All credit due to rfurtkamp, the OG of this type steez. I finally took a chance since it comes up in every HM-2 thread, so I got one and it is quite an animal. It definitely has buzzsaw tones on tap but I don't know if the circuitry of the EQ is the same, i.e if it has gyrators. As far as dialing in the right frequencies, HM-2 EQ is supposed to be Low:86.79hz and Hi:958.47hz ganged with 1278.6hz. Without an oscilloscope I don't know how someone would dial that in on the parametric EQ since the numbers on the knob are pretty goofy- is it a logarithmic taper? It ain't scientific. But you can use your ears to find the right frequencies, and we should be listening with our ears and not our eyes anyway. I don't have an HM-2 to compare it to, but I know what buzzy sleazy nasty metal sounds like. The power of the EQ section is no joke! It will fuzz out at almost any frequency if you crank it. All the sounds are a bit dry and compressed, but it really opens up when you run it into a tube preamp. All in all, worth the $125 I paid, and I think these are going up in price.
I'm looking into whether it can be modded to run each channel simultaneously and give them their own outputs. Both channels have their sweet spots and would be complementary in a stereo mix, and I'd rather mod it to be true stereo than buy a second one. Based on the diagram in the manual it looks like there may be enough dual components to do this, as it splits the signal right after the input, and doesn't combine them again until the channel selector module which directs the selected channel to the FX loop Send. Send comes back stereo and goes to the L/R outputs, so I think I just need to take the selector out of the signal chain and make a second Send.
Any thoughts? I know rack stuff isn't cool, but here we are.