Shrike

First, I must say that the retro-modern look, strat-body and humbuckers looks very very cool! This guitar parts are made in China, but assembled, tuned up and quality checked at MusicMan USA factory. Not many guitar suppliers these days can say they do so. This makes this guitar as close to a Deluxe Musicman you can get. Best thing is they are really affordable considering the quality you get. I would have prefered the 3-tone burst, but I got a deal on a used black one I just couldn't let pass. If Covid had one advantage and only one, is that it got enough time for people to think about what gear they actually used and not, then sell at a correct price the items they don't use anymore. The neck of this guitar feels really great. Very fast action, and the finish reminds me of one of the best I've ever felt; on a Godin guitar. Reaching the highest frets is easy, which makes this 22 frets almost feel like a 24. Tension adjustment system is something you find on way pricier guitars: it has an adjustment wheel at the base of the neck instead of the traditional hex at the top. The body feels really comfortable is any position: sitting, standing, on a stool, on the couch, that is really important for me. I hate a guitar that feels great standing but when you sit it feels bulky. The Stingray is heavy in a good way. It feels solid and the resonance is nothing short of awesome. In theory, I loved the idea of a pickup select switch located near me and easily reachable. Thing is I'm pretty tall, and have long hands. I found myself knocking the switch in another position when playing hard. Since I use mostly the bridge pickup, I put electrical tape on the switch. Maybe I'll also try turning it in another position but I'm pretty sure I would knock it accidentally anyway. Since I bought the guitar used, I don't know if a tune-up would "fix" this, but the volume knob has a very fast change near the max, and for now I love to use it as a solo boost. I just turn the knob 10 degrees and get a nice sharp tone. Tune it down a bit and get still excellent rhythm tones with lots of humpfh (headroom). I love its position as I can just reach it with the tip of my fingers and do a quick change. The tone knob is very responsive and gives lots of possibilities on both pickup. The pickups may not be top quality, but they sound way better than say Epiphone Deluxe. Way clearer, sharper, warmer, gives more headroom. Combined with the superb body that provide exceptional natural resonance, you can get almost infinite sustain. I love the bridge better, but the neck also gives superb cleans, it's just that I need to tweak it a bit more and being limited to one volume and one tone knob for both pickups, it requires a little finger magic to get good clean. But once you get it, it really sounds incredible. It's of little concern for me since I play modern metal mostly, and when I need clean it's for whole songs, so I have time to set up between them. Reading what I just wrote, it seems like I'm saying it's a bad thing albeit small, but I can assure you these pickuips plays clean just as good as high gain. It's just switching between them that requires 2 or 3 knob twists. You may or may not know that MusicMan guitar tremolos use a modern trem system designed by Musicman themselves and is of top notch quality. While the trem system on the Sterling is a little different, it is based on the same idea. It doesn't have the same metal cover as some deluxe Stingray and Majestic models, but otherwise I couldn't tell the difference. It really is beautiful and works wonderfully. Giving it 4.5 stars, it is an incredible guitar its price, it is used in many music schools as an excellent study guitar with all the playing qualities and skip on the premium price. Wether you play jazz, blues, rock, hard rock or even modern metal, this guitar will please you and you'll love its unique look.

Let's make this clear right from the start: Godin makes excellent guitars. From affordable all the way to high end, they hold great value. The LG with P-90s makes no exception. This unique kind of funky Les Paul shape combined with the thickness of a Strat makes this guitar feel really comfortable in your hands, and in any position. The lush P-90s are perfect for jazz all the way up to modern/alternative rock and gives you plenty of headroom. The neck of this guitar has this special Godin lacquer that glides just enough to give you extreme control all the neck long. The tuners are of excellent quality, as are the electronics. I can't believe how cheap these are on today's used market. Whether you're looking for an intermediate level axe or an addition to your arsenal, the LG will find a place in your heart.

Bogner Amplification is an American company. The Alchemist amplifier (and extension cabinet) were a collaboration between Bogner and Line 6. Instead of being built in the US, the Alchemist, the combo version and its extension cabinet were all built in China. This extension cabinet sports 2x12": one Celestion Greenback 16ohms Made In China, and one Celestion G12H Anniversary 16ohms, Made In China too. The cabinet has an atypical speaker arrangement: instead of being aside or on top of another, the two speakers are positioned at an angle, so the cab looks like a smaller 4x12" instead of the typical narrow height of a vertical/horizontal cab. It makes it easy to transport too as it feels more compact. Now, how does it sound? Excellent. Having the Greenback on top and G12H on bottom gives this cab an overall great headroom. Also the cab is semi-closed, so some sound gets out behind and depending on the material behind your cab you can get even boomier. This cab was made for modern high gain, and it delivers. I fell in love with this cab when I found out that they were selling for cheap on the used market, and thought that its retro-modern look was killer! It's made out of Plywood, which makes it really, really solid. This cabinet is one of the few hidden gems on the 2x12" market.

