Alesis GuitarFX

Really easy to use.

It's noisy if you want clean distortion :( But flanger, clean sound and overdrive are great!

Well mine was warking well, and then, all of a sudden, it stoped working. When i plug my guitar in, connect it to an amp, there is no sound :S I dont understand what could be a problem, there is simply no sound at all (tuner is working)

I cant find any1 to fix it.

Help me fix it, i gave a lot of $$$

The user interface is very easy to understand. Editing patches is very easy to do. And the manual is very easy to understand too.

I bought mines at a webshop, so I had no oppertunity to test it.
I already had a Alesis Nanoverb which sounds good/very good in combination with a Marshall 8200 stereo head. So i had high exspectations about the Alesis guitarFX. So when i got it at home, i tested it. All the sounds are more or less bad sounding. It even don't come close to the quality of a Nanoverb. Some effects sounds very digital and the delay/reverbs sounds very poor. The distortions are a real disaster, the hiss sound is killing the pleasure. The pitch effects is useless....... In other words, the userinterface is good, but this Blue Box is lacking of good sounds.

I can't give a good opinion on this category, because after 3 hours of testing i was completely overwelmed by the bad sounds it made.
So it went straight back to the webshop.

I can't give a good opinion on this category because i never had contact with Alesis.

I play the guitar for more than 35 years and this "thing" is the most useless multieffect I have ever tested. The inside processing unit is a very bad way of Alesis to show what their capabilitys are.
I think they have to rebuild it, because it is a poor concept.
What i loved about it, is the ease of editing the presets. What i don't liked about it, is the bad soundproccesing and soundquality.
Anything i wished it had, at least the sound quality of a Alesis Nanoverb.

I found this unit to be very easy to use. I've read the other reviews, and I absolutely disagree about their opinions concerning the GuitarFX. All digital units require patience and practice to dial in sounds to one's liking. I play an esoteric style of Rock and Roll music, ala The Cure and The Sniths, and I found this little noisemaker to be perfect for 'alternative' tones that have to be savored for awhile to be truly appreciated.

The GuitarFX is definitely a different sounding unit than a Zoom or (uugh) Digitech multi-effects, but I really, really like the tones. As far as noise, well...yes there is noise on the distortion settings. This is why it is called DISTORTION. Any real experienced guitarist ALWAYS TURNS DOWN THE VOLUME CONTROL ON HIS GUITAR when not playing, with distortion settings active. Noise gates are a joke. Let's talk about the chorus and delay effects on the GuitarFX for a minute. They are fantastic. The chorus is pure 1986, and the delay blends with the chorus in a way that will make all the girls in your apartment building sit outside your window and listen to you play for hours.

A very light touch is all that is required for the dual footswitches. If you feel the need to 'stomp', then buy something made of steel. This is not a stomp box, so don't stomp on it and you are good to go. I have owned, played live, practiced, and traveled with this unit for three years without a single failure in the footswitches.

This is where Alesis fails hands down. Customer service is non-existent. I own an Alesis ION keyboard/synth, and wanted some information on a particular programming issue, and Alesis disapperead from Earth and went to Venus. In other words, I never got a response after three attempts.

I have reached the point where the GuitarFX is integral to my sound. I must have it in my sound chain, which is as follows: Fender Mustang Guitar(s), 2004 Alesis GuitarFX into the front of my 1993 Carvin SX-200 amp, 1990 Alesis Quadraverb (in SX-200 effects loop), TC Electronics Chorus (after Quadraverb in loop), Stereo outputs from the Quadraverb first back into the Carvin, then into my 1990 Fender Stage 160 as a slave. This is my sound and my set-up, and I wouldn't trade it for anything else at this point.

For a cheap pedal, they've tried to do too much. So you have quite a wide range of shitty sounding effects on a difficult-to-navigate unit, as opposed to a few killer effects on an intuitive unit. Anyone serious about programming their own effects is not gonna buy this, they'll go for something mid- or top-range.

Some interesting sounds but most of them are pretty crap. They should have had fewer sounds but made them higher quality.

Probably not a dependable unit.

The menu function is horrible. I don't wanna piss about with knobs on a cheap unit, I just want a list of sounds to scroll through with my foot, as is the case with the early Zoom pedals. A cheap pedal like this should just focus on providing a few reliable effects. This is not very straightforward to use and it's not worth making the effort to learn to use properly cos the quality of the effects is poor. On a cheap unit, they need to focus on quality not quantity.

See previous review posted 06/27/2005

See previous post of 06/27/2005

This is additional information. Since the previous review was posted, this unit has died. The first time I used it in a gig setting, the thing was dead (running my signal into the stereo channel of my Peavey Escort 2000 PA system). The batteries were fresh--but no sound. When I got it home and plugged it into my little studio amp--the thing worked fine--for about five minutes--then started cutting in and out.

In the previous review I had given this component a "no opinion" rating because I'd not had any dealings with the customer support at Alesis. Since then, I have formed an opinion and it is not a favorable one. I had e-mailed their customer support about the poor instructions for saving patch edits. Basically, the response I got was to place a long distance call to a certain telephone number. When I called the number I was informed there would be a 40-minute wait. I finally figured out the process on my own, but when I e-mailed them back to complain about the poor customer service, the tech who responded had the manners of a skinhead.
I've e-mailed customer support about other issues and received no response.

As indicated, previously, this is a unit to avoid. It has nothing to commend it over other units in the same price range.

I would not recommend this unit. When you attempt to edit the presets to create your own--following the instructions in the manual--the edited settings revert to the factory presets when you switch to a different patch. So the whole section about editing and storing your own settings is misleading. If I could I would give this unit a minus 10 rating for this alone. Unfortunately, "1" is the lowest rating possible on this site.

