tc electronic Eyemaster Metal Distortion 4-stars Reviews

Sounds terrible, in a good way

It sounds like the pedal it is supposed to replicate. The sound is not for all, though. I think the lack of tone controls is big drawback. If it had the tone controls then it would definitelly get 5 stars. Looks solid and well-built. I would give it 3 stars but it is so affordable so it gets +1 from me.

Great sounding but limited

Bought this pedal for my son. Super great build quality and amazing heavy metal pedal. Only does one trick, but that is what it was made to do.

Does exactly what it says: Swedish OSDM

I bought this knowing exactly what I was getting: Make no mistake, this is literally a one trick pony and it only does one sound and all the knobs try to do is match the level of grit to the type of pickup you have (gain) and appropriate leve of the amplification input you are running it through (volume).

Wolverine Blues? Check!

Refined, surgically clean and controllable gain/distortion: Absolutely not! But then again, why would you buy something that says Eyemaster on it in that font not knowing that it will only do "THE sound"?

a one trick pony, but a fun one! (not really an HM-2, tough)

the Eyemaster is basically ALMOST a clone of the good (or awful, depending of whom you ask) old Boss HM-2.

universally despised as a "proper" distortion pedal, yet a cult object among the fans of classic swedish death metal, the HM-2 with all controls to max is the (well known) "secret" for the patented "buzzsaw" guitar tone of early Entombed, Dismember and various bands of the glorious years between the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s...

since noone uses the HM-2 nowadays, except to get THAT tone, and the original HM-2 is becoming growingly difficult to get hold of, TC electronic solved the problem in the most brutally efficient way: no EQ controls (you've got to dime them anyway, so...), just a couple of big, round knobs for gain and volume. and a weird silent switch that engages the effect when released, rather than when pushed.

my votes, explained:

features 3/5. it does ONE thing, actually. i couldn't give it more, in all honesty.

handling: 3/5. it's flatter than a Boss pedal, but a bit larger. i'm not really sure about the internal circuitry, but i bet it could have been built as large as a TC mini pedal

sound: 4/5. it sounds more or less like an HM-2, and it's easier and friendlier to use than the original to shape an already distorted amp (that's not the way it's OFFICIALLY supposed to work, but i suspect it's how many guitarists got their "Stockholm" tone in later, more refined productions), BUT the HM-2 is badder. period.

if you can't find a proper HM-2 (or if you want a pedal that's easier to control to get a hybrid distortion) the Eyemaster is fun, cheap and effective. and has true bypass.

if you want THAT buzzsaw tone and not something that just comes close, the HM-2 is the only real way to get it.

SWEDISH CHAINSAW!!

Let me start by saying, I've built a BYOC swede, owned an orignal Japanese HM-2, and a Lone Wold Audio Left hand wrath, and this pedal definetly does the chainsaw thing. If only it had internal trimpots for the Eq, I usually like my bass at noon for Hm-2 pedals.