Korg A5 Guitar

I bought the pedel 2 weeks ago 2nd hand with no manuals or knowlage.
I figured it out in an hr. For saving your patches EASY!

I use a samick avion through a Kustom amp The amp I use feedbacks like a bitch and the NR ia awsome. All of the effects are good
but with a bad combination you get a really bay sound

with the 2 weeks i've had it i've played 8 gigs and it is relial
I do and will continue using it with out a backup...

It's plastic... don't jump on it.

I play realy slow heavey music It works great.

I've had this pedal for about three years now, and it can cover a WIDE range of sounds! I use various guitars (generally Strat-style), and whatever I'm running it through (amp, stereo, direct into computer), the sound pretty much stays the same! This might be a negative for some people, but I like that fact as I know what sound I'll be getting before I plug it in; no re-adjustments necessary!
Editing is easy: in fact, you could probably figure these patches out (and the various knobs for modification) without having to look at the manual! The 'edit' button is very helpful as it lets you jump from changing the individual effects, or simply switching to a different (general) setting altogether; think of it as a 'tree' layout, branching into smaller areas and allowing greater customizability when you do so.
Which brings me to another point: I love how this is laid out like a regular pedalboard with each effect always on the same pedal (the newer ones, with so MANY available sounds, can't claim this because they can't have a dedicated footswitch for each sound); when you want to change the chorusing, it's there and there's no confusion! And you can turn each effect on and off individually, which is extremely useful, and necessary! In fact, when you program your presets, this doo-hickey stores the settings for EVERY type of effect, whether it is turned on or off in its default position; you can program stuff, then turn it off to be stored as a preset; but when you turn it back on, it will have the sound that you programmed into it! This opens up a LOT more options!! Which is good, since there's only one user preset bank (five patches).
Also, an in-jack for a volume pedal, of which any old generic kind will work great; another plus!

In response to those who say that the distortion is cheap and tinny: well, of course the PRESETS are! ;-) I rarely find good presets in pedalboards, or at least very few presets that will work as THE best standalone sound! Fiddling around at the start to find your sound is a given, but as for the distortion/OD: use it in conjunction with the Compressor patch, with the 'attack' setting cranked, and you will have a very good sound for rhythm, lead, or whatever you want! I can get anything from punky-sounding rhythm, to the infamous 'scooped mids' for metal, to a gritty, slightly overdriven Hendrix/SRV sound (definitely the most versatile sound of them all), to a WIDE-open, extremely spacious (and crystalline) David Gilmour sound! One of my favorite guitarists is Trevor Rabin; I found out after the fact that he uses Korg quite a lot (or has done), so it's no wonder I can copy his sound almost EXACTLY, and get a setting that cuts through like a laser for leads and is also VERY heavy for chords! This pedal would also be good for 80's buffs who want that chorused, heavily compressed and reverbed lead sound (which, mind you, David Gilmour may have pioneered inadvertently anyway)!
The delay is great - I can get some EXTREMELY spacey 'cascading' stuff, very cool for solo guitar excursions - and easy to figure out how to adjust to your liking (see above), so that you can get glassy, compressed clean guitar, or soft-edged ambience. The compressor definitely makes itself heard; the Noise Reduction is EXCELLENT (gets rid of all the extraneous stuff without chopping out the guitar - exactly how it should be!), and the 3-band EQ allows you to control where the middle band is located. It's great for direct recording, since you can alter the tonality to suit your setup and then just plug it straight into your recording device!

I haven't used it in many 'dangerous' places (a few gigs before, although it's currently not in my setup; I'm keeping things extremely simple for the time being), but I use it on a VERY regular basis at home, whether it's plugged into my computer, one of my amps, or even my stereo so that I can play along with records for fun! I've also taken it to many rehearsals and it's been thrown in loose with other pedals, and I've never had a problem with it yet! **Knock on wood** Although my dad's A5 has the 'bypass' button broken off (still have it, but no clue how to put it back on), so damage CAN occur, which is why I don't give it a perfect rating.
But yes, I would use it without a backup, as long as the gig wasn't for really, REALLY big money! ;) In which case I'd have a backup no matter how good my main setup was!

Never needed to get it fixed!

My dad has used an A5 Keyboard unit (in cojunction with a Boss OD, since the A5 Kb. has no distortion) as his main guitar pedal for quite a number of years now - it's never had any problems and offers him a really good variety of sounds (necessary, since he's a professional musician who plays in virtually every style imaginable)! That was the reason I got this one (off of EBay), and it's become a mainstay for me! Highly recommended - if not as a standalone pedal, then as a great 'base' to build your setup around (you can buy some of the effects not included here - phaser, pitchshift, octave, wah, etc - and chain them up with this to flesh out your sound if you desire)! It's a great 'standard' multi-effects unit, and works perfectly for straight-ahead rock (which is more or less what I play) where you're not looking for the craziest sound possible - and even if you ARE, those delays can be edited to do some pretty nifty stuff...! And mainly, once set up to your liking, you don't have to flip through twenty different patches and settings; therefore, this unit is a lot less complicated than many other effects processors!
I will, briefly, go into what this pedal is missing:
- expression pedal (THE most obvious omission)
- more than one bank of user presets
- a slightly bigger variety of sounds (like the ones mentioned a few lines up, but then again, any more options would make this unit too cumbersome and complicated)
- footswitch to move from one presets bank to the next (the A4 has them, why not here...?)

