Korg 411fx Super Multi FX

Plug in and go. There aren't a lot of presets or spaces for your own programs like some processors, but it offers enough for most situations. The manual is in several different languages and a bit sparse. It took me about 15 minutes to learn how to store my own programs. The good thing about this is you can turn knobs and get good sounds right away.

I play an SG copy with stock humbuckers through bass amps, powered mixers and just about anything that can give me a basic clean tone. I can get a functional sound no matter what I'm running through. Some of the effects are weak like the wah, but most are decent, although not very tweakable. I actually like the distortion on this unit. It can get really fuzzy in some settings, but otherwise it gives you just about every distortion type you need. Most modulation effects are average, and the reverb is good. I didn't notice too much noise, probably because I keep the NR cranked almost all the time. This thing does have a great Noise reduction circuit that keeps you quiet without hurting your tone.

Metal & plastic. The first one they sent me didn't work at all. The second one worked fine though, but I can't comment on how it would hold up on stage. You see, I'm actually a bass player. It doesn't feel as sturdy as a BOSS, but it's built much better than a ROKTEK.

Just dealt with Musician's Friend. They're okay, but a little slow.

A good little pedal for 100 bucks. It's very basic, but it gets the job done. I'd buy it again. It doesn't have the convenience of multiple switches or numerical displays like the DOD Tec4 or all the options of a Zoom 505, but what it lacks in these categories it makes up in sound quality.

I found the unit very easy to use.

While the quality of the FX was very good, I found the unit extremely noisey, regardless of position in signal path or type of guitar. My set-up is extremely quiet - GT Soul-O 75 and Anderson and Schecter guitars. Noise was irrespective of battery power or when hooked to a supply. I took the pedal back.

Both stores that carried it in my area reported many returns of the Korg FX in this family due to malfunction of the foot switches.

This pedal tries too hard to be a "Be all cure all". Definitely way too noisy for studio work. I replaced it with the Danelectro Dan-Echo. One pedal, great sounds, very simple - NO NOISE.

It takes time. Once you get it figured out, just tweek with it until you get what you want.

For what it is it sounds really good. I have a Fender Jazzmaster, Ampeg Reverbrocket amp, and a Fender Music Master Bass Amp (use it for guitar). I use the 411fx along with the rest of my pedals (tubesceamer, VOX wah, Roto Vibe, Boss DD3, Boss Super chorus, etc.) i would not suggest getting rid of all your pedals and buying this thing, but i would suggest using it as a space filling tool. It is very good for adding texture to your sound. It is worth it for the tremelo and the two phasers alone. The flange is pretty good and the delays are ok. The chours effects sound kind of weak. Some of the distortions are lame but like i said you can tweak them to sound good. I got distortions similar to a marshall and a fender out of it. Sounds cool in stereo. Only problem is it gets a hum on certain channels... that probably has to do with my single coils as well as a bad ground... let's say it may enhance you buzzes. It is cool also because you can alter the tone of each effect.

The first one i had i purchased at a pawn shop. Soon after the program switch broke. Korg replaced it free with no hasle. I think it is reliable but don't depend solely upon it for your effects.

No reciept needed, just the serial number. I sent it in for repair and they sent me a brand new unit within 4 weeks. Super cool.

I have been playing guitar and bass for around 8 years. I play spacey, emotional, alternative rock. The music has a lot of texture and this little pedal adds a lot. It is good for creating your own sound rather than trying to sound like a certain person. If you want to sound like a certain person, find out what they use and buy that stuff. What is the fun in that? Experimentation is crucial for artistic music! Experimentation is crucial in moving to the next level as a musician. (enough philosohpy, sorry!) I strongly suggest this little friend... it adds a lot of texture to my sound. Try it out!

Not difficult after you understand the thing; you'll realize there isn't much to change in each individual effect.

I got this effect through a catalog (first mistake). It's a personal thing really; each effect alone can not be changed much, so listen before you buy. My guitars include a Gibson Les Paul Studio and an American Standard Fender Telecaster. My amp is a Marshall JCM 2000 DSL 100 half-stack. So why would someone with this setup buy this pedal for it's distortion? I got it for times I am away from my amp; it isn't easy hauling a stack around. I wanted another for my pedal board (SKB makes a very nice all-powered board), I have a Mr. Crybaby Wah/Volume, Danelectro Dan-Echo, and Boss Super Chorus (all previously along with this piece of junk). The Chorus, Delay, Echo, and Auto-Wah I didn't use because I had pedals which already performed these effects. That left the Flanger, Phaser, and Tremlo the primary effects to use. They are terrible. Where do you put this? In the effects loop for the flange or phaser? In the front for the gain? It doesn't matter, it is no good in either place.

Battery Cover broke.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I got this (without ever hearing it) for distortion. I am currently in the process of exchanging it for a Boss Metal Zone (which seems to be everyone's favorite around here). I don't even play metal, but IT will perform what I want it to.

