Guitar Player Magazine's SFX-03 Review

Re: Guitar Player Magazine's SFX-03 Review

Speaking of GP's advertising department...

If your thought the boots & booze ads a couple months back were bad, wait 'til you see MF's full-pager for their new 'friends and family' accessories section. Next time you mail-order yourself an Ibanez metal machine, get your hot babe girlfriend a "My Boyfriend's a Rock Star" t-shirt. Puh-leeze.

Not to take anything away from the SFX-03 review - well-deserved praise from a most credible source. Congrats.
 
Re: Guitar Player Magazine's SFX-03 Review

Jeroen said:
That's that very same pedal, with a different power adaptor :)
Click to expand...

yes bro. that's the exact same thing i am talking about.
 
Re: Guitar Player Magazine's SFX-03 Review

Kewl Evan, congrats on the good review.. too bad about the MIC part, though ;)

But at one point in the review I was just scratching my head, "...Crushing, Hiwatt-like distortion".... When was this review written, 1972? :laugh2:
 
Re: Guitar Player Magazine's SFX-03 Review

dani said:
evan, will there be an international model based on 220v ac?
Click to expand...
Yup. Look for it in the next month or two. There will also be a 100v AC version for Japan.

Zerberus said:
too bad about the MIC part, though
Click to expand...
It's made in China because our design philosophy is to deliver boutique quality pedals at impulse buy prices. The fact that the SFX-03 has the two NOS 6021 subminiature dual triodes, the toroidal transformer, the high plate voltage, true bypass, really well-layed out circuitry, and a heavy duty chassis is great and all. But the fact that it all comes with a USA street price tag of around $210 is really remarkable if you think about it. And that's what China allows us. Just some food for thought.

Gearjoneser said:
By the way, Evans new Celtic Evan Rude amp looks like a keeper!!!
Click to expand...
Not to hijack my own thread, but the design criteria for the Celtic Evan-Rude is a high-headroom amp that will rely on the SFX-03 as the pre-amp. Yes, I actually custom-designed a rig around this pedal. It's that good.

Thanks for all the comments, everyone. We're really psyched about this pedal. And.... there are more pedals to come. Shhh....
 
Re: Guitar Player Magazine's SFX-03 Review

Never trust magazine reviews. The gear companies give mega $$ for advertising in those mags, and the mags aren't going to give them a crappy review and jeopardize the chance of the company cutting back on their advertising in that particular mag. Example: I use SAW STUDIO for multitrack recording now exclusively. THIS GUY turned me on to it and I haven't looked back. Well simply put, this particular program FAR outpaces "Sonar", "Cubase" and even "Pro Tools" (or as I call it, "Slow Tools") and anything else out there and I've tried them all. I wrote to "Recording Magazine" and asked them why I had never heard of SAW before. The editor replied that they wouldn't do a review on a program such as SAW simply because it is not something that is widely used. He also pointed out the fact that you won't see SAW at the NAMM shows. However, the fact remains that product developer and proprietor of "RML Labs" Bob Lentini sinks all of his money into product development instead of advertising. Why in hell would Recording Magazine or Electronic Musician do a review on SAW when they receive ZERO advertising revenue from them? Also, why would any of these magazines give a crappy review of a Digitech product for example when Digitech pays them so much $$ for their full 1 and 2 page color ads? Sure they may not give the product a perfect 10, they have to mention a certain amount of cons to each product to make it look good but you'll SELDOM see a crappy review of anything like that in GP or GW or any popular magazine.

READ THIS for a view from the inside. Peace all.

Karl
 
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Re: Guitar Player Magazine's SFX-03 Review

Lerxt said:
...
Click to expand...
have you read the rest of the thread? and by george, why would you post a link to an article on ed roman's site???


anyway, good review. i will definately take a trip up to guitar center very soon, maybe with a few bucks. :fingersx:
 
Re: Guitar Player Magazine's SFX-03 Review

Consider this, when Guitar Player first wrote its glorious review of Matchless amplifiers, basically the review that put Matchless on the map, they had never placed an ad in any major guitar magazine.

Also consider that Guitar Player has written very negative reviews of gear submitted by advertisers.

Lerxt, I don't doubt your experience with Saw Studio and Recording Magazine, but to extrapolate from that to "Never trust magazine reviews" may be just a wee bit of a stretch.
 
