Korg A3

Yamaha SE 350 guitar, Ovation guitar, Roland GR 33 Guitar Synthesizer.
I can get the sound of Hank Marvin, Chet Atkins, Al De Meola, Larry Corryell, Larry Carlton, Carlos Santana,and Pat Metheney.

YES

CITY MUSIC CO PTE LTD, SINGAPORE - Very Friendly

No repairs

Contemporary, Clasical, Pop, Neo Fusion,

This thing, for me, is very simple to use, you can get anything from calm to hardcore to ambient just like that. editing is a breaze just hit the param edit button and twist away. i briefly looked at the online manual @ korgaseries.org before i purchased this unit, it's used, just to see what the specs were. don't know about it, but it's got a new battery!

i use a peavey special 212 with ibanez guitars and a yamaha 12-string acoustic and a godin g1000, they all sound great. some patches i have created are a bit noisy at low volumes, but when you get on stage and your mic'd, it's goood, plus you can NS out alot of white noise at high volumes from the util menu. most of the effects aren't the best. the phase and the flanger dont really blow my mind, but i also have a dod phaser which i throw into the loop. i was a sound much like a mesaboogie dual rectifier. i have a killer disortion tone that uses my amp preamp with speaker simulation of the A3 alone with peq's etc.

i don't have it in a rack yet, i just got fined the the police, so it wont be in a rack anytime soon. but it's held it's spot and it's holdin together, the battery is brand new so that won't go for a while. the jacks suck, but i'll replace those, and i also cracked the UP button, but i was a floor controller anyway so it doesn't matter

never dealt with them, if they're as good as all the other ones i've dealt with, peavey, ibanez, dod, it's a 10

i play alot of limp bizkit, creed, rage against the machine, portishead, and it suits every need of mine because of the versitility. if it were stolen, i'd probably get something more up-to-date considering the A3 is about the same age as me, 17, i've been playin for almost 5 years, and i have 5 guitars and 3 amps
didn't compare to much, fooled around with crap in stores, but couldn't afford any of it, so i bought this used. you'd be surprised how much effects can encourage your music, every time i use the wah it blows my playing into extremes.
that's it......yea i'm done

Just a quick note to all Korg A3/A2 users. There is a Korg A3 user's group with a mailing list and www pages, where you can find info, the user manual, FAQ and (drum roll) all the ROM cards as SysEx files!
(There is also a shareware SysEx utility program.) The address is http://www.korgaseries.org

Enjoy!

Es relativamente sencillo encontrar el sonido con esta unidad. Los controles son buenos pero al no ser analigicos hace que falte continuidad en estos. El manual es facil de entender

Estoy utilizando la unidad desde hace 10 a?os con un Marshall 1959 y una Charvel 6 Japonesa con Pickup emg-81 y el sonido es mas o menos lo que busco. Creo que tiene una de las mejores Distorsiones sin valvulas que he escuchado.Lo peor es el ruido de fondo con sonidos limpios . La puerta de ruido hace que no haga ruido cuando no tocas pero cuando lo estas haciendo tiene un gran ruido de fondo. De todas formas es un gran equipo y muy versatil y se puden cargar todas las tarjetas desde el PC via midi como sysex.

Los Jack's son blandos como ya ha contado otra gente en este forum, los he tenido que resoldar varias veces pero no hay ninguno roto todavia.Los botones Up & Down tambien los he roto un par de veces pero he conseguido arreglarlos (No hay repuestos de esta pieza segun el distribuidor en Espa?a) El resto del Equipo es bastante solido

Queme la resistencia de salida de un canal y el circuito de Headphones por una mala operacion (Enchufe la salida de Altavoz del Amplificador a la salida del A3 y como no sonba subi un "poco" el volumen hasta que salio humo, !un desastre!) y el ditribuidor me proporciono el integrado , la resistencia puse una del mismo valor y mi oido no aprecia ninguna diferencia de un canal respecto al otro.
Del soporte del fabricante solo puedo poner la pega de no tener repuesto de la botonera (Quiza sea por el distribuidor)

El estilo de musica es Heavy Metal y he encontrado un buen setup para el sonido que busco. Levo 17 a?os tocando y utilizo esta unidad desde hace 10 para conciertos y nunca me ha dado ningun problema en directo. La he probado con un Previo Marshall JMP-1 y da tambien buenos resultados. He gradado discos con equipos mucho mas complejos y solo con el A3 consigo resultados igual de buenos. Creo que si se rompiera buscaria otro equipo igual o un A2

For me this unit is really easy to program. You can easely change parameters on stage. Just one bug, the manuel is unconplete about some advanced midi fonction like data transfer in sysex but the unit can do it. This effects prcessor is very flexible and versatile.

I try the unit in the loop of a mesa boogie or a marshall and it sound like crystal. Usually I use it in studio direct in the mixer and the sound is alway's perfect for traditionnal music or new expermental stuff. The negative point is that A3 have less of presence when you use it in mono. But the stereo is trip over the rainbow.

I use it for ten years and the big problems are the jacks fiability and the backup batterie who can shot down at any moment after fiev years. In general you can depend on it.