How many tube amplifiers have such a feature set for the price you can find this beauty for? - D.I. out - Headphones Out - Onboard Boost - Switchable FX Loop - Onboard attenuator 20/5/1W - Speaker defeat - USB audio interface - Onboard Reverb Okay, there actually are many options to achieve that. But if you look on the used market, you can get these for around $300 USD. All 4 models of the Peavey Micro Head (Classic, 6505, Valveking and Invective) all sound great and have about the same feature set. Valveking has the best clean channel of all models (to my ears at least), put your favorite OD in front of it and you can get monstruous tube tones. I don't use the dirty channel since I have ODs that get me where I want to, but it still sounds very good for anything up to Hard Rock. The onboard Reverb is not that great, but if you use it as a Room Reverb it is very good. Just don't expect Strymon Flint-type Reverb, it only has one control knob anyway. It really is the perfect pedal platform amp. If you're looking for a small tube amp that you can easily carry and still have a bunch of options, don't hesitate for one bit!

The best thing about this amp is that it thought me to look away from do-it-all products. It's basically a 100-so watts solid state power amp with a Pod 2.0 for a preamp. While the amp itself is solid and offers way more options than one could need, the tones that comes out of it is what matters, and most of those sounds thin, fizzly, noisy. Cleans are okay up to light disto, but Mesa and Plexi models sound cheap. With way better options on the market today, like the IO Stomp, it's hard to recommend this, even used. If you want a 2x12 amp that you can play with a drummer, there are many other options out there.

This is a 15w solid state amplifier which is supposed to be aimed at beginners. But what's a good beginner amp? For me, it's an amp that lets a new player explore possibilities you can get from more expensive amps. After all, isn't it the master plan to make you buy more expensive gear as you progress? Of course it wouldn't be fair to compare this amp to today's offering which simply put totally annihilates any need for this amplifier. There are far better option even in the very beginner market. No, let's compare this amp to what you could do with it at the time it was released and I first got it - It doesn't take pedals well, even overdrive or distortion sounded dull and tamed. - For a solid state amp which is supposed to be easy for manufacturers to handle volume control, this amp goes from barely audible to plain too loud for bedroom. What are you supposed to do with a 15w ss amp exactly? - Fender is known for their pristine clean tones, but unfortunately this amp does not sound good. - Shame because it was well built, and it was pretty heavy for a solid state 10" speaker 15w combo. - Efforts on details seems to have been limited to how the amp looks, because it indeed looks good and like a smaller version of more expensive Fender amps.

From Blues Rock all the way into Modern Metal territory, this OD (more like a preamp/OD) gives it all. Its feature set is very impressive for such a small footprint, circuit is all analog (!!!), and internal Gain pots gives you even more control over the gnarliness of this beauty. The only thing I wish it had was a remote port for channel switching and on/off, so I could keep this beautiful baby away from my goofy feet!

This wah sounds just fine. It's not as good as the model is clones; a Dunlop Crybaby From Hell, but it sounds good with heavy stuff. Had both, quality was obviously way better on the Dunlop starting from the toughness of the enclosure all to the sound it produces. The thing that struck me the most about this pedal is the auto return though. Never before have I had the chance to try such feature, and it's the best thing. Who ends playing a wah part on the toes anyway? The range adjustment helps you reach the perfect release for your style. Since then Dunlop released the mini 535Q Auto-Return wah. Definitely on my to-get list. But if you're on a tight budget and want something gnarlier than a standard Crybaby or Hendrix, you can't go wrong with the Hellbabe.

The main advantage of this pedal is the amount of fine tuning you can dial to make it sing along your other overdrives and distortions. So many options, it's actually not ideal for a first wah pedal. But if you want your first wah to last yo a lifetime and will fit any wah job under any setting, this is it. But don't be mistaken; it sounds great out of the box and everything at 12 o'clock will give you a very lush and trebly sound. I had to sell it due to Covid and am now looking for a used mini 535Q, and if it's half as versatile as the CFH I'll be more than happy.

Behringer is well known for making clones. Some hate the fact they steal other's work. Me, I don't care for one bit. The TO800 just sound every bit like its og counterpart, at a price that you can't just pass by. I use it to boost my other ODs, but it sounds just as great on its own in front of a clean amp. There's not much to say about such a classic, so if you need a TS, you should definitely check it out.

But it's not. It can boost your sound mostly transparently but it does tone suck a bit. I'm having a hard time dialing in a suitable tone, except for boosting.

What is there more to say: it basically is a Fulltone OCD clone. It is thus perfect for adding grit to your tone or gain stacking, and at a price that you can't pass on. The enclosure is though and the switch feels great. Of course if I bought it again I would do a paint job, what an ugly design.

Listen, this is a classic. So many musicians used and still use it to this day... I just bought it at the wrong moment in my progression. I knew nothing about pedals, I only had a Fender Red Knob 10w amp and wanted it to sound like a 100w hot rodded Plexi. That's why I was disappointed and eventually sold it. I wish I could try it again with my DSM & Humboldt Simplifier and see what I missed. Oh and being a Boss means it's all metal and will last a Cobain's life!

This is not your usual Fuzz pedal. It can do crazy things you wouldn't think are possible; it ranges from light fizzling up to bit reduction. And with its multiple modes it will fill your experimental boutique pedal GAS. You can literally play this fuzz like an instrument. GUP Tech rules!