ElectroniX STRONGHOLD

This is the single-gain, blue Stronghold pedal, not to be confused with the more expensive Dual Stronghold. There are three controls to this unit, so there is not much of a learning curve. The tone control acts as expected and there doesn't seem to be any issues with clipping when the volume knob is increased. There is a noticeable pop when toggling between the Solo and Rhythm options. The pots all seem to turn smoothly and there don't seem to be any major jumps between settings. Controls are simple and effective.

I have a vintage early 80's Guild D-25. This guitar has a particularly strong, beefy midrange due to the bowl shaped back and mahogany construction. Piezos tend to really take away the warmth and and fullness of the tone on the guitar. Light, 80/20 bronze strings by Elixir.

Currently, I'm using this preamp with the Refflex pickup also made by ElectroniX. I should say at this point that I'm no way affiliated with the company...I just was looking for a decent way to provide a better acoustic tone than the standard undersaddle piezo at a reasonable price and stumbled upon these products on ebay.

My impressions of the preamp are pretty favorable. Certainly not a bells and whistles device, this doesn't have a lot of options on it. The tone control does what you expect it to and emphasizes some frequencies at the expense of attenuating others. I preferred the rhythm setting for the toggle--the solo was brighter than I like and seemed to rob the acoustic roundness from my tone. I've primarily played this through an M-Audio preamp into M-audio BX-8 studio monitors, so problems with noise or clipping would be easily noticeable.

This is a very low noise device and the volume boost seemed warm and clear throughout the entire selectable range.

Note that there is no feedback/notch filter, 3 band eq, etc. Just a very simple, nice warm boost for a pickup.

I like the construction of this pedal quite a bit. It's sturdy, compact (you could probably carry it in the pocket of your jeans), and seems to use good components. I don't foresee any problems with this pedal. However, I've had it for just a week.

They answered my ebay questions very quickly and were friendly. I think this may even be a one-man operation, so that I doubt it would be too difficult to get things taken care of should there be a problem.

Considering the price, this is an excellent buy. Other pedals have many more options, but fairly high price tags. Also, I think if you're using a poor pickup with a low quality guitar, you might be better off with a digital unit w/some sort of modeling.

However, I like the Refflex and the sound of my guitar unplugged, so this unit compliments those nicely. This pedal would not seem to be able to mask a poor tone, but it will add a pleasing punch and fatness to an already quality acoustic/electic setup.