Korg A5 Guitar

Couldn't be easier - very intuitive system.

Great. I used this exclusively for nearly 8 years. Played in a two-piece outfit doing covers - found just about any sound / tone I ever needed. Plug it straight into the mixer, minor tweak on the tops and off you go, plug and play. It's the only low-end pedal-board I EVER heard that did not SOUND digital when used this way [bye-bye ZOOM - any model]. Once I started in on the rock scene [again] I used it with my Peavey Special 150. Great Blues tone.

Bought it in 1991 - still going strong - that's 18 years ago!

Never had any problems with it so no need for support.

I never had issues with the sound on the board given that it is a low-end unit. For my money I would not touch anything else in the price range - the ZOOM's I tried ALL sounded like tinny digitals next to this thing. Very happy to have purchased [and still be using] this machine.

The A5 is pritty easy to handle. You just got to know how to handle it. Having a manual really helps.

The sound quality isn't that great. Its hard to get he right tone for bands. Such as Mountain, Aerosmith etc. I founf it very good for smooth blues solos.

I find the A5 some what easy to handle. After receiving the manual it got much easier. Tough I would not advise using it as for a gig, but its fair for recording.

No Opinion

I find the A5 dated and am more of a pedal board person, so i can experiment with different distortions and shifters. If i were a customer i would not by this out of date pedal. I received it from a friend for free without a manual.

The slider MUST be on bank 1 (top position) to access user patch you have saved. To write patch go into edit mode, set slider to effect being edited, make changes, press write, press footswitch equivalent to position 1 ,2 ,3,4 ,5 required, and press write again. Stored.
Ease of use is limited because of only five user patches, and manual tweaking of effects can involve turning up to five knobs..

The sounds? Compressor is poor, other effects can be all right if used sparingly, fuzz distortion is awful, but I generally don't like severe distortion much anyhow. The range of effects is limited.

Mine is quite old yet still functional, should last forever with normal handling.

The machine is very dated and lacks versatility and sparkle. It can sound very nice within its capabilities. (Ideal to play Hendrix Hey Joe and the like). It would be more useful for the home studio where there is time for setting sounds than for gigging. A much better vintage pedal is the Zoom 1010, which in turn is far easier to use than the 505.

I'm not sure who is still looking for a manual for this. I have just downloaded a pdf from the following web address. In Firefox there is an advertising frame to the left of the web page, with the manual in the main window. Look for the picture of a diskette and text "save a copy" at the top left of the pdf toolbar.

http://www.epanorama.net/schematicsforfree/pdf_redirect.php?url=http://www.epanorama.rackhost.net/schematicsforfree/Audio/Musical/Products/KORG%20A5%20MANUAL.pdf

I may submit a product review in a couple of days when I have managed to write and store some patches!

A friend recently gave me a Korg A5, without a manual and, while I could figure out the basics easily enough, I couldn't figure out all the programming intricacies. The website didn't offer a manual download for this older model. However, when I called Korg Customer service - (631)390-6500- they immediately and cheerfully e-mailed me a PDF of the manual. I find that these effect units are fun to fool around with when playing solo, but usually don't like the sound of any of them when playing loud in a band. The subtleties of the effects seem to get lost behind the drums and bass and I find myself just wanting more real punch to cut through. I'm looking forward to seeing if this one is any different.

I don't have a manual for this unit so I haven't really been able to use it to its potential.

My stereo system is connected to the outputs. Bookshelf speakers and a powered sub. Ableton Live software. I get a clean sound with little noise. Even today with modern fx units the A5 is still a decent sounding unit.

It's pretty old and still no issues yet.

I play some blues and rock. I like Korg products and that might have influenced my decision to buy it.
If anyone knows where to download the manual free let me know. I'd like to explore it a bit more.

its easy to use. Only problem is , you must manualy change banks

I'am a profesional, and I use this procesor over the 10 years. Totaly natural sound than the other newest procesors efects. If somebody dont beleave mail me at nesaminic@hotmail.com , and I send you my manual tune. *for any kind of guitar with humbucker on bridge*
"GOOD FOR ANYBODY WHO WANT TO PLAY HARD 'N' HEAVY"

Sometimes I play directly in mix without amp. Not bad for small places

I dont remeber. Some private Store...
Price was about 400 DM.

