Guyatone HD-2

Easy to use: two knobs, drive and distortion.Turn the knobs right for more of each. Plug your wire in the back. To change the battery, take off the black band.
There is a manual if you need it.

I am using a Telecaster Custom with tow Humbuckers into the HD-2 into an Epiphone Galaxie 10 tube amp. The HD-2 lives up to its name Harmonic Distortion. I have owned a Big Muff and this sounds alot like the ripping lead tones of it. Turn the disort knob all the way up and you get nice feedback, noise and fuzz. Turn the distort knob down and you get fuzz and harmonics minus the feedback. I am pleased with the output as well; I usually keep the drive knob around 11-12 o'clock and the distortion about 12. It is plenty loud for me.

Seems reliable. Time will tell...

If you want the sound of the Big Muff or other fuzz tones then this is a good alternative. Personally I love the way it looks: a tiny pink box with tons of gain. I don't own any other pedals right now, but I am anxious to try it with some Boss CS-3 compression to keep it under control a bit more and get some even sound.

two knobs, level & distortion. so should be pretty easy, huh? well, if yer using high-output pickups, you may need to use a compressor to avoid unwanted "farting" on agressively-picked 5th & 6th string notes. just thought i'd mention that. otherwise, yeah, chopsticks.

set-up when using the hd-2: 1976 gibson s-1 w/lindy fralin p-90s > keeley compressor > guyatone hd-2 > dr. z mini z (5-watt tube amp w/8 inch speaker). everything powered up w/voodoo labs pedal power 2 & connected w/george l's cables. in guyatone's description of the hd-2, they imply that they are going for the sound of early big muff fuzz boxes. i've never owned one, so i can't tell you whether or not they nailed it. what i CAN tell you is that, at least w/the set-up i'm using, this li'l pedal is the most bang for the buck in my collection. i mean, this thing really wails. level maxed out & distortion set at 3:00 for violin-like sustain wicked leads; level maxed & distortion at 12:00 for a slashing rhythm sound that'll kill small game in a 1-mile vicinity (rural readers only). it took me a little bit o' dickin around finding the right compressor & levels at the amplifier, but now that i have... you better watch your face.

all right, here we go. no one likes the "rubber band thingy". well, i immediately removed the battery, cuz i use the pedal power. so fer me, that's not an issue. next:"the connectors for the jacks are made of plastic". sure metal connectors would be an improvement. but then the price would be higher. & i'll give you three guesses what the whiners complaints would be then. next:"the pedal's too small". hmm. i suppose freud would have a field day w/this one. seriously, i'm not having any issues w/my hd-2. maybe i just got lucky?

godlyke distributing. great products, cool website, awesome customer service (knowledge-able bloke by the name of kevin).

the hd-2 is half the price of the voodoo labs superfuzz (which i happen to like); one third the price of the frantone sweet & fulltone's fuzz & distortion boxes (which left me cold); one quarter of the price of a couple fuzzes which shall remain nameless to protect the guilty. my point: 65 bucks for a more-than-one-trick-pony (again, i could name names here--big names--that have an octopus' compliment of knobs & rolls royce price tags but produce ONLY ONE WORTHWHILE TONE!). but hey, as they used to say in those NFL commercials: YOU make the call.

Stupidly simple-Set the gain and adjust the level.

I love the sound this unit produces. Yes it is bright, but roll of the tone knob on your guitar and it turns your thick mids into glorious upper mid crunch. Still minus 1 point for no tone control.

This unit sounds a lot like a RAT, straight on till morning (A feeling not a song) smooth distortion.

The Major problem I have is that with my sensitive loud high quality pickups is that they can overload the pedal making the bass fart. This goes away with using a compressor but still, it sucks. Minus 2 points.

Short term great. Long term, what what were they thinking with the rubber band?

Due to the lack of tone knob and bass fart I wish I would have bought a RAT instead. Oh well, its still the funnest non-tube distortion every. Its only a matter of time before this tone returns with a vengance to the mainstream rock scene.

In general, stompboxes are cake, but this one is so easy it almost hurts. Almost.

