I was going to wait until my pics were up on facebook to share!
But if there is that much interest I'll give a preview.
I was interested in this unit for duo gigs with my singer. For those, I usually just need a good clean sound and hauling the AxeFX around for a coffeehouse show is not so great. So I showed up at Long and McQuade telecaster in hand and asked to see one. They set me up with a brand new unit in the box (apparently one the first in town) in a practice room. I asked to run it through a PA, but that was a bit too much to set up, so we ran it through a fishman acoustic guitar amp, which was a close approximation. At least it had a tweeter.
The unit itself is really small and light. The photos and videos you see online does not prepare you for how tiny the thing is in person. You can really just keep it in your gig bag all the time and not really notice any extra weight or bulk. Having said that, it also seems very solid - like it would survive being dropped down the stairs without too much issue.
I tried the clean sounds first (the sansAmp part). This section has a full EQ (treb/mid/bass), volume, reverb and gain. It sounds surprisingly like a black face fender, even the flabby bass when cranked up
. I typically run the trainwreck express model on the AxeFX with the gain down for my clean tones. That model is very touch sensitive and is generally a joy to play. The sansAmp is not quite as good. I had to have the gain almost maxed to get the singing chime that I usually got, but then it was not as sensitive to pick attack and I had trouble getting it to sound clean by playing lighter. In the end I compromised a bit and ended somewhere in the middle. But the sound was very usable. The reverb in this section deserves a note. I personally don't like reverb and ended up with it turned off, but while it was on it was surprisingly accurate to an old single knob spring reverb. Except without the springs clanging away of course. very nice accurate reverb model.
At this point I hit the 'hot' button - which is a straight gain stage in front of everything. It was great! With my 'just at the point of breakup' setting on the sans amp hitting the hot button drove the unit to a very pleasant clean-ish but still with good sustain solo sound. Think hot country telecaster licks alla Marty Stuart. This was the best sound the unit made. I really really liked it. I ended up with set about half way up. It's excellent.
Then I tried the delay. ok, I confess that the delay in the AxeFX has completely spoiled me. The one in the little sansAmp is just not the same.
It's pretty good mind you, and works as advertized (the Tap tempo is cool), but it does not have that super lush sound that the AxeFX delay model has. Still, very usable. No one in the coffeehouse is going to know.
Finally I tried the plexi part. I didn't like it. Too buzzy, fizzy, with a scooped midrange. Really stiff pick attack - you know the typical Marshall thing. While I was at the store I could not get a good sound out of that section (IMHO of course). BTW, this section has a volume, gain and just a single tone control. I suspect it would sound better if I ran it using a regular guitar speaker, but that's not how I plan to use it so I didn't do that.
In the end I bought it and took it home! I had a few hours with it and fine tuned a few things. I did manage to get a usable sound out of the plexi section by turning the gain down all the way, turning the tone so that it would not fizz out and adjusting the volume to get the level back up. Not a super fantastic sound, but it has a bit of drive now if I want that long sustain thing. Doing that with the hot button is kinda fun, but not sure that I'd use it.
In the end, it's perfect for what I wanted it for - those coffee house things where I don't want to lug my road case with the AxeFX. The unit is so small and light I might just carry it to all gigs just in case.
Photos coming. I plan to take it apart as well - will get photos of that too.
Trevor
ccasion14:
