AUSTIN GUITAR HOUSE IS A PROUD DEALER OF
EMPRESS HEAVY MENACE LIMITED EDITION
Something Heavy this way comes! One of the most versatile distortion pedals on the market, now in a limited-edition colourway with custom graphics.
With its wide range of high-gain tones, advanced EQ, and adaptive noise gate, the Heavy Menace has carved out a spot as one of the most versatile distortion pedals around. For Halloween 2025, Empress have dressed it up in a limited-edition opalescent blue-purple sparkle colourway that draws your eye like a scrying pool.
The artwork comes straight from the original sketches that Ottawa tattoo artist Kaylie Seaver created for the Heavy Menace, making this not just stunning, but a collectible piece of Empress history.
Empress are only making 350 of these. Their last two limited runs (ParaEq MKII Deluxe Black and ZOIA 10k) vanished in days. Miss this one, and you’ll be haunted by it forever!
Features
Empress is obsessed with EQ, and the 3-band circuit on 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 counterclockwise 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.
The Heavy Menace offers both true bypass for maximum transparency, and buffered bypass to protect against signal loss over long cable runs.
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.
Empress have 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 Empress' Buffer+ and connect it to the Gate Key Input, and the gate will behave consistently regardless of changes at the main input.
PLEASE CONTACT US WITH ANY QUESTIONS AT (512) 243-6036 OR Sales@AustinGuitarHouse.com x
