tarbyrocks's Reviews

Great cleans, decent distortion, can definitely take a beating.

I got a used version of this amp several years ago, and though I don't use it much (having switched to modelling since moving to the west cost), it's still working today despite going on a US tour, a cross country trip to California, and countless hours being tweaked and played and pushed to its limit.

The cleans are to die for; slight compression (maybe) and it doesn't matter if you're running a single coil, humbucker, p-90, et all. It's bright, it's beautiful, and i would usually run it through a chorus and delay through the FX loop (when it decided to work, but then again I also purchased it off of Daddy's Junky Music for like $200 and have no clue what kind of history it has before me).

The distortions are okay - pretty standard buzzsaw tones, good if you're going for metallica or mid-late era pantera (the latter especially - that mid-scooped tone is what it does best). I've heard better, but for a solid state amp, especially one as old as this (I'm not sure the exact age, but it was already very well loved when I got it, and it's been close to a decade since then). It also runs pedals very well, so you can use overdrives and distortion boxes to essentially add new channels. It's decent for low-mid gain stuff, but shines when the gain is pushed past 1 or 2 o'clock (higher than that though and I've found it gets a bit too noisy). I'd recommend getting a noisegate for it, but aside from that it's hella tight sounding, handling everything from low tunings (i've gone to a low A with no loss in quality) to high solos (again, great for 'tallica/'tera), and honestly its shimmering cleans work well with everything from metal and rock to jazz and pop (i let a friend borrow it for a ska show and he fell in love with it).

Since it's a solid state amp, and an early one at that, it lacks a bit in the warmth department, though it cuts through a mix like butter (so long as you don't eradicate what little mids it has). Also, for the love of whatever entity or non-entity you as an individual have put your faith in, I do NOT recommend mixing its gain channel with a pedal. It'll sound like ass. Trust me. Overdrive, distortion, fuzz, that gain channel's meant to be on its own, and sounds best as such. Even with the gain setting low on the amp, adding anything but a light boost will cause the signal to become a haven for harsh noise you didn't even know your guitar/amp was capable of producing.

It does have a penchant for overheating if you push it, though (a problem that's apparently relatively universal, as i've discovered through a cursory look through reviews in an attempt to discern how old the amp actually is) - this problem has apparently been solved in the G2 and G3 series, but the OG model can get hot and even burn out if pushed too hard. Not that you'd need to, of course - since it's solid state, it'll give you the virtually the same tone regardless of if the master's at 2 or 10, making it great for bedroom practice.

So yeah, final verdict: It's not bad. No 5150 or dual rec, but it'll get the job done, and since it was originally designed as an entry level model from what I've seen, it won't break the budget to pick one up used if you can find it. However, be mindful of it's level and temperature. I probably won't be bringing this on tour again (maybe as a back up, but definitely not as a main amp), but if you're low on a budget and just need something to kick some ass, this is your guy.

Oscillation for Day and Ballsy as hell. Just wish it was better with bass.

I bought this pedal off of a friend, and it was worth every cent let me tell you. Not only can you get everything from a bright, brittle classic fuzz to a thick and syrupy synth-like sound and everything in between, but so many variables can alter the sound drastically that it's like a new adventure every time you sit down with it - messing with your volume and tone can help shape the tonality, attack, and pitch of the self oscillation (which i've straight up used as it's own instrument, tweaking knobs to get cool effects and melodies). It's very quickly found a place on my main board and in my music, as it does both thick chords (especially in my primary tuning, Open C; it just stacks like an impossibly driven amplifier) as well as hard-defined and impactful single-note runs. Live, I run it before my wah and use it to get INSANE filter sweeps.

Two biggest downsides for me are as follows: 1. it's piss-poor with bass, at least in my experience. It doesn't seem to handle the bass frequencies well, regardless of which pickups, strings, or necks are being used (though so far it works BEST with just a bridge humbucker active). Second issue is that, due to how finicky it is, it's hard to recall past settings, 'cause even the slightest tweak can throw self osculation out of pitch or cut off note tails too soon or what not. As such, i tend to focus less on finding a "Sweet spot" and more just grabbing "what's working right now for this", especially since i'll likely mess with the parameters later on anyway for some noisy-play. But the sound and playability of just the pedal itself easily make up for it. Since I rely on backing tracks a lot to pull off my industrial style, this pedal alone has injected some much needed organic feel to my sets, and has opened up a whole door of possibilities for me, as i plan on investing in more fuzzes (as well as compact synths).

