Overwhelmed by choices of Guitar fx/amp boxes

[Jafo]

As an ex-sales droid at Guitar Center who spent a lot of time demoing multi-fx units, I've formed a few opinions. Take them with a grain of salt and as always, trust your ears. In a more or less random order:

I've found the Roland/Boss units, such as the GTs and Cubes, to be excellent; they respond well, sound good, and can take a beating. I like their sound, especially the effects, but the amp models sound like models -- valid, but not entirely convincing. Still, even digitally they sound and feel like Boss or Roland products, and that says something.

Digitech boxen always seem to sound like Digitech products: great tone, but with digital artifacts. To a lot of us, they always sound like a badly encoded mp3 of a good recording. Still, you'll never hear the noise when live, so don't let that worry you. The GNX series are great, but I especially like focus of the Crossroads (Clapton) and Hendrix pedals.

Vox' Tonelab has great tone, but doesn't seem to be especially responsive. (I haven't used it enough to form much of an opinion.)

Korg's Pandora products are neat to experiment with, and you can probably record a home demo with them, but they won't cut it in a real recording. (Nor are they meant to.)

I haven't tried the Behringer products, but a lot of people speak highly of them, so they may be worth a try.

But my favorites are definitely the Line 6 products. The models are believable and responsive; they sound and feel great. Even my humble GuitarPort gives me all sorts of greasy, juicy tones. I'm leary of chaining the individual effects, but that's only because it involves so many A/D conversions. A lot of people are using them in professional recordings, and for good reason.

For distortions, I slightly prefer individual hardware boxen. My favorites are the Big Muff Pi, Tube Screamer, and Boss' Super Distortion and Blues Driver. Boss make great recreations of their pedals, and Line 6 do a great job with the Pi and TS, but the hardware devices seem to respond just a little bit better. Still, it's a subtle difference, and I doubt I could hear/feel in a blind A/B, so take this with a small mountain of salt!

Anyway, these are all excellent products. The best advice I can give you is to try them all out, and to only buy from a dealer which will allow returns (which is most of them).

[Newbie Brad]

My extremely picky friend is insanely happy about his DigiTech GNX 3000. I really like Tech21 products.

[Laguna Rising]

I have a bass V-Amp 'pro' (quite what is supposed to be pro about it, I have not a clue) and it's utterly shit. If it wasn't for the fact that I didn't pay for it, I'd be furious! Quite apart from the uninspiring sounds, it's output is low and noisy.

I would not recomend a V-Amp.

Same here, the difference is I bought it
I went back to the mic'ed amp and I'm happy with it. it's bothering me to have it in a room beside and keeping the cables running, but this way I close the door and I hear the sound from my monitors while recording.
Fortunately, my house is stand-alone and I haven't any problem making noise.
I'd like to hear demos of IK Ampeg svx but it probably will takes some time...

Cheers

[premiumcrap]

i would recommend : Try the new Zooms G2 /G2 U /B2
they really benefit from the high sample rate "96 khz I believe" and the 32 bit resolution.
they have everything from Twin til Highgain and for my
taste ,i did make the best recordings i did ever ,using
direct injection method.i tried sansamp,v-amp,pod2,di-box with
several sw amps,old zoom pedals.... Plus the new ZOOMs they are cheap ,have good
effects inside "specially tape delay-spring reverb.
after recording i chase the files through "AIPL Warmtone"
this gives a very realistic touch without any mic-hassle
or angry neighbors wanting hugging you.

[CapnLockheed]

I picked up a Boss GP-20,(now discontinued), on E-Bay
for just $35 and could'nt be happier. It makes a great
front end and has SPDIF out. That being said, I still
would rather mic up my trusty '56 Fender Vibrolux!



Cheers......CL