The sound quality is only marginally better than the comparatively ancient DOD AcousticOne FX unit I switched from. The reason is this has hum elimination and noise gate functions my DOD lacked. But the settings have to be set at the maximum to be of any use.

Haven't used outside of practicing yet. No opinion.

No opinion.

I play a lot of classic 60's and 70's rock and wanted this as an alternative to lugging around a lot of stomp boxes. I've been playing for over 35 years. I purchased this to replace an aging DOD multiFX unit. BIG mistake. I should have gone with Digitech (DOD's sister company) or Zoom--since they have proven track records in MultiFX units and Alesis is a relative newcomer to the field.

Well, the manual is horrible, but to make good effects in this pedal you need patience, I needed amount of time but now I make amazing effects

All the effects are good.. I have just one problem, When I set the Distortions with very much gain and put the Noise Gate it just stay whithout noisy when i'm not playing.. And the clean sounds are very good..
The Auto Wah of Alesis GuitarFX..... No comments.. It is very very good!

Good, I use a AC adapter and have no problem.. But I think that it was make of metal it was better of plastic

I never need help.. Because I never had a problem whith GuitarFX

I play a lot of styles... Hard Rock, Rock, Metal, Instrumental.. Alesis Guitar FX is good to my style, I can play all with it..
I play guitar about two years.. Sorry by my English.. Because here where I live the languange isn't English.. hehehe

The manual sucks and the little underlined letters that signify which effect you are using aren't very intuitive. Editing patches is pretty much the same as other low-end multieffects pedals I've used.

I'm using a Les Paul/Laney 100W head/1970 Marshall 4x12 cab. This unit is NOISSSSSSSSSY on ALL settings! I turn it on at night and use it to sleep instead of one of those wind machines! It's too bad cuz it has a lot of very interesting sounds and when I first tried it out it was with headphones and I liked it. Then when I hooked it up to the amp not only did I get hisssss, but also random pops and clicks. (And yes I tried different cables and even took it to a friends house and hooked it up to his guitar/amp)

After about the third time I used it, the input jack which is soldered directly to the board starting acting up. (Way to go Alesis..cheap construction). I would NEVER use this at a gig because I want a good sound and want to be booked again. Why would I back up a piece of shit with another piece of shit?

Unfortunately when I bought it, I was really busy in school and didn't even try it out until I had it about 2 weeks. When I discovered now crappy it was, it was too late to send it back to zZounds. zZounds requires that you call them within 2 days of receipt if there is something wrong with the item.
So they referred me to Alesis who suck. I could get no help from Alesis...they got my $69.99 and they refused to replace it even though I had only had it a couple of months.

I play classic rock and heavy metal. I have been playing about 30 years. If this was stolen I would laugh cuz the thief got the bad and of that deal. I love the blue color, and hate everything else. I picked this item because it was inexpensive and versatile. Unfortunately you get what you pay for. I ended up with separate pedals and a pedalboard, which is much better and believe it or not, less noisy.

I could never get anything good out of this because I couldn't properly work out how to use it for the first few months. I just ended up using the presets. Once you do get down to grips with it you realise what a piece of shit it really is.

Its ok for clean sounds but for distoriton its shit. But trying to make a sound it pretty hard.

Well, it doesn't look very solid but its yet to break. It is made of plastic. I would think it could take a bit of a bash around but I doubt its very solid. I don't know about gigging it, probably.

Not much point using the customer support for anything, it only cost 50 quid

Its a POS to be honest. I play a bit of everything and its not really good for anything. If it got nicked, I'd kind of be glad because I wouldn't have to go through the process of flogging it for whatever I could get. The best feature is probably the fact that you can mute it completley or just the pedal. Get any other multi effects, or just buy seperate pedals over time, much more worth it.

It's not extremely difficult to get a nice sound of it. I think for editability, this product is very worthwhile and ups the ante in its price bracket. The manual isn't very detailed though, and it doesn't mention anything about the factory presets. Had to download a manual from the alesis website to find out. Aside from that, this is a good, simple multi-effects pedal. It's so easy to use, 2 knobs only! The more defined tweaks have to be found out through experience and the manual though.

I'm using a laney HCM15R with this unit and I'm not gonna say its quiet - it's not very quiet, but it only happens when you enable any of the distortion settings, there's a slight hiss, but it's not too bad ( come on guys, it's cheap, don't compare it to the pod or anything ). The distortions are quite good, albeit digital sounding. The clean sounds are great! NO NOISE at all! And full sounding, like the reverbs and the chorus. This is a great unit for clean effects. I'd recommend using an analog pedal linked to this for distortions, but for clean tones, use the guitarfx. It's great.

One thing I don't like about this unit, it pops when it's jostled. I think there may be something wrong with the unit's earthing or grounding, or maybe I should just be more careful with it. Either way, if you're gonna use it live, don't kick it around, unless you want loud pops. Be careful.

It seems very well built, but the pedal selectors don't feel very sturdy. I'd probably use it without a backup since it's quite reliable, except for the 'popping' sound when jostled.

Alesis are great. They mail you back personally a day after you mail them. No problems there.

I play Christian music and some rock. I think this unit pretty much covers my styles. If it was stolen or lost, I'd just save up some more cash and get a pod. IMHO, it's better than the behringer X V-amp since drive and different distortions can be dialled in easily on the guitarfx, while the x v-amp doesn't allow for it. But , jostling and popping-wise, I think the x v-amp's circuitry has it beat.