Empress Heavy Menace Distortion Pedal
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Want to Click and Collect or try items at our Guildford Store?
The store is open 10am - 6pm Monday to Saturday and 11am - 5pm Sunday and bank holidays.
The stock information shows the quantity of units that are available to purchase at the Guildford store and the quantity of units that are available at our off-site Guildford warehouse. These stock levels are updated in real time.
Our Click and Collect service is available at our Guildford store from 10am - 6pm Monday to Saturday, and 11am - 5pm on Sunday. You can either choose click and collect as your delivery option online or, during store opening hours, call our sales team at 01483 456777 to place a 10% deposit.
If you have placed your order online, you will receive a confirmation email of your order and a separate follow-up text or email to confirm when your item is ready for collection.
Please do not come to the store before you have received the follow-up message, as your order may not yet be ready at the store.
If the only available stock is in our off-site warehouse it can be brought to the store location for you to try - you just need to contact the store within opening hours. Please note any requests received after 3.30pm will not arrive at the store until the following morning.
Please be aware that, unless you have paid a deposit to reserve the item, it will continue to be free, both online and in-store, for another customer to buy. Therefore we would advise you to place a 10% deposit by either using the on-line click and collect service or calling us 01483 456777.
SKU: EMP-HEMA
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Product Description
The Heavy Menace is "the most versatile distortion pedal" Empress has ever created, in their own words. It's an evolution of their original Heavy pedal but with new features and a more compact enclosure. In addition to the original 'Heavy' and 'Heavier' modes, the Heavy Menace adds a new 'Lite(ish)' mode — covering any high-gain sound from classic hard rock to searing modern metal.
Key Features
- Three versatile distortion modes — Light(ish), Heavy, and Heavier.
- Footswitchable noise gate.
- 3-band EQ with sweepable mid frequency.
- Weight control to sculpt low frequency response.
- Linked or independent switching of the distortion and gate.
- Gate key input (1/8" TS or TRS).
- True bypass or buffered bypass.
Enhanced EQ
Empress are obsessed with EQ, and the 3-band circuit on the Heavy Menace is one of their best. The 'Weight' control adjusts a high-pass filter in the distortion circuit to shape low-end character. Turn it up for a thick, full sound, or turn counter-clockwise 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.
We’ve also 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 our Buffer+ and connect it to the Gate Key Input, and the gate will behave consistently regardless of changes at the main input.
Specifications
- Input Impedance: 1MΩ
- Output Impedance: 100Ω
- Frequency Response (-3dB): 35Hz - 17kHz
- Input Voltage: 9-12V DC
- Required Current: 250mA
- Power Input Connector: 2.1mm Barrel Connector
- Dimensions (H x L x W): 2.5" x 4.8" x 2.6"
- Weight: 1 lb