Review:Boss BR600

December 30th, 2008 by Andres Gallo

Boss BR600
$350

Design

Boss is one of those brands that really care about the design behind their products. I am not the biggest fan of boss pedals, but one thing I like about their pedals and products, is that they are very cleverly designed to enhance their intuitiveness. In other words, these are products that tend to be as simple to use as possible in spite of their beautiful complexity. This product is a great example of what I mean. The BR600 is complete recording station in a small package. It has all you need to make a decent recording, with enough simplicity for anyone to use.
Built in, it has 2 microphones which are really good, and capture the sound in stereo, and inputs to capture line in level signal, as well as a guitar input, and a 1/8” microphone. Unfortunately, however, this Boss unit lacks a XLR input and phantom power to make it truly a do it all machine, yet considering most people will use the built in microphones, it probably is not too big a deal. In addition this great device also includes a metronome, a drum machine, and a bunch of effects. With this device and a guitar, you can be a one man band. For what it does, it does very well. Furthermore, this device allows you to cut, copy, paste, and much more which are techniques used by the pros. It does all these things with lots of precision.
Now don’t get me wrong; you will not get the same quality you will get with a professional setup. On the plus side, this device is brilliant for recording rehearsals, and rough demos. It captures the live sound very well, and clear, but still lacks the headroom of a professional setup. Take it for what it is, and that is a portable recording package. With a lot of recording knowledge and technique, you can get some really great sounding recordings out of this unit, and without it, you can still get some decent sounding recordings.

Sound

Like some of Boss multi-FX units, this boss unit has a COSM modeling system. This means that this unit will model lots of effects, amps and cabinets and that it does. I tried recording with just a guitar, and the BR600. I was able to make a song with clean effected tones, some distorted parts, a bass track, an acoustic part, and a drum beat. It can make your guitar sound like a bass, or acoustic, and as mentioned it simulates a huge variety of amps. As for the sound quality, it is pretty decent to make mockup recordings, and perhaps even for real recordings, although I find the tones to be a little too bright and cold for that, then again I am very picky.
As for the quality of the recording through the microphones, and the fidelity of the signal, I am impressed due to the size of the unit. With that said, don’t expect it to rival a pro setup. The sounds is very good, but lacks headroom and dynamics, which is why I say this product is amazing for recording mockups, or rehearsals rather than actual album recordings.
Compared to other portable devices this unit is amazing, but here “portable” is the key word.

Reliability

Boss products are built like tanks. This one is made out of plastic, however, let us just call it a “plastic tank”. It feels very sturdy, with every button and knob feeling rock solid, and smooth in motion. I carry this device a lot and it still works and looks like new. It is definitely very reliable, and has more features than I know how to use, which makes it a reliable tool for all sorts of people.

Customer Support

I have little experience dealing with their customer support.

Review:Electro Harmonix USA Reissue Big Muff Pi

December 26th, 2008 by Andres Gallo

Big Muff
$77

Design

This score scores high in its design with its simplicity, and range of tones. The pedal seems very reliable, and the knobs are very smooth. And while simplicity may sound like a bad thing to some, it does not stop the possibilities with this pedal, and the fact that there is no other pedal like it. This pedal is legendary. Now I am not saying the design is perfect. While it has a lot of control over the tone, all while being simple, the pedal has a huge design turn off. The physical design is huge, and clunky looking, which I honestly think was purposely done to look like the original. Luckily EHX, however, now offers a new Big Muff called “Big Muff with tone wicker,” which supposedly is the same thing in a smaller package with some new stuff for more control. Another aspect I disliked in the design of this amazing pedal is the power input which requires a non-standard plug for the AC adapter; fortunately all the pedalboards I have tried come with a cable to power the big muff, in case you are all wondering.

