Any Boss HM-2 users?

[Inazone]

On another forum, someone started a thread about Swedish death metal bands who got so much of their signature sound from the Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal. I asked if these were being used straight into clean amps, or to push old Marshalls (or whatever) to achieve sufficient distortion. Nobody had an answer.

So, does anyone know how these bands were using the HM-2 to get that kind of distortion?

[markD]

i used one back in the early 90's with a yamaha rack mount preamp and couldn't get a decent sound from it. it was either to biting or too booming. i ditched the yamaha and tried it with, first, a fender bassman 100 into a marshall 4x12. it sounded crappy, still. second, i tried it with a black tolex marshall 2555 into the same marshall 4x12. it sounded even crappier still. eventually, i realized that pedal was shit and that i got a better "metal" sound from my RAT pedal.

[Rockinloud]

Years ago I used one running through a Marshall Plexi that was set fairly clean. The pedal was ok for scooped metal tone but pretty limited.

[Grandturk]

I love the HM-2!!! It sounds like complete swamp ass!

Actually it can do some cool sounds - I can definately get Kill 'em All out of it very easily. Its a bit whiney for lead work, though.

[Dreamland_Rebel]

Entombed used it with a Peavey Bandit combo to get their sound. They'd record one guitar scooped and one guitar humped.

[Inazone]

Entombed used it with a Peavey Bandit combo to get their sound. They'd record one guitar scooped and one guitar humped.

With or without amp distortion? I'm not surprised that it was a Peavey, and I have an XXL, so I should be able to get pretty close to that tone with a bit of tweaking. Then again, it could be a bit redundant, as I already have an ART Xtreme and MXR Fullbore that can cover a wide range of distorted tones.

[Nightbat]

For some reason I can't enjoy the tone Boss distortion pedals give

Thru a clean amp I always have to dial away any good clean sound to make them sound good
and thru distorted amps I consider them either Honky or Fizzy
(Using them as drive, not as boost, for that I rather grab an EQ pedal)

[Larz]

I've got one of these HM-2 pedals still, it was the first real distortion pedal I bought back in 1984 or 1985 or so.

Definitely gets the sound you want running through a clean channel. Running through a really high gain channel sounds less good to me.