Re: Guitar Player Magazine's SFX-03 Review

I read that link. I know all about ER and I agree that he is a very opinionated and arrogant guy. I've also read several things about the guy that would cause me to be very careful if i were to ever deal with him. I live only about 80 min from his store and I do intend on stopping by soon. But just because the guy is an arrogant a-hole doesn't mean that he doesn't know his stuff. I hardly agree with everything he says (like his PRS rants). I've seen articles that he's written in magazines in the past so apparently I'm not the only one who thinks he knows his stuff. I honestly think that he does make decent instruments and I intend to go and try out a Quicksilver when i go down there. But I also agree with what others have said in the fact that if you're Ted Nugent, Leslie West, Buck Dharma or Ace Frehley (or any number of famous players who deal with him often) you can count on top of the line service but if you don't have a bottomless pit of money, be leery because he'll screw you in a second. I'm not exactly "pro ER" but I don't think the guy is 100% full of it. Just my opinion. Later.

Karl
 
Re: Guitar Player Magazine's SFX-03 Review

Pecan said:
I listened to the sound clip on this site and liked it, but I couldn't see me using it for my main type of music. Does anyone know if it can handle heavy rock like velvet revolver and metal like iron maiden?
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I saw one today at GC , the pedal is about the size of a laptop LOL. I`m wondering the same thing though can it do hard rock , high gain stuff like my Tonebone Hot British?
 
Re: Guitar Player Magazine's SFX-03 Review

Nice one Evan!

If I see the SFX-03 in my local guitar shop next time I go in, I'll definately give it a try out ;)
 
Re: Guitar Player Magazine's SFX-03 Review

Went to GC this morning,to try the twin tube,it appear that the one they have was shipped with a euro power source.
Bummer.


on a different note i wouldn't trust ED,i spent a sunday morning reading his website and concluded that he's full of himself.
Disclaimer: that my opinion
 
Re: Guitar Player Magazine's SFX-03 Review

Evan, Why are the tubes not user replacable?
 
Re: Guitar Player Magazine's SFX-03 Review

Evan can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's because the tubes are wired directly onto the circuit board. These tubes have wire leads and not pins like most guitar-related tubes have. Therefore, a qualified tech needs to replace them. It would be easy to incorrectly wire the tubes back in wrong (most guitar tubes are fool-proof in terms of installation etc where these aren't). The upside is that with the life these tubes have built right into them, they should last an obscenely long time. Tube replacement isn't so much of a worry with these units.
 
Re: Guitar Player Magazine's SFX-03 Review

Gr8Scott said:
Evan can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's because the tubes are wired directly onto the circuit board. These tubes have wire leads and not pins like most guitar-related tubes have. Therefore, a qualified tech needs to replace them. It would be easy to incorrectly wire the tubes back in wrong (most guitar tubes are fool-proof in terms of installation etc where these aren't). The upside is that with the life these tubes have built right into them, they should last an obscenely long time. Tube replacement isn't so much of a worry with these units.
Click to expand...


Is this done because of size considerations, that is, would a regular tube w/pins and a socket cause the unit to be too large?
 
Re: Guitar Player Magazine's SFX-03 Review

I can't wait to give it my own review.

Rock On ~ Kac
 
Re: Guitar Player Magazine's SFX-03 Review

Evan Skopp said:
....It's made in China because our design philosophy is to deliver boutique quality pedals at impulse buy prices. The fact that the SFX-03 has the two NOS 6021 subminiature dual triodes, the toroidal transformer, the high plate voltage, true bypass, really well-layed out circuitry, and a heavy duty chassis is great and all. But the fact that it all comes with a USA street price tag of around $210 is really remarkable if you think about it. And that's what China allows us. Just some food for thought.....
Click to expand...

Evan, I fully understand the idea behind outsourcing (to other countries in this case), and the advantages it brings, and I´m not trying to rag on anyone for it or say it´s a bad product in any way. Again, congrats on the review :)

But for me personally, the moral disadvantages of putting money directly in the pockets of such a regime far outweigh any economic advantages. I understand fuly that the SD Company is in business to make money, but this is honestly the first move I refuse to support, for the same reason I don´t buy jade Buddhas, Asus Mainboards or Johnson guitars. Not because of SD (otherwise I´d already be gone) or the company making a bad product, but because of China. My beef with China is not the quality, but the ongoing Human rights violations and Intellectual Property Theft... And by buying a chinese product, I am directly supporting that.

Again, best wishes for the Pedal and it´s future... but the main candidate for finally replacing the V-twin just DQd itself before even reaching the starting line. But personally I´d rather pay 2-300$ more and have a clean conscience.... After all, my wallet doesn´t usually control my dreams ;)

But out of curiosity: It´s probably not possible to get one MIUSA/ MIJ /MIK for an upcharge, or? Duncan CS SFX-03, perhaps ;)

Peace :beerchug:
 
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