Sound

Thick, warm fuzz sound. There are many fuzz pedals, however, I think this is the best out of them all, with it’s low tightness thickness. Many of you may be wondering why I like its low-fi thickness. This is not a distortion pedal, but is something much more original, which is what made it so popular. It’s low-fi tightnness prevents the sharp distortion sound, but instead creates the famous smooth creamy buttery fuzz sound this pedal is so famous for. With only three knobs, you get some really cool tones, all which may be completely different. The sustain knob can give it some more sustain and gain, and when raised high, it can give some incredible sustain that sounds absolutely beautiful. The tone knob can make the sound very fuzzy and bright/gritty, and even liquid. The volume knob does its job nicely, and the pedal is very quiet. Another great thing about this pedal, as well all the new Electro Harmonix pedals is their true bypass. This means you won’t lose signal while the pedal is off, which PREVENTS something I find really annoying when there are too many pedals involved. That something is of course…signal loss, and such does not happen here.

Sound

Thick, warm fuzz sound. There are many fuzz pedals, however, I think this is the best out of them all, with it’s low tightness thickness. Many of you may be wondering why I like its low-fi thickness. This is not a distortion pedal, but is something much more original, which is what made it so popular. It’s low-fi tightnness prevents the sharp distortion sound, but instead creates the famous smooth creamy buttery fuzz sound this pedal is so famous for. With only three knobs, you get some really cool tones, all which may be completely different. The sustain knob can give it some more sustain and gain, and when raised high, it can give some incredible sustain that sounds absolutely beautiful. The tone knob can make the sound very fuzzy and bright/gritty, and even liquid. The volume knob does its job nicely, and the pedal is very quiet. Another great thing about this pedal, as well all the new Electro Harmonix pedals is their true bypass. This means you won’t lose signal while the pedal is off, which PREVENTS something I find really annoying when there are too many pedals involved. That something is of course…signal loss, and such does not happen here. Sound wise, I think this is a pedal that should be on everybody’s pedalboard; its that good.

Reliability

The construction is very solidly built. It was built in New York, where manufacturing standards are high. I just wish they could have made the pedal a lot smaller, as it would definitely fit in a smaller enclosure. I have been using this pedal for years and it still works and sound the same it did when I got it.

Customer Support

Some of the best customer support I have dealt with. They are very quick to reply. I never had an Electro Harmonix product break on me, therefore I don’t know how they deal with repairs and such.

I welcome you readers to send in your reviews/tutorials

December 26th, 2008 by Andres Gallo

This site is brand new, and in its early state It still has lots to grow, with more article and resources. I made this website as a resource to help other fellow guitar players, as well as to learn from others. If you readers have written a review that I could post on the site, or if you have written a tutorial that you wish to show the world, so they can learn from it, I will be glad to post it here. You may send it through a comment, or an email.

Thanks for all the help. If you all have any suggestions on something you would like to see on this site, please let me know.

Review:Line6 Pocket Pod

December 23rd, 2008 by Andres Gallo

PocketPod
$129

Design

This device was designed with portability in mind and that shows. I personally find it too thick to be “pocket friendly,” but it is very small for all it does. The design is very space economical and smart through out. You know how on a keyboard holding the shift key changes the function of other keys. The same principle is used here, allowing lots of manipulation to the sound out of only four knobs, two buttons, and a 4 way pad button. The knobs control the gain, effect, delay, and volume for the preset, or they can be used to equalize the bass, midrange, top end, and reverb. In addition, it has what makes a pod what it is; this is some really good cabinet simulations, amp simulations, and a load of effects. Also available in the Pod is a tuner and a tap tempo button and LED for the delay. There is also the possibility to choose the output type, so that you can get the best sound using your headphones, cabinet, PA, or whatever it is that you’ll use as output.
Being a pocket-able device it can run on batteries, (I recommend rechargeable batteries as they only last a few hours) and will give all sorts of tones everywhere. The one thing I wish they had included is the possibility to install the Pod footswitch, but I guess they left it out as it is supposed to be pocket-able, and that would defeat the purpose.

