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I played one today at Guitar Center and thought it was pretty cool so I figure a review is in order. The one I played was the 5 watt version, but there is also a 10w version too. This is pretty small, but I was amazed by the clean channel and volume it produced.
I'm not saying it's loud, but for such a small solid state unit, the clean was ample enough and loud enough for a lot of home/studio activities. I would have expected a little unit like that to have a cruddy speaker breakup but it held together nicely with the volume up to 3/4.
The clean channel was what impressed me the most. It's lush, feels natural and responsive, and has pretty good dynamics for a solid state device. I meant to only spend a few minutes tinkering with it, but I ended up playing with it for about 20 minutes. The tone is very warm and natural and I didn't expect that.
From there I switched to the crunch, then lead, then modern voicings. I noticed a significant volume reduction on the lead channel. The lead channel was like they took all the openness and brilliance of the clean channel, added gain, and compressed it some. There were plenty of good sounds in the gain modes, but they weren't as inspiring as the clean mode.
It has some effects and they blend very nicely with the modes. The volume difference between the clean and gain modes bothers me, but I wonder if there was something wrong with that little amp. If anyone else has played one, let me know if you noticed the same thing.
They're priced at $199 I think, but I have seen a lot of places price them around $175. I think it's a great investment for people who want a good sound but don't need all the amp models and elaborate effects that POD's offer. I didn't play with any of the output options, and haven't looked into it either because I have no plans to get one. However, I think it's a serious contender to the POD for home and studio use, plus it can also be used as a low volume amp that can be carried around on one finger.
Oh yeah, it also glows orange inside but it's just an LED. There aren't any tubes in it. I think that's kind of cheesy, but maybe other people like it.
I'm not saying it's loud, but for such a small solid state unit, the clean was ample enough and loud enough for a lot of home/studio activities. I would have expected a little unit like that to have a cruddy speaker breakup but it held together nicely with the volume up to 3/4.
The clean channel was what impressed me the most. It's lush, feels natural and responsive, and has pretty good dynamics for a solid state device. I meant to only spend a few minutes tinkering with it, but I ended up playing with it for about 20 minutes. The tone is very warm and natural and I didn't expect that.
From there I switched to the crunch, then lead, then modern voicings. I noticed a significant volume reduction on the lead channel. The lead channel was like they took all the openness and brilliance of the clean channel, added gain, and compressed it some. There were plenty of good sounds in the gain modes, but they weren't as inspiring as the clean mode.
It has some effects and they blend very nicely with the modes. The volume difference between the clean and gain modes bothers me, but I wonder if there was something wrong with that little amp. If anyone else has played one, let me know if you noticed the same thing.
They're priced at $199 I think, but I have seen a lot of places price them around $175. I think it's a great investment for people who want a good sound but don't need all the amp models and elaborate effects that POD's offer. I didn't play with any of the output options, and haven't looked into it either because I have no plans to get one. However, I think it's a serious contender to the POD for home and studio use, plus it can also be used as a low volume amp that can be carried around on one finger.
Oh yeah, it also glows orange inside but it's just an LED. There aren't any tubes in it. I think that's kind of cheesy, but maybe other people like it.
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