A few months ago a very kind friend lent me a multi-effects unit. Historically I’ve not been a fan of multi effects, whilst they are usually a cheaper option when looking for effects, they usually tend to be dumbed down versions with individual pedals offering more bang for their buck. The only multi effects unit I’ve owned in the Digitech RP80. It’s an Average-To-Poor multi effects pedal. The reason it gains the Average-To-Poor rating is due to the “gap” it leaves when changing between tones making it useless for gigging. It’s great fun for playing around though and I’ve enjoyed it a lot.
Compared to the RP80, the AX1500G could quite possibly fly a shuttle to the moon. A myriad of foot pedals, buttons and displays greets the onlooker with, what is at first, a troubling and intimidating control system. At first glance the unit looks like there is far too much to learn and take in before it can be used, but flicking through the presets provided by Korg is simple and done at the touch of a button, or should I say stomp of a pedal. The pedal ships with 48 tones already loaded and with space for 48 of your own. The prebuilt tones range massively and there are plenty to go at.
My first impressions of the unit were good. Browsing through each of the preset tones gave a large variety with thick, heavy distortion right through to light, reverberating clean tones. The pedal is plug and play and simply requires power an input and an output, this includes pumping straight out to a pair of head phones as the pedal has it’s own on-board modelling”amps”. After very little time at all I was flicking through the presets jamming away with myself using the tone at hand as a starting point. With an easy to use, if slightly ‘clunky’, mechanism for changing tones, skipping from one tone to the next was enjoyable enough for someone just picking up the pedal. None of the gaps in sound that the RP80 presented were seen with the AX1500G and with some clever aligning of tones this pedal could easily be used for gigging, though it may be worth considering some of the alternatives if you were looking for a gig pedal.
It was all going swimmingly with the unit, I was enjoying playing around making some tones and generally checking out the pre-mades when everything ground to a halt. I instantly stopped playing with the tones and ceased to make my own. I had discovered a huge problem.. In my toying with the device I’d stumbled across the sampling ability the pedal offers. While straight forward and, as far as I could work out, only allowing a single sample, the AX1500G had just offered me someone to rock with.. myself! I’m fairly sure I’m not too obnoxious in the world of jamming, I tend to keep myself fairly quiet and in the corner, rather than being the bloke who cranks his amp to 11 while everyone’s still tuning up, so playing with myself (*insert childish giggle here*) was awesome and much more entertaining that my usual Sunday morning solo jaunts. I’d lay down some rhythm and then noodle around over the top, or even play myself some bass lines and then play along as the rhythm myself. The sampling may be simple and lacking in layering, but its functional and allows for some nice effects.
All in all the AX1500G is not to be sniffed at. It’s a little out dated now and I’m assuming a newer model is available, but if you pick one of these up on eBay or similar for a song you won’t be disappointed!
CosmicMeltdown says: 4/5