Tablet loaded up with synths and social networking

I've been loading this up with every free synthesizer VST i could find, and have managed to incorporate it into my live shows in the past. It's pretty fast, though it takes forever to charge it up. There's very little bad I can say about it, but conversely there's not much that's spectacular about it, either. It's just a fairly decent android tablet.

Good standalone practice amp

I use this as a practice amp, when I'm either warming up/working on licks or practice regiments, or if I'm trying to write riffs for songs. With 27 possible combinations for its selection of analog modelling settings (which allows you to select between three classic amp, mode, and speaker settings each), it actually has a lot of versatility and fairly decent distortion tones if you're willing to dial them in. Funny enough, for a guitar it's higher gain settings leave a little to be desired (read: I've played through better. Played through worse, but I've played through better), however when you run a bass through it with high gain you end up with a very clear and punchy distorted bass tone (something akin to the distortion bass guitar you'd hear on a Nine Inch Nails record).

It has a three band EQ which does it's job, a master volume knob which also does its job, a gain knob which does its job, and one channel which as I said above can be used for either a clean or distortion tone (no means to select between them, so be ready to roll back the guitar's volume knob if you need to clean up - which, as a note, it does better than my Randall head does). It has a headphone output which I've never used, as well as a CD/Audio in for practice which, again, I have never used. For what it is, it's a pretty decent amp, and can actually get fairly loud (not as loud as a half stack of course, but for a 15 watt amp w/ a 10 inch speaker, it can crank); it might not be able to compete with a drum kit, and bringing it on stage might not be the best idea, but you'll be able to hear yourself if you're playing along to a stereo loud enough to piss off your neighbors' neighbors.

The biggest drawback for me is that pedals and external effects work like s#!t with it - if I try to distort it externally, it ends up sounding like a muddy, weak mess with no clarity regardless what pedal or tone i use or how much signal I'm putting in. Same goes for time, pitch, and filter effects - it seems to lose clarity if you send in anything but the dry signal, which means that if I'm practicing an effect heavy song or writing what might be an effect-heavy riff, then I need to leave the effects up to my imagination. (Not even a wah sounds good through it, and I've tried three different kinds).

Given the fact that this is the amp you generally get only with beginner guitar kits (y'know, the ones that come with the knock off strat or les paul, the behringer vtone amp, the strap and case that'll both break after 2 months of use, the thin cable with the plastic ends that'll sit in a draw for years once you upgrade, the tuner that doesn't know an A from an F, and one of a million DVDs where young guitarists can pick up all the basics for guitar that almost nobody ends up watching), it REALLY is of surprisingly good quality (especially since the one I have is second hand).

Solid 3/5: Pros: Good sound; nice selection of tones; GREAT for bass; good for practicing at relatively any volume. Cons: Sounds poor with any effects; No means to switch between gain stages

It's good but somewhat limiting

So I understand that it's the lite version, but being limited to 8 tracks is much more of a hindrance than I would have initially imagined (I'm not sure whether that reflects poorly on me as a producer or not haha).

I like its user interface a LOT - it took a bit of fussing with it before I could get the hang of how to edit parameters or create certain tracks or effects, but once the ball took off down the learning curve it has yet to slow down, and I'm really enjoying working with it. It's not my favorite DAW, but it's definitely up there, and I'll more than likely be applying this to a live rig (using it to play backing tracks and sync MIDI clocks between my amp and potentially any other DI amps or keyboard rigs if the situation demanded it).

As for synths and production quality, the audio is clear, and all the included effects and synths/samples sound superb. Again, the clean and clear UI allows for extreme ease of use (at least once you figure it out), and even with a currently completely stock setup I'm still very happy with a lot of what I'm coming up with.

Decent headphones for a decent price

They're pretty decent. I've heard better, and they can get a bit muddy sometimes when at loud volumes, but I'd go so far to say they're the best $20 on the market. Ultimately, I am looking to upgrade to some studio-grade phones, but these are decent enough that I can get away with putting that on the back burner in favor of upgrading my computer rig.

Mediocre DAW, Great VSTi's

I was given this by a friend, and I'll use it to come up with quick demos and such. I'm not a big fan of the UI at all, and the loop based setup doesn't really lend itself to my style of music, but for quick demos and more industrial tracks it's can get the job done. To be honest, I'm a much bigger fan of the VSTs that are included in it than FL Studio itself - if I could get the synth engines included in it (like Harmor, Syrtus, etc) imported into Cubase without having to run FL along side it, I'd be a happy camper.

