ryanbisson's Reviews

Excellent build quality, perfect size

This is the best pedalboard I've owned. The build quality, spacing, and accessibility for swapping and arranging pedals is perfect. The 17x10 size may sound small when you think about your standard flat or angled board, but with the second tier you gain much more.

I highly recommend this pedalboard for anyone who has been searching and wasting money, this is no waste.

Clean, well-built custom guitars.

The TipSword Bison model specs are: + Flat sawn maple top + Quarter sawn maple back + 2 thin coats of transparent vintage white paint and a nitrocellulose lacquer for breathability and openness + Maple neck + 25.5” scale + 1 3/4” nut width, modern C shape + Rosewood fretboard + Medium jumbo frets + Matching transparent vintage white headstock + Thin coat satin finish on neck + TipSword Pearl P90 pickups, A5/A2 + String through body + Sperzel tuning machines

Preferred Settings + Usage:

Quality

The folks at PedalPad use 1/2" birch all around, so the construction is outstanding and the build quality matches. Using heavy duty latches and hinges, thick tolex on the outside and industrial velcro inside, I have had no issues with this board.

I am able to easily fit 3 1590BB sized pedals plus my strymon power supply under the top deck, which is wonderful coming from a pedal train! Yes, this can get heavy fast but I'm okay with that knowing my pedals are well protected and I will be able to keep things neat and tidy.

I chose the input/output and power options when I bought it; my only complaint is their connectors are rather long and take up a fair amount of space under the top deck.

Proper Fender.

I love this amp. I believe gear is meant to be played, so I have replaced caps and resistors but kept what I could original. RCA USA tubes, stock Jensen speaker and some wear on the tweed but it still keeps rocking. In the studio this amp is my best friend; crank it up and enjoy a well balanced drive sound or keep it low and feed it pedals, it is able to handle it all.

This is a proper sounding Fender amp that has been passed down to me through my family. I would'n't eve let it go and would encourage anyone to find one and play it.

Love it!

This will be brief and to the point: Punch. Clarity. Power. Weight.

You do not need another cab to be heard over your bandmates, this provides a jaw dropping amount of low-end while remaining tight and clear; even with heavier gain settings pumping through it.

Buy one!

Anything you want

Seriously. If you can find the tone you are looking for on bass with this amp, you're doing it all wrong. The tube front-end gives you warmth and the solid state back-end provides punch! This amp is extremely versatile; 2 channels, effects loop, incredibly clean and quite DI out. These amps are not very well known in the GK line but are their top of the line amps.

The only negative thing I have to say about this amp is, it's 3 rack spaces large and not light.

If you can find one, buy it. You'll love it.

Underrated

This amp is completely overlooked and underrated in the world of Vox. They were produced for only a few years before being discontinued and I was lucky enough to purchase on at that time.

Channel 1 offers everything you love about the AC30, with more head room and more tonal control. Channel 2 offers Vox's take on modern medium to high gain.

This amp is a pedal monster! It will take extremely heavy effect settings in the front end with no complaints, or you have the option of the series effects loop. I swapped the EL 34 power tubes for KT77's and I could not be happier.

I would encourage anyone to look into these amps more and see what you may be missing out on. You can find demos on my youtube (linked in my bio).

Wow!

Based on the late 50's Fender Tweed Deluxe, with all the right improvements.

This amp, paired with the Jensen P12R speaker, is absolutely amazing sounding! It offers tight, full but not boomy low end, articulate and warm highs, boasts larger transformers and an overall higher quality of sound. Made by DeArmond, Martin made these amps from 1959-1962.

I love this amp, it was passed down through my family from my great grandfather, to my grandfather and to me. I have done the standard cap and resistor replacements as needed to keep it going, as well as moved to a 3 prong power cable. The speaker I replaced with a higher wattage more modern sounding speaker as it allows me to stay clean until around 8 on the amps volume; the breakup is crisp and never gets saggy or muffled. The tone sweep on these amps is very wide! If you need treble, there's plenty of it but with a bright guitar you are also able to cut it back nicely.

Quality.

