The manual for Electro-Harmonix’s Hell Melter proclaims that “a good starting point is to turn all knobs … to their maximum positions and play the heaviest riff you’ve got.” That bit of instruction, and the pedal’s semi-satanic $176.66 price tag, should give you a hint about what the Hell Melter is designed to do. But underneath all that underworld-oriented swagger is a pedal that—like the Boss HM-2 that inspired it—covers more sonic ground than you’d expect.
Chainsaw Massacre
The first hint at the Hell Melter’s versatility is in its control panel. Many pedals favored by metal players simply have volume, tone, and gain controls. The Hell Melter, on the other hand, features eight knobs: distortion, master, high, low, mid, dry, a knob for dialing in specific midrange frequencies, and a noise gate control. There is also a toggle switch for normal or burn mode (the latter is a more open, less compressed voice), a bypass footswitch, and a second footswitch for a boost circuit.
The Hell Melter, of course, is designed to produce the “chainsaw” distortion tone that is characteristic of Swedish death metal, and right off the bat you can feel the aggression the pedal is capable of. Using an Ernie Ball/Music Man Axis Sport and a Mesa/Boogie Trem-O-Verb combo, I used the suggested “everything all the way up” setting and was greeted with the evilest tone you can imagine. But there was still a ton of clarity with everything maxed. Output from the 6th string is defined and packs a wallop, and power chords are razor sharp. The built-in noise gate is an excellent extra that can keep things amazingly noise-free throughout the carnage.
“For all the ominous imagery, the Hell Melter is no one-trick pony.”
For all the ominous imagery, the Hell Melter is no one-trick pony. After all, David Gilmour dabbled with the Boss HM-2. Punk producer supreme Kurt Ballou is a fan of the HM-2 as well, which should tell you something about the range of the Hell Melter, which has a more versatile control set. Sure enough, classic-rock guitar sounds are easy to find and sound impressive. In this context, I liked using the dry level knob to blend in more clean, natural guitar tone. This makes individual notes even more articulate while sacrificing little in the way of aggression. The Hell Melter also offers what can sometimes seem like infinite sustain. And with a bit of delay, bends sound especially lyrical.
While you might suspect that the boost function is akin to tossing gasoline on an already raging fire, it’s actually quite useful for delineating between rhythm and lead sounds. The transition between the two modes feels seamless. There’s no pop when you engage it, and the factory-set boost level is perfect for adding drama without spinning out of control. If you need a little more or less boost, there’s an internal trimmer.
The Verdict
Though you might expect some allusion to darkness and evil to wrap up this review, “fun” is actually the first word that comes to mind when I consider the Electro-Harmonix Hell Melter. If metal styles are your thing, the Hell Melter probably has more gain than you’ll ever need. But the pedal’s controls mean you can sculpt anything from trebly thrash sounds to warmer, more mid-focused classic-metal vibes. The Hell Melter hits the mark on the price-to-performance ratio, too. And at that devilish price, which includes a power supply, the Hell Melter is a steal.
- Electro-Harmonix East River Drive Review ›
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Neutrik’s Timbre plug, made for toggling between capacitors.
Let’s begin with some typical additional capacitance values that certain lengths of cable (or capacitors) can bring to your system:
• 10’ vintage coiled cable (approx. 3 meters) -> 1 nF
• 15’ vintage coiled cable (approx. 4.5 meters) -> 1.5 nF
• 20’ vintage coiled cable (approx. 6 meters) -> 2.2 nF
• 30’ vintage coiled cable (approx. 9 meters) -> 3.3 nF
• Ritchie Blackmore-style, ultra-long vintage coiled cable -> 4.7 nF
I listed standard values here, so you should have no problem getting caps to match them in any local electronics store or online; the type of cap doesn’t really matter and will mostly be dominated by size, but I’ll share more about this in a minute.
Let’s quickly summarize the first installment of this column from last month’s issue: From a technical point of view, added capacitance shifts down the resonance frequency of the pickups, so they sound fatter, especially when using overdrive. This is exactly the reason why a lot of distortion and fuzz boxes with a vintage voicing use an additional cap at the input section; the resulting overdriven tone is fat and warm.
This month’s mod, which involves adding a capacitor to your signal, works best with vintage-flavored single-coil pickups (approximately 2.4 H inductance) or a typical old-school PAF-style pickup (approximately 3.8 H inductance). Modern high-output pickups are often sporting inductances of 6 H to 8 H, and don’t sound very good with this mod—when adding more cable capacitance to such pickups, the result is a dull and wooly tone without any clearness and definition. If you want to make your single-coil guitar sound more Les Paul-ish, you should try a 4.7n capacitor. It will shift the resonance frequency of your single-coil pickups down to the typical PAF ballpark, making for a very cool and usable old-fashioned guitar tone. It might feel a little muffled when playing clean, but ultra fat and punchy when using overdrive! In general, values higher than 4.7n are not recommended.