I found this to be very easy to use and not to difficult to set up patches after you get the hang of it. It took me awhile to figure out how to save a patch because the manual doesnt make it totally clear that you have to hit program again while the light it flashing. As someone said before, I found it best to set each knob to zero to erase all the junk before creating a new patch. But overall it only took 10 minutes to get it all down.

I play a Rok-Axe strat immitation (strange name but I like it alot) through a Crate GX-40c. The possible combinations on this unit are tremendous. I like most of the available effects. Even though alot of people didn't care for the pitchshifter, I like it. If you turn it up to ten it sounds like midgets whistling. If you turn it down around 1 you can get a humming sound, and in between, of course the popular chinese music. I polished off one of the presets with the auto-rotary for a perfect Rage Against the Machine jet-plane like noise. I play pretty much alot of the so called "alternative" music. The word alternative lost its meaning. Alternative music today would be polka er something. Anyway I felt the sound quality is awesome for so many effects at $73. The noise reduction and EQ work great.

I tried out some other multi effects units at a store and they were all plastic and the sound quality on the 411fx is just as good or better than those that costed almost $200. This is also nice that its metal and seems more durable. The bypass is nice too. Running it through an fx loop on my amp doesnt take away from the sound at all. I would go with this without a backup. (yah right like I can afford another one :)

Never had to deal with korg. I did e-mail zzounds.com where i got it, because it was a couple days late. I got an e-mail back explaining that they didn't have thier shipment from korg yet. For the price I paid the wait was worth it.

I like to play all sorts of music, Nirvana was what I started playing with when I started playing (xmas '97), now I know nearly every song (and yes that includes rarities/unreleased songs)But anyway, this pedal is great for that kind of genre. This is also the cheapest multi-fx unit available. Most people paid $99 or more on this, but I got it for $73 ($78 including shipping) from zzounds.com and no, it wasn't used. Brand new. I'm very happy with this unit and am going to go play with it right now.

This pedal is not something that you should plan to really try and get intimate with, unless you have the reference "chart" handy... It would work just fine if you'd already programmed in your patches, but forget trying to quickly modify anything major. However, given the fairly straightforward layout of the pedal it is pure logic that dictates the patch editing process. There are a couple of variations to the Korg 411fx's process, but not many. The standard patch-entry procedure is: use the "bank" knob to select from one of 11 banks. In each bank, there are two patches. Use the "program" foot-button to pick the "red" or "green" light patch. The first knob choses between 11 banks, which have two effects in each (toggle between the two with the program switch). Then, using the remaining three knobs you select your effect--(drive, tone, contour, modulation, ambience, and noise reduction/level)--and the type/amount. Keep in mind that the same three knobs are used for all of the effects, so it gets slightly confusing sometimes because the position of the knob might not be the setting of your tone, once you jump to another effect... You need to play with it, and there is a "learning curve." But, if you turn everything down to 0/off levels, and then add things to build your effect, you can get a nice tone fairly easily. Just remember to EQ for each patch.

The sound can be described as this: great for a little metal box that saves the space of 2-5 pedals, but of course not as good as, say, true-bypass analog pedals, or a $1000+ rack system. However, keep in mind that you are paying $99 for this thing. If you buy it, you are looking for a compact, inexpensive, digital effects system that can simulate analog effects decently given the variety of options, and won't cost too much. The only downside I can see to this pedal is that it is not (although it was advertised in Musician's Friend: Winter '98-'99 as such)--true bypass. But, if you can find a setting that you like to enhance your sound most of the time such as a mild chorus, slight delay, and EQ/noise reduction, then it will work well for you. Bypassed, the pedal makes a slight change to your tone. Check out the chorus, the delay/echo, the EQ, and the compression. Those are the best things it offers as far as I'm concerned.

Seems reliable. However, at the store they had three pedals for sale. Two of them were re-furbs. Mine was the only "new" one they had. They seemed reluctant to tell me why there were so many that had been brought back. I've read below here that some people had to take theirs back. There are a lot of "little things" here that could probably go wrong eventually.

Korg is Chinese-originated I think, so I couldn't comment on customer support.

If you want some good sounds, to save space, to get a good deal, and you're not >too< picky, try it out. I personally would have rather invested $200 per pedal and done the whole thing with analog pedals... I currently use the Fulltone Fulldrive II, and I would have gotten some Way Huge effects, or more Fulltone--if I had that kind of money. Perhaps one day I'll upgrade, but until then I plan on doing a pretty decent job simulating a >LOT< of pedals with this thing... Might get a tone booster to take care of what I miss from non-true-bypass... Try it if you're curious. It's VERY configurable and not a bad pedal overall.

You need to read the manual which takes like 5 minutes and look at chart to see were effects are. 10 user banks which are easy to tweek. Easy to save your sound too.

