Reviews

Reviewer Of The Month

Re: Win a $50 gift certificate to Matt's Music Center (December 2009 ROTM)

Hi Guys,

Thanks everyone... there were some great Reviews posted in December! The reviewer posted provide a valuable service to the community & visitors Picking a "winner" was quite difficult but Severinsteelsmith gets the nod with with QUALITY and QUANTITY.

Contrats to...

Featured Reviews

Peavey 6505 Plus

Peavey 6505+

Review By leec

Sound:	Ok, the bumflufferies first: Guitars used with this amp: RG7620 - basswood - DiMarzio New 7s RG1527 - basswood - DiMarzio Blaze Custom bridge and New 7 neck RG2027 - mahogany - DiMarzio Evo7 bridge and Blaze Neck I play metal (at least with this amp). I mostly play progressive metal, but also venture in to some heavier stuff, too. For cabs, I've run it through everything from my 1960B cab, a Blackstar cab, a Mesa cab to lots of impulse files and my Palmer PGA-04 speaker sim. It just sounds great on all of them. Ok, the amp. I won't go into detail trying to describe its...
Reliability:	The appointments aren't right up there with the best looking amps, but what can you expect? It's an entry level tube amp, and savings have to be made somewhere. But bells and whistles aside, it feels solid enough. They appear to stand up to the road for a lot of bands, too. Mine hasn't failed on me yet, but it's not very old.
Customer Support:	N/A
Liked about it:	Top three, ok... It's a simple amp to use. Mesas are supposedly difficult to dial in a good tone on. That certainly was the case with my TriAxis, and this is just the opposite. It's practically difficult to get a bad tone out of one of these. It's very good fun to play. I instantly liked it. A very rewarding amp, partly due to its simplicity (see above). For the quality and pedigree of this amp, it's difficult to beat at this price.
Didn't like:	There's not much to dislike, so long as the 'no clean channel' isn't a surprise when you buy it. But here's my stab at three, as I've been pretty effusively positive about it. The lack of a clean channel does stop this from being a great amp. If it had that, I could see myself not needing my Framus Cobra. It is a one-trick pony. For some that's fine. And even though I forgive it, I can see how others might not and would expect a little more breadth for their buck. And it is fairly basic. You won't get any nice loop options, no level boost for solos, and some of the controls do feel...
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MXR Micro Flanger

Nice tones at a great price

Review By doriangrey

Ease Of Use:	I had been researching flangers for awhile and I was unhappy with either the tone or the price with what I had been able to find - until now. In this case, I'm happy with both. After finally deciding on this unit just before Christmas I put it on my Christmas wish list and my wife delivered :) The unit is very simple to use with only two controls ' rate & regeneration, which are clearly explained in the manual and easy to figure out. The manual gives you all the information you need to get started and from there it's easy to dial in good tones ' within seconds of hooking the unit up I...
Sound:	It seems like some flangers have a tendency to sound tinny or metallic, which I personally don't like. I wanted a flanger that had a nice flange sound that didn't overpower the original tone with a tinny sound like some of the flangers I'd heard. I've settled in on a setting that is close to the 'barley-cuda' setting in the manual and I'm quite happy with it. You can dial in stronger settings that will give you fast tremolo or chorus-like tones but I'm happy with the rate between 7 and 8 o'clock and the regeneration at about 12 noon ' this setting reminds of the tone on Van Halen's Hear...
Reliability:	The unit is very sturdy and seems well made. I've only had it for a couple of weeks but so far so good.
Customer Support:	I e-mailed Dunlop customer service about the volume increase issue and they responded within a couple of days with a suggestion. I then had a follow-up question because their original suggestion did not alleviate the volume increase issue but I haven't heard back in several days so I guess I'll have to wait and see if they respond to my follow-up question (even though I've figured it out since).
Liked about it:	nice tone great price very easy to dial in good tones
Didn't like:	ac adapter location battery compartment effect may be too subtle if you're looking for a stronger flange effect Considering the tone is quite nice and the price is right I think the pros far outweigh the cons so I'm giving it a 4 out of 5.
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Digitech Whammy DT Pedal

Digitech Whammy DT

Review By belleswell

Ease Of Use:	This is Digitech's 5th version of their popular Whammy pedal. It has all of the prior Whammy functions with some very nice additions. I'm assuming most here who read this are familiar with the Whammy's original harmony and whammy functions. This new version does all of that with the added drop tune,(up or down), function as well as a momentary switch. The drop tune function,(polyphonic,ie: all strings), allows one to dial in with the knob or an optional footswitch, the drop tune setting. Up to 7 half steps up, or up to 7 half steps down,(a fifth), or octave up or octave down. Also octave up...
Sound:	I use Ibanez and Gibson guitars through a JSX/Marshall combo. I go into the front of the amp or pc board with this. I'm always changing the order of my pedalboard lineup. Presently wah, distortion, overdrive, whammy, amp/pc. There are some vids on YouTube from Digitech that can be viewed. Type in Whammy DT in YouTube's search window. I bought this pedal because my Whammy IV was acting up. The old one was requiring multiple power ups before it would work correctly and was on it last legs. One nice feature of the new pedal is that the regenerated note on the whammy/harmony side of the pedal...
Reliability:	I've only had it about 2 months and so far no problems. If it dies, I'll get it repaired or buy another.
Customer Support:	I've never had to deal with Digitech customer support so I'm not much help here. I've had other 2 other older whammy pedals repaired in the past by a 3rd party authorized repair shop.
Liked about it:	The drop tune function is very nice. Up to 7 half steps up, or down, plus octave up or octave down, or octave up mixed with dry signal, or octave down mixed with dry signal can be selected in this mode. The momentary switch can create some very interesting effects when having a drop tune setting engaged. On the Whammy/Harmony side of the pedal, the output level of the regenerated note is of equal volume as the dry note coming in. Having had 3 of the prior Whammy's I did not notice this until I tried the Whammy DT. I could hear the difference.
Didn't like:	When using the drop tune function, there is a very small lag between the time you've played the note or notes and the time you hear it. It is just a few ms, but not so much as to make it unusable. Playing fast leads can still be done without the small lag affecting the outcome. It's a very small lag and not a deal breaker by any means, but worth mentioning. Another small gripe would be the placement of the momentary switch. It is fairly close to the drop tune switch. A little more separation of these two switches would have been nice. My last gripe would be the size. Real estate on...
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