gabriel_orville

Before pedals could do the trick, you'd have to have many guitars in order to play different tunings in the same set - string caliber is a big issue on this subject, so playability gets thrown the door. I looked for ways to solve this. I came up with this guitar, most of its features I didn't need, decided to give it a try. It was a showroom model with all software features, a bit of wear but mint. The neck feel is below average given the price at the time. Access to the frets was better than expected. Midrange as specs is concerned. On software it did as advertised, there was some small issues with vibrato but nothing major, you'd never notice in a live situation. Really good, honestly I liked it. My issues are that you just can't properly set it up as a normal guitar. At best you can adjust the neck truss rod. But saddles? Forget it. I don't know if it was just me but, if you adjust their height or intonate. If you do the auto tune system, the piezo doesn't respond and the string just sounds dead when you plug in. It made your playing experience, feel wise, absolutely miserable. So you either adjust it and lose the software features - which is the selling point - or you play it as is and deal with it. I'd give it 1 star, but I like it, it's a nice guitar. A nice guitar that got replaced by a hundred-dollar pedal. I plan on gutting it and set it up properly.

Bought one around the 00s. Have tried pretty much all budget guitars from different brands, it's among the best of the bunch, flexible and really great overall. But today there's better budget options, hence the score. My favorite and first guitar, but you know that's my personal nostalgia, still 2.5 score. Great points: (1) Shielded cavities and electronics. (2) Slim neck with great feel and okay fretwork. Don't care much for tone wood or the intricacies of its upkeep, oil it every once in a while, when you change the strings, never had a problem. (3) HSS configuration (4) Great and resilient paint job. I swear, I've done everything to that guitar, and it holds really well, should look very heavy relic, could be dragged on gravel and only show minimal wear. Bad points: (1) Terrible tuners. I was surprised it was said by a lot of reviews that this was a strong point. Absolutely the opposite is true. (2) Cheap electronics failed very early on. And during their replacement I put a Bill Lawrence 500 pickup, which helped with heavy tones. (3) Plastic knobs were very flimsy and at one point came off due to wear. (4) The metal guides on the neck just got pulled off due to string tension.

Played so long that I've stripped the paint from the neck, and the paint work on the body is really catching up to that level. I can justifiably say that I could retire it because I've just played until it wore out. Solid piece of gear but with some cheap or bad construction aspects - love it, but there's better stuff out there. Good points: (1) Heavy and solid. (2) Great controls. (3) Love the shape of the pickups, allows you to play better. (4) 5 strings. Bad points: (1) I wasn't a cretin when setting it up and over time the truss rod stripped. Managed to fix it, but to my thinking for where the truss rood is it would have been better if it had a wheel truss rod. (2) Flimsy battery compartment, duct taped it shut for most of the time I've owned it, thank you very much. (3) Got the version that has like a plastic cover in the headstock, at one point it came off - it's held together by a couple of plastic pins that go into the wood.

I never had actually good, great amps. I used impulses, pedalboards, etc. Later moved on to the 6505-line, Orange, Marshalls, Fenders, etc. mostly in gigs, borrowed some, trades, etc. I got the Iridium and later started to try different speaker combinations, a lot of success here. But because I always had used boosters, overdrives, distortions, fuzz' I always put a pedal on top of the amp - because that's how I would normally get the sounds I needed from any of that other gear. Once I just stripped everything away and only had a whammy DT (to quickly change tunings) and the Iridium, a V30 cab and forced myself to use that. Now I don't think I need anything more than that, perhaps only a delay and the Whammy DT. I always thought you had to use pedals, but I've realized that you only need pedals to make an amp sound like another or to kick up a notch a lesser amp - and I have a bunch of pedals that are great, Life Pedal, Twosome, most of the Boss OD's, DS, etc. Palisades, Plumes, etc., Muff, etc. You don't, just play the Iridium loud and don't get stuck on the usual stuff that you get a better sound with less gain, crack it the f-up. You get a pretty good palate with the 4 channels. I read the reviews, that constant background noise - it's a metal amp, you need to turn on the integrated gate. No issues so far (3+ years). The knobs on the side panel are small though, and the buttons for switching channels, boost and reverb could be better. But it's a 5 for what you can get at that price point. Would buy it again if it ever happened anything to it. Now I don't think I need more amps - if I can't get anything out of this, that's on me not the gear.

I love the boost. The octave is a deal breaker. And a modded rat is just as good if not better. Overpriced, if it breaks I'm not replacing it. Good points: (1) Despite what has been said I think the strongest point of the pedal is the boost. It goes with almost everything, pushes great any amp (clean, breakup, crunchy, distorted, etc.). It's the part I've enjoyed the most, and it has replaced other settings in my board, I tend to build or account for that sound. (2) OP amp setting for the rat section is great. And in a switch you can just turn it to the left and you got the classic bass heavy rat. OP amp is where is at, you can always cut through and you don't need to compensate for the dark sound for different genres. (3) Cleans up with your guitar controls making it flexible. Bad points: (1) You should have the option to use the octave independently from the distortion, it makes it unusable despite the fact of the footswitch controller - it really gets lost depending on your settings. This to me is almost a deal breaker, like I if it breaks, I'm not buying another one I rather buy a similar boost and a JHS Packrat. You could have almost taken it out entirely and you'd have a better pedal, smaller, probably less expensive and you wouldn't have that gnawing issue of "this is totally unusable 95% of the time". I know it's a Sunn pedal, but if you'd given more flexibility to this pedal, it would have breathe life into it and become a solid piece of gear - but I guess EQD already has the Hoof Reaper pedal, which does just what I said. Honestly just replace the octave with the Acapulco Gold. (2) Most of its cache is unmerited, it's okay but you could have gotten the same results for half the price with individual pedals.

Brittle and thin dense distortions, has some good settings, not enough to justify it. Just get something like an OD from boss, a Klon, or tubescreamer, you'd get more out of them. Recommendation: (1) Stack gain stages (play it with other distortion or overdrive pedals), or into a dirty amp. Good points: (1) Matching the level of your amp, in a low setting of tone, with next to zero distortion pushes your amp just enough to really give a good sound whether the sound is in the breakup, crunchy or distorted on your amp. (2) Built like a tank. Bad points: (1) 75% of the tone knob is unusable. (2) To get some flexibility you have to use your tone and volume knobs on your guitar.

If you are in a pinch, it does the work, but it's not a pleasure to use. If you play metal, just find something better. Which I have.

Sometimes what you want is to have it on and at a certain level - the issue is that it's just very flimsy when it comes to be steady. You have to keep your foot on the position where you want it. The first few times I used it the sturdiness that it had went away and from then on it just flops. Use it with a battery, otherwise you'd run into problems. Check your cables... see what I'm saying is, not good. Get something else.

Bought it around 2010s. Best metal combo around. Get the addons and spend a little on your preferred speaker and you're golden. Recommendations: (1) Get the footswitch. (2) Change the speaker. Sounds great with Celestion Creambacks. Good points: (1) Great heavy to crunchy tones. (2) At the time affordable, and a decent investment - it has great re-sell value. (3) Has all the amenities of a good tube amp, fx loop and different outputs for external cabinets. (4) It's the type of amp you own for life, it's that good. Bad points: (1) Not a great clean sound. (2) Needs a booster, preamp, overdrive or eq to get rid of the overall darkness - but it can also be done by changing the speaker. (3) Stock speaker is like a minus 3, if you don't have the monies or extra cab it's fine as it's a good amp but it's just a big and awful drawback. (4) Really bad reverb. Could have just changed it for an integrated brightness switch.