TThe Womanizer from Damage Control is a tube preamp in stompbox form for electric guitarists. The dual 12AX7 tubes provide distortion with dual-cascading gain stages and acts much like the front end of a quality tube amp.
It has 1/4" in put and output, as well as a direct recording output, which when used emulates an open-backed 4x12 cabinet, so it can serve as a direct box for studio or live use if you wish.
The controls include gain and volume, pre and post eq, and an on-board compressor. Very cool.

I'm not a tube amp expert so I can't explain how they do it, but with only 2 tubes in Class A setup, the Womanizer has 4 stages of gain that let you travel from ultra clean to a classic heavy disorted tone, very akin to a cranked early Marshall.

It takes some time twiddling knobs to coax the different tones available out of this box. The versatility creates a bit of a learning curve I'm afraid, but you can't complain because good sounds are still easy to dial in.

This box is like a dream come true for guitarist that want classic tube crunch without paying a fortune for a dual-channel tube amp. I own a low-end tube combo but its only a single channel amp, and I still rely on stompboxes for even moderate gain sounds. Moving beyond just a distortion circuit that is sypical of most overdrives, this employs actual TUBES which means you achieve real tube amp sound, crunch, and dynamic response!

The cleaner end of the spectrum is fairly transparent gain wise, but it does impart a tubey-ness to your tone that it complimented my amp. As I cranked the gain and dialed in just a touch of compression the tone gets righter and raunchier, but in very gradual degrees. At full blast, this thing is like a cranked tube combo. Not Boogie high gain mind you, but a more early and classic British tube sound. I would imagine the Demonizer would give more aggressive high gain distortion if thats what you prefer. But this preamp is very musical and will retain the individual notes of a chord, very tube-amp like.

I found that I liked to keep the compression minnimal, as it sounds better and more "open" in my opinion the less you use. Being heavy handed with this compression kinda kills the natural tonal characteristics in my opinion.

But I was very pleased with a lot of the sonic possibilities and overall pallete of tone available. I played my Ibanez Ghostrider with PAF humbuckers through this, and into my Epiphone Valve Special set fairly clean. It brought a new dimension to even the clean sound of my amp, and its gain structure interacted nicely with the amp so I imagine others would find similar results.

Samson's C03 is a large diaphram condensor microphone, offerring 3 distinct patterns; supercardoid, omnidirectional, and figure 8 all of which are available at the switch of a button. It features a switchable high-pass filter and 10dB pad, as well as a gold-plated XLR connector, thats nice to see in this low low price range.

My Martin/Sigma DM-5 dreadnought acoustic guitar was made in Japan in the early 1970's I believe.
It has 20 frets, with access up to the 14th fret. It has a solid spruce top, rosewood back and sides, and a rosewood bridge and fingerboard. There is a very understated binding and rosette, and simple dot inlays on the fingerboard.

The neck is substantial but very manageable with a slight radius, very typical of Martin guitars. It allows chords to be barred at the first fret position with moderate ease. Access to anything beyond the 14th fret is next to impossible due to the lack of a cutaway.
Ergonomically, its is a full fize dreadnought guitar which takes getting used to while sitting down due to the thickness, but it is very lightweight due to the thin sides and back and well-designed bracing. It is also what lends itself to the full and robust sound of this guitar.

The Sigma series is basically by all birthright a Martin guitar. It was deisnged by them, and the materials are high quality but manufacturing of them was done overseas in Japan back during a time when most guitars were manufactured in America still. I've played a couple Sigmas in pawn shops that didn't impress me, but this specimen has always given me great sound. Its the only DM-5 I have ever come across.
If you like the Martin dreadnought sound, then you would like this guitar. It has a mellow, sweet sound that projects, with excellent balance between attack and warmth. The thin sides and back allow for maximum body vibration and resonance, especially compared to some new guitars I've played recently that sound dead in comparison to my old DM-5 because the inferior or laminated materials add a lot of weight and resistance to vibration.
I play a lot of folk type strumming and fingerpicking, to acoustic rock, to bluesy single-note runs. The DM-5 stands up well to hard playing with fullness of sound and can be very dynamic in lower volume ranges like in mellow fingerpicking. It is a good all around and versatile acoustic. This guitar is the ruler by which I measure any other guitar in the under $1000, because its hard to find anything in that range that can beat it. Martin no longer offers a guitar under a $1000 that can touch it.

The Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive is an overdrive pedal built on an interesting concept. It is has an 808 Tube Screamer style overdrive circuit to boost the signal, and a "clean" control blends back in clean but "boosted" signal, which is supposed to add back in some of the attack and feel which is lost in a strictly overdriven signal that is under compression. Its very similar to playing through a clean amp and a distorted amp and blending the two sounds together, which has been done by numerous guitarist in search of that mystical tone in their head.

Like every other Voodoo Lab pedal, the Sparkle Drive is 100% analog and hand-wired.It features true bypass switching and comes in a heavy-duty cast aluminum casing with a rugged metal switch. It even has a 5-year warranty.

The Sparkle Drive has 4 knobs, 2 of which really control the thing.

Basically at full blast, this pedal is like a crunchy classic rock overdrive, not a high gain distortion. Rather than scooped or bottom heavy, its more of a thick but midrangey sound thats sonically somewhere around what you would expect from a Tube Screamer 808, which is what it is supposedly based off of anyway.
The name Sparkle Drive is apt here, because being able to blend back in a boosted clean signal to the signal adds a bit of transparency, clarity, and sparkle to the tone, though it does diminish the gain.... which is already only moderate at best. So naturally, my favorite way of using this pedal is wide-open in front of my tube combo already running at slight boost, and then In just adjust the "clean" knob according to my mood.
Typically, I play my Ibanez Ghostrider with Gibson PAF humbuckers and occasionally a Telecaster. This pedal loves both of them and interacts differently with the different styles of pickups. When it comes to hand-wired analog pedals, you really have to try it out with your rig to know how you're gonna like it.

