The biggest feature of the original Heavy is the gate. It’s easily the best gate I’ve ever used and it rolls off in an incredibly natural way. The fact that you can use that on the menace by itself is incredible. Empress is really sleeping on a golden opportunity to make noise gate products.
I think the main issue is the Cab impulse being used with this demo. And it’s the same one used for most of these gear demos. It almost sounds like there is no impulse on it, just an EQ curve like the stock Line out on a Katana or an amps Headphone output... And if it is a real cab with a mic, the combination of mic/speaker/mic placement, just isn’t working for modern tones. It has a cocked Wah like 760Hz spike that almost makes anything running through it, sound like a Rockman X100. (Which I love , but NOT for modern music) It’s not that it’s a “bad” sound, but it’s just doesn’t translate to modern metal tones.
"This is my clean tone" *plays way beyond breakup muffled DI clean. I never see a demo of an actual good clean youd play on on its own with these sort of pedal.
Tried it. Definitely too dark, saggy and fizzy recto like distortion. Not tight and aggressive enough for me. So I went back to the mt2w. Found that I like the more compressed tight and aggressive solid state sounding distortion. Any amp like distortion I don’t seem to vibe with. Same goes for the revv stuff as well
The MT-2w is amazing. The custom mode on the Waza really transforms the pedal. I like metal, but our band doesn’t play metal. For me the MT-2w is just a great high gain pedal with powerful EQ control. I love it.
those ridiculous post apocalyptic corona price mayhem that just takes away all the fun of collection gear especially from the pedal stuff has just become even more worse than ever before imo. cheers 🎸🎸
@@wheresallthezombiesyes! sad but true but as long as gear channels supporting such kind of faulty marketing it will not get any better for us poor musicians 🌚
@@Turbo-D just yes. Historical Reference: Revv G3 - $229 in 2018 Empress Heavy - $299 in 2015 KSR Ceres - $400 in 2019 Keeley Filaments - $189 in 2017 These are just some examples and most of them are still sold for the same price, so technically, according to inflation, these have gotten more affordable over time. Expense really comes down to what you’re willing to pay, so if you’re not spending $250 on a pedal, it sounds like you don’t really want it.
Ehhhh..... not all amps are created equally in terms of distorted tone....I personally use an old vox.... great cleans, and yes, you can get a great tone with an od hooked up, but it still sometimes lacks, at which point, a good high gain distortion does the trick, especially when I'm constantly bouncing from clean to distorted
I have a Fender Bassbreaker 45 and it's impossible to get tone like this with only an overdrive. The Heavy Menace absolutely turns my amp into a metal monster.
Sounds buckcherry-ish. Not my flavor. Especially for 250 bucks. Ill stick to my big mean orange stompbox called the DS-1. Works way better for the tones i like and only cost me about 50 bucks brand new from Zzounds. Pairs perfect with my epi LP warn with dual p90s.
I feel like I’m hearing a lot of fizz. Like it’s just really thin sounding. Maybe it’s the way it was mic’ed during the demo. In the mix it sounded killer!
This pedal is a pain in the ass. It most definitely not a plug and go. Hold both switches plug it in nothing. Hold bypass down unplug plug in. Nothing went on and on for 40 min finally worked great. 6 months later changed out a pedal another 20 min trying to get it to work. This Bs happened at a I gig I smashed it in the alley and used another guitar players Revv G3 easier plug n play.
hm to be honest all i hear is just another 250$ of fizz again..the prices especially for pedals have exaggerated increased while the sound quality just lags behind in my opinion based on all i have seen over the last 2-3 years and some gear channels are just ongoing supporting this faulty merketing so its not getting any better until the commercial based hype is over apparently, peace 🙏🙏
I gave up on distortion pedals. No matter how raved about and revered one was, whenever I got my hands on it it never sounded as good as the onboard gain in my amp. Which makes sense since its a small box as opposed to a large head. Instead of chasing tone and spending thousands of dollars on various boutique pedals, I think it makes more sense to just pick your favorite sound (or two) and buy the right amp to use the onboard gain. Worked for me anyways. I still watch the pedal videos though….cuz I have an insufferable love of gear lol.
@@chrisb8193I think the trend of tube preamps which is only starting to pick up could be a game changer, I bought a dumble tube preamp a few weeks ago and it is fantastic. Like you I've never got on with distortion pedals, I'm eagerly awaiting someone to make a 5150 preamp pedal, if it takes too long I might just make it myself.
I have an original Heavy, and the high has a huge sweep, so I set my High on it to about 10, then turn the gain to between 11 and 12, and it sounds great and modern.
The biggest feature of the original Heavy is the gate. It’s easily the best gate I’ve ever used and it rolls off in an incredibly natural way. The fact that you can use that on the menace by itself is incredible. Empress is really sleeping on a golden opportunity to make noise gate products.
Fr
To be honest, hearing this, I here little difference between turning my gate on a hundred dollar Dunlop pedal
Yes ..i also wished i had that pedal when i was a younger person 👍😂
I’m going to need 3 of these on my board!
Got mine! It’s money🤘I do classic rock tones and this does it easily.
Great sounding pedal. Really liked how you put the video together ✌️
I bought this pedal a few weeks ago. Great pedal, versatile and the gate is very usable. It’s sounds fantastic!🎉
I think the main issue is the Cab impulse being used with this demo. And it’s the same one used for most of these gear demos. It almost sounds like there is no impulse on it, just an EQ curve like the stock Line out on a Katana or an amps Headphone output... And if it is a real cab with a mic, the combination of mic/speaker/mic placement, just isn’t working for modern tones.
