It's supposed to sound like that. Sounds ugly at first, but you get used to it and with some proper mid-eq attenuation and comp it will be the greatest tone you've ever dialed. Kind of.

It's not that it sounds ugly. It sounds... Off.

I can get something pretty close to it with my fake HM2, but my amp has shitty distortion and I've never really gotten it quite right either. I tend to favor my Behringer UM300 too sometimes, which is supposedly a clone of the Boss Metal Zone, but I honestly think it sounds great so whatever...

Edit: just did some messing around, found I got a much closer tone by not maxing everything out and putting a Boss OD-1 in front of it to give it a bit more of a lower end. Took my advice from this dude and it seemed to work out just fine.

Well that's really your ears. It sounds amazing and exactly like those classic sunlight records. Sorry when there are plenty of people all over saying the opposite of what you are saying cause you are the first saying it sounds off... it might be a personal problem.

I was totally skeptical at first when I got mine in and I actually called up a friend saying this is the first time I've ever had something work exactly how it's supposed to exactly how i was told to set it up.

I said the way I experienced it, it sounded off, because I've heard others getting an amazing tone with it. That's why I am asking for how others get a good sound out of it and how.

You on the other hand, use an arrogant tone in your writing. Not everyone thinks exactly like you.

Porman, could you record something with it and post it so we can find out if it's really that bad or just... you know, the natural HM-2 sound?

I will see what options I have, since I don't have a mic at home. Any specific settings I should use on the clean channel? Will a flat setting do?

I do have to mention that the pedal is made in Taiwan and not Japan. Don't know if it differs that much in sound.

A flat clean or slightly crunchy setting can do, I suppose.

I'm not too sure about the Taiwan/Japan dispute. Many people say that the Taiwanese ones sound harsher, but I haven't had the chance to compare.

Just realized that it is at rehearsal. I can't get to it until Wednesday. I will try to record something there.

Do you have any samples on how you can make it sound? Just guitar, nothing else.

I think I had a couple from Ultimatemetal (forgot where I saved them). Besides that, I'll be using an emulation for the death metal challenge.

Maybe I'm focusing on how the guitar sounds by itself. I didn't give it much of a shot at rehearsal. That, or I have a crappy pedal.
The possible future second guitarist just got his Japanes HM2, so we will see if it sounds the same.

You come across as very arrogant which I respond to in kind. and sure not everyone things like I do but when I've spoken and conversed with over 50 separate people in person and via email and chat I kinda feel when all of them agree with me I tend to feel I have some backing and merit to what I'm writing. Additionally I recorded a 6 song ep using exactly the set up I described and in 3 months it was put out by a small label on tape which is now sold out. So I feel that not only with the 50+ separate opinions I've received on it and the fact that it was liked well enough to be released (in the eq I purposefully did not alter the sound at all so it's the guitars totally in the raw) that I have enough backing to say it's on you with your experience with it.

Other things that might alter the tone that you might have thought of, using a low battery, using a power supply instead of a battery, the cords you use might not be the best, the pick ups in your guitar, the speakers in your amp, and the taiwan/Japanese build does come into play. They all factor in to a degree. I have a japanese one. Also you might be totally comparing the sound you hear on an album that's been mixed, cleaned up(to a degree), and has the full band with bass and 2nd guitar to your single guitar chugging away.

Interesting that you mention that power-supply vs. battery thing. I received my first AC adapter for my HM-2 today and wondered what was up. A fresh better = more juice than the adapter. In other words, I probably should have saved the 15.00 I paid for the adapter. I expected it to work exactly as the battery does - but it does not. Even the red power light is dimmer than with a battery. It powers it and works, but it's not 100% like the battery. More like about 75% or so.

i know! That's why I always use batteries. I don't have a problem replacing them and it's not like i have to replace them so much that I feel the investment in the adapter is worth it. I have an adapter for the chromatic tuner cause hell it's not like I'm trying to run anything through it. it's always out of my chain off to the side.

ShaolinLambKiller:

I never questioned your experience or opinion. I wrote that I experienced it in a way that didn't even come close to the sound on those classic albums. That's why I am asking for single guitar samples and that's why I asked for tips and setups. Now how you perceive me as arrogant is another mystery, since I never said anything about your knowledge or degraded YOUR opinion.

Mind you, there's nothing wrong with my ears.

I do have to add that it is indeed an awesome pedal and I have achieved great sounds on it. Just not with all the knobs maxed out.

On the topic of batteries, does anyone know if certain types vary in voltage over time more than others? I am pretty sure that with pedals you are supposed to use alkaline, but maybe someone knows of something better.

I didn't degrade your opinion or knowledge either. I honestly didn't feel I was being arrogant but being addressed as such made me figure I was though no one else had ever said so on this site before.


and I've never really had any battery brand loyalty, hell sometimes i can get some from work and they work just fine. One of my old guitarists from a band used to take cases from his work where there was 50 in them at a time. I know one of those lasted us for years.

Well someone has to be first, right?

Anyway, bands in Malmö did turn everything up except for the treble which was set to zero. Bands like Obscurity.

The reason your getting more power out of the battery is because older Boss pedals use a 12v adapter instead of a 9v. There is a resistor and a diode in the power circuit that bring it down to 9v, which could also be removed and jumped to use a standard 9v. Another way around this is to connect another pedal to it using the same power source and it will work off of a 9v at full power.

I have a 84' Japanese HM-2, also running it into a late 80's bandit, I wasn't really able to get the exact Entombed tone but got pretty close. I noticed you get a much bigger bottom end with the HM-2 if you max all knobs, but keep the distortion entirely off and use the distortion from the amp. Here's a Bloodbath cover I recorded a few months ago with it, excuse my first and last attempt of vocals. I also paired it with a Rat to make the guitar tone a bit thicker.

http://www.mediafire.com/?2befdafiw60wpep

Could you run me through your exact eq settings on the Bandit? I want to try it again, since so far, I don't get that muddy, fuzzy sound. All I have gotten out of it is very screamy and high end. The only way to get a more similar sound, is to roll down the treble on the pedal.

The EQ is pretty basic. have the gain maxed, with the shift/gain buttons pushed in. Bottom 1-2, Mids around -6, Treble on 1-2.

Thanks man! I will try it as soon as I get everything home and give feedback on how it sounded.

Tried it on my 6505. Sounded a lot better on a tube amp than on a solid state. Much warmer and rounder sounding.
The Japanese sound even rounder compared to the Taiwanese, but that's nothing you really notice unless you do an A/B switch test.
I do prefer the natural distortion of the amp, but this will add some variety to rehearsals.

I only tried a flat setting and my normal sound setting so far.

Well here's my rig, and all settings.


Gibson Flying V tuned to C
Marshall JCM 2000
Emperor 4x12 loaded with G12-75 Weber Speakers
Boss HM-2

JCM 2000 settings:

Presence: 3
Treble: 8
Mid: 10
Bass: 10
Clean channel with gain at 4

That gives me this tone:

www.facebook.com/terminatechicago


The things that aren't dimed out were toned down for the recording to come out a bit clearer. On stage, everything is cranked to 10 besides my gain. Also, I do a few other things live, and probably on any future recordings, to dirty my tone up more. Really though, its all just variations of the same tone, in the same way that Clandestine sounds different than the Pieces EP. Its the same thing, just tweaked to personal taste. Just start by cranking everything and work from there.