It's a good guitar for cheap

I have a black model. Stock everything, though I'm planning on replacing the pickups and adding some custom electronics - built in fuzz circuit, built in octaver, you know - the usual.

Great for metal (but not much else)

This is an expansion for either Toontrack's EZ Drummer or Superior drummer. It's loaded with toms and cymbals and everything I could ever want or need for composing metal or progressive stuff. It's all pre-processed, so using this for anything other than thrash metal, djent, or Dream Theater stuff is a bit awkward, but its punchy sounds and easy to use interface make it a key component of my studio rig.

Also, though I'm not 100% certain, I believe Deven Townsend used this program to create the drum tracks for his Ziltiod: The Omniscient album.

EZ to program w/ pro sounding samples

It's as the same suggests: It gets you tight, kick ass drum sounds easy. Not much in the way of customization, and I'd personally like a bit more in the way of cymbals and stuff, but it gets the job done pretty nicely.

I sympho-need to upgrade, but this will do for now.

I use this to do the string sections of my songs - I'll rarely use it to do more than that, as the brass leaves much to be desired, but the percussion and woodwinds are okay. Once i get a better processor, I might upgrade to something better, but right now it gets the job done.

Grea7 4 Class1c Synth Bass

Another freeware VST by TAL, this synth appears to be much more geared toward 80's synthpop sounds, specifically synth bass stuff. I use it to make sub-bass tracks and industrial synth basses, though occasionally I'll use it to make a key or lead tone. It's really good at mimicking some of the tones used by bands like Depeche Mode, especially if you run it through an amp simulator, but it has a hard time keeping up with a lot of modern synth bass textures and tones.

Versatile synth for basic leads and pads with overdrive enhancement

I use this to make some of my more basic synths. You're not going to get any extreme filter modulations or what have you, but you can get some pretty decent lead or pad tones, especially if you layer some overdrive onto it.

Versatile synth with impressive presets and effects

Though the synth is mainly sample banks and presets, and is usually drenched with reverb and delay, the synth sounds (and the trance gates and arps especially) sounds fantastic and are easy to use.

Okay for live application

I use this for travel gigs if I can't bring an acoustic guitar and need one. It's a really accurate clone of the BOSS AC-3, and though it's not the BEST acoustic guitar tone, it's only a little different from what i'd get with an acoustic DI anyway. I'll throw this as the first thing in my chain and run the effected signal straight to the board (a really convenient feature, as it means i don't have to turn off every effect i have running to get a clean acoustic sound).

A powerful and user-friendly DAW for all levels

Outside of Mixcraft 4 and audacity, this was my first professional DAW, and after several years of learning production and experimenting with other programs, I have yet to find another recording/mixing software that comes close to the ease and power this program has. I have yet to upgrade to 6 or 7 and plan to do so when I can afford it, but if they're anything like 5 was, I'll definitely be sticking with Steinberg in the future.

affordable guitar with great feel for fingerpicking and slide

"Lillith" - I need to get new pickups for her, but funny enough for the $149 I paid for her new, she's the best feeling guitar I have. Her neck is fat and the strings are wide spaced, so it's almost like playing an acoustic, and as such she's GREAT for fingerpicking and slide guitar.

Customized Strat with Seymour Duncan Pickups and Rosewood Neck

Probably could have just put "Fender Stratocaster" but only one person has that listed, so specifics abound! Mine has a rosewood neck, 21 frets, and a routed out neck pickup pocket to fit my seymour duncan '59 pickup (there's a Seymour Duncan custom in the bridge, no idea what pickup it is specifically, but it came in a set with the '59 with the label "Custom", and it sounds hella good). Her name is "Cadence", and she's usually my main Standard tuning guitar.

Vintage charm with digital fuzz and reverb for studio use

This thing is apparently one of the first pedal multi effect units. It's got a bunch of presets and some cheesy built in sounds. Frankly, it sounds dated and cheap, but that's part of its charm - I used the (very digital sounding) fuzz and reverb on several tracks of my new album to get an overcompressed, low-fi distortion sound which fit REALLY well for what I was going for. Though I will probably never bring this out live, it has a place in my heart and my studio rig.

Affordable pedal with surprising overdrive and fuzz capabilities

I got this pedal for next to nothing used, and I have no idea why - It's got a kick ass overdrive which borders on being a light fuzz, and though I rarely ever bring it out live, I'll usually kick it in while recording overdriving stuff.