Sound

This little thing can deliver some great sound when used with really good headphones. The “digitalness” is always there, but still, for the size and the price you get an endless amount of tones. Also make sure to use it with warm sounding headphones, cause the sound here is somewhat harsh with some settings. The high gain settings sound amazing for portable use, while the clean sounds are good but a little dry and cold sounding. I use the built in effects to liven up the clean sound.

Reliability

It is made of plastic, however everything feels very solid, and it has held up for over a year of abuse, and still feels solid. The construction I have no doubt is top notch.

Customer Support

Line6 has great customer support. They were very fast at replying to my questions.

Review:Bugera 333xl head

December 23rd, 2008 by Andres Gallo

Bugera 333XL
$599

Design

Design is something this amp head packs, especially for the price. It has three channels, an effects loop, and a whole lot of options. The amp looks and feels durable, and has a grill cover in the front, back, and top which should keep the tubes nicely ventilated, while at the same time making the amp look more attractive. The amp is very attractive, but I wish they had use real metal for the decorations.
Beyond the appearance of the amp, as mentioned the amp is feature packed. It has three channels, and comes with a footswitch allowing the player to switch between the three channels, as well as turning of the effects loop on ad off. In the front of the amp, it has some LED buttons that the user can also press to change the channel, and they stay lit to let the user know what channel is currently active. It also has a built in reverb, which functions with the same LED button principle.
Other things that have LED buttons in the amp is the effects loop, and the XL switches which boost the bottom end making the sound bigger. There are also knobs to control the parameters of all the functions turned on/off by these LED buttons. For example each channel has equalizing knobs and a volume knob, and all channels except for the clean channel have a gain knob. The reverb also has a knob to increase/decrease the reverb, and the effects loop has two knobs to control the signal in the send/receive output and inputs, giving the player immense versatility.
Not forgotten are the very important Master volume knob, Presence knob, Standby Switch, High and Low gain inputs, as well as the line out. The presence knob for example is a really awesome EQ type control.
The design is not perfect however. One thing I don’t like about the design, is that its construction uses plastic knobs, which makes me wonder how other things inside are constructed, and one thing which is really annoying is that the noise gate does so little controlling hum, it almost seems as if it was broken or something.

Sound

Let’s get the negatives out of the way first. There is always a really annoying background noise in the background, which is annoying as you use higher gain pickups, and higher gain tones. This is not a problem unless you have really high gain pickups, and have a tendency to put the gain all the way up. However, such problem is easily controlled with a good noise suppressor, and the amazing tone this amp delivers makes it worth it. Every tube amp, I have tried hums anyways.
On the clean channel the background noise is almost not there, and the clean channel is very warm and pristine. It’s surprisingly good at this price, especially considering this is a high gain amp. It is one of the sweetest clean channels I have heard. The clean sound has lots of vivacity, and very articulate definition. The clean sounds really amazing with single coils or coil split humbucker pickups. It has so much body, yet the notes all ring out so nice and clear.
The crunch channel allows for a huge range of tones, going from a light overdrive all the way to Van Halen type tones, and impressively the sound stays defined through out.
The lead channel has lots of bottom end, and lots of gain, which make the leads really stand out. I can see some people would like to use this channel for overwhelmingly heavy riffery, as it can have some levels of gain that are just insane. In other words the versatility with this amp is phenomenal. The lead channel however begins to lose clarity when pushed to the extremes, however, I don’t see why anyone would play with such a gain packed tone.
While each channel sounds splendid, is the ability to do really good clean, and high gain both in the same amp, that makes it special. At this price range amps usually perform outstandingly in one, or the other, and sometimes neither, but never on both clean and high gain applications. This is a do it all amp, and once again I have to remind you readers that the clean channel is phenomenal, and so is the crunch channel, both which are “toneful” and extremely versatile.  In spite of the few negative things I mentioned this is without a doubt one of the best, if not the best value in high gain amps.

