sound, but it died on the first day I used it..... so that sort of sucked... (15 bucks down the drain    )

Maybe I'll open it up and see if anything obvius is broken, but around electronics I always feel like a caveman.

[cpeck]

My early experiences with these pedals have been enough to scar me for life.  Pretty much every band in my town played one of these pedals into bad solid state amps with humbucking guitars.  Needless to say, the guitars were all tuned to Drop-D and the powerchordage was to the max.  I'm sure they are fine pedals, I just can't get that image of palm muted 5th chords out of my head.