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A tone to thrill
The Empress Effects Heavy Menace is one of the most versatile distortion pedals ever created. Whether you're looking for creamy vintage rock tones, crushing modern metal, or something inbetween, it has you covered.
With its advanced EQ and gating, you'll have total control to shape your ideal tone - and the responsiveness to supercharge your sound at all the right times. Whether you're firing out barrages of palm-muted chugs or letting a screaming note sustain, the Heavy Menace will give you all the attitude you need.
Three modes of Heavy
Able to take you from low-gain to high-gain without breaking a sweat, the Heavy Menace comes with three modes: Heavy, Heavier and Lite(ish). Take the Heavy mode for vintage rock tones or Heavier for searing metal sounds. Or, if you're looking for something a little less intense (but certainly not tame), try the new Lite(ish) mode for a more restrained but still powerful sound.
Advanced EQ for perfection
Fine-tune your tones with the Heavy Menace's three-band EQ. The Weight control sculpts low-frequency response, while the mid-frequency can be adjusted between 200Hz and 2.5kHz to achieve the exact sound you want. The EQ allows you to boost or cut each frequency band by up to +/- 15dB, allowing you to really tailor your sound.
Adaptive gate for total control
The pedal's adaptive gate responds to your playing, letting sustained notes decay naturally while clamping down immediately during fast stops. It's foot-switchable, and also features an external key input. Split a clean signal with an additional pedal and connect it to the Gate Key Input, and the gate will stay consistent no matter the changes at the main input.
True or buffered bypass
It defaults to True Bypass for maximum transparency, but you can switch it to Buffered Bypass if you need to preserve the Heavy Menace's tone over long cable runs. It also features advanced setup options that let you choose whether the gate is linked to the distortion or completely independent, and even whether the distortion and gate default to on or off when powering up the pedal.
A must-have on your pedalboard
The Empress Effects Heavy Menace Distortion Pedal is built with the player in mind. Now in a more compact, pedalboard-friendly enclosure, it has all the features of its predecessor in a package that's a breeze to gig with - plus more! Get classic vintage hard rock tones and modern metal sounds, plus superb EQ and an adaptive gate with key input. With the Heavy Menace, you can get whatever high-gain tone you desire.
Specifications
- Product Name: Empress Effects Heavy Menace Distortion Pedal
- Product Code: EMP-HEMA
- Bypass Type: Switchable
- Power: 9v DC (adaptor not included)
- Audio: Mono
- Circuitry: Analogue
Controls
- Gain: Adjusts the amount of distortion in conjunction with the Channel switch.
- Low, Mid, High: Boosts or cuts each frequency band by up to +/- 15dB. The low shelf filter starts around 80Hz, and the high shelf filter starts around 3kHz.
- Gate Thresh: Adjusts the threshold level for the noise gate.
- Mid Freq: Selects the center frequency of the midrange EQ; sweepable from 200Hz-2.5kHz.
- Gate Footswitch: Turns the gate on and off.
- Weight: Changes the character of the low end. Turn clockwise for a thicker sound, and turn counterclockwise for a tighter response that's perfect for palm muting.
- Output: Adjusts the overall pedal volume.
- Channel: Selects the voicing and gain range. Lite(ish), Heavy, and Heavier offer progressively more gain and high end.
- Bypass Footswitch: Turns the pedal on and off.