One last thing: this pedal does indeed go silent for half a sec while you switch 'general' presets, but for my purposes, all I ever need to change on a moment's notice is one effect within the same bank (turn off the distortion for example), and there's no silence when doing that! It's just the 'memory jump' from one entirely different setting to another. Chalk it up to the age of the pedal, I guess!

In closing, this is excellent for direct recording, if nothing else; and I personally think it's great for live playing too! It adds a lot of space to the sound when you use the reverb and chorusing; all it needs is a bit of adjusting 'out of the box', but once you've got your sounds optimized, you'll be playing away and thinking of the exact places where you can use a particular sound... ;-) This has been a HUGE (positive) influence on my playing, without a doubt, all the way back to my dad's copy, which I've been using almost as long as I've played guitar (6 years)! Very versatile, and you can create a wide 'sonic palette' with it! If it were stolen I'd panic and shell out whatever it took to get another one (probably off of EBay)!

Quite easy if you have figured out that there are two main modes: in the first mode, you can switch between preset sounds (some of them quite nice), in the second mode you can independently switch the single effects Compressor, Distortion/overdrive, Parametric EQ, Chorus/Flanger, Reverb/Delay - just like a chain of stomp-boxes. Finally, Noise reduction can effectively eliminate any hiss.

I play a 72 Tele with a sd bridge humbucker and a couple of standard strats. My main amp is a '70 Twin Reverb silver face (no master). The unit is not noisy at all if you stay with tasteful sounds. I really like the chorus/flanging sounds in a subtle setting - It perfectly nails Frusciante's "Under the bridge" sound. The overdrive sound is warm and nice. For leads, I put a tube screamer in front of the unit (comp switched off, then). Very versatile, very musical sounds.

The unit is made of plastic, but it is very dependable. I always use it on a gig without a backup and it never let me down.

Never dealt with the company.

I play Rock, Blues and Alternative for many years now. If it was stolen or lost, I would try to get a used one. The new generation of modeling stuff doesn't impress me, mainly because they sound somehow sterile to me. The Korg A5 is an honest unit with many good sounds. Best value in this price range.

Very easy to use since there are not too many gadgets to tamper with :) Manual was simple enough and had all the needed information.

Sounds are quite low end. Chorus is in fact the only good effect. Distortion/Overdrive sucks big time, Compressor isn't too good, reverb sounds very plastic. Delay is usable. Flanger is also usable when used in the background :) Otherwise never really liked the sounds, but due to lacking of funds had it since early 90's. Now I'm going for Boss GT-6 which I expect to be superior compared to this one...

Worked fine for 6 years, after that started to cut off, it seems that that Plug-In needs changing and the power cable is worn out. I wouldn't drop or throw this one at all... the box is plastic :(

I play rock/pop and this one doesn't give good clean sound nor good distorted rock sounds. Better off with amp. Only usable way to use this box is to connect it to Amp's Effect Send/Return and use the Amps Distortion and reverb.

I think no one will have problems using A5.

I use it with Fenix Telecaster with changed pickups, and MusicMan 112rd as a amplifier. Distortion and overdrive sounds like shit. Delay and chorus are ok, and I take them from A5 and use other pedals for overdrive and distortion.

It's plastic. I've had to do few fixes, but it's ok most of the time. I wouldn't go touring with it though ;(

I play all kind of music, and I don't recommed this for anyone. None of the effects are REALLY good, some average, mostly they suck.

Very easy to skip through the presets, but there is no bank up/down footswitch which would be required by most gigging players. Easy to program, but alas there is only room for 5 of your own sounds.

Used with a Marshall 100 watt head and a Westone Prestige the distortion sounded awful as the amp sounded better with the Korg off. The Westone is a warm guitar, and the Korg made it sound like computer binary code would if amplified. The chorus/flanger/delay sounds are fine. The eq is very synthetic like the distortion. There is a time delay when pressing the footswitches, which makes playing live with it a tad crap! Unless you like empty gaps that is.

Had it since new ( 1992 ) and its fine. Kept it for nostalgic reasons. And you never know, thin tinny distortion may fit in some recordings.

I play original material consisting of indie/rock/thrashtango/deathreggae. I use Marshall amps, Washburn, Yamaha, Westone and Gordon Whiting (my friend/handmade) guitars and Boss effects.

Nice and easy to use, but this was a 2nd hand purchase. STILL can`t figure out how to save the sounds I make so that I can just kick in to play them. If anyone knows, PLEASE e-mail me and let me know @ spendog1978@hotmail.com I woul;d REALLY appreciate it!