The Micro Vibe is Voodoo Lab recreation of the original Dunlop Univibe from the 60's and 70's that replicated the effect of a rotating speaker cabinet. It was most famously used by artists such as Jimi Hendrix and others as as well. Voodoo Lab has created a fine product here, by offering a pedal that is 100 percent analog and even hand-wired, with true bypass. Pedals like this should make pedal-loving players drool.

The Micro Vibe accepts 9V batteries, and is packaged in a rugged metal casing that embodies simplicity.

It doesn't get simpler than this, The Micro Vibe has two knobs, for "intensity" and "speed". To state the obvious, the "intensity" knob controls the depth or degree of roatary speaker effect, and the "speed" controls the relative speed of the rotating speaker. No manual needed. Plug and play.

If you like psychadelia, or even just classic rock you can appreciate what a rotary effect can do to space out your sound. Well, the Micro Vibe definitely delivers. It can offer you a subtle chorusy tremolo sound, all the way to a deep swirling pulse that is lush, earthy, and organic sounding. Unlike a lot of the hand-wired pedals from the 70's, this one is a bit more predictable; you CAN'T get a bad sound out of this box. It does what its supposed to, and not much else. Playing with the speed dial will give you some eerie sounds, but nothing too crazy. Its just a good all-around tremolo pedal that is quite good at recreating the Univibe sound, which is something even the Univibe reissues don't really do. Voodoo Lab knows what they are doing.
This pedal interacted nicely with my small tube combo and my other floor effects, like placing distortion in front brings out a bit more of the modulation/phaser sound. Add in a delay and it gets spacier, a flanger and it gets downright scary-wierd quick.

The AC15CC 15-watt Class A tube combo is the next incarnation of the 1958 classic that guitarists have loved for years.

The AC15 Custom Classic (which is made in China) comes equipped with a few modern features and conveniences that its ancestor didn't have. Controls include Master volume, Treble and Bass controls and Tremolo with fully variable Speed and Depth, and features spring reverb. Tremolo and Reverb are footswitchable with the included footswitch.

It sports 2 EL84's and 2 12AX7's, and has a silicon rectifier. The speaker impedance can be switched between 8 or 16 Ohms so you can connect it to external cabinets oif your choice.. The AC15CC is available with either a Celestion AlNiCo Blue Speaker (AC15CC1X) if you fork out a couple hundred extra dollars, or is available with a VOX designed Custom speaker (AC15CC1). Its up to you.

This amp is fairly quiet. I've noticed slight hum in most or almost all of the lower end tube combos like Blues Junior, Epi Valve Junior. I was glad to not see that here with the Vox AC15.

The controls are self-explanatory. One thing I noticed is the eq section interacts a great deal with itself, and with the gain section. (most amps behaved like this back in the day anyway). It means you need to really explore the settings and protential to tweak, not just put everything at 12 o clock and settle for what you get. But getting a good sound from the start is easy.

The AC15 is all about earthy classic British tube tone. It behaves much like you'd expect from a small tube combo. It breaks up without having to shatter your windows and gives you a nice clean overdrive. This amp is very responsive to picking attack. It LOVES single-coil pickups, so break out the LP Junior with P-90's and Telecaster. Its like jangly classic rock heaven. Sadly, I don't play single-coils at all hardly. But it loves my Ibanez Ghostrider with Gibson P.A.F. humbuckers, it brought out a lot of brightness and gave me a nice raucous bark of a rhythm tone, and some stinging bluesy leads.

This amp has crazy, glassy high transients. It has brightness for days and can bring out the tinkly highs from even the darkest guitar (like an old Fernandes w/humbuckers that I have) with the treble dimed, without being harsh at all.

What this amp does not do is 5150 or bogner like high gain, which.... I would hope you weren't expecting. With a pedal thrown in front I'm sure you'd be happy with the high gain sounds you could coax this amp into, then maybe you'd get some versatility from this amp. In and of itself, its a pretty distictive sounding amp so you have to like that "vox sound" to really appreciate this amp.

A word here about the speaker: If you play it in the store and it sounds a bit "brittle" to your ears, you are not alone. But after a good amount of playing (a few weeks or so) you will significantly break in the vox speaker and it sweetens up for you. The more I played this amp, the better it sounded.

- For how long have you been using it?
I had these for about 8 or 9 years.

- What thing do you like most/least about it?
That i sold them.

- Did you try many other models before getting this one?
No, or i would have got the others.

- What is your opinion about the value for the price?
Ludicrous. Yes, the bad way.

- Knowing what you know now, would you make the same choice?...
Obviously not.

Why...i hear you say!
These are closed headphones, that's good, they don't leak tooo much.
But they are hot, extremely uncomfortable after a while...(painful).
And they are very bassy. There is strictly no point trying to make anything sound right with these on unless you are totally used to listening to everything on these...
They are neither clear nor detailed enough...quite frankly i went on using them because i had not others. But you can't really do anything with them. They're a reference? Oh yeah? Well so are the 7506's and they're nothing you can do with those either...

They were 750 Francs at the time (£75), ie 115 euros, would i pay that again? No way.

Overpriced and overrated. Money back, please.

- What type of microphone? (live, recording, mixed...)
This is designed for live vocals. You could use it for other applications, of course. In fact you might want to cos from my experience this picks up feedback rather easily!

- What technology? (electret, condenser...)
Dynamic.

Has a very handy on-off switch, very good for stopping feedback... ;-)

Subjective bandwidth was not very extensive.