davepepper's Reviews

Odd pedal.

One day it just stopped working - but it turned out it was the battery connector that had gone bad. After removing the battery connector it suddenly worked again.

Don't understand why they're suddenly desirable after the JHS video. It's an OK pedal now it works, but hardly worth the silly prices people are now looking to sell them for. I use mine as a trebly boost and little else TBH. Overdrive on its own is pretty lame and needs to be used turned down to about middle, stacked with other overdrives.

Grew a little tired of the sound

This guitar feels right. Tuning is a hassle (but it's a 12 and that goes with the territory) The CR Baggs electronics are great - through an amp it sounds awesome. Volume is good. Finish is outstanding (mine is black with cutaway, now discontinued apparently). Got it second hand at a good price. I haven't given up on it yet - will be trying some different strings - but after I played the Washburn I gave my son I realised that this guitar has some sonic limitations I wasn't previously aware of - it sounded at little too metallic when not played through an amp. Update - after changing the strings it still has the same limitations. May try some lighter gauge ones as with the current set it has become rather hard to play, as the action is rather high. It does at least have a truss rod.

Great for the money

Bought this second hand for my son and ended up wanting to keep it. It's still officially "mine" if he gives up on the instrument. Action was great. Sound was great. Preamp is basic but works well. Battery swap isn't intuitive. This is probably one of the best cheaper acoustics you can get.

Nothing not to like apart from weight and current pricing

Took the plunge and bought one of these from a seller in Japan. For a 35 year old guitar it was in beautiful condition and lived well up to expectations. Quiet (electronics), sturdy, oozes sheer quality. Not the most versatile guitar I own, or the easiest to play. Easy to fall into the trap of just turning everything up and noodling. But for fatter sounds it's the best guitar I have. I have no urge to own a Les Paul. Getting more expensive to buy second hand for some reason. All the best ones seem to be in Japan or in the hands of a single seller in the UK who is essentially scalping them. One of the nicest guitars ever made, by anyone.

Amazing guitar for the money

Mine is a second-hand 2010 model sold as a standard Mex strat by a seller who didn't do his homework. I'd been in lust with big headstock 70s style black/maple strats since I saw the Edge playing one in 1983. There is nothing I don't like about this guitar. It changed how I felt about Fender Mexico strats and even strats in general - ones I'd tried before had disappointed - even turned down a Japanese Squier back in 85 in favour of a Matsumoku Aria Knight Warrior. This one came with Lace gold pickups, a kill switch and Fender locking tuners fitted and the original pickups in a bag. I took the Laces off, put them on my Squier Affinity and reinstalled the stock pickups and it sounded better (to my ears). Eventually fitted tone bleed and neck/bridge blend mod and it's perfect. Next string change will be reinstalling the original tuners because looks.... Which is why my black one also got a black three-ply pickguard. Don't judge me. Same guitar as a Vintera 70s. And available fairly cheaply.

Love it BUT

I love my Double SIx - that I got second hand from a guy who wouldn't post it and ended up getting a very low bid on ebay as a result. Bargain for me. Mine's the made-in-Korea reissue with the Gotoh type bridge, which as far as I'm concerned is a win. Sound from the pickups is incredible. Tone is fantastic. Wide neck is great for a 12 - but I'm used to classical so not a problem for me - may be for others. Only real problems are weight and size. It is HEAVY. And it's very big. makes a Strat look like a toy guitar. Not as popular as they deserve to be. Not even sure if they are still making them.

Addictive

My guitar was made in 1970 and I got given it by my mother in law after it had hung on her wall for 35 years. I'd played it for a while when visiting and always knew there was a good guitar in there somewhere underneath the old strings and dust. When I was told I could have it I took it home and left it for far too long before doing anything with it - even bought another guitar. After I changed the strings so my son could learn on it I was blown away by the sound and ended up playing it every day for a couple of months as it just sounded better and better the more it got used. Ended up keeping it for myself as the action was a bit too high for a beginner and gave him the other one I'd bought. Eventually I took it into my local luthier for an appraisal, because I had no idea what it was and why it sounded so good when it was just a crap old guitar and he said all it needed was a new bridge and confirmed my instinct that this model was never a crap guitar, old or otherwise. It now has a new bone bridge (previous owner before my mother in law had had one fitted that was too narrow) and it sounds even sweeter. Can probably be found fairly cheaply as a lot of people think Teller just made cheap student instruments. He did - but this isn't one of them.

Great cheap bass but there is one problem

This is a lot of bass for the money but if I'd known about how little headroom there is for string tension adjustment, I'd have gone for a full size. Strings are too low tension because of size. Doesn't take up much space on guitar stand and does what I need it to. But is "child size" and looks weird on me. For home recording it's great. And that's all I need it for.

