Korg 104ds Hyper Distortion

It's definitely not a Distortion+ in terms of simplicity but thanks to these reviews & a bit of fiddling around I quickly figured it out(no manual).

It sounds good, no denying that but I wouldn't say it's the best sounding ever. It's very versitile. I can get GREAT sounds straight into a mixer with the cab resonator feature. Lots of ways to shape your sound, almost too many options because you can get caught up in programming instead of playing. It didn't sound great with every amp I tried it with, my 1980 Marshall 2204 didn't like it. My Marshall Artist & my old Randall sound good with it. I'm going for insane high gain sounds. I plug this into already distorted channels, not into a clean amp. Seems to have a built in noise gate, no adjustment for it that I've found. When the effect unit is bypassed into a clean amp or mixer the volume difference is apparant. The Hyper Distortion isn't as loud as bypass. Kind of sucks. Also, when bypassed there is a strange digital hum emitting from it, very evident into distortion channels. This is with batteries. I plugged in an Ibanez power supply and then it stopped. I'm going to try to find a Korg power supply.

I had the sound switching randomly problem. It suddenly got all high ended. But it happened right before the batteries died on me so I think that has something to do with it. You'll know your battery is dying when the effect just starts cutting out, in a steadily increasing rate and the "Program" light blinks slightly.

I've been playing about 23 years, I play rock, pop rock, hard rock, whatever. I just like distortion a lot. This is not the greatest distortion ever but it's a good one. My Rat and XXL will still be used. The 2 saved distortions is a cool feature. I wish the bypass was better(less noise, equal volume). If I were to put this in a pedalboard I would buy an effects loop type switcher and have it in a loop so that annoying hum wouldn't be going all the time when it's off but maybe an actual Korg power supply will solve that.

not as ordinary as other pedals..but almost same controls except for the toggle switch

Great sound quality..people who reviewed this pedal were right.." it makes your small-cheap amp sounds like an expensive Marshall or Mesa.

THIS WILL END THE SHOW FOR THIS PEDAL...

1) It Reboots by itself..all presets will be lost in the process.
2) At times, it will not make any sound for no reason at all.
3) The volume just fades out or you just cant control the darn thing.
4) the volume from this pedal is always LOWER in the BY-Pass mode.

korg is as witty as hell, after the stupid release of this product..they just PHASED-OUT this darn thing. DID THEY TEST THIS PEDAL BEFORE LETTING IT SPREAD IN THE MARKET? DO THEY HAVE QUALITY CONTROL DEPARTMENT?

A suggestion to KORG... Just continue the digital quest and justleave the ANALOG area alone..

nice sound but crappy mechanism...WORTHLESS!!!!

At first it's a little intemidating but once you get the hang of the controls and the toggle switch it's not so bad.

The sound quality of this pedal is fucking spectacular!!! It sounds like a $1,000 amp. I play mostly hard rock and metal and this pedal is perfect for my tastes. Never gotten a better sound anywhere.

I have had some problems with my pedal fading in and out or sometimes just dropping out totally. I have found that sometimes if I unplug the unit and then plug it back in it kinda reboots it self. But the last few months the problems just keep getting worse.

I contacted Korg about my problems with the pedal and was informed since the pedal was out of warrenty then they would charge me $65 an hour to fix it. I said FUCK DAT!!! I will just buy another since it only cost me $135. Then I was informed that they don't make the pedal anymore so now I'm screwed.

Sound quality is fantastic but it doesn't do me any good if the pedal doesn't work properly half the time.

Read the manual first before anything else..not the ordinary stombox you used to know..

The BEST DISTORTION EVER...NO noise what so ever...better than MetalZone,Sansamp GT2 & DOD Deathmetal.GREAT for all heavy metal riffs and leads .FAT and HEAVY!!!