Currently my setup is like this: Parker Nitefly-M > MXR Phase 90 > Akai Shred-O-Matic > Prescription Electronics Yardbox > Guyatone HD-2 Harmonic Distortion > Line 6 DL-4 Delay Modeler > Digitech RP-2000 > Reverend Hellhound 1x12 Combo. The Harmonic Distortion is a little hard to put a finger on. I usually use it in conjunction with the Akai (which has a real 12ax7 tube) or the Yardbox, and the HD-2 adds a nice cutting flavor to the sound, it really lives up to "Harmonic" part of its namesake in that it adds a sweet range of upper harmonics to any distortion mix. You really have to be careful WHERE it goes in your signal chain as putting it before or after other overdrive/fuzz/distortion boxes can yield tremendously different results. For instance, with the HD-2 after the others, it becomes more apparent, but it makes your signal sound awfully solid-state, which can be either good or bad depending on what you are looking for. Last night, I played for a long time using the HD-2 all by itself with the Line 6 Delay Modeler and really loved some of the far-out sounds I was getting. The general sound of the HD-2 by itself is VERY trebly, but it's the first distortion box I've encountered where you get GOOD TREBLE, not that hurts-my-ears treble. It's very interesting in that regard and I suspect that it is intended as added flavor to other, bass-heavy distortion sounds. For what it does, the HD-2 delivers. And if you use the HD-2 all by its lonesome, that is not neccessarily bad, either, it's just a little stripped-down sounding when used without anything else, not to mention solid-state sounding also. But when used with other fuzz/od/dist pedals, you may encounter a lot of feedback and unwanted noise. To remedy this a compressor/noise gate/suppressor is definitely in order. In short, this pedal does what it says, it provides distortion of a very "harmonic" nature, meaning you get a lot of GOOD sounding odd and even-order harmonics overlaying a basic solid-state distortion. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I don't know if this is GOOD or BAD, but if used correctly, it sure can sound NEAT.....and I don't know if this is typically of all HD-2's or it is just MY unit in particular, but with the levels turned up, striking a HARD chord or note yields a strong, low jump in volume, almost like a strong lower-octave HARMONIC..yeah, maybe that is an intention effect. It sounds like a clean, dark, sounding bass note added to the high-pitched distortion that you are already getting, a somewhat neat effect but you need to be careful becuase if not used with caution it can be very distracting and ruin whatever it is you might be playing. With a little practice, it can add some novel "ummph!" to your riffs, though.

I don't know I haven't had it very long. I know these things are supposed to be small, but I was surprised when I got it at just how dang SMALL they really are! The two knobs are flismy plastic, I wouldn't hold them up to very much. The shell it metal, but when I went to put in a battery I was also shocked to see that basically the only thing keeping on the back plate is a rubber band! Yeah, that black outer edge you see on these pedals in the pictures is just a flimsy rubber band that keeps the back panel on! I can see that being knocked off and lost forever in the mayhem that is a gig, but luckily the only action my gear sees is my household kitty pretending the pedal is a pink mouse!

Don't know.

I'm very much into Samshing Pumpkins, Weezer, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and basically the whole early 90's alt.rock scene. I also love psychadelic surf music a la The Mermen, and the HD-2 combined with my Line 6 Delay Modeler is PERFECT for the latter. The distortion is heavy, but not bass heavy or RAT-pedal heavy. It's not for shredders, it's more like the heaviness of a Smashing Pumpkins track, better for mid-tempo or slow tempo tunes that will give that sweet Harmonic Distortion to shine through. Because of the nature of this pedal, it is meant to shine through the mix. Again, it's the only pedal I've heard that is intentionally trebly, and is a GOOD trebly. Although it is meant to be used in conjunction with other pedals, the HD-2 can surely hold its own when used as the only dist/od pedal in a chain, and it works especially good with delay and/or reverb. My philosophy is that you can never have too many different flavors of dist/fuzz/od, and the HD-2 makes a great addition to anybody's "spice cabinet" of these types of sounds. Not meant to be used exclusively, the HD-2 is best when used tastefully and intermittenly. Like most pedals. I applaud this pedal because it gives a nice twist on the solid-state distortion theme, and because it's sweet highs and awesome harmonic overtones are custom-made to add character to any existing distortion sound. Whether you're looking for a great tonal additive to an already killer distortion/overdrive tone, or are looking for a singular distortion pedal that will accentuate the treble range and give you some sweet harmonic overtones, this pedal will fill your needs nicely.

