• 5 stars on sound and concept, 1 on construction and general function

  
  As reviewed by eric on 12/13/2010

  I just bought one of these a couple of days ago. Here is my review: SOUND and CONVENIENCE: 5 stars. This thing offers some really great tube amp modeling. It's a godsend for anyone who wants to practice some ear-splitting rocking out when other people in the house are trying to work, sleep, or study. Or just for people who aren't very good yet and really want to improve their chops without giving the whole world something to laugh at in the meantime. DESIGN and CONSTRUCTION: 1 star. Terrible. The body is made of flimsy, cheap plastic. The buttons are made of flimsy, cheap plastic. This thing has the construction quality and durability of a Happy Meal toy. No, scratch that - I'd say the Happy Meal toy is probably tougher. If a curious baby were to bang this thing on a table top a couple of times, it would probably be broken. It looks terrible, too - like the bastard child of a computer mouse and a cheap, "giveaway" pocket calculator. They came up with an ingenious way to make the unit mount on just about any guitar by making it possible to rotate the plug. The problem with this is that there is no way to "lock down" the position once you've established it. There is also nothing to prevent the entire unit from rolling around in the guitar's output jack whenever you press buttons. You can't see the buttons when you have the guitar in normal playing position, and so you have to tilt the whole thing up to see them. If you have a guitar like a Les Paul that has the output jack on the side instead of the tip, you have to pretty much turn the entire guitar upside down to see the buttons. Included in the package are cables for plugging the unit in to your guitar with a cable instead of directly plugging it in to the guitar's jack. But the unit itself doesn't have a belt clip or anything else that you could use to attach it to something, which means it would jest be laying on the floor or a table top. If you pulled it off the table top and it hit the floor, the cheap construction pretty much guarantees that you won't be using it anymore. CONTROLS: 1 star. Also terrible. There is no display to show you what options you've chosen. The only way to select different amps, tones, and effects is to "scroll" through the options repeatedly by pressing the buttons and listening to the digitzed voice saying "Reverb level 1", "Reverb level 2", and so on. You cannot control the volume of this voice - it is permanently set at very high volume. You can choose to turn the voice prompts off, but you must do this every time you turn the unit on. Plan on either writing down or memorizing whatever settings you choose, because there is no way to save them. There is no "On/Off" switch - you must hold down the "Amp" button for about five seconds to do that, and the only thing on the unit itself that tells you this is a sticker on the back. The volume control itself is just a cheap little plastic slider that doesn't offer very intuitive control. METRONOME FEATURE: This unit has a metronome feature that allows you to set a beat and play to it. It's a great idea - except that there is no way to control the volume of this beat - it is pretty much set to "maximum volume", no matter where you have the actual volume set. If your idea of an effective metronome is someone smacking you in the ears with a hammer, then you might like this. You also are limited in what tempos you choose to eight presets, which you must scroll through in order to select. TUNER FEATURE: Works really well and is handy. Plays a tone for each of the standard open strings, and displays a differently colored light if the string is sharp, flat, or correct. It offers a crude-sounding but effective way to train yourself to tune "by ear", and you can double-check yourself with the lights. The tuner's frequencies cannot be changed so if you want to play in some other tuning, you can't use it. BATTERY: The unit is battery powered, which is handy. But it uses a 9-volt battery. It's a lot harder to find rechargeable 9-volt batteries than it is to find, say, AA batteries. The company conveniently makes their own rechargeable 9-volt batteries and charger. OVERALL EVALUATION: The sound is great. But for the price, one would expect much more rugged construction and a more intuitive interface.

  13 of 13 people found this review helpful.
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• Not good

  
  As reviewed by Matt on 1/12/2011

  I bought this based off of the good reviews and in store demo. After it broke in about a week (no sound) and was replaced I really put it to use and hated it. The sound wears on you and gets old quick. It now sounds flat and boring. Changing the sound is very limited and I can't stand it any more. Features: Very Limited Quality: OK although I had to replace it

  2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
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• Great Overall

  
  As reviewed by Toulooze on 7/26/2011

  The little amp works great and if you plug it into your instrument using a patch cord, you can change the settings as you play. Otherwise, you'd have to unplug it to adjust it. The headphones are better than you'd expect but the chord on them is way too short since there is no clip or device to clip it to your clothes. I chose this brand because of the multiple settings, but especially for the reverb. Unfortunately, there is a distinct hiss when reverb is used, even on the lowest setting.

  1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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