NO problem whatsoever..I'm using it for about 2 years now. 1-2 gigs a night. Use Lithium battery or better yen use an adaptor for better performance

DISTORTION pedal at its finest

well, it was basically a plug and play thing as far as i was concerned, it was a case of connecting up and away i go, the sound that i think sounds best is the factory settings, they suit me down to the ground

it sounds great, when it decideds to work, ive also got a ps 2 with it, and i can seem to get a nice thick phase yet, it sounds cool on overdrive but not too hot when using the thick distortion

funny story, true story, we went on stage the other night, we opened our first song was i fought the law (the clash) and after the first chord i dropped my pic and since i was singing as well couldnt bend down to pick it up, so i ended up strumming using my fingers, anyway point is, i stomped the stomp pedals and the program selector jkust jammed! and i was stuckk with thick distortion and a clean, which sucked cos i needed the overdrive for certain parts of the set. i have never been so pissed off in my life. all it needed was some oil on it, ill tell ya, im gonna get the metal zone pedal as a back up now.

i got my dad to fix it

we play punk ska and rock, so i need an overdirve sound, if its gonna keep sticking, then its going in the bin.

It's very easy to use. Just a glance at the instructions is necessary. Storing patches is easy too.

I'm using an Ibanez RG, an Aria 7 string and a Strat, with a Marshall Valvestate, and nothing else. I love the sound from this pedal.

There are 2 big probs with this pedal. 1 - the switches are dodgy. The program switch on mine broke, making the pedal un-useable, cos it was switching between patches about 5 times a second, and the effect switch is on the way out now. 2 - the pots sometimes decide they moved when they actually haven't, changing your sound without warning.

Had it repaired once, no prob.

Good pedal overall. Other than reliability, pretty much perfect. I play heavy rock, verging on metal, and it suits me completely.

very very easy~~~~~~

easiest distortion~~~~~~~~~~~very good

i use gibson lespaul standard...and marshall dsl2001 with

hyperdistortion and i use prs welborland custom

oh my god........ the best distortion in the world...

very heavy sound but smooth........,,mmm and never noisy~~~

very nice distortion~~~~

i only use 104 hyper distortion with dd-3......

i will no change this effect.....sound is excellent

no alternative~~~~~!!!

mm, i dont know.....

very very hard case.......so not break.....

excellent distortion

this rack in a stomp box~~~!!!

i recommend this effect all over the world~~~~~!!!!

very nice distortion

this thing is real easy to use. i won't go into how to do it since all the other reviews do and so does the manual.

i played this thing through a crappy fender princeton combo amp, which was usually very tinny sounding, but this pedal added significant balls. pretty good for smashing pumpkins and failure and chunky stuff like that. it adds nice low end without sacrificing note articulation or mid range. sucks when the distortion level is low but then again it's not an overdrive pedal, it's meant to be used in a hyper fashion. heh.

i bought this thing used from a music store so i'm assuming it was a demo model... after about 6 months one of the switches crapped out, rendering one setting useless, and now i get no sound out of it whatsoever. i would not use this for a gig at all, for reasons explained in "overall rating..."

never tried it

ok. this pedal sounds reel nice, but there's one thing that renders it useless to me: the music i play has alot of sudden dynamic changes. i often switch from clean to crunch very quickly and without warning. when switching from clean to crunch on this pedal, however, there is a slight delay before the distortion comes on. talk about being anti-climactic. there is no delay when switching from one preset to another, but only when going from clean to crunch. so if you're playing all distorted all the time, go for it, but if you can't live with this like me then don't bother at all.

Just twist the knobs, and play with the buttons.

I compared it to my boss metalzone, and ran it through my Marshall Valvestate amp, and my Mesaboogie Half stack. The distortion is very deep heavy crunch. Not treble heavy like the metalzone, and smoother sounding. If you know the song Mine are the eyes of god by the band Corrosion Of Conformity, then thats what this sounds like. You can even make the sound deeper if you want. I like it.

All metal, I guess we'll see.

Don't know. I've never talked to them.

If you like that deep heavy sound, then this is the best I've heard.

not so difficult.. but not easy

Very good.. you can get any kind of hard distortion from TS-9 to MT-2

but..noise reduction is not good.. it sucks high tone.

good,steel case

good. i've used all kind of stomp box.

this one could be acceptable. and..you can get sound, like rack-

system model thru this box