Its the simplest effect in my whole rig! There's two buttons for god's sake (Volume & Distortion). Its not hard at all to use.

Right out of the box, it has a very good tone for "Deftones" like sound. I also, like another reviewer, heard that the guitarist from the Deftones used this pedal, so I picked one up. For the price it cost me,... it was a sweet buy. I'd have to say though that you're going to need some more bottom end in your rig if you really want to blow anyone away with your sound.
The reason for this is, A) It doesn't have an extremely loud maximum volume... and B) It has an overall smooth tone and will need some more Bass if you want to rumble the floor beneath the crowd. Fortunaly, I don't have that problem because I'm using a Carvin head for my Marshal cabinet. That thing has more bass then anyone would know what to do with.
I was actually suprised at how well this box handled high tones... and lead guitar. Its got an uncompromised tone throughout the spectrum. The weird thing is that, when playing power cords, it sounds like a fuzz box with a little more emotion than your ordinary fuzz box. When you play lead, it sounds like a very overdriven preamp and suprisingly doesn't lose its sustain, like most other fuzz pedals I've used.

For the price... its extremely reliable. I was expecting it to break very early on actually. But with the metal casing and its simplicity... its holding up VERY well.

Never dealt with them... never had too. Everything was perfect out of the box.

If you are looking for a Deftones sound, this is the perfect pedal for you. I've also been able to replicate some of the heavier Smashing Pumpkin tones with this effect added into my rig (though I haven't heard of them using this pedal). Its a really good box at a really good price. Just don't expect it to be you're "one and only" distortion box (unless you want your heavy stuff to have the same tones)

Really easy to use. It only has a level and distortion knob so just turn the knobs until your happy with the sound. How much easier could it be?

I really like the sound I get out of it BUT its not very loud. I usually have to crank the level almost all the way for it to sound a little louder than my clean sound. That's the only thing I don't like about it. Everything else is A-okay! I guess it could be my pickup's output and not the pedal...

It's smaller than most pedals but still packs a punch and its made out of metal so its sturdy and built to last.

I've been to the Guyatone web page and there's some contact info on it so I'm sure it'll be easy to contact them, even though they are based in Japan (I think). But I haven't had any problems so I dunno if they are cool to their customers or not.

I like this pedal a lot even though the output level isn't as loud as I would like but I'll still give it a 9 because I like it better than my old Boss DS-2. I bought it because I like the Deftones a lot and I heard Stephen Carpenter uses this pedal so I gave it a go. I wasn't let down. If cranked all the way it kinda sounds like a fuzz box so I guess you kinda get a distortion pedal and fuzz box in one pedal.

It's very easy to use. To easy, actually. I wish it had more of a range. I loved the way you change the battery

It's almost like the knobs are useless, because it's middle
setting sounds GREAT! but when you turn it down, it gets way too warbly.

Seems very reliable.

It's useful either for straight-up chords, or single notes up high.
any high-end harmonies, it lost it's charm.

Very easy to use...not very many controls. Just two knobs: Level and Distortion. Could use more controls...like tone, but I guess that isn't THAT important

Really awesome! It growls! For a little dinky pink box, it has really smooth, heavy distortion. Especially great for solos...it really cuts through.

I havn't really had it for long enough to say but it looks really colid. I like the way the batteries are changed. The bottom panel isn't held on with screws. There's like a removable plasting ring thing. It's really cool.

I just tried it out overnight and it is a really great distortion pedal. However, if you play metal or anything that needs a metal-style distortion, this isn't the stompbox for you. If you need something to compare it to, it sounds like a Pro-Co RAT with the distortion all the way up and the filter all the way down.