- What type of microphone? (live, recording, mixed...)
Probably too sensitive for live use unless you're using a clever sound system of some sort.
Also picks up stuff off axis...
Has a pretty good bandwidth too.

- What technology? (electret, condenser...)
Condenser, works off phantom or standard AA batteries...just unscrew the mic and stick em in. Can't remember if it's one or two batteries.

No switches or anything on this, but being able to use batteries is a definite plus...mind you, you will lose out a tad in sensitivity if you do this.

Michael Kelly Dragonfly fretless acoustic/eletric 4 string bass . When i first picked up the dragonfly i was unshure, being that all acoustic basses i had tried were it seemed constantly buzzing from the fretts, i was told a fretless would be to severe for a novice player like myself . They couldnt have been more wrong, from the fist moment i began to play it my ears started tingling with delight. not to mention it was so beautifull with rosewood inlays of mother of pearl down the length of the board , and the see through black paint was to me and many others since i bought a thing of beauty. Every time i take it from the case all that see it stare in awe. Im a by ear player not a note per note , i seek the sound that stimulates that aspect of playing the dragonfly was a perfect fit for me. This has become my signature bass i also have a solid body bass that i will discuss later, but for now im going to stay true to this review . This sound so stimulated my ears to the feel of bass notes that immedeatly after playing it i began to play fretted bass eletric light years ahead of where i had been. its a jumbo body for the acoustic sound if you are playing with a unamplified guitar it can be heard easily . But remember it has eletric pickups and they really work great, as i said it sounds is as beautiful as it looks, and due to the fretless nature you can slide bass notes so easily it will make you cry. I suggest you get a 15 watt bass amp for pratice with 2 or more guitars you dont need much ,but the sound is soooo smooth folks will come over to see what your playing on then when they get a look at it they all say the same WOW.It has a very nice almost stand up bass sound and gives you freedom to give it your best without worrying about buzz. It has marker dots to show you where the major and minor notes would be if it were fretted ,im sold on this bass as you can tell , if i did not like i would not tell you i so . That being said the 4 string see through black is not being produced any longer, i was told now they have gone to a five string in that color . Im lucky to have picked up one of the few remainig in that color. The natural woods will sound just as good, but the see through black against the inlays is stunningly beautiful. So if you can find a four string in see through black or natural wood or your searching for a great acoustic string bass sound ,this is without a doubt an excellent choice ,i have let professional bass players play it at shows and they couldnt get over how great it sounded and how sharp it looked. I call this a win win senero. thank you Michael Kelly for opening these old eyes and ears and giving me something to be really proud of.

The Crossroads pedal from Digitech is like 7 distinct tones in one package. It offers a model of the following distictive Eric Clapton tones: "Sunshine of Your Love", "Crossroads", "Badge", "Layla", "Lay Down Sally", "Layla" (Acoustic), and "Reptile". The controls include a mode selector knob, 2 control knobs that allow you to tweak selected paremeters of the mode presets (like effect intensity or gain), and a level knob.

One interesting feature is the seperate amp and mixer outputs.
One frustrating thing is that the preset volumes of the different "modes" vary so much. It seems like they could have balanced them better, so you don't have to re-adjust them when you switch modes.

Not all of the 7 modes on this pedal are even usable in my opinion, let alone "good". There are a couple that are decent but it seems like Digitech bit off a little more than they could chew. The clean tones are impressive, the distorted tones are a bit bland, and the acoustic mode is just terrible. They should have gone without it. Overall, it lacked a warmth and depth to my ears.

Some effects are quite nice to have; like the rotary effect on the "Badge" model. Some effects are just cheesy, like the chorus effect on "reptile".

Boss's FDR-1 is an amp modeler with reverb and vibrato, based on the Fender 1965-era Deluxe Reverb, which is a coveted tube amp known for its distinctive tone. Apparently BOSS worked with Fender to try and nail the sound of the Deluxe Reverb, which increased my expectations for it.
The FDR-1 is packaged in the standard BOSS stompbox casing, which are always pretty sturdy. It would blend in like a regular stompbox on your pedalboard. It has your standard 1/4" input and output, and ac adapter input.

The controls on the FDR-1 are very similar to the actual amp it seeks to emulate. It has Level, Gain, Treble, Bass, Vibrato and Reverb. Other than to full understand how to tweak the vibrato effect, its very self-explanatory and I didn't even need the manual.

As far as the amp model, it is fairly good. I have played modelers that attempted a Deluxe Reverb sound like Line6 and Digitech. This pedal comes a LOT closer to replicating actual Fender sound than any other modeler I've heard. Its got sparkle, spank, and even grit that get pretty darn close to the real thing, without actually BEING the real thing.

As far as reverb, its good. Probably as good or better as the reverb on many amps people will plug this into. Sadly its not nearly as good as ACTUAL Deluxe Reverb reverb. It starts getting cheesy sounding in the upper range, so getting super drippy reverb like you can from the actual amp is not a reasonable expoectation to have. I still can't fault it much though.

The vibrato is great, very usable, and gives a fairly wide range of tweaking possible. I wasn't disapointed.

I played this stompbox by putting it in front of my low end tube amp; an Epiphone Valve Special. It added a new dimension to the already decent clean sound, so I can't imagine the miracles this pedal could work for a lackluster Solid State amp's clean channel. I was also able to use it to push my tube amp into a bit more grit and sustain. They interacted nicely.

