ralphkj's Reviews

A decent pedal

Is it the best drive in the world? No, however, you can pick these up for as little at £20, so really you can’t complain for that. It’s nothing to go crazy for but it is a decent pedal. I have a soft spot for pedals that aren’t a one trick pony. The crazy cacti has a bunch of tonal options to suit different, players, music and rigs. I particularly liked how it had the addition of the boost circuit. Wish we could see more of that on other drive pedals. For me the boost meant that when money was tight I only needed the one overdrive pedal, which saved time, weight, money, and space.

A great synth to start with

This was my first ever synthesiser, starting with a good mono synth taught me alot. It sounds fantastic too, has a few modular capabilities too, so it can work with other synths too. I got mine for a great deal second hand, these are around £100 these days, which is almost too good to be true! Behringer has done there usual deal with these clones and tastefully added modern touches where necessary, bringing the classic Mini Moog into the 21st century:)

However it lacks a couple features that Behringer could implemented. PWM would have sounded amazing for an example. I can probably live without though for £100. The only problem I really have with this synth that is stopping me from buying one, is the build quality. After a couple years of light use, only been giged a couple times a year and studio usage. It developed noise issues, and the main output broke. The sad reality of these clones is that too many corners were cut in order to make them affordable. This means a 70s Mini Moog will probably last longer! I would have happily paid over twice as much for one that was more future proof.

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Really fun synth

Juno-6 gets overlooked because it lacks patch memory. I’d argue that patch memory isn’t the most useful feature a synth can have, if you know how to use them. The juno isn’t difficult to program after all so you can easily go from patch to patch in s matter of seconds. The arpeggiator is lots of fun too. It has cv in and out so you can sync to other hardware easily. Has a vcf input too so you can modulate the filter in alternative ways to the triangle lfo that the juno has built in.

Probably the best for under £2000

Very versatile poly synth. Is easily fixable too, I used to gig with mine and had no issues (I was nervous about it going wrong the whole time though). The addition of MIDI adds extra flexibility over the other Junos. This means it can be sequenced, controlled, or control other hardware. It also has more patch memory than you will realistically need, if not you can memory dump onto your computer. It does great basses, pads, leads and if you get adventurous with it, it can be great for sound design. It responds well to effects too!

I do think it lacks a couple modulation capabilities though. Extra shapes aside from triangle would make it that little bit more versatile, and would compete alot closer to the Prophet 5. Which is what I replaced my Juno with in the end. I would (for the right price) buy another 106 back tomorrow:)

Ideal

Weirdly it took me years to find an ideally sized board with a decent quality hard case. This can comfortably fit 8 decent sized pedals on it. It also has sufficient space underneath to house pretty much any power supply. I can’t see myself needing something bigger.

What’s not to like

If it doesn’t sound good with one of these then something is probably wrong

Wi wi

Pretty fun pedal, does what you would expect from a pitch shifter. The chorus “detune” mode sounded incredible. However I didn’t keep mine because it needed its own power supply, was big and heavy. I think the expression pedal part only went a whole tone or a semitone? I hoped it would do a full octave.

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The coolest guitar I ever owned

Really cool guitar that turned heads, not the best player or most useful, but that is missing the point. Would have kept mine if they weren’t worth so much.

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The perfect guitar

They don’t call these “burst killers” for nothing. I was a les paul player for years. I warmed to the 335 because it was much more comfortable and sounded a little bit nicer somehow. I really warmed to the lower amount of sustain too. Its just more versatile somehow.

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great pedal for next to nothing

A great sounding delay, there are so many great second hand deals too. You can pick decent condition examples for under £50. If I lost everything in a fire and had to start over, I would consider buying one of these again.

It’s alright

Was pretty excited when I got one of these in a part exchange. Chorus and vibrato circuits sound fantastic, and looks the part too. You can pick these up for decent prices if you’re patient.

The sound, most of the time is way too harsh and shrill. Could never really shape the sound the way that I wanted to. Mine had a gated spring on there, which was cool at first, but drove me nuts after a while. It’s also really heavy and loud. Lets not talk about the distortion circuit.

Cheesy and overrated

99% of the time FM synths are used in distasteful ways, which either date the music to a bygone age or cliche riddled indie pop… however, when used nicely there are some otherworldly sounds to be had, if you know how to program it(I gave up in the end). It is one of the rare occasions where I’d recommend you buy the plugin version and save the money and space. It also ruined everything that was likeable about synthesis in the early 80s, it killed off lots of great companies and single handedly reshaped the way synths would be designed. It was all firmly down hill from here.

Did I mention it weighs a tonne?

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Sounds incredible!

This is the best sounding divide down oscillator synth I have ever heard, loved my one. Unfortunately mine was on its way out, and soviet made synths are hard to service and source parts for in the west. So unless you know a tech who is fluent Russian and has all the parts you need, it’s a big risk!

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Great

Having a smaller tuner allows you to make room for pedals you also need. Streamlining your board means you can have a smaller and more lightweight rig, which your back will thank you for later. Also can be buffer or true bypass which is nice also.

A great problem solver

Great for using as a clean boost. I used mine to have achieve a more balanced signal between two guitars. Also helps shape the sound in ways an amps EQ section cannot. Very flexible, especially for live music scenarios. Its a keeper!

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A great pedal

This is not even close to the best sounding delay pedal, however, it may have the most user friendly and convenient interface of any delay pedal, which is why I have held onto mine for years. The ability to allocate different presets to each footswitch makes it versatile in long gigs, and across different projects. The looper is decent too. It has a nice recording length and has other features, such as the single loop mode where it plays the loop you recorded back once, which has also come in handy a couple of times recently. You can now pick one of these up for less than £100

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The best Gibson for under £2000?

This was my standalone guitar for a few years, rarely had to use anything else. 2006 was the year Gibson started chambering their guitars which made them noticeably lighter but I would argue it doesn’t make a difference in sound, if it does then it’s so little that you wouldn’t notice it in a mix. Can’t say enough nice things about it really. I sold mine for an ES-335 because I think the 335 sounds a little bit better for the types of music I make, and it’s larger body makes it more comfortable to play.

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A vintage bargain

Wanted to buy a juno but couldn’t afford it, so found one of these for less than 1/4 of the price. It sounds just as good, even has a couple features the juno doesn’t! Such as 2 oscillators per note, a great sequencer and cross mod. The only issue with the JX-3P is that you can only control one parameter at a time. The interface is not tactile and means you have to rely on a limited amounts of facory and custom presets. Sure you can buy programmers such as the PG-200 but they have to be plugged into the midi, which means that it now can’t talk to other instruments. Back when I owned mine the programmer costed nearly as much as the synth itself. Despite this, you can get used to these things, especially when you consider the price difference between this and a juno in the same condition!

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Mk-1 Version 2 is the one

Ive owned three bluesbreakers now. They almost never sound bad. If you’re looking for a tasteful amount of overdrive then look no further

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A nice, budget friendly spring reverb

I have never heard a plugin emulation of a spring reverb that had me convinced. I think it is therefore vital that you own and use the real thing. Most spring reverbs I have tried for under £400 have been pretty muddy and had bad headroom. They needed lots of extreme EQ curves. Apart from this one. Sounds nice and clean, is less muddy and more brighter than other ones. Sounds like a reverb worth well over twice as much as this one is!

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