Works great when you get your head round the steep learning curve

Took me ages to figure out why this wasn't working in Reaper. Too much of a hassle to get to grips with - there have to be easier solutions out there. Keys are nice and sensitive and it does everything I need it to do. It just took me far far too long to learn how to do them. Hardware manufacturers need to understand that not everyone can get their head round midi channels out of the box.

So much for so little

Does everything you could want it to do and doesn't cost very much. Probably the best performance for the buck I ever bought. Drivers can be a hassle but I use this for everything.

Rubbish.

Driver problems. Doesn't record stereo very well. Waste of money

Outdated now

Menu is a pain in the butt. Screen and text is too hard to read. Setting up for recording is a hassle. In-built mics overload quite easily. Only records about an hour of 96/24 before starting a new file. For recording live shows its rubbish. Use mine mostly as a PC microphone now. Was probably awesome when it came out but technology has overtaken it. Buy if very cheap. Otherwise avoid.

Great capo

Yes it will work with 6-strings too. Johnny Marr uses them. I guess that's recommendation enough. Only minus is if you have 2 guitars with different thickness necks - for fast changes you'll need a capo per guitar - as they take a while to adjust. But design is otherwise brilliant and works well.

It's an ebow and does what ebows do

Yes - ebows are limited. You need one or you don't. I did so I got one and I love it. It does one thing pretty well. And that's about it really. Sustainiac is an option of course but it doesn't sound quite the same. If you want bagpipe sounds, an ebow is where it's at.

NIghtmare to use but does some good stuff.

Easier to work with than my Vox unit - but still not enough data on the screen for it to be ideal for use. Only connectable to PC using MIDI cables and only 16 bit so this dog has had its day. Don't buy one for distortion as it's horrible. It does do delays and modulation rather well though. I have a stereo setup and use my Vox unit for distortion/fuzz/compression/wah effects fed into this for the more versatile delay settings. If you've got one, great. If not, buy something else.

Sounds great but horrible to work with

Can't fault the sounds on this - but getting them is a nightmare. Too many options for the number of buttons - and not programmable from PC. Bought it as a stopgap to find out what effects I actually used to then buy standalones. Not enough on-screen data for it to be usable "on the fly" and requires too much setup work for my taste.

Read the review - there are caveats for the three stars.

This is a great amp but not very practical compared to the more recent smaller versions. Mine is an original 70s model and does NOT have the stereo input options or loop inputs found on later versions. It DOES have the original spring reverb. Cross-plugging inputs isn't an option. It's big, loud and only does stereo with its own inbuilt effects. Chorus has one setting. Vibrato is adjustable. Reverb is great. Distortion is a waste of time. I pair this up with an AC30 to blend different sounds. I live in Denmark and they aren't all that in demand here, so I got it for a lot less than a JC40 would have cost new - so if you can get one cheap, great. But for full price it's too much amp for most people. Nice to have but there are better options out there for most players.

Brilliant but heavy and work intensive

I love this amp but they aren't for everyone. An amp this age takes work to keep running and isn't exactly easy to move about - and too valuable for most people to be willing to use live. I've had mine since 1987 when I got it for £50 from my former guitar teacher who bought it from his guitar teacher, who was the original owner - so I know its history, so it's invaluable to me even though the vibrato control knob stopped working before I got it and seems impossible to get parts for. Sounds awesome but takes time to get going and needs to be played loud for the best results, which is why it's not really suited to what most people would be willing to use it for - i.e. playing at home. Nice to have but there are better and more practical amps out there for most players, for a lot less money.

Surprisingly good

Got this second hand very cheaply and it's easily comparable to my 2011 Fender Mexico Classic 70s. Neck is incredible. Pickups surprisingly good too. Only weakness is the horrible tuners (note, Kluson size posts - headstock will need drilling out for more 10mm types) and cheap bent metal vibrato "block" and nasty saddles. Will be replacing both. Pots are cheap but still work in 2020 after a clean with contact cleaner. Mine has bullet trussrod with a sensibly sized 5mm bolt instead of the daft size Fender use. These were available with a myriad of names on the headstock and are easily a better buy than a new Squier Vintage Vibe and, provided you invest in a few parts upgrades, can easily perform on par with a new Mexican Fender Vintera for less than half the price including upgrades, if you can live without the microtilt feature for the neck. Routing with rectangular pickup recesses isn't exactly elegant but works as well as the original type. Things modders should be aware of - pickguard is not quite standard Fender dimensions. Control cavity is a little shallow and needs a little routing out if used with a Fender size pickguard.

Good for the price

Bought this from a workmate for about a third of new price. It has nice tone but nothing special. Gave it to my son to learn on.