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Stoner/Doom Bassists Thread, Part 90: Maxed Out

#50,521
kleinenenten said:
Did a quick and dirty A/B of various HM-2s on bass today. No clips, my DAW wasn’t being cooperative.

Short version - Throat Locust wins.

I only spent a few minutes with each pedal, and didn’t do anything outside of “chainsaw” as I have no interest in other tones. I am here for Entombed/Dismember/Bloodbath worship (not that these couldn’t doom as all hell). The reviews include my findings as of today, as well as plenty of time spent over the last few years my A/Bing all these pedals to find the “perfect” HM-2.

My go-to settings on any HM-2 are max bass, high at 4:30 or so, distortion at noon, and volume to taste. I tested all pedals at this, except the Throat Locust (with details to be specified later). With the original HM-2 having no noticeable difference in tone throughout a large portion of the gain knob (and only slight differences after), I have opted to keep the distortion lower. If I do that, while this doesn’t really affect tone (depending on the exact clone), it does make the pedal less noisy and feedback prone (which may or may not be a positive for some). I am not a fan of feedback or noise, so I lower the gain.

Here goes the review:

MIT HM-2 - Everything you know and love. Sweet, sweet, chainsaw tones, plenty of bass, a great tone if you’re into that sort of tone. I swear that the original HM-2s must have some sort of component aging going on to slightly reduce highs, because all newer clones seem noisier and more harsh in general. Lots of treble “fizz”, but not bad. Good for bass, but not my favorite.

DOD Super American Metal - This seems to basically be the HM-2, but with a little bit more treble “fizz”. Other than that, this sounds pretty well identical to the HM-2. A bit noisy, perhaps, but with my gates, not a big deal.

Arion Metal Master - Seems to have more low mids or bass presence, can’t quite pin it down. Regardless, a great, and much cheaper alternative to the original for bass. It seems to have a bit more “presence” if that makes sense, but not a problem - perhaps higher treble frequencies than a traditional “treble/high” control on an HM-2. Regardless, it seemed to be both bassier and treblier, but also less harsh, than the original. Great HM-2 for bass.

Throat Locust - The settings were as follows - bass cranked, mids at 3:00, treble at 1:30, distortion at noon, mid frequency at noon. This gave a distinct HM-2 tone, but with plenty of bass, and an almost “natural” sounding bass underneath the distortion to boot (relatively speaking, of course, this IS an HM-2). It also gave plenty of treble to cut, but not harsh as many others. I like bass that is nice and distorted, but too much high end “fizz” kills it for me. This is a great tone that is plenty aggressive, but also grounded in plenty of bass. This is the best HM-2 I’ve played, hands down. The flexibility makes it both easy to find a tone that works, and also work in plenty of mixes. There aren’t tons of changes to the circuit, but the addition of a tweakable mid frequency and separate mid and high controls make this pedal.

If I had to rank their usefulness on bass, this would be my list (it would be a different ranking on guitar):

1. Earthbound Audio Throat Locust
2. Arion Metal Master
3. MIT HM-2
4. DOD Super American Metal

The following reviews are from memory, as I no longer have the pedals:

Lone Wolf Audio Left Hand Wrath: While competently built, I found this pedal to be nothing special. Unless I was aiming for chainsaw, this pedal did nothing for me that the other clones couldn’t do as well and far cheaper. In fact, reducing the highs per my preferred method seemed to absolutely neuter this pedal. Any sort of definition was quickly lost, and in raising the highs it gave off plenty of feedback I didn’t want. The “presence” control was far too high and harsh to be of any use. Mids absolutely HAD to be cranked for me to do much of anything since the highs were just so harsh. In addition, the egregious (and much longer than expected) wait time and general disdain that was shown for me as a customer has really turned me off to this pedal (and brand overall).

Behringer HM300 - The absolute best budget-minded HM-2. If anything, it was slightly more trebly than the original, but I attribute that to the newer components and aging of the original. If you want a solid HM-2 for almost nothing, or are unsure of the whole HM-2 in general, get this. Sure it’s a plastic enclosure, but for the price, it’s well worth it. Buy bunch and swap them as they break and you’ll still spend less than plenty of these others! A friend of mine has this (and let me mess with it a while ago) and it’s a great affordable clone. I may yet get one just because they’re so cheap.