We have two options for where to install our cap.
On the Guitar Cable
This is the easiest location to add additional capacitance to your system, with several mod options:
1. The lightest mod ever isn’t a mod at all—it’s to simply buy a vintage guitar cable and plug it in whenever you need it! I don’t know of any company that offers modern guitar cables with intentionally high capacitance.
2. The Neutrik company offers a special angled plug, called the Timbre Plug, that you can solder to any guitar cable of your choice. The plug has a 4-way rotary knob on top to toggle between different capacitors. In addition to a bypass setting, the plug offers capacitances of 1nF, 2.2nF, and 3.3nF, letting you simulate different cable lengths on the fly.
3. You can add an additional capacitor to any guitar cable of your choice to convert it into a “longer-sounding” cable. You simply open one of the plugs to solder the cap between the hot and ground—that’s it. Small, 2.5 mm contact spacing ceramic caps are easy to put into a standard plug and are your weapon of choice here. It’s essential to only add the additional cap to one of the two plugs, but it doesn’t matter if you plug this side into your guitar, an effect, or your amp. This method allows you to build yourself some cables that simulate their older, longer relatives.
You can add an additional capacitor to any guitar cable of your choice to convert it into a “longer-sounding” cable.
Photo courtesy SINGLECOIL (https://singlecoil.com)
Inside the Guitar
You can also add a cap (or several) inside your guitar if you only need this mod for one instrument. If you’re looking for added capacitance with all your guitars, you’d be better off choosing one of the techniques mentioned above.
1. The easiest way is to solder your additional capacitor directly to your volume pot; this way it has a fixed value that can’t be changed and is always engaged. This operation is very simple to do, and you can use regular-sized caps for this.
You can add a cap (or several) inside your guitar if you only need this mod for one instrument.
Illustration courtesy SINGLECOIL (https://singlecoil.com)
2. If you want to make the cap switchable, such that you can run it either bypassed or engaged, you can install a SPST mini toggle switch or use half of a push-pull or push-push pot, which usually sport a DPDT switch underneath.
This drawing shows how to make your additional cap switchable.
Illustration courtesy SINGLECOIL (https://singlecoil.com)
3. If you want to use more than one cap to simulate different cable lengths, your weapon of choice is a rotary switch, setting up a kind of Gibson Varitone wiring without the inductor. Because we are switching capacitances, it is essential to run an additional 10 meg resistor in parallel to each of the caps, and to use a make-before-break, not a break-before-make, rotary switch to prevent loud popping noises when using the switch while your guitar is plugged into an amp. Leave the first lug of the rotary switch open for the bypass position without an additional cap.
If you want to use more than one cap to simulate different cable lengths, use a rotary switch.
Illustration courtesy SINGLECOIL (https://singlecoil.com)
4. If you want to make this mod even more flexible, you can add an additional “cable simulator pot” to your system. The pot should have the same resistance as your volume pot, and should be wired to your volume pot. This way, for example, you can add a 3.3nF or 4.7nF cap to the extra pot, and dial in as much cable capacitance as you like.
You can also add an additional “cable simulator pot” to your system.
Illustration courtesy SINGLECOIL (https://singlecoil.com)
On the Pedalboard
The idea of putting a rotary switch or cable-simulator-pot solution into an external unit to create a kind of extra-capacitance stompbox to use with all of your instruments is just around the corner, and yes, it’s possible! However, I don’t recommend this, because it’s physically located after the volume pot in the guitar, which means less volume (no unity gain) and less high end. But don’t worry: If you are looking for a pedalboard solution to simulate different cable lengths (which, as we defined earlier, means to shift the resonance frequency of the pickups), there are some active solutions on the market offering such a feature, usually in combination with a boost or buffer functionality. To name just a few, you should look into the Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster, Stellartone Micro Pedal, or the i2e Audio AG1.0 The PURR. Along with some other brands, these pedals will do the trick, and they’re not difficult to build if you are looking for a DIY solution.
So far, I’ve received several emails from readers asking for some more DIY guitar tools, so next month, we will look into some sustainable and environmentally friendly DIY guitar helpers—all of which you can build yourself easily by upcycling things you already have at home. Stay tuned!
Until then... keep on modding!
