davesolus's Reviews

Expensive, but quality.

Solid IEM system. Good sound quality, no latency, and solid construction. Mixmode works great for blending my signal with my band's mix. We operate two of these systems, both in the G20 range with no crosstalk issues.

My gripes are: 1. Receiver antenna is not replaceable. While it's not exactly flimsy, breaking the antenna ruins a $500 receiver. I wish the replaceable antenna from the P9RA had been used on this. 2. Rechargeable battery system is prohibitively expensive. Battery packs are $114 USD each and don't even come with a charger, which is another $80 USD for a basic model. Unlike the GLX wireless system, the batteries can't be charged in the belt pack. I opted to use Panasonic Eneloop Pro rechargeable AA batteries, which work very well at a fraction of the cost.

Better sound than the price implies.

Great in-ears for the price. They won't win any awards for comfort, but I've worn them for a two hour gig thus far with no major complications. They have excellent bass response with a bit of a mid scoop, so they may be more appropriate for bassists, drummers, and keyboardists than guitar players. Good for general listening, too. The included cable is decent, but I'll be upgrading it in the next couple of weeks for long term durability.

What a BEAST!

This amp dishes out MASSIVE amounts of SOLID tube tone without flinching. All of the other high wattage amps I've looked at take a massive hit at 8 ohms, but this beast still puts down 750 watts at that impedance, and a massive 1100 watts at 4 ohms. The tone is warm and organic too, with 12AX7 tubes on both the preamp and power amp, so it's not sterile sounding like some pure solid state amps I've played through. Plus the hybrid power amp design lets you rock away on just the DI with no cab connected. The down side? It's HEAVY. Your chiropractor is going to pay off his student loans in a hurry when you come knocking. I've considered ditching it for something that doesn't make my 4U rack tip the scale at close to 80lbs, but every time I crank it up and knock things off the shelves three floors away I can't bear to part with it. It'll crack the cement if you drop it, but it will also crack the cement when you play it, and that's a fair trade for me. Just pair it with a nice neodymium cabinet so that you're not too tired for the gig as soon as you're done unloading. It's no wonder this beast was Roger Waters' and G E Smith's workhorse for The Wall tour.

Great flats!

My string of choice for my Precision bass and Cort fretless. They get me that Roger Waters tone I need and last forever. The only downside is they're a bit high on tension for my Jazz bass. I use the softer D'Addario Chromes for that, but for some reason the Chromes feel like they're about to fall off the Precision. The Rotosounds on the other hand are nice and tight.

Simple, and does its job well.

Great little problem solver. My bass rig is four cable method between my SVT and Helix, and I have a hellacious ground loop problem as a result. This sits between the Helix and SVT's instrument input and eliminates the buzz altogether. I use the secondary pair of jacks to convert a balanced auxiliary signal to unbalanced so that the Helix can mix it with my DI signal to the PA. I bought it used, but I didn't have any worries since it's built like a tank. You could use it as a hammer if need be. Best $50 I ever spent.

Does it's job as reliably as Winston Zeddemore

Simple, inexpensive, no-nonsense patch bay. It was far cheaper to find one of these to handle balanced 1/4" I/O for my rack than have a custom panel made. I dock it a star for it being a total pain to switch from normalled to denormalled, but otherwise it's great for the price.

Great pawn shop find.

I have two of these, one main and one backup that I've scored for less than $50 each. While I don't even scratch the surface of it's capability, it makes for an excellent programmable 8x8 MIDI routing device and master clock, all for a fraction of the price of similar split/merge boxes. It was designed to interface with classic Mac computers, but does just as good on modern Apple hardware over USB. Drivers and software are still available on MOTU's website, though the documentation is dated and takes some interpretation to apply to the current software.

Decent cab, keep a spare HF driver

This has been a pretty decent all-around cabinet for me. It will get low enough to handle bass guitar, though the 15" driver lacks somewhat in the midrange. Early models apparently have an issue with the high frequency driver going bad, specifically those labelled with part number HG00553 - mine is currently dead. A revised part number HG00602 is available as a replacement, and is reasonably priced and easy to replace on your own if you have some technical skill. Mine wears a lot of hats, and has seen use as a monitor wedge, a main FRFR cab, and even a ballsy speaker for my iPhone while I'm working in the garage. It's since been superseded by the TS315, the primary difference being a 2000w amplifier rather than 1100w.

Built like a tank, rolls like a Cadillac.

