View other reviews for this product:
MGR/Anonymous « DOD VGS-50 »
Published on 07/31/01 at 15:00I got this from Musician's Friend on sale for $130. A really good price, since I've seen 'em going for $200 elsewhere.
I picked the unit up because I simply wasn't (and still am not) in a position to blow $600 on a decent collection of individual pedals. I was originally looking at the Digitech RP-3, but wound up getting this instead, which I think was a good decision.
Most of the effects, including the phaser, chorus, flanger, pixellator and so forth are fantastic, and were much better than I expected out of a $130 unit. Contrary to what a lot of people say, the Wah is pretty good if you're using a humbucking pickup with a reasonably fat sound.
The patch editor is great. When I invested a half hour in tweaking a patch, I was almost always able to get the sound I was looking for.
The noise gate is very good, and does a lot to improve the sound of my admittedly cheap guitar. The tuner's awesome.
Well, there's no nice way of putting this, the distortions are pitiful, and shouldn't have even been included. I got a better metal sound out of my practice amp's push button overdrive. The valve effects for a light distortion or overdrive are decent at least.
Like most multi-effects, the VGS-50 is set up so that you can only use one 'effect' at a time. One delay, one reverb, one distortion, one special effect, etc. So if you have your heart set on a beautiful chorused phase with a nice brittish-grunge hybrid, you're not gonna find it here.
Good. Almost all plastic, save for the metal base. It seems sturdy, but I wouldn't put it through too much abuse. Don't jump on it, in other words.
I think it was a very good unit for the money, don't get me wrong. And I can get a ton of nice sounds out of it. But spending a half hour to get everything *juuuuuust right* so you can play along with a four minute song makes me wish I just had a distortion pedal and a couple effects. If you're new to this, and want to see what different effects can do for you, I'd say it's a great buy; a lot better than that Zoom stuff. But it has it's limits, and they can really be restricting sometimes.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com
I picked the unit up because I simply wasn't (and still am not) in a position to blow $600 on a decent collection of individual pedals. I was originally looking at the Digitech RP-3, but wound up getting this instead, which I think was a good decision.
Most of the effects, including the phaser, chorus, flanger, pixellator and so forth are fantastic, and were much better than I expected out of a $130 unit. Contrary to what a lot of people say, the Wah is pretty good if you're using a humbucking pickup with a reasonably fat sound.
The patch editor is great. When I invested a half hour in tweaking a patch, I was almost always able to get the sound I was looking for.
The noise gate is very good, and does a lot to improve the sound of my admittedly cheap guitar. The tuner's awesome.
Well, there's no nice way of putting this, the distortions are pitiful, and shouldn't have even been included. I got a better metal sound out of my practice amp's push button overdrive. The valve effects for a light distortion or overdrive are decent at least.
Like most multi-effects, the VGS-50 is set up so that you can only use one 'effect' at a time. One delay, one reverb, one distortion, one special effect, etc. So if you have your heart set on a beautiful chorused phase with a nice brittish-grunge hybrid, you're not gonna find it here.
Good. Almost all plastic, save for the metal base. It seems sturdy, but I wouldn't put it through too much abuse. Don't jump on it, in other words.
I think it was a very good unit for the money, don't get me wrong. And I can get a ton of nice sounds out of it. But spending a half hour to get everything *juuuuuust right* so you can play along with a four minute song makes me wish I just had a distortion pedal and a couple effects. If you're new to this, and want to see what different effects can do for you, I'd say it's a great buy; a lot better than that Zoom stuff. But it has it's limits, and they can really be restricting sometimes.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com