Review quickie: Behringer HM300

If you're not familiar with this series of Behringer pedals, these are plastic stompboxes with a fiddly battery cover which is also the pedal's on-off lever. It is exactly how the BOSS pedal works just that Behringer chooses plastic & this brings the cost significantly down - the HM300 is not even $30.

Likes

• price
• functional
• fairly good tones
• responsive EQ

Dislikes

• fiddly battery cover
• fragile parts
• underwhelming distortion

It's no secret that the HM300 is an attempt to emulate BOSS' Heavy Metal (HM-2). The control features are exactly the same less the colour feature - pink. It even says Heavy Metal on the label & delivers an intense serving of distortion. On matters pertaining to distortion, the range on offer is rather restrained, contradictory to the Heavy Metal promise but come to think of it, that's how the HM-2 is; rather underwhelming till it's maxed out on all fronts. On that note, the HM-300's EQ is, in this standard of offering, is above expectations. It adds to volume & inevitably distortion & offer good sensitivity. You can go from a deep, treble-deficient voicing to that famed semi-hissing chainsaw bark with ease. I find this pedal rather exceptional paired with a boost or a light overdrive unit acting as a push. If you have a high output humbucker pushing the distortion through, that would be a plus.

Re-visiting the factors that plague this series of pedals, the HM300 is light & gets jerked around easily if not secured onto a pedalboard. The battery cover is also fiddly, you need something hard & pointed to click it open; the two button release hinges are not accessible to human fingers - not an issue if you choose to run this on PSU. 

Rating: 70%

Behringer: HM300

• Availability: Swee Lee Co.
• List: $24.90 (online purchase only)

HM

I guess I just have to try this one; it has a 2-band EQ & says Heavy Metal so it must be alluding to...

to be continued...

Review quickie: BOSS HM-2w

Intro

This isn't new. BOSS had this going way back in 1983. This is the revived 2021 version given the WAZA treatment. WAZA here refers to a series of Japanese BOSS units that underwent some custom tweaks while retaining its original vibe. As such, it is not as wallet-friendly as its other BOSS siblings but it made its intentions clear. Features-wise, nothing changed except for the addition of a slider mode switch located proximate to the indicator LED.

Likes

• Easy to use, typical BOSS affair
• Good distortion saturation
• 2 voicing modes
• Goes well with the amp's dirty channel on lower distortion settings

Dislikes

• Distortion could have been more intense. Well, it says HEAVY METAL there so it should offer an excruciating sonic assault
• Could have benefitted from a midrange control but BOSS has the Metal Zone to appease the EQ fans
• Price

Conclusion

There is only one expectation when you decide to embrace this pedal - a full on metal assault. Well, you get that but going by my standards, the gain could have been a tad more intense. Don't get me wrong, this pedal has gobs of grind but it lacks that sensitivity for those of us who would go into full shred mode. In a nutshell, the HM-2w doesn't bode too well with single notes but it's king when you power your way through chords. Despite its reputation for churning out the Swedish death metal aftertaste, I find myself in serious doom mode once this was put to use. 

Surprisingly, the HM-2w, with its distortion levels dialled down, works like a charm when you decide to slave it through your amp's dirty channel. This formula works only if both ends have the gain / drive settings in check. The Custom mode also gives the pedal a little kick in terms of its overall performance. For want of a better term, it's virtually a boost function. If you keep an open mind & not treat the HM-2w as a one-trick Swedish Death Metal pony, it might just be a good distortion source despite its lack of midrange manipulations. Maybe that's why, in its heyday, David Gilmour discovered its hidden gem attributes.

Overall rating: 89%

BOSS WAZA Craft HM-2w

• Availability: Swee Lee Co.
• Price: $249

Heavy re-stock

Psst... Still waiting for this pedal to be available here? Well, it's recently been re-stocked. No idea how many are available but it's there. You can actually buy a pair of small practice amps for the price of this one. Wait a minute, it's three small practice amps! And some spare change for a packet of strings or two. Darn!

Pic: Swee Lee

Heavy does it

If you happened to be browsing Swee Lee's online store on Thursday (30/9), you would have seen this pedal updated at their online store. Do I need another distortion pedal? Heck, no. But I went on to purchase this anyway.

On that same day, after dinner, which was just a 2hr difference from the last time I checked the pedal out, it was already sold out / unavailable. Why did I do a re-visit? To check if the HM-2W costs more than the MT-2W (Metal Zone). There is a $50 difference.

Today, during coffee break, it arrived at the premises. Have yet to plug it in.

Pics: Swee Lee

Heavy resurrection

 

Folks, the other anticipation at the close of 2020 is the HM-2 pedal. What's the big deal, you ask? This was the pedal that single-handedly gave birth to the so called Swedish Death Metal tone. It's also noted that David Gilmour had one in his pedal board once upon a time so there's more to the HM-2 than being an exclusive slave to heavy music. 

However, the HM-2 would be released as a Waza Craft model. It means paying a little more than what it should list for without the WC extras. This is currently dividing the HM-2 camp into the purist vs revisionist movements. BOSS did a clever thing by asking fans to contribute to the design features of the pedal so the final manifestation has some user ownership rather than dictating the revised features per se. 

I would hear what the new HM-2 has to offer before committing to purchase. If there's any dissent for a good, angry distortion pedal, it would be a lack of midrange. 

Valeton: Dapper Dark

The heartache continues- there's actually a Valeton Dapper for metal dweebs out there, the DARK. Why think too much of something that highly likely won't make it here? 😤

Cheap & good

I am certainly not trying to propel cheap, obscure brand names to fledglings reading this entry but there are indeed items out there which are affordable and reputable.

The pedals here are my Behringer EQ & Beta Aivin Heavy Metal distortion pedal. The former brand name is rather prominent when it comes to duplicating other established technologies but many cite the manufacturer's plastic housing & fiddly battery latch to be its undoing. My take here is this- if you wish for caviar, be sure to look for sturgeons otherwise be content with cod roe especially if you are shopping with that limited budget. This is no defence for a preferred brand name but Behringer stuff generaly works, people tend to equate its performance with the original item it is duplicating. That's when the endless whining & bashing begins.

Beta Aivin on the other hand is another name in the effects emporium very much ignored for its far eastern origin. Yes, it's not too different from other semi-nameless products out there but it has its refined moments privy to the initiated. The Heavy Metal here gets the idea very much from BOSS' ubuquitous Metal Zone, especially its stacked midrange feature. The pedal sounds great per se because the distortion does not suffer from an implosive ('compressed' to the rest of us) nature at higher level settings. The output we hear is thus a progressive kick rather than sounding choked. A great possession for those on a budget but in preference of plesantries.