Empress Effects Heavy Menace Distortion Pedal with Adaptive Gate

Be a true menace to society with Heavy Menace from Empress Effects, a versatile distortion pedal that delivers any high-gain tone, from crunch to crushing, via three modes: Lite(ish), Heavy, and Heavier. With a sweepable mid EQ band and footswitch-activated adaptive gate, Heavy Menace offers far more than your standard distortion pedal.

With the addition of Weight control, you can easily sculpt your low-end frequencies for any playing style. A Gate Key input lets you trigger the gate with external signals via either 3.5mm TS or TRS input. And with both true and buffered bypass options, you can choose to maintain a pure, transparent signal (true bypass) or maintain strong signal integrity for long cable runs or complex pedalboard setups (buffered bypass).

Enhanced EQ

Along with standard 3-band EQ control (low, mid, and high), you also get Weight control, which adjusts a high-pass filter in the distortion circuit to shape low-end character. Turn it up for a thick, full sound, or turn counterclockwise for a tight response that's perfect for palm muting and extended-range guitars.

Midrange is a key element of a great distorted sound, so the mid frequency is sweepable from 200 Hz to 2.5 kHz to dial in the sweet spot for your guitar and amp. Scoop for a tight, aggressive sound, or push to add definition and cut through a mix.

Adaptive Gate

Players loved the gate on the original Heavy. Envelope followers in the circuit respond to your playing, letting sustained notes decay naturally but clamping down quickly during fast stops.

On the Heavy Menace, this gate is now footswitchable, with two available modes of operation. In normal bypass mode, the gate doesn't affect the signal if the distortion is off, while independent bypass mode is like having separate distortion and gate pedals.

Key Input

Empress Effects has added a key input, so you can optionally trigger the gate with an external signal. This is particularly useful if you have additional pedals before the Heavy Menace in your signal chain, such as a low-gain pedal for stacking.

Split a clean signal with a pedal like the Buffer+, connect it to the Gate Key input, and the gate will behave consistently regardless of changes at the main input.

EAN: 850040850376