Quality is good generally but I don`t know if it`d stand up to any serious gig work

Seems fairly reliable to me!

N/A - 2nd hand

A really good buy to experiment with different sounds. Cheaper than my previous strategy of buying pedal after pedal!

This pedal was an ebay purchase and came without a manual. It took a little while to unlock its potential without any guidance from it manufacturer but it was designed to some degree with the user in mind.
It features 5 selection pedals, as well as a program switch to use several effects in parallel:
-Compression
-Distortion/Overdrive
-EQ
-Chorus/Flanger
-Reverb/Delay
There area series of 5 control knobs to tweak each effect. There is a label on the face of the unit that describes what each knob does.
One input, Stereo Out (!), (1/8") headphones jack (what were they thinking?), Volume pedal jack (!!!)

I have used this unit with several different guitars, including strats, epiphones, a vox 12 string, and my trusty dano, always plugged into my Vox AC-30.

I should preface this critique by saying that this is not the effect anyone should buy with the notion of playing mainstream rock. I use it specifically to generate noise. The distortion and overdrive effects are downright laughable, but when used in conjunction with the chorus it gives a satisfying warping, distintegrating sound. As someone has already mentioned, think My Bloody Valentine. The chorus when used alone can sound digital and glassy, well suited for Chameleons or Peter Murphy.

The compressor works well with my single coil pickups to draw out some long notes. Techinically speaking, the EQ is probably one of the better features of the unit. The delay and reverb would be better if it offered more parameters and a longer delay setting. Instead it features 'Large Room,' 'Hall,' and 'Echo' settings that are not very useful. That said, running the signal from this unit into a separate delay (I've been using a DOD digital delay), you can get a LOT of layers of sound. Lately I've become something of an effects whore, but after seeing Spritualized I feel justified by having a gigantic pedalboard.

One other thing I should mention is this unit works well with a microphone, though it only features a single 1/4" input jack.

It's an early 80's design, made of lightweight black plastic. I'm careful with my equipment and it's obviously survived this long. So what, don't jump on it or throw it.

I play a wide variety of music, from mod 60s british invasion rock (to which this pedal is NOT suited), to 80s & 90s britpop (to which this pedal IS suited). Initially I was not entirely satisfied with my purchase and it spent a long while in the closet, but since it reemerged I have a much deeper appreciation of what it does. It does warped and LOUD exceptionally well.
As I mentioned before, this was an Ebay purchase, and a cheap one at that. I search for them from time to time with little luck, so they appear somewhat rare, and they represent a good value for their market rate. For $200 I would probably not give such a glowing review, but for under $100, you really can't beat it.

I FOUND THE COMPRESSOR DID NOTHING.
THE NOISEGATE AN INDSCRIBEABLE NOTHING.
THE DISTORTION WAS GOOD THE OVERDRIVE EXCELLENT.
COOL CHORUS. SHITE DELAY

VERY PLASTIC LIKE AND I'M A BOOT WEARER.
DO NOT USE FOR BAND WORK. THIS IS BEDROM FODDER

NONE I BOUGHT IT 2ND HAND

OVERALL I DO LIKE THE A5, BUT IT CAN'T HANDLE SERIOUS USAGE AN EXCELLENT BEDROOM/HOMESTUDIO FX

I agree with the former as well, excellent product, except the bypass
which can be cleaned up and stored as a patch. Easy to edit. If you don't know how a parametric e.q works you may have trouble finding tones.
The seperate tone and level on the dist. is very handy...

Jackson Dinky strat,Fender Special strat W/Custom pickups Jeffbeck& Vintage.
Slight noise at higher dist. settings. Would be nice to get rid of gate for lower gain stuff. Good space rock crunch. Chorus ok at low settings, too much pre-delay at higer settings. Delay is good...Nice big halls. Good for covering a lot of sounds on lo-cash.
E.Q is excellent. Any good tone tool should have at least one good parametric e.q.
On the multi-fx unit the exiter offers a really good scoop or boosted
lows for even more controll.
Feeding one A5 gtr into another A5 multi I was able to level and e.q. my way to some fairly usable clean and crunch tones.
The compressor effect is a little extreme on the clean sounds and only really made sense as a boost or sustain effect on leads etc.

These units are old as it is. I'd hardwire the 9v pwr supply and
be carefull not to fall on it if I were to take it on the stage.
I'd bring a cuople of dists,a wah,another delay.
The Bank/Parameter slider looks a little prone to wear, almost keyboardlike const.
It'll last untill it gets crunched.

They helped people figure out the M-1 sequencer...

I play a wide variety of tones and sounds from the guitar. This is a good box to learn about programming sounds in the digital format.
Good to see the knobs and slider arngmnt. Easy to learn...I had no manual. Though hard to see markings in a dim room. Liquid papr would work.
I've been playing casually for 15 yrs. Some of the dist. and rev. tones are better than the Digi2101. And a million times easier to program.
Good value...