iamdylantaylor's Reviews

goddammit that was an awful guitar

Seriously. Don't buy one. Ever. Unless you're planning on immediately upgrading the trem system and getting a fret job, this is a very bad idea. The licensed floyd was made of the shittiest cheapest pot metal. I stripped out pretty much everything. It wouldnt stay in tune and i couldnt get the action right at all. This guitar made me swear off floyds for a while. Just dont buy anything that isnt a german floyd unless u wanna replace it.

nazgul kinda sucks but otherwise fantastic guitar

nazgul kinda sucks but otherwise fantastic guitar. sentient is amazing, bridge is ok, tuners are ok, nut is ok neck is AMAZING

great at what it does

super tight dry gain that will kinda work for anything. same thing with the clean, very dry.

its just stupidly good just buy one already

Only cons are the hissy fx loop and the fact that the footswitch isnt trs

wtf friedman...how...

i didnt know tone like this was possible from a pedal. sounds better than most tube amps ive played, maybe even better than the marshall jvm and the mesa mark v...my mind is a bit blown right now

The. Best. Pickups. I've. Ever. Played.

So...I originally bought a DiMarzio Titan bridge for my Ibanez RGT42FXQM [catchy name]. I soon found that the low end was very restrained and didn't "breathe" and that the midrange was very spikey. I tried to get used to it but it continued to bother me. So, I went on Reverb and bought a set that some guy pulled out of his Aristides [and replaced them with Fishmans :/ ] for $270. Always. Look. For. Used. Pickups. I wasn't really digging the 59b in the neck so this worked out pretty well. Now for the tone...

These are the best pickups I've ever played in my life. The first time I tried these I wasn't expecting to like them [based on demos]. Totally. Wrong. The bridge is very balanced EQ-wise, with a large but controlled low end, pleasant midrange grind and an open high end that never gets harsh. The midrange have an interesting vocal, cocked wah type sound going on that I love. The neck is smooth, tight, and sweet, but retains pick attack when you want it to. Oddly enough, it doesn't have that same vocal quality. They sound very stratty split, and the neck has an interesting sound when wired in parallel.

Contrary to popular belief, these are not djent pickups. They will do djent if you want, but this is one of the only sets that I can and will recommend for anyone playing any genre (except maybe brutal-slam-death-grind-core or some shit like that). They're a set of medium output AlNiCo 5 humbuckers that can do pretty much anything. If you've got the cash, get a set right now.

Mids...too much...

I installed a Dmz titan in the bridge of my ibanez rgt (hardtail, dual humbucker, 5 way, 5 pc maple walnut neck, mahog wings), replacing the sh-11 custom custom. It was absolutely horrible for anything tuned below d standard, including drop c even. Wasnt tight enough for chuggy stuff, but i didnt expect that from a medium-low output a2 pickup. Im honestly at a loss as to why it was ever installed in a guitar designed for metal (it also has a 59 bridge in the neck...people do weird shit). This was my first pickup install, and to all the guys who have never soldered before and are scared of installing a pickup on their own, just do it, it's the easiest thing ever.

The low end is tight, but dynamic as hell. Your picking needs to be very consistent, if its not, youll definitely hear it. Its very scooped out and i brought the bass up to 6 as opposed to having it at 4 to compensate and theres no mud, even with the artificial bass boost. The midrange very pronounced. I went from having my mids at 7 to having them at 4. The titan is ridiculously sensitive to height adjustments. Itll go from over the top tight and gainy (super djent) to a bit more relaxed and smooth, but still tight and controlled. I seriously spent about 10 total minutes fucking with the pickup height. . All the strings have equal volume, the titan is incredibly clear with big chords under high gain as well as mid gain and cleans. Compared to other pickups it's somewhere between a dactivator and an illuminator (or between a nazgul and an omega). The titan tends to emphasize all the wrong kinds of mids and it gets super annoying. I havent found a way to get rid of that issue after having it for almost a month. Im returning it for a juggernaut. Hit me up with any questions and i'll reply asap, i know this review is a bit shite.

Great guitar with a few odd quirks

Bought it used with a duncan sh11 custom custom in the bridge and a sh1b 59 in the neck. Acoustically, it's very resonant and loud, with sustain for days. Bridge design is on point, doesnt get in the way, and it's the easiest guitar i've ever restrung. The routing of the cavities in the back is idiotic, makes it very difficult to tighten the jack up (the jack itself is typical of ibanez, a bit odd and no hex bolt on the outside). The neck through joint is not as nice as my jackson soloist, theyve left a lot of wood there, most likely favoring tone and sustain over playability. Great guitar overall. It's a keeper

Eh

Its basically invisible. Tuning is meh compared to a snark. Never gonna get knocked off of your headstock.

Best Tuning pedal on the planet!

Great buffer, nice to be able to switch between buffered and true bypass. Same legendary tu-3 tuning and boss build quality.

Best tube screamer clone ever!

Identical circuit to a od808 but its true bypass and half the price. What more can you ask for?

Best in its class!

As far as small, affordable hybrid heads go, there are three companies you can go to (as far as I know). There's Orange, with the Micro Terror and Micro Dark, Peavey, with the 6505 Piranha, and JOYO with the banTamP series. For my purposes, the Micro Terror didn't have enough gain. There's also the fact that it has no FX loop, so I got a Micro Dark...and was let down, The low end was annoyingly loose, even for stoner metal, and it was extremely fuzzy. It sounded pretty good with a TS9 in the front, however. Beforehand, I had demoed the Piranha, and was annoyed by the lack of low end and the 4 ohm speaker out (why?). The next logical step was JOYO. I looked into their banTamP line, and found that the line had 3 high-gain heads, one based on an Orange OR100 (the meteOR), one based on a modded Plexi (the VIVO, brown sound, not as tight as the actual 5150 amp) and one based on a hybrid of a Mesa Dual Rectifier and an Engl Metal Master. I found that the meteOR would only get a tight metal sound was if the gain was absolutely gunned or dialed in a bit past halfway and hit with a tube screamer. Without the tube screamer, the low end was a bit loose (not Micro Dark loose, thankfully). The VIVO, despite its name, would not get to the tight, Periphery-esque metal sound. This all led me to the zoMBie, and I am pleased to report that it is the best small hybrid for metal on the market. I wish it had more midrange, but its based on a Mesa/Engl type sound, so it's basically what you'd expect.

Breakage

Break very easily d'addario xl or nyxl is better

Nothing better for the price

These are the best IEMs at their price and out perform Shure's SE215s. They are very flat response. However, at 4 and 9 times the price, that is to be expected. You get a hard neoprene case that is large and somewhat impractical, a 1/8 to 1/4 jack adapter, a large assortment of eartips, and an extra cable. My only complaints are that the silicon tips come off in the ear a bit easily (if this happens switch to a larger tip), they are not overwhelmingly comfortable, they don't isolate well at all without custom molds or foam tips, and their build quality is not great. They do offer very cheap replacement parts, however, at their website. They are a bit trebley, but they are fairly flat overall.

Final Verdict: There is nothing better for the price, despite its shortcomings. If you want something a bit better, look at the Shure SE range. I do not recommend the SE112 for this purpose, as it's not a true stage IEM.

Breakage

Break very easily d'addario or elixir is better

Overpriced

It's basically the same thing as the regular XLs. Very slightly better, but not by much. If you can afford to drop $13 on a set of strings then go for it. They are definitely the best strings in existence. However, they're not more than twice as good as the regular XLs like the price might suggest.