I use this with 2 amps, a fender champ 110 and fender princeten 112. Prince is 65 watts and put 75 watt speaker in champ to get 55 watts out of it, the 2 are linked together. I also use a fender strat. It's a little noisy only because I have a cheap AC unit. other whise it's not noisy at all. All the effects are great eccept the distortion. I still use my trusty Boss DS-1. The 2 choruses are great and can get a great come as you are and teen spirit sound. With the trem/pan on max speed I can get a cool heart shaped box solo sound and its close to radio friendly unit shifter. As you can tell I love nirvana and can get great sounds from this box. Great flange, phaser, EQ, noise gate, compresion, reverb, and delay is ok too.

Sturdy metal box and have had no problems yet. played small gig w/out backup. most likley get years of use out of this box. No wimpy plastic strong metal that takes abuse and has true bypass.

never dealt with em. Probably won't need to.

I play punk and grunge like nirvana and foo fighters and sound garden alice in chans ect... and its great. Works great in my band. I would by it again. Compared it to othes but they were plastic and didn't have true bypass. Wish it had depth control on modulation effects. Lets me be creative in writing music. Wish it had a wah but I will eventualy get dunlop crybaby. great pedal, replaces old pedal board and alot cheeper too.

Once you get used to it, it's easy to program. But I felt the ultra-brief manual was lame and lacking. I give a weak score due to the manual. I think they could have given you a clue what the factory pre-sets were without you having to sit down with paper, pencil, and their de-coding table, fiddling with the knobs and writing all the settings down yourself.

Some sounds were ok, some weren't. The delays were good. The pitch shift was unusable. Some of the several versions of distortion were good. The tremelo was very limited. (no depth control, only speed).

Didn't keep it long enough to rate this catagory.

No contact to rate.

Returned it.

Well, contrary to the numerous submissions on the 411fx, I must disagree...I had not an ounce of trouble figuring out how the thing worked. Given it doesn't act like your average effects pedal, but it doesn't take a genius to figure it out by all means. I spent about 5 minutes with the unit and the manual and I was already creating my own patches.

In short, this thing is a diamond! I just got rid of all 6 of my pedals for the mere fact that I couldn't stand carrying them all around and setting them up everywhere I went. I wanted a all-in-one, quality sounding unit. This thing was an answer to prayers! I was totally impressed upon every aspect of the unit. I found myself using the overdrive more than I thought I would...I didn't even plan on using it, but do to it's parametic mid eq, this thing has a world of tonal possibilites! Very nice! All of the modulations were great...the quality was exceptional for a box of it's caliper. Sure there are limitations upon editing each individual effect, but heck, just turn the thing on and play!, you'll sound great! I really love the way the unit operates too. It has two switches up top, one to bypass and one to switch programs. Now there are 5 user banks, each bank having two programs, for example, I bypass all effects to have just the clean on my amp, then when I switch on the effects, I have a nice mellow overdrive on program 1 of user bank 5, then I hit the program switch again to go to program 2 of user bank 5 where i have a thick over drive for leads...it works perfectly! I just LOVE this thing! It's a compact, mega-packed dream! The unit is easy to carry around. Lightweight but pretty sturdy. Looks cool too. I would definitely recommend this unit for anyone looking to have a handful of quality effects in a compact, easy to carry, no-nonsense pedal. For anyone who even compares it to the Zoom 505, look again. With the quality of this box, it's a world ahead of the Zoom in every aspect! I know, I owned one when they first came out. I give the 411fx a 10 for what it is...and what it is, is a masterpiece. Great price too, they're down to only $100 bucks now!

I would and do use it everywhere I go, never had a problem.

Never had to deal with them, I'm sure they're doing a good job though.

I play a varitey of music. Mostly Vigilantes of Love covers, Plankeye, Model Engine, Stavesacre...it can dish out anything I need it to. I've been playing now for four years. If it were stolen, I'd hope the person who stole it would'nt erase my patches. I would buy it agian though. It helps your music because it doesn't get in the way

Ok this unit is pretty easy to understand as well as to program.You get 2 programs for each bank with 5 total banks to program. Now for those of you who like being able to control every parameter then this unit isn't for you, you can vary most of the effects by amount of effect, for example the higher you turn the level knob up the more the effect intencifices. For some people that may suck but for those who don't want to spend hours programing and just want a good sound then it's a great buy.

I have to say after playing with this for awile I was able to get some great sounds with little time spent. All the effects sound great with maybe the exception of the auto wah which is kind of week. The only major turnoff would have to be the fact that you can turn off any of the effects but turnning off the EQ's will dull the sound so you always havw to EQ each program. The best thing about this unit is the fact that you can switch it off unlike some units with a bogus bypass. It's pretty clean so I don't think there should be a problem, I play a strat through a trace super tramp and so far have had no noise problems.

Well it's not plastic but then again it is thin metal. I have had it for about 6 mts now and it gets beat around and no problem.

If it were to get lost or stolen I would proberly buy another one.