jack_birkett's Reviews

Great guitar for beginners and pros alike

Traded this for an Epiphone LP standard and have had no regrets since. Its well known that the superb quality of Epiphones these days makes it unjustifiable to spend so much on Gibsons, and this guitar is a perfect example of that.

My favourite part of this instrument is the neck- I have never played anything so perfect! It is perfect to my tastes, and the fret board itself is beautifully crafted.

I knew just from the feel of this guitar that it was a keeper, and have since replaced the stock pups with a pair of Gibson's Angus Young customs and plan to work on upgrading the tuners soon.

You'll never get the feel-good factor you get from saying 'hey I own a Gibson' from playing this, and to be fair that's one of the few reasons I force myself to keep my real Gibson SG, but with a bit of handywork this instrument can easily be transformed into a pure-bread Gibson killing machine!

Perfect in every way

Not only is this one of the sexiest instruments I own, but this thing is built top-notch to the last detail and it sounds great!

Massive versatility in tones with a volume control for both each pickup and a single tone control with coil-tap control. The P5 Custom is built to perfection, with a lush finish over the paint (white in my case) and an amazing feel to the neck.

I got mine for a steal (you'd hate me if I told you how much I paid for this thing) but this is more than worth its retail value and I wouldn't think twice about buying it again if I had to.

I'm a guitarist originally and just bought this because it was such a great deal, but this thing actually makes me want to play bass more- not a lot of instruments have that attraction.

As great as any other Electro Harmonix 'Muffs', but with added versatility.

Like most of the Electro Harmonix fuzz pedals, this unit is more than capable of creating a lush fuzz tone that can be easily manipulated to suit your personal desires. The addition of the 'tone' and 'wicker' switches allows extra versatility between recording and live situations that nothing else like it can offer. These functions come in handy as I personally found that the tone I had perfected at practicing and recording volumes was far from the same as that I was left with at gigging volumes. This proved a problem at first, but I soon learnt how to manipulate the pedal to get the sound I wanted.

As always with Electro Harmonix, the build quality is fantastic in most ways and the customer service and warranty terms allow easy problem solving if there issue. On my unit, I managed to break one of the small switches on the face of the unit which was, according to my repair guy, 'a regular occurrence with this sort of pedal'. However Electro Harmonix offered to replace the unit (which I declined as mine was fully repaired soon enough) even after my repair guy had fiddled with it!

I have had no further issues with this pedal and look forward to experimenting with fuzz further.

Great all round multi fx unit, particularly for beginners

The Boss Me70 is certainly near the top of its level when compared to other similarly priced units. It is incredibly versatile, with the ability to produce a number of well produced effects and even replace your amplifier if you were particularly desperate. L/R and headphone outputs make this a useful tool for recording, and silent switching as well as an almost non-existent lag time between changing presets makes this an asset to any beginner or semi pro.

What I like most about this unit is its ability to act as a number of stomp boxes in one housing, which is great if you just want to set up and recall simple effects combinations on stage, but also its ability to turn into a huge vault of presets which are easily saved and recalled.

There are a few drawbacks to this pedal, the most prominent for me being the slight muddiness to some of the effects and the lack of quality within the amp models. Also, the reverb effect is non-switchable (unless saved within presets) and the huge array of delays cannot be accessed when the looper is in use. However, these draw backs are not too much of a problem for most users and its incredible street price makes this a top deal that is easily worth twice as much.

Fantastic build quality, all round great company.

I own a 'pimp-purple' Zilla 2x12 cab loaded with Celestion cream backs. Extremely happy with this cab and although it is a fairly simple piece of gear, I can't mention nearly enough about how the guys at Zilla have put build quality at the top of their agenda.

You get what you pay for, plus that extra little bit that leaves you blimmin' chuffed every time you plug it in.

Incredible sound yet so simple

What strikes me most about this head is the way that its sheer simplicity still allows for versatility and tonal perfection, with few sacrifices that may be accounted for by other multi channel amps.

Don't be put off by the '30 watt' rating of this amplifier- it can be incredibly loud but manages a gorgeous breakup at low volumes and is suited to any use, from recording and light practice to filling a large venue with ease.

Orange is known for its to-die-for tones when you hit that sweet spot on the master volume and this amp is no exception, with a swift turn of the master to 3 o'clock creating tonal ecstasy while allowing versatility through the gain control to give you anything from shimmering cleans to a hard and edgy Texas-rock breakup.

The dual channels each contain gain, master and three band eq controls, with channel A voiced slightly differently to offer more mid and earlier breakup. The cathode based quad of el84's provides the brilliant Vox-like tone for this amp and the high build quality as well as simple circuitry allows for easy repairs, although with this amp they will be few and far between.

The head is light weight, especially compared to its 140 watt sibling, and the two 8ohm and single 16ohm outputs allow a number of combinations of cabs giving you the option of switching this head from a 1x12 on a stool in a backstreet club to one or more of Orange's equally fantastic 4x12's at the stadiums that we all dream of playing!

This amp delivers all you could wish for, and is a perfect example of how a simple dual channel head such as this easily competes with the multi channel beasts that we dream of owning. It really accentuates and makes you appreciate the natural overdrives and shimmering cleans that built the classic rock and blues genres that the guys at Orange model this on, and with a few simple pedals can be the core of the most simplistic yet versatile rig of your dreams.