It's probably overkill for my level of use, but at least I know it will survive rough handling. I got mine used, and from the labels it already survived two trips with DOD moving contractors, which is far more abuse than any stoned roadie could imagine. The rails are threaded, rather than cage nut slotted, but they're solid, and as many times as I've reconfigured my rack, are holding strong. They're also pretty standard rails, so if I ever did need to replace one, I know where to find them at a decent price. All this protection does come with a weight penalty though, even empty it's no joke lifting it. Thankfully the caster board is just as solid, and uses high quality casters that roll smooth as butter and lock down TIGHT with minimal skidding. I've had equipment that skimped on the casters and moved around just as easy with FOUR locked wheels, while this one doesn't budge with just two. The casters also lock rotation as well as rolling, so you don't have to worry about rotation slop. Park it and it stays. The only thing I'm docking a star for is that mine seems to be a little warped. I'm not sure if it's from the wood, or from a previous incident in it's life, but the doors are a little difficult to put on at first. Once I figured out the trick to it though, it's a simple thing to get them in place. As for the doors, rather than the insert panels you see on a lot of rack cases, these are actual end caps, adding 3" or so to each end of the case for additional isolation and protection. A simple blow to one end of the case won't risk your equipment unlike a door that's sitting almost flat against the face of your rack. There's plenty of space to install some foam sheeting in there too, while it would have been nice to have that from the factory, I can understand Road Ready leaving that to the end user with the diversity of rack mounted equipment out there.

Works well, but not the best value.

This tuner does its job. It's fast, accurate, and easy to see, and has three different display modes. The down side is that it's all plastic, even the rack brackets. Be careful not to overtorque your rack screws when mounting it. Alternatively, the brackets pop off for different mounting schemes. I'm sure it would look stellar angled up at the back of a (well protected) pedalboard. At a similar price point, a TU-3 or other pedal based tuner is a much better value, but if you can score one used at a good price like I did ($30), it's great.

Simple, transparent compressor.

Easy to use and simply executed single rack space compressor. Will process two independent channels or optionally link them for stereo operation, allowing both outputs to be adjusted with only one set of controls. I use it at the end of my signal chain to clean up the dynamics of my final sound. The two channel option is nice, as I can process a stereo signal for recording, or two mono signals (guitar and synth) for live use.

I mean, it's ok depending on what you expect of it.

The preamp section is pretty much a two channel Sansamp knockoff with some canned effects thrown in. YMMV, but that's not what I use it for. Rare for a guitar amp, it has direct inputs for its stereo (yes, stereo) power amp, making it essentially a transparent powered 2x12 cabinet. Mine has the old Jensen speakers before they started using Bugera, so it does pretty well for cleans, but a touch on the harsh side for anything dirtier. It will probably do better with some Celestions when I can get my hands on them.

Good, but not worth MSRP.

I got this on sale for $19.95, and it was worth every penny. Had I paid the regular price of $99, I'd have been sorely disappointed. It's an excellent tool, but it's just not worth that price.

My go to for 20 years.

I've used these strings since the mid 90's when they didn't come in sealed packages. They've never once given me the reason to consider switching.

ROCK SOLID board.

It's a little big, but you don't buy a board this big when you're concerned about space. Holds a ton and is built like a bridge. I couldn't be happier.

All the phase, none of the R28, C11, or C12

This pedal is meh out of the box, but crack it open and clip off resistor R28, and capacitors C11 and C12 and it gets a whole lot better.

Pick your guitar, not your nose.

I've been using .88 Tortex since the mid 90's and never had a reason to go with anything else for guitar. They're a little too crisp sounding on bass, so I use Mick's thick green soft poly picks for that. Perhaps someday I'll jump on the jazz pick bandwagon, but for now I'm good with my old standby green turtles.

Great little tuner

This little beast has done well for me. I've heard people complaining that the poly tuner isn't accurate, but if you actually read the directions, set the neck pickup and strum with your thumb, it's right in line with the results tuning single strings. At less than half the space of a TU-3, and like $30 less I consider it money well spent. Looks good too.

One of my favourite heavier distortion pedals.

It's not great for chugga metal palm mutes, but I'll say this: You want Gilmour Comfortably Numb tone? Because this is how you get Gilmour Comfortably Numb tone, without the more massive Pi taking up half your damn pedal board. I can riff out for days on this thing.

A true Mesa/Boogie sleeper!

I picked up one of these dirt cheap in a local pawn shop after I missed out on a much more expensive used Roadster at another local store. While it does not Djent, it produces some stellar classic tones with two gain modes on each of it's two channels, with a boost function on one of them. I thought it sounded great as-is, but after reading some opinions from other owners I decided to ditch the somewhat worn 6L6 tubes in favour of a quad of EL34s direct from Mesa (remember to change the bias!), and it absolutely screams now. Even on reduced output mode (40w with EL34, 60w with 6L6) it will vibrate your soul and wake the dead at half volume. The only real problem with this amp is it's HEAVY. It's not referred to the Backbreaker for nothing!