BYOC Swede - A modern clone with true bypass as the only improvement. I found this to be identical tone-wise to modern clones (i.e. the harsh highs, though the DOD was pretty much the exact same tone and also much older...) but also noisier in general. It required me to set my noise gate higher to keep from getting feedback. It wasn’t a bad clone by any stretch, but seeing as I had the original and other clones, there was no need to keep it.

Hope all that helps fellow “chainsaw” enthusiasts.

Other HM-2s to be aware of:
KMA Wurm
Decibelics Angry Swede
Wren and Cuff Hangman 2D
Dunwich (2 or 3 versions at least)
Dunn Effects Hierophant (and “Black Pedal”)
XIX HMD-1

I’m sure there are others I’d love to try!
Click to expand...

There's the ultra cheap but almost exact Behringer HM300 Heavy Metal clone of the Boss HM-2, too, as well as the TC Electronic Eyemaster, that is actually based on the Behringer, but with no EQ section and a bit higher quality components used.
 
#50,522
@kleinenenten awesome review! I've been meaning to try one for ever and I might just grab that behringer at that price. Another rabbit hole I'm hesitant to go down with all the other things I'm dabbling in though.

@br1qbat I don't use delay much either, but man is it fun to have to mess around with. I hope to incorporate it more now that I have a dedicated one. I mostly just used mine for rhythmic stuff and spacey jams.

cornfarmer said:
If any of yall have a Line 6 DL4, and it's stock, let me tell you about Nose Pedal/Westminster.... I had them do some mods to mine, mostly to improve the performance, but the best one was the max feedback switch. While some of the delay's are still kinda meh to me, it definitely gives this relic a little more balls.

On that note, do you stoners prefer running a wah before or after a delay?
Click to expand...

Wah before. I have mine at the front of my chain, but mostly for convenience. I have a phone clip of me using both with some distortion somewhere. When I find it I'll through it up here.
 
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#50,523
JohnArnson said:
There's the ultra cheap but almost exact Behringer HM300 Heavy Metal clone of the Boss HM-2, too, as well as the TC Electronic Eyemaster, that is actually based on the Behringer, but with no EQ section and a bit higher quality components used.
Click to expand...
Yup, the HM300 is reviewed from memory towards the end of my review. And I forgot the Eyemaster! It’s an ultra simple 2 knob take on the circuit. There have been plenty of 1 knobbers and HM-2 EQ blenders made recently as well.
 
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#50,532
Finally have my first setup Im happy with. You can barely see the green russian down there.
 

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#50,534
thetragichero said:
@kleinenenten interested in trying a fuzz i made with the hm2 stack and bass in mind (first version is only dirt box on my bass board) and giving your opinion? I'd be happy to send it to ya (after taking it back from a friend lol) as long as you'll send it back
Click to expand...
Sure. Though to be honest, I don’t gig, have anyone to jam with, or record stuff much, and don’t usually have lots of time for bass these days...

So yeah, interested, but I don’t know when I’d get to it. Wouldn’t want to keep it for a long while if I can’t get back to you.
 
#50,536
Auditioning tonight for a local originals band. Pretty interested in this one, and it’s a little outside of my norm. I see potential to take this somewhere. Definitely more than most bands in this area. Wish me luck. Oh and I haven’t forgotten about the bass project. Been crazy busy with learning these songs, masters classes, wife, kids, getting the house up for sale, but I’m almost done with the first section.
 
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#50,537
JBOWLES said:
Auditioning tonight for a local originals band. Pretty interested in this one, and it’s a little outside of my norm. I see potential to take this somewhere. Definitely more than most bands in this area. Wish me luck. Oh and I haven’t forgotten about the bass project. Been crazy busy with learning these songs, masters classes, wife, kids, getting the house up for sale, but I’m almost done with the first section.
Click to expand...
Give 'em hell
 
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