- What type of amplification (Tube,transistor,...)?
Analogue, tube.

- How much power is delivered?
60 Watts RMS, through 2 x Celestion 12" speakers.

- What connection types are there?
Input on the front. 2 loops on the back: parallel & serial. Direct out, speaker out for an optional cabinet (i have the 4 x 10".

- What are the setting controls, effects?...
Clean channel & distortion channel, operated by provided 1 button footswitch or button on front panel.
Each channel has gain, volume, 3 band EQ and reverb.
Master volume is common to both. Effects mix knob for parallel FX loop.
Presence knob on the back.

Weighs about 24 kg so beware it WILL rip your arm out of its socket.
Also, beware this is so loud that it will rattle the handle off if played loud enough long enough...well, it might. It did on mine, and i only recorded one song with it on 10/10.

- Is the general configuration/setup simple?
Yes.

- Can you easily get a good sound?
Yes. The EQ is not very powerful so it's actually easier to get a good sound than on a model with a more powerful EQ, cos you can't quite so wrong. ;-)
The reverb is nice.

- Is the manual clear and sufficient?...
To do make manuals for amps?

- Does it suit your style of music?
I'm not into metal, so yeah. You can get pretty much anything out of this except extremely clean or extremely wild. Some nice jazzy sounds, and great on rick with the distortion on 5 or 7.
This sounds British & 70's i think.

- With what guitar(s)/bass(es) or effect(s) do you use it?
Godin LGX, sometimes with Ibanez Tube King compressor or distortion.
The compressor alone is enough to boost this real well and you can get some impressive sustain for those Gary Moore solos...

- What kind of sound do you get out of it and with what settings ("clear", "heavy",....)?
Depending on the guitar settings & amp settings, you can get close to electro-acoustic or jazzy or dirty on the clean channel, and anything from crunch to good old rock on the other channel.

- What are your favorite sounds and/or the ones you hate?
Don't hate any sounds on this! Most of the time it's quite good, really. It's not high-class, but one would expect worse given the fact it is nothing more than a cheap tube amp.

-What Technology? (analog, digital, tube...)
Analogue, tube.

- What available effects, or type of effects, are there?
No effects, just a preamp.

- What connection types are there?
Jack & XLR, in & out.

- Is it rackable, or in rack form?
Not rackable, not a pedal, just a little box.

Has +20dB switch, input gain, output gain, phantom power, phase inverse.
So no high-pass filter...

- Is the general configuration/setup simple?
Couldn't really be much simpler.

- Is the sound or effects editing easy?
No editing, just in & out.

- Is the manual clear and sufficient?...
Can't remember ever needing it.

Problem: one led, that changes colour, no meters. It's green normally, then changes to orange or red when you get to or above 0dB. So, needless to say, using this to set levels is a bit like playing the lottery.

- Is the sound of your instruments or your microphones faithfully reproduced?
Is the pre-amp transparent or does it color the sound?

I haven't compared this side by side with other preamps on the same source so it's hard to tell. I doubt it's very transparent, then again i haven't noticed any major problems.
I've recorded bass through this, and vocals, amongst others and they were all quite ok to me.

This is an odd little digital unit, it is a combination of two distortion channels, which can be used in tandem or by themselves. It also has a pitch shifter that gave you a range of sounds from deep chorus to single and double octave effects. It could not be edited via computer and being a floor pedal, it is not rackable. There is a single input and dual outputs for stereo applications.

The setup is fairly simple as soon as you figured out how to engage the unit in order to blend the two distortion channels as well as using them independently. Therefore the effects editing was fairly easy. The manual that came with this unit was clear, sufficient and helpful.

The effects on this unit are decent, if not great. I've played a Fender Stratocaster, a Squire Strat and my current Ibanez through this box, and they all sounded fine. The two distortions, while similar in sound, are both usable and sufficiently realistic. YOu can also engage them both and you got a nice thick sounding 70's type overdrive. If you adjusted the pitch shifter for a chorus effect,it sounded nice and smooth with the overdrive/s, perfect and non-invasive in a praise and worship setting. The pitch shifter, along with having some odd sound settings such as a 3rd or 5th above the original note, had some really cool single and double octave effects. These are the facets that I really miss about his unit. (I dropped the unit, and it's pretty much broken and retired.) I also liked the stereo output capability of this unit, which is great for bi-amping. If I had to say anything I don't like about this unit, it's that the input led would start to clip if I turned it up to high, but if I backed it down, sometimes the output volume would not be sufficient on stage.

I used the guitar for almost two years. I bought it when I started back up playing the guitar. During this time of exploration and trying to get back my chops while trying to improve from where I left off, this guitar served me well. It had enough tonal range for me at that point in my development. The 22 frets and decent action were adequate at that point. It even had a tremolo unit, which was cool. Unfortunately, I got to the point where the 22 frets weren't enough. The action and playability wasn't as good anymore. I didn't see the need to get it set up as I felt it was time to move on and upgrade to my current Ibanez. I didn't try many other models, because this is precisely what I needed at the time, a beginner pack. For the price, it did just the trick for what I needed it for at the time. There are much better choices right now for this price range (about $200), but to be fair, this was pretty much the right choice at the time of purchase.