Reliability

The construction of the amp, feels well constructed. The only thing that worries me is that the material of the knobs, the grill and decorations is plastic when it should have been metal. With that said, I am left wondering about what to expect of the materials in the inside, but I am confident it will last. It sounds so good, I am sure, or at least hopeful, it’s construction was all thought out, but I guess I’ll find out with more time.

Customer Support

I have no experience with their customer support.

Review:G7th capo

December 23rd, 2008 by Andres Gallo

G7th Capo
$39

Design

There is a reason why this is marketed as the best capo in the world. This capo is indeed the best capo in the world, and if it isn’t it’s has to be there with the best. I remember the day I bought it I was somewhat hesitant to buy it, for it has a price tag thats twice of other options. Fortunately the salesman convinced me to buy it.
There are all sorts of different capos. On some you clip the capo onto the guitar, and on others you tighten the capo with a screw/cam. This capo however is very different in design. I always found the other capos very annoying to use, and here is something that fixes every problem in all the other designs. The string clamp capos, and most other quick on/off capos would sometimes drive the strings out of tune when on, applying too much pressure against the fretboard. The cam lever capo, allows the player to set the necessary amount of pressure against then neck, which is great, however setting up and removing the capo is annoying as it takes longer.
You may all be wondering how the g7th is different. Well, it is really easy to setup on the neck of the guitar. You just place it on the neck and push the capo closed on the neck. And you can close it with as much or as little force as you want which means that it will always have the right amount of pressure on every guitar. To top it all up, the capo is also much smaller than the other designs. In other words, the design is “pure genius.”

Reliability

I have had mines for a while, and it looks very durable. The metallic material looks and feels very sturdy. The mechanical system used to hold the pressure for the capo moves so smooth, that the construction seems top notch.

Customer Support

I have no experience dealing with their customer support. This product is so well done and intuitive, I don’t see anyone needing any customer support anyways.

Review:Roland Micro Cube

December 23rd, 2008 by Andres Gallo

Roland Micro Cube
$125

Design

Pure genius. Well, if those two words described my entire review, I would not be too far from the truth. This amp is in my opinion probably the best practice amp for most guitarists who like to have a simple, but decent setup for home use where volume is kept constrained to avoid having “killer” neighbors.
Growing up I always wanted a big tube amp even though it would be used in my “lonesome bedroom gigs”. Turns out, for low volumes, it is better to avoid tube amps, especially huge loud ones. Tube amps will sound very tinny and fizzy at low volumes, which is why I feel this solid state amp is the greatest bedroom amp I have tried so far. For this application, the design is almost flawless. This Roland is really small, it’s built like a tank, has various effects already built in, and performs rather well. This Roland also runs batteries which makes ideal for small jams out in the park with some friends, especially if they got the same amp.

Sound

While not the best sounding amp I have ever heard, nor anywhere close, this amp sounds very very good. The amp is very small, yet it has plenty of volume for the bedroom practice application, and yet more. While I feel this amp would probably sound much more powerful with a bigger speaker, I feel the size of it is such an important feature that I feel I can’t take points away for not having a bigger speaker. With it’s small speaker unfortunately the sound lacks warmth, sounds bright, but maintains a pretty decent amount of clarity which is what I like about it.
Being a modeling amp you can get various tones with it all which may be completely different. You can go all the way from clean, to overdriven tones, to metal distortion. It also has some effects built in, which makes it a great amp for the usual bedroom guitarist who is just starting to experiment with effects. I personally think the effects are good, but lack control of their tone. I wish there was some kind of tap tempo button for the delay for example. That is just me being nitpicky, however. This amp sounds great, and has lots of useful tones, in a small package, making it very versatile.

Reliability

I have enough experience with Roland equipment to feel confident purchasing their products. The construction of their products is always top notch. This amp looks like it is built like a tank.
Who knows…with all the features it has for the price, it may have a hidden “turn to tank” button.

Customer Support

Roland has great customer support as long as you are within their warranty period. Their customer support is one of the best I have experienced.

