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mooseherman
Published on 04/14/09 at 20:25
This amp is a digital amp with some tubes in the pre-amp, or so the salesman told me when I bought it. It actually is better than any digital amp I've heard at recreating the sound of a tube amp. There's plenty of effects built into the amp, like delay, chorus, rotary chorus, compression (the compression is particularly good), reverb, auto-wah, and a few others. The amp modeling is pretty diverse, ranging from incredibly clean to the point of sounding sterile, and ridiculously distorted and everything in between. I found myself doing a decent Neil Young and Crazy Horse impression (circa Rust Never Sleeps) one minute and immediately sounding similar to Pat Metheny just by flicking the switch. There is a footswitch, generally sold separately. There's an external speaker connection as well.
UTILIZATION
The amp is easy to use for the most part. It will take some time to go through all the sounds it offers, and finding your favorites will be hard work. Getting a good sound tends to be a matter of patience, as there is a lot to choose from. The effects are really an enigma at first. The manual helps explain them pretty well, but the effects are still pretty tough to get used to. There are two buttons and two knobs that control all of the effects, and the functions for each effect are different. It can get pretty confusing after awhile. Sometimes good sounds are there (like the aforementioned Crazy Horse sound) but there's certain things you're just not going to get out of this amp, no matter what the dudes at Guitar Center tell you.
SOUNDS
The sound would suit my style of music more if it didn't crap out on me shortly after I bought it. I realized at one point that it wasn't picking up quiet frequencies, and therefore it wouldn't sustain for very long (not only that, but it would decay rather viciously once it reached the threshold of quiet sounds.) I use it with a '67 Strat reissue and it can sometimes sound pretty sick, especially when you are going for some JAMC or Sonic Youth-sounding, feedback drench noise-fests. Sometimes it can get a good bluesy tone if it's warmed up nice. Don't expect to really be able to stretch out as a player, because the aforementioned sustain problems will frustrate you to no end. I particularly like the AC30TB and UK 80's settings. The boutique overdrive is sometimes cool for heavily distorted lead playing. The reverb is good, but some of the other effects are lame (auto-wah is dumb, tremelo could be better, rotary reverb is a cheap knock-off).
OVERALL OPINION
I've had this amp for about two years, and I get more and more frustrated with it all the time. I didn't want to shell out for a Fender Hot Rod, and now I'm paying for it. I hate how it kills the sound of my brilliant guitar, and I hate the sustain problem. I tried getting it fixed and they told me they couldn't do anything about it at the store I bought it from. I tried some of the other tube amps, liked them, but couldn't afford them, so I went with this. HUGE MISTAKE! It's pretty cheap when it's on sale, but that doesn't make it worth it. Don't buy it.
UTILIZATION
The amp is easy to use for the most part. It will take some time to go through all the sounds it offers, and finding your favorites will be hard work. Getting a good sound tends to be a matter of patience, as there is a lot to choose from. The effects are really an enigma at first. The manual helps explain them pretty well, but the effects are still pretty tough to get used to. There are two buttons and two knobs that control all of the effects, and the functions for each effect are different. It can get pretty confusing after awhile. Sometimes good sounds are there (like the aforementioned Crazy Horse sound) but there's certain things you're just not going to get out of this amp, no matter what the dudes at Guitar Center tell you.
SOUNDS
The sound would suit my style of music more if it didn't crap out on me shortly after I bought it. I realized at one point that it wasn't picking up quiet frequencies, and therefore it wouldn't sustain for very long (not only that, but it would decay rather viciously once it reached the threshold of quiet sounds.) I use it with a '67 Strat reissue and it can sometimes sound pretty sick, especially when you are going for some JAMC or Sonic Youth-sounding, feedback drench noise-fests. Sometimes it can get a good bluesy tone if it's warmed up nice. Don't expect to really be able to stretch out as a player, because the aforementioned sustain problems will frustrate you to no end. I particularly like the AC30TB and UK 80's settings. The boutique overdrive is sometimes cool for heavily distorted lead playing. The reverb is good, but some of the other effects are lame (auto-wah is dumb, tremelo could be better, rotary reverb is a cheap knock-off).
OVERALL OPINION
I've had this amp for about two years, and I get more and more frustrated with it all the time. I didn't want to shell out for a Fender Hot Rod, and now I'm paying for it. I hate how it kills the sound of my brilliant guitar, and I hate the sustain problem. I tried getting it fixed and they told me they couldn't do anything about it at the store I bought it from. I tried some of the other tube amps, liked them, but couldn't afford them, so I went with this. HUGE MISTAKE! It's pretty cheap when it's on sale, but that doesn't make it worth it. Don't buy it.