Conference napalm::guitar

Funny you should ask today.  I just bought one this morning.

Sick of spaghetti, and craving both a new distortion box and a reverb,
(my amp has none), I visited a local emporium (FM in Leominster), and
after diddling with it for 5 minutes, bought it for list, $249

It's not complicated, and I now have no spaghetti at all.  It sounds
good, although the factory presets aren't as good as the ones the guy
at FM had in his.

It has three banks of three sounds each, one clean, one crunch and one lead.
There are six simultaneous effects:  Compressor, Distortion/Overdrive, EQ,
Flanger/Chorus, Delay/Reverb and Noise reduction.

Each effect has only one knob, with limited control over each effect, but
in a useful way.  For example, the eq knob gives you different effects
depending on whether you're in clean, crunch or lead mode.

I'm playing through this thing at rehearsal tonight, more subjective comments
later.

But here are the specs:

48Khz sample rate
A/D 64x oversampled, 16 bit
D/A 16 bit
Dynamic Range 90db or more
Power Supply DC9V
Current consumption 250mA
Maximum input level/impedance +7.0 dBu/1Mohm
Maximum output level/impedance +6.0 dBu/5Kohm
Dimensions 11.1"W x 8.2"D x 1.5"H
Weight 1.1kg

At the bottom of the spec sheet it says "The appearance and
specifications of the G3 are subject to improvement without
any prior notice." Cute.

>There are six simultaneous effects:  Compressor, Distortion/Overdrive, EQ,
>Flanger/Chorus, Delay/Reverb and Noise reduction.
    
    Interestingly enough, minus the NR unit, those are the exact same
    effects that I have in my Boss pedalboard right now.  Even down to the
    sequence!
    
    Greg

After twiddling a little more I found that with clean sound, if you use any 
compression at all, there's an annoying little distortion present.  It goes
away when you turn the "drive" know all the way down. 

I found this with headphones plugged into the unit (yes it has a headphone out).
It may not be as noticable when playing through a speaker.  I'll find out tonight.

re .2  I guess it's a pretty standard configuration, aside from the debate about
which goes first, distortion or compression...

    This sounds like a pretty handy little unit! I think I'll try one out
    for myself, but if I like it, I'll order it from American Music Supply.
    They've got it listed for $209.99...........
    
    (Not trying to make you feel bad about paying $249!)
    
    Mike
    
    BTW, Korg has an 800 number if anyone is interested in hearing a demo
    of this little rig. The number is 1-800-FOR-KORG. The demo is done by
    the guitar player from KISS (forget his name), and it's kinda hard to
    hear clearly over the phone. What the h*ll! It's a free call!

    I jammed with some guys last night and the other guitar player had one
    of these.  Looked a little cheap (plastic city), but sounded pretty
    good.
    
    gh

    I looked at one over lunchtime after hearing the awesome demo...yes,
    you too can make your guitar sound like a cellular phone!  8^)
    
    The good news is the low price and you can write all the patch
    locations (unlike the earlier A5 where you could only write 5 out of
    30).  Also, the programming interface is simplified so anyone can tweak
    sounds in about 15 seconds.  The foot switching is set up so that in
    each bank you have one clean sound, one crunch sound, one lead sound;
    not a bad compromise for rock players, those that use more clean sounds
    than overdriven sounds may find this limiting.
    
    The bad news is *also* the programming interface!  One knob per effect
    (in fact, the compressor and distortion *share* a knob) means you
    don't have as much control over each effect compared either to stomp
    boxes or more expensive multi-FX units.  Which means you might not to
    be able to get the *exact* tweak you want.  The unit also seems to be
    missing a bypass!  
    
    Still, units in this price range from DOD, Boss, Ibanez, etc. have
    fewer effects and no presets at all.  
    
    								Brian

I think it trades flexability for cheapness too.

It does have a bypass.  Just press any pedal that's already selected,
it will blink and the unit will be in bypass.

Another non-obvious point is that the noise reduction level is also
stored with each preset.  A handy feature.

    Boy, things move quickly these days.  Saw a used one in Daddy's
    already, $170.
    
    							Brian

grrrrrrr