The HMTwo - Distortion kit

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The HMTwo - Distortion kit

Item number: 2194

High gain distortion pedal.

Category: Distortion

Enclosure: 125B pre-drilled+ 9,90 €125B+ 6,50 €none

starting from 29,00 €

Final price incl. VAT, plus shipping (mitttel)

Available.

Shipping time: 3-7 Working days

Description

A distortion pedal for classic 80's metal distortion. The classic Swedish buzzsaw sound. With level and distortion controls, plus a 2-band gyrator tone stack. With the tone control it is possible to produce a balanced sound as well as extremely thin or fat sounds.

This kit contains all parts you need to build a fully functional effect pedal.

Not included in the kit, but also very good to have:

Aluminium enclosure: select one above.
DC power supply
4 nice knobs for the pots, 6,3mm shaft
Decal, transfer or transparent sheets for labeling

Instrument:	Guitar
Effect-Type:	Distortion Overdrive

Build documents

Installation guide: Installation guide

Schematic and pcb: Schematic

Parts list (BOM): Parts list

Ratings (19)

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The most useful review

4 from 4 Customers found the following product review helpful

Great sound, but needs improvements

I ordered this kit a few days ago.
Building was very easy, the PCB has a very good quality.
After comparing the original HM-2 schematic with this one, I detected a few flaws:
- the 10p feedback capacitors need to be 100p
- the tone pots need to be 10k lin, otherwise the tone controls have no effect between 0 and 8
- one filter caps have a higher rate originally (C19 / 100µ), although this is neglectible
- a feedback capacitor is missing (C21 / 470p bridging R22 / 3k3)
- a filter capacitor is missing (C22 / 47µ connected from the node where R30, R8, R12 and R13 are connected to the ground), although this is neglectible
Bernardus Andre E., 06.11.2019

Total entries: 10

Neat build, true sound

Great easy to build kit. Sound is true to original, wall of chainsaw..
Beware that Ge diodes are glass cased and very fragile!
Johan F., 11.03.2019

Sounds almost like the real thing!

This build was a bit more complicated than what I was used to, but I didnt have any trouble with it.

Sounds really good! I compared it to my original HM2, and the sounds are pretty close. You would not be able to tell the difference in a live setting.
Jan Alwyn B., 11.03.2020

1 from 1 Customers found the following product review helpful

Great Buzzsaw wall of sound

Since I discovered what kind of nasty pedal those guys were using to achieve those walls of distortion, I wanted it.
But really, the original ones are way too expensive in the used market so when this kit came up I was looking forward to put my hands on it.

The build has been nice and smooth,and the sound is what I was looking for, Im not sure the frequency response is completely faithful to the original, but I dont have an original one to compare it. Anyway I dont care too much, I can still manage to get the sound by tweaking the amp settings
Lorenzo T., 16.05.2020

Excellent

Très fidèle à la HM-2 originale de Boss, plaisant à assembler et un plaisir encore plus grand à jouer.
Attention lors de linstallation des diodes germanium (OA1182), en pliant les pattes, le risque de casser le verre est grand... Au pire si vous avez peur de faire un faux pas, ce nest pas idiot den prendre une en supplément au cas où ici-même : https://www.musikding.de/Germanium-Diode-OA1182_1
Boutons de potard oranges pour faire bien et cest tout bon !
Jordan H., 27.03.2021

Good!

Great project! Pcb is excellent in workmanship, as well as the choice of components. The only minus point: the lack of a detailed assembly manual, with the exact location of the components. Its not difficult, to do it, but getting it out from the wiring diagram is inconvenient.
carmine c., 15.06.2021

Chainsaw and beyond

Easy to build and mod, sounds as expected. My only gripe is that the pots are CPB mounted, and requires fiddling a little to change the control layout.
Sérgio R., 25.01.2023

Great build

As long as you dont break the GE glass diodes (like I did), Its great and decently easy build.

Would recomend, price and quality are absolutely great
Mikko M., 10.02.2024

Chainsaw for a swede

Living in Sweden, Gothenburg, the chainsaw roar of the original HM-2 is part of our cultural heritage. As for myself, I will certainly upset a few local metalheads by playing a headless Hohner/Steinberger through this one! :)
Great kit, Musikding delivers as always. Nice board, albeit a wee bit tight.
As for the infamous Ge diodes; yes they are VERY brittle, and the footprint on the PCB is very tight. Knowing myself and my tendency to screw up, I ordered two spare diodes. Great idea since I broke one in my first try. You must never never never apply any kind of stress close to the glass capsule. Two fine needle-nose pliers and a light hand is recommended. And a spare or two. I suppose you could wish for a little wider footprint on the board, but then again; its tight in there. Otherwise, it was a smooth build.
At first tryout, there was this really annoying hum (way more than expected) from the pedal. Lesson learned: check your power supply! With a decent power feed it roared like expected. And I forgot it was 23:30 in the night, I dimed the box, and I went for full power tube distorsion in my amp... (sorry about that, dear neighbors!) Thumbs up for a fun and price-worthy way to get that chug to my guitar!
Patrik E., 05.09.2024

Great kit, maybe some mods to think about

The kit in itself is a pleasure to solder : well made pcb, all the components well classified and tagged.
This is my 2nd build in this range, this one is quite a lot of work because this circuit is a bit more complex but everything went well. The 4 pots fits perfectly their in the enclosure.
As said before : be careful with the Ge diodes, the glass capsules are very fragile indeed but I guess this is a characteristics of this type of component.
The sound : I have not the original Boss pedal to compare. It is a quite heavy distorsion, thought not as heavy and nasty as I would have thought (it is not like a Metalzone, for exemple). Of course I tried to use it all pots at max to see if it gives you the swedish chainsaw tone. Well, it is not the best way to use it, even it if it not as terrible as expected. Joke apart, Gain at 60-70% gives a good result with my amp.
The pots reponse is a bit strange, I am convinced that it wouyld be interesting to change the pots values as it has been mentionned in some other comments. Especially the 2 tone pots.
Laurent G., 08.09.2024

A few details to be corrected

I had a great time assembling this DIY kit! The PCB is of excellent quality, and soldering the parts was smooth and enjoyable.

However, there are a couple of issues worth mentioning:

- Feedback Capacitor Missing (C21 / 470p bridging R22 / 3k3):
The capacitor is included in the kit but lacks instructions for installation. After referencing the original HM-2 schematic, I soldered it across the lugs of the 3k3 resistor (R22). This resolved the issue for me, but clearer guidance would have been appreciated.

- Filter Capacitor Missing (C22 / 47µ):
This filter capacitor connects to the node where R30, R8, R12, and R13 meet. Adding this made a huge difference for me. Without it, I noticed significant hum when the level knob was maxed out. This might be related to my power supply, which is a high-quality unit but perhaps not ideal for this circuit. I ended up soldering a 100µ capacitor across R30 and the middle lug of the DIST pot, which completely eliminated the hum.

Pro Tip: Be careful with the Ge diodes! Like many others, I accidentally broke one due to the limited space on the PCB for tight mounting. I replaced it with a 1N34A I had on hand, and it worked perfectly.

Overall, it’s a great kit with excellent build quality, but a bit more documentation or design tweaks would elevate the experience even further.
Mateusz N., 07.01.2025