It has a cocked Wah like 760Hz spike that almost makes anything running through it, sound like a Rockman X100. (Which I love , but NOT for modern music)
It’s not that it’s a “bad” sound, but it’s just doesn’t translate to modern metal tones.
I have this pedal to play grunge its very hoid one off the best that I play
I want to like it….. it just doesn’t blow my mind.
"This is my clean tone" *plays way beyond breakup muffled DI clean. I never see a demo of an actual good clean youd play on on its own with these sort of pedal.
Fluff, this pedal or the Gehenna?!
Up to your taste. You can't go wrong with this one though
Tried it. Definitely too dark, saggy and fizzy recto like distortion. Not tight and aggressive enough for me.
So I went back to the mt2w. Found that I like the more compressed tight and aggressive solid state sounding distortion. Any amp like distortion I don’t seem to vibe with. Same goes for the revv stuff as well
Exactly what I hear on both ends. Couldn't agree more.
I have both pedals. The trick with the EHM,is the weight at 9 o'clock and the midfreq at 1 or 2 o'clock.
The MT-2w is amazing. The custom mode on the Waza really transforms the pedal.
I like metal, but our band doesn’t play metal. For me the MT-2w is just a great high gain pedal with powerful EQ control. I love it.
Hey man what power supply do i need? The one i found buzzes when i hit the bypass button
I wish my beod deluxe pedal came with a gate.
You aint old man, don't even have any gray in that beard. LOL
those ridiculous post apocalyptic corona price mayhem that just takes away all the fun of collection gear especially from the pedal stuff has just become even more worse than ever before imo. cheers 🎸🎸
People like to blame inflation but companies’ profits continue to go up. So it’s not even real inflation. Lol. It’s just greed at this point
@@wheresallthezombiesyes! sad but true but as long as gear channels supporting such kind of faulty marketing it will not get any better for us poor musicians 🌚
I mean….even before the pandemic, a great metal distortion was $250, so the prices really aren’t that different
@@thisguy2973 just no dude 😴..
@@Turbo-D just yes. Historical Reference:
Revv G3 - $229 in 2018
Empress Heavy - $299 in 2015
KSR Ceres - $400 in 2019
Keeley Filaments - $189 in 2017
These are just some examples and most of them are still sold for the same price, so technically, according to inflation, these have gotten more affordable over time.
Expense really comes down to what you’re willing to pay, so if you’re not spending $250 on a pedal, it sounds like you don’t really want it.
How does this sound in front of a high gain amp that just needs a little something extra to take it to the next level?
Look for an overdrive pedal
If you dial your amp in and hi5tit with and OD pedal, you don't need a distortion pedal, because the amp will have natural distortion.
Ehhhh..... not all amps are created equally in terms of distorted tone....I personally use an old vox.... great cleans, and yes, you can get a great tone with an od hooked up, but it still sometimes lacks, at which point, a good high gain distortion does the trick, especially when I'm constantly bouncing from clean to distorted
I have a Fender Bassbreaker 45 and it's impossible to get tone like this with only an overdrive. The Heavy Menace absolutely turns my amp into a metal monster.
Great distortion pedal.
Sounds buckcherry-ish. Not my flavor. Especially for 250 bucks. Ill stick to my big mean orange stompbox called the DS-1. Works way better for the tones i like and only cost me about 50 bucks brand new from Zzounds. Pairs perfect with my epi LP warn with dual p90s.
These have never impressed me.... can't say I care for the ds1 but for the price it's better than this
I feel like I’m hearing a lot of fizz. Like it’s just really thin sounding. Maybe it’s the way it was mic’ed during the demo. In the mix it sounded killer!
Sounds totally different in front of the amp vs in the loop where you have to crank the highs
@DonnyZofChaos Yeah makes sense 🤘
Sorry but it sounded a bit "cardboardish" to my hear
This pedal is a pain in the ass. It most definitely not a plug and go. Hold both switches plug it in nothing. Hold bypass down unplug plug in. Nothing went on and on for 40 min finally worked great. 6 months later changed out a pedal another 20 min trying to get it to work. This Bs happened at a I gig I smashed it in the alley and used another guitar players Revv G3 easier plug n play.
hm to be honest all i hear is just another 250$ of fizz again..the prices especially for pedals have exaggerated increased while the sound quality just lags behind in my opinion based on all i have seen over the last 2-3 years and some gear channels are just ongoing supporting this faulty merketing so its not getting any better until the commercial based hype is over apparently, peace 🙏🙏
I gave up on distortion pedals. No matter how raved about and revered one was, whenever I got my hands on it it never sounded as good as the onboard gain in my amp. Which makes sense since its a small box as opposed to a large head.
Instead of chasing tone and spending thousands of dollars on various boutique pedals, I think it makes more sense to just pick your favorite sound (or two) and buy the right amp to use the onboard gain. Worked for me anyways.
I still watch the pedal videos though….cuz I have an insufferable love of gear lol.
@@chrisb8193I think the trend of tube preamps which is only starting to pick up could be a game changer, I bought a dumble tube preamp a few weeks ago and it is fantastic.
Like you I've never got on with distortion pedals, I'm eagerly awaiting someone to make a 5150 preamp pedal, if it takes too long I might just make it myself.
The pedal is great though.
@@sonnyblack3877 yeah so the expert speaks, amen..🙄
I have an original Heavy, and the high has a huge sweep, so I set my High on it to about 10, then turn the gain to between 11 and 12, and it sounds great and modern.
Yikes. Pedals run through the power amps is worthless to me lol. (And probably 95% of musicians gigging).
Why is it worthless? With any decent loop switcher you can route via the power amp or in front of the amp at the press of a button.