My 2000 Squier Jazz Bass has a better feeling neck, frets and better sounding pickups than any MIM Fender coming out today. Yes, it says Squier on the headstock and for us who are "snobs", I don't want to take it out and play live with it but I'll give you one guess at which bass is my gear review/demo bass in the studio.

Don't question it, you can't beat the price tag and the quality and durability of these "older" Squier's is outstanding.

Yes! Buy one!

I pushed back on J basses for years because I just wanted to love P basses more but I finally came to the dark side… well, actually it's a white on white bass… so.

I love the clarity and punch I get from this late 2000's J bass; the rosewood fretboard gives me just enough darkness that I don't even feel like it's brittle or sharp and the neck profile is extremely comfortable.

There's nothing special about mine, but I'd recommend you buy one, because.

It's good

I love PJ setups on bass, the ability to dial in clarity and boom is always a must as I play ambient-alt-rock.

I had some noise issues in the beginning but the guitar tech at the GC I bought it from found the ground wire wasn't connected correctly and the "noiseless" J pickups was not working properly; he replaced the pickup and desoldered the ground wire and I haven't had any issues since. While he was under the hood, I had him replace the 2nd volume with a notched blend knob for quick and simpler dial in.

This bass sits well on the body and the slim neck profile is still very comfortable, even for someone like me with large hands. This is a bright bass, I would have preferred to have a rosewood neck, even having the tone knob rolled a healthy amount back doesn't quite get me the tone I want; it becomes a bit more dull than just less bright.

Great Guitar

I have owned my 210e since 2007 and it has been a workhorse for me. I love the tone of this guitar mic'd up in the studio, it cuts through a mix perfectly without ever being too shrill. It is stock and beyond oiling the neck, I haven't done anything to it because I haven't needed to.

At around $800, I would highly recommend this guitar.

Workhorse

I'm the 2nd owner of this guitar, my great grandfather being the first owner; this Harmony wants to keep being played and it sounds wonderful.

If you like warm, smooth sounding pickups and a baseball bat neck, this guitar will make you smile. Coming from a company who mass produced guitars, they knew what they were doing to make them last. There has been some structural fixes; some braces needed to be re-glued and I did install a truss rod, I also replaced the original tuners as they were slipping after 63 years. I do have a rattle from the pickup that does come through when it's plugged in but turn up louder and you can out play it. Ha!

I play this guitar at home often, using it for writing and recording with it. With a little love I believe this guitar will last another 70 years.

Just keeps going…

I purchased a glossy black 1992 Les Paul in 2009, at the time it had taken a spill and the headstock broke, so my thought was to repair it and there I go. The repair held strong and I was happy with my $150 purchase, but it could be better so… I stripped all the paint and re-finished it with grain filler only on the mahogany back and the maple cap was nitro painted Fender's Mary Kay white, with the matching headstock.

I let a friend borrow it for a band practice and unfortunately he dropped it and broke the headstock again. The fine folks at my local guitar store (The Guitar Store (Seattle, WA)) repaired it this time and did an amazing job. This guitar sounds fantastic and doesn't want to quit being played.

I keep it at home now and use it in the studio and every time I do I fall in love with it all over again. Do yourself a favor and buy a pre-2000's Gibson LP.

Classy & Durable

I am the 2nd owner of a 1962 fiesta red Fender Jaguar; it was my grandfather's before me and I love it. It "stopped working" around 1975 and hung with a string tied around the headstock in his uninsulated shop until 2005 when he told me, "If you can get it to work, it's yours." A can of compressed air later I was the owner of this guitar I had no clue about, I only knew that I loved the look of it.

I believe guitars were made to be played and if there's a problem, fix it; I have since replaced the bridge with Mastery components, replaced the tuners but have otherwise kept it original. There is a 2' crack on the back of the guitar but has no problems and sounds incredible.

These are classy guitars that will last much longer that me if they are taken care of, if you can get one, I'd recommend it!

Comfort & Reliability

I've owned my MIM tobacco burst telecaster since 2006 and I've put it through a lot; through it all I've had no issues with the playability or durability. I did replace the tuners almost instantly because I like locking tuners but the stock ones were fine. My tele is a different sounding one, it has tons of low end and is pretty mean sounding, and yes, they are stock pickups. I'd recommend a Telecaster to anyone and believe you should have one laying around just in case.