I play an experimental rock progressive like King Crimson, techno and jazz acoustic stuff and it's a really good match with A3. I play guitar for 17 years and try many units, boss, ART systems, lexicon, yamaha and Roland stuff and the new pedal boards, but they can't approach A3 in the sound quality and flexibility.
I have a problem, I want to find some FX rom cards or to dowload some of these in midi sysex PC format. If someone can help me, Iwould appreciate and Iwill do the same for other guys who seaching for it.

An excellent effects unit for real-time control-- knobs instead of buttons for control. I use it for dub-style effects in dance music. Very easy to learn.

I have my A3 running thru a Mackie 1604. The noiselevel of this unit is significantly lower than other units that were released long after. The reverbs are very natural sounding, and the delays are OK-- it's hard to fine-tune some of them, which are set in increments of 10. The chorus has a really mean tone to it when running with the delays.

As others have noted: the jacks suck. other than that, the unit has lasted through years of abuse.

Never needed it, other than to find a replacement battery-- it was nearly impossible to find a phone number for Korg. I had to call the local service center-- to find out that it uses a standard battery available everywhere.

I make dance music that is heavy on effects-- reggae and dub influenced. I have been creating music in this style for several years, and I have to say that the A3 has helped me develop my style. The A3 is as much an instrument to me as a guitar is to a guitarist.

Very easy to use. I hardly ever looked at the manual.

I have three of these units, one of them from my days in Europe, almost ten years ago( it runs on V220 with an adaptor ). Everything about this device is great, distortions, choruses, reverbs but to me, the real killer is the modulation delay. Nothing comes close. I'm a full time guitarist BTW, and even though I play many styles and use a lot of other gear, when it comes to my favorite style, jazz, this is what I'll use.

I agree with some of the other guys, the solderings on the output jacks break every so often. On my oldest one (It's so old, the display is so dim - you can hardly read it!), they got so bad, I had to replace them with the "direct out" jacks from the same device as well as from one of the other ones. Otherwise, I play full time and this was the only problem.

Never needed it!

This might be a collectors item! Once in a while, in the past 3-4 years, I'll try to see if I can find another one, and I'm surprised to see people still asking $400 and more to this day. Considering all the other advancements in the field against the age of the A3 (ten years?), I would have expected lower prices. This is trully a great unit and if you find one, let me know...

Very, very easy to use. Anyone with basic processing skills can skip the manual to program. I really love the card slot to load and backup programs!

I have my A-3 setup with a Alesis Quadraverb in the effects loop of my Mesa/Boogie Studio Preamp. Sounds great. I use the +4 db switch. Some of the effect patches are a little hissy. Other than that I really like it.

I own two. My main unit had the problem with the output jacks of coming unsoldered. The other unit had a circuit go bad and I had to get it repaired. I have owned both for about 3-4 years

Has been good. You have to go to an authorized dealer. Korg would not allow me to send the unit directly to them. I found a great tech in St. Louis.

I have had trouble locating sound cards. Thank the Lord, after searching for a couple of years I think I have located someone who is selling theirs. It would be cool if the sound cards and blank disk (mcr-03) were priced lower. I love the A-3!! Gonna keep it a long time. PLEASE E-MAIL IF YOU HAVE CARDS FOR SALE!!

Very easy to use (once you've learned the functionality). Sound quality is VERY high. Much better than most processors in the same (or lower) price range. Manual is poor.

I use as a studio effect and as a guitar processor. Effects are great (especially the reverb, compression, and noise gate). Distortion patches are pretty good too.

Very reliable. Output jacks (1/4 inch) on back of unit begin to loosen after years. Could lead to problems.....

N/A

Very good machine overall. I wish more people owned it. I'd like to trade patch settings with others since KORG charges a RIDICULOUS price for addiotional sound cards. I highly recommend this unit. Fantastic with acoustic guitar. Also, great vocal effects.

The A3 is fairly easy to use. With 6 knobs on the front panel that map up the LCD display it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out but it does take a couple of button presses to change a parameter. You cannot see the name of the parameter at the same time as the level readout so you always have to jump between the knob name and the knob value screens as you make adjustments. With an extra RAM card there are 200 patches, more than enough. The manual is OK but as the unit is relatively easy to learn you never really have to refer back to it once you have mastered the basics.

When I first bought it I thought the A3 sounded great, however now that I have had it a couple of years, and also now that I have managed to check it against other processors I am less than happy with it. There is no question that it has a very poor frequency response which is especially noticable on low frequency notes, it chops the bottom off whatever goes throught it and it does this even in bypass so beware. Compared with valve preamps, that are now becoming more popular, the distortion algorithms are weak and highly compressed. The unit is alo very noisy again compared with more recent preamps like the GSP-2101.I have just moved to a Digitech GSP-2101 and didn't realize what I was missing in terms of lost clarity through the A3. As a second hand unit for a couple of hundred dollars it's OK but I would never buy this in preference to a real tube preamp.

For a gigging unit it is not that wellbuilt, the weakest point is the circuit mounted input jack that I have had to solder back on several times. My unit is also giving me problems with MIDI exclusive dumps and recall. If you gig with it then figure a way round the input jack problem. My unit also has a broken Up arrow key. And I treat gear with ultimate care.

They are helpful and I found quick to respond.

Four years ago it was a good buy. Nowadays don't waste your money on one, go for the real thing and get a valve preamp with digital control such as the GSP-2101