The Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal: acquired taste, instant 80's, or just junk?

[Kosh Naranek]

I have a Boss HM-2. I bought it because someone was selling it cheap and because back in the 80's when I was 48, I remember plugging into one in a local shop and it was the biggest thrill of my life.

So it was a bit of a nostalgia buy. Now I listen to the thing and it is the harshest, buzziest hash - worse than the DS-1. I remember a local band in the 80's where their lead guitar player used an HM-2. No matter how loud he was, his guitar would disappear in the mix as soon as the other guys started playing. They had a rhythm guitarsit who plugged into one of those tiny 80's Gallien Krueger solid state amps, and I could hear him fine.

Some say the HM-2 can sound great. I'd like to hear from you. Setting, what gear you run it into, what pedals you run ahead of it, what kind of guitars it likes, any secrets to making the HM-2 sound good. And what sound to you get from it? A tight 80's chunk? Do you use it as an additional gain stage in your already massively distorted modern metal Rectifier rig? A brash, abrasive punk tone?

 

[Kosh Naranek]

Re: The Boos HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal: acquired taste, instant 80's, or just junk?

Re: The Boos HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal: acquired taste, instant 80's, or just junk?

Oh, I was kidding about being 48 in the 80's.

 

[hanumanlangur]

Re: The Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal: acquired taste, instant 80's, or just junk?

I've never tried it, but I thought this might be interesting.... Anders Bjorler from the Swedish metal band At the Gates, used an HM-2 as a boost, to send more gain to his MT-2, which then went into the clean channel of a solid state Peavey amp. He got some cool metal tones out of that setup, IMO. A lot of people just assume he had a big 5150 or something.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF0U77bm9mc

Also, apparently it was an important pedal for early Swedish death metal bands as well....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-1vcuKcXeI

 

[Rich_T]

Re: The Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal: acquired taste, instant 80's, or just junk?

Justin Broadrick used a HM-2 and a JCM800 for most of Godflesh's output. Sounds good to me.

 

[jmh151]

Re: The Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal: acquired taste, instant 80's, or just junk?

David Gilmour used one briefly in the 80's- though he stil managed to get his tone with it.

Gilmour had a Boss pedal board with the HM-2 that he would bring to one off gigs, so he didn't have to carry his huge rack around- he was able to plug in the pedalboard and get his tone

 

[WhoFan]

Re: The Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal: acquired taste, instant 80's, or just junk?

I still own my original 1987 HM-2... like a lot of pedals it depends on what amp you have it in front off.... the HM-2 can sound good and bad depending on the amp... same with my DS1's... depends on the amp greatly...

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: The Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal: acquired taste, instant 80's, or just junk?

I was going to mention Gilmour as well. That's not the Sorrow tone, is it? (I've never played a HM-2)

 

[Aceman]

Re: The Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal: acquired taste, instant 80's, or just junk?

I happen to really like it. It is definitely not the "everything" distortion box.

#1 And this may surprise you...I like it for a lower gain growly, grindy, ZZ Top Blues sound. Really - try it. Don't go Uber-metal with it. That's kinda outside the box for what it's called, but it works fantastic for that IMO.

#2 standard 80's chunk, as you said. It give a great all around Maiden/Priest/Scorps kind of rhythm tone IMO. The bass has a good chunk to it.

A weakness of that pedal is the treble control, I think. Kind of goes from mellow to shriek in a very sort distance. However - A good EQ afterwords like the Boss GE can fix that right up! Or tweak at the amp.

I like it. Not my main/base tone exceprt for some raunchy Texas Blues (seriously...)

 

[Wattage]

Re: The Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal: acquired taste, instant 80's, or just junk?

I stole one out of my guitarist's rig when I was a bass player/singer many years ago. It wasn't because I wanted it, I just didn't want him to have it.

 

[baritone]

Re: The Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal: acquired taste, instant 80's, or just junk?

I used to have an HM-2. With all of these Boss heavy distortions, I like to spend a lot of time with the lower-fuzziness settings.

 

[korovamilkdud]

Re: The Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal: acquired taste, instant 80's, or just junk?

Rex Ewing of Flickerstick used one back when he was too poor to use a real amp...it was a hm-2 into a JC-120 back then. Somehow I guess it worked for him.

Rex is thankfully now a member of the Hiwatt club. Yay.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: The Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal: acquired taste, instant 80's, or just junk?

Try before you by and leave with the right pedal. :smokin:

 

[Aceman]

Re: The Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal: acquired taste, instant 80's, or just junk?

too poor to use a real amp...it was a hm-2 into a JC-120 back then.

You don't think a JC-120 is a real amp? Because it is a REALLY GREAT amp! That's what you meant - right?

 

[korovamilkdud]

Re: The Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal: acquired taste, instant 80's, or just junk?

Uh....yeah...that's what I meant,...yeah.:scratchch


Seriously, it's a great clean amp but I think the application of it in this case was a bit off. This is a guy who eventually found himself better served cranking a fullstack of amps.

 

[arbiter]

Re: The Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal: acquired taste, instant 80's, or just junk?

i had it when i first started gigging. it was fine then, but by today's standards it's pretty much crap. however, it does have a thing of it's own going on, so it's probably good for some applications.

 

[YHWH]

Re: The Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal: acquired taste, instant 80's, or just junk?

... I think Lukather used one on various Top-40/Pop backing sessions in the '80s - so perhaps they should have called it the 'Pop Rock-2" pedal.

I remember the ridiculous adverts for the HM-2 with that gigantic destructive robot...trying to pander to us Heavy Metal mayhem hair farmers. Trouble was the pedal, though it sounded pretty dang good for playing hard/AOR Rock, wasn't representative of the crunchy, grinding Marshall tone that true '80s metalers were looking for.

 

[Aceman]

Re: The Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal: acquired taste, instant 80's, or just junk?

Boss AOR-2! I like it. Would have been a way better name...I can hear that pedal with a tight delay/plate verb playing the solo to "Hold the line"

 

[YEM]

Re: The Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal: acquired taste, instant 80's, or just junk?

Meh... i can't stand it. The last two boss distortion pedals I owned were Keeley's DS-1 Ultra mod (hated it) and Analogman's DS-1 Super mod (it was fine but not fine enough to keep it). I just don't like distortion nearly as much as overdrive is what it is. So an unmodded boss distortion unit to my ears.... nicht so gut.

 

[Kosh Naranek]

Re: The Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal: acquired taste, instant 80's, or just junk?

like a lot of pedals it depends on what amp you have it in front off.... the HM-2 can sound good and bad depending on the amp... same with my DS1's... depends on the amp greatly...

I'm starting to find this out too, now that I have several amps around the house. A given pedal can sound real different going into one amp as opposed to another.

 

[hanumanlangur]

Re: The Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal: acquired taste, instant 80's, or just junk?

I remember the ridiculous adverts for the HM-2 with that gigantic destructive robot...trying to pander to us Heavy Metal mayhem hair farmers. Trouble was the pedal, though it sounded pretty dang good for playing hard/AOR Rock, wasn't representative of the crunchy, grinding Marshall tone that true '80s metalers were looking for.

Yeah, Boss could make a lot of money if they came out with a distortion pedal that actually gave a basic Marshall tone. They could even do it with a modified DS-1 circuit, and get very good results. It's mostly a matter of getting the internal EQ right, but I doubt they'll go through the hassle.