Behringer HD300 Heavy Distortion - Boss MD-2 Mega Distortion clone

[Baloney Balderdash]

I recently bought the Behringer HD300 Heavy Distortion, Boss MD-2 Mega Distortion clone, after having listened to the few YouTube demos (that is predominant the original Boss MD-2) in existence that demonstrated it used for bass, which are all rather lacking, either not being very thorough or just overall having terrible sound quality, as well as I watched a fair share of demo videos featuring it used for guitar.

 

But I thought I could still hear it being right up my ally as far as going bass distortion, and it really is.

 

Genuinely great distortion for bass.

 

With all knobs at noon, except the Bottom knob just boosted ever so slightly, like just barely 1 o'clock, it sounds surprisingly close to my preferred high gain distortion setup, which is:

 

Boss LS-2 [A+B<->Bypass] => [ Effect Loop A: {Joyo Orange Juice (dialed in to a higher low/lower medium gain kind of overdrive) -> Boss MT-2 Metal Zone (dialed in to a higher medium gain kind of distortion)} ->|blended in parallel with|<- Effect Loop B: {Mosky Black Rat (RAT clone, in Turbo RAT mode, dialed in to a high gain distortion}]

 

I would say that The Behringer HD300 Heavy Distortion is probably just lacking the last 5 to 10 % or so, that is lacking some clarity and definition, and also some depth (as in complexity and spatial "3D" like effect), in comparison to my more complex high gain distortion setup, which I guess though is not really surprising, being a single distortion pedal vs. parallel blended respectively medium and high gain distortion with two quite different kind of basic characters, but the actual basic character of the MD300 alone using the above stated settings is actually extremely close, which I think is quite amazing and impressive considering, and if for some reason I had to use just 1 single pedal for my high gain distortion this would definitely be it (except I would probably get the original Boss MD-2 Mega Distortion in that case).

 

Really captures that raunchiness of the Turbo Rat, but with a slightly smoother and somewhat slightly more modern quality, which sort of accounts for the parallelly blended in Metal Zone of my high gain distortion setup, but then a bit tighter sounding, which accounts for the Orange Juice overdrive that I have stacked into the Metal Zone. 

 

In a mix with other instruments I think it would be really hard to tell the difference between this cheap Behringer pedal, using the mentioned settings, and then my preferred high gain distortion setup, and by blending in a slight bit of clean signal (which though I have not tested yet), for instance using a Boss LS-2, it might even be possible to achieve some of the clarity, definition and sense of depth that I think this single distortion pedal lacks in comparison to my more complex high gain distortion setup (also it might be possible that the original Boss MD-2 Mega Distortion would have a bit better definition, clarity and sense of depth, compared to this cheap clone of it, though I wouldn't know if this is actually also the case, since I don't own the original Boss pedal). 

 

And if one have to stick to a single pedal and is on a budget I can definitely warmly recommend this pedal as a high gain bass distortion.

 

These are the settings I used :

 

 

Edited August 8, 2022 by Baloney Balderdash

[Cosmo Valdemar]

At this price, I don't need much persuading! I'll give it a go.

I've already got the Super Fuzz and Tremolo, both of which are excellent 

[Baloney Balderdash]

1 hour ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

At this price, I don't need much persuading! I'll give it a go.

I've already got the Super Fuzz and Tremolo, both of which are excellent 

 

I own and use the Behringer SF300 Super Fuzz too in my setup, as my go to high gain fuzz tone, placed right after the Mosky Black Rat, Rat clone, in the same effects loop of my Boss LS-2, and use it either blended with parallel  "clean" (really lightly overdriven) signal from the other effects loop of the LS-2, where the always on Joyo Orange Juice (for my basic "clean" tone I have this higher low/lower medium gain overdrive blended with parallel clean signal from the opposite effects loop of the LS-2) and Boss MT-2 Metal Zone is also placed, or blended in parallel with the Metal Zone, which I, as stated in my previous post, have dialed in to deliver sort of a higher medium gain distortion, depending.

 

Sounds amazing either way, though obviously not indentically (regardless though with the Metal Zone blended into the equation it predominantly still sounds very much as fuzz, just a bit heavier, but somewhat smoother (less raspy and spluttering), and with the octave aspect of the Super Fuzz being more subdued).

 

The Behringer Super Fuzz works no short of amazing as a bass fuzz, and that actually totally regardless of price, dirt cheap, as it undoubtfully indeed is, or not.

 

I dare say that it might very well even be one of the absolutely best bass fuzz pedals out there.

 

I also own the Behringer clone of the Boss TR-2 Tremolo, and used it for the longest time as my go to tremolo, but, even if it is indeed an excellent tremolo effect on it's own terms, I discovered that it actually doesn't sound much like the original Boss TR-2 (the Behringer having a somewhat more throbby/choppy quality in comparison), and I personally came to prefer the original TR-2, which I therefor now use in my setup in place of the Behringer (that, and Boss finally, in the, newer, more recent years's batches of this pedal, actually fixed the slight volume drop that this pedal otherwise caused when engaged, whereas the Behringer clone still suffers from this issue (mind it really is just a slight volume drop, and absolutely something you can live with, but it's there)).

 

Edited August 8, 2022 by Baloney Balderdash

[dudewheresmybass]

On 08/08/2022 at 09:39, Cosmo Valdemar said:

At this price, I don't need much persuading! I'll give it a go.

I've already got the Super Fuzz and Tremolo, both of which are excellent 

you should have said - I've got an md2