Re: iStomp users?
I bought one from Musicians Friend for $40 a week and a half (or so) ago, and for $40 it's definitely worth it. Although I mainly bought it for the Lexicon Reverb (which sounds fantastic, and doesn't effect my straight signal at all), and the Pitch Vibrato (also sounds very very good....and definitely cheaper than buying a VB-2 for occasional use). I figure $40 for a good sounding reverb is definitely worth the price. Everything else is an extra bonus.
That said, after having messed with it, and some of the other effects (mostly modulation and delay/verb)...The majority of the effects aren't really all that great. The Chorus' sound really cheesy to me, either way to heavy, or barely noticable. The Flanges both sound about the same as the Chorus'. All the Reverb's are really good, a few different flavors of verb, the Lexicon model, and the Spring verb sound especially nice (spring isn't 100% accurate, but still sounds good), none of the verbs have any noticeable digital weirdness (none that I've noticed so far). The Delays seem to be Hit or Miss, some are really good, some are really cheesy...All are unusable for me, cause I need tap tempo, and the iStomp requires you to hold the switch down for 2 seconds to activate tap...which isn't really usable in a live setting....Haven't tried any of the dirt pedals, so I can't comment on those. The Pitch shifters/POG clones, sound decent for single note runs...but they're not polyphonic, so it can be rather glitchy if you're not a very precise player (or decide to play any sort of chord), and it's not a fun kool sorta glitch...more like an alarm clock having a stroke, sorta glitching...Same with the Boss Octave Clone....The Tremolo's sound nice, nothing incredible but definitely usable....The Synth Model, and Auto Wah/Envelope filter, sound just god awful. And the Triggers for both are so touchy they're basically unusable (for me at least).....Tried it on Bass too, and really most models don't sound at all decent on bass. The Envelope Filter and Synth actually sounded Worse on bass than on guitar.
So basically...My opinion, based on my very short time with mine...If you're looking for a Really good sounding Reverb, a Good sounding Pitch Vibrato, a very Usable (albeit generic) Tremolo, Some Decent Delays, and possibly some other random Mod fx and dirt/comp sounds...Then it's worth $40. If on the other hand you're looking for GREAT modulation effects, anything the requires tap tempo in a live setting, or Synthy/Autowha or Pitchshifter/POG style sounds, skip it.