Review:Ibanez RGT42DX

December 5th, 2008 by Andres Gallo

RGT42dx
$699

Design

This guitar is absolutely gorgeous. This is my favorite guitar at the moment, with the most comfortable combination of body and neck, which makes it a greatly designed guitar. The body is also made of mahogany, and the neck is a 5 piece neck with a rosewood fretboard to withstand weather changes and such. Another beauty in its design its the 5 way pickup switch which allows for a wide variety of tones.
My only gripe with this guitar is the hardware. The quality of the metal is not the hardest and requires care when locking and unlocking the strings with the allen keys. I changed the hardware on mines to an OFR and its almost perfect.

Sound

The guitar comes equipped with a pair of INF I and INF II pickups. The pickups are pretty good, especially in combination with the 5 way pickup switch which allow them to go from a good clean to a pretty nice heavy tone with lots of “oomph”. The mahogany also adds to that oomph, and helps in creating one of the sweetest sustains possible.
The lows are very powerful and the entire frequency response is very smooth. The sound has a very organic quality to it. There are better pickups out there, but the sound is surprisingly good, considering is an Ibanez made pickup. Once again the 5 way pickup switch is a really nice addition. You can get some really clean sounds with it, that are hard to get with a regular humbucker combination.

Playability

Playability like in most RGs is excellent. The Wizard II necks are one of the faster necks in the market, and the RG body only adds to the experience with its incredibly ergonomic superstrat body. This guitar is in my opinion on the most comfortable guitar in the market. It is so comfortable I recommend upgrading, since I can’t think of a more comfortable guitar.

Reliability

I have had this guitar for a long while, and everything has held up perfectly. However I changed the hardware to an OFR, and the pickups to Dimarzio D-activator X. This is one of those guitar that have such a great feel, that they are worth upgrading. Having another RG with the stock hardware I can say reliability is not an issue, unless you abuse the tremolo system.

Customer Support

Virtually non-existant. It took me a lot of work to find a way in which to communicate Ibanez. It turns out you actually call a completely different company.

Review:Ibanez RGR320EX

December 5th, 2008 by Andres Gallo

RGR320ex
$550

Design

There are lots of guitars in the market, but I have to say that most of them are very dull and plain looking. With the said I have to say this is one guitar which has one of the coolest paintjobs I have ever seen.

Appearance aside, this guitar has a really well done wood work. The neck is impressive especially at that price. I have to say it is one of the fastest, smoothest and fastest necks I have played on. The body is also extremely comfortable, and very balanced. Everything about the construction seems very carefully done. The only issue I have about the construction is the metal used in the screws for the locking nut. The metal is very weak and will likely lose the shape for the allen key.

Sound

The most important aspect aside from playability is the sound of course. I think the guitar sounds very good, but the clean does not sound too great, and on distortion can sound somewhat harsh. Most guitars suffer this at this price range, but everything else about this guitar is so perfect, it just hurts to see it suffer this (or more accurately hear it suffer this). I love a really clinical, yet warm clean. The sound is good enough for the price, but it could be better. A pickup change could be the needed solution for this guitar. It sounds decent, but it misses a lot of soul and life. The sound is very dry.

Playability

Here this instrument scores really high. It plays extremely well. It feels like an instrument many times its price. The neck is extremely comfortable, and fast that it is amazing at the price range. Some people may feel weird with the thin and flat feel of the neck. I however, find it to be very versatile for all kinds of techniques. What I mean by that is some techniques really benefit from the added string spacing, and the thinner neck also requires less of a grip, which makes everything smoother and quicker.

Reliability

I have had this guitar for about a year, and everything about it has held up perfectly. With that said reliability is not an issue, unless you plan to abuse the tremolo system, which can wear out with abuse.

Customer Support

Virtually non-existant. It took me a lot of work to find a way in which to communicate Ibanez. It turns out you actually call a completely different company.