After 6 months trying, changing another pedals, procesor effects I'am back on my good old A5. I'll never change it, no matter for what price I can stole it. Now Im finishing my fourth album with my band, and at all 4 guess what im played???

I bought this unit used and it didn't come with a manual. I suspect that it's damaged cos everyone else seems to have an easy time saving patches and I can't get mine to save at all. Mind you, the parameters for each effect are written right on the console and everything else is pretty self explanatory

As I mentioned before, I think my unit is damaged. the jacks are all loos and crackle something fierce when I play. Nevertheless, I'm not gigging weith it so I'm fairly happ. I use a 1969 Ibanez Goldtone (well, it's the old goldtones but form the first year the company called itself Ibanez)through an old Bogen Challenger PA head (converted for guitar). So I'm not exactly running quality gear through this bad boy.
the distortion (I've tried a bunch of guitars to no avail) is kinda gutless and ditto for the overdrive. In the neck position with a bit of tweaking you can almost get that sludgy Tony Iommi tone, but it's only a sad replication.
The compressor is not great but I find that it does the job. The modulation effects are hardly top of the line, but the degree of adjustability to the parameters is awesome and although I don't find that I can get a traditionally warm chorus or flange out of it you can coaxe some very cool textures out of it with certain parameters at extreme settings. I think that the delay is pretty great for what I'm doing with it. You can't really get that 80's U2 sound from it, but with some modulation and a bit of playing around Robert Smith's work with the cure comes through fairly convincingly. I think that the best part of this unit is the reverb. Stage and hall don't do much for me but the room adds a nice feel to your sound and the plate reverb is actually quite kickass for the money. With my old amp and cheap old guitar, I can use the plate setting to get nice surf tones (sort of like a Jazzmaster on a budget)and a passable jazz tone.

Given that I bought this used and with admitted flaws, it's never let me down. I wouldn't gig with it but it's a fun practice tool.

I don't feel the cost of Korg repairing it is worth it considering what I paid for it. They do offer a manual I believe (hardcopy and you have to pay), which is nice because i don't know of anyone that has one.

I'm basically a bedroom hacker that plays everything from metal to art rock to old school jazz and just about everything in between. While this unit isn't really ideal for any of them, it does everything except the really heavy metal to a fairly acceptable degree. Considering what I paid for it, I'm not gonna complain. I wouldn't recommend the unit (even in pristine condition) for somebody looking to gig with it or do serious recording, but for a beginner who just wants to mess around in their room (ie me when I bought it) or a curious person who wants odd modulation tones on a budget, these babies are dirt cheap used and give you pretty good bang for your buck!

The logic of it is intuitive. I figured it out in about an hour without a manual... BUT, there is no foot switch to move through the 6 Banks. If you don?t set up your 5 user patches right, you have to bend down to change banks on a tiny slider switch. No tuner.

Don?t pay more than $ 50. The sounds are not bad but basic. It is a small device, and limited, but works well in it?s class. Several reviewers complained about the distortion or compressor,etc, but I find the effects to be satisfactorily editable. All the effects can be edited to a basic degree and saved as a patch in 1 of 5 slots of the user bank. Then in ?manual mode? you can turn the individual effects of a patch (i.e. distortion, delay, etc.) on or off. A well set up user bank is like having 5 strings of 5 personally pre-adjusted stomp boxes where you can select one string of 5 at a time and stomp around until you want to use a different string of 5 to stomp some more. In this way, the single user bank could be viewed as 25 patches. Then there are the 25 factory patches of the other 5 banks. No Wah. No pitch-shifter. No frills.

Dunno, but Korg stuff is (or at least was) usually good. Plastic - don?t stomp too hard.

Dunno.

I give the A5 an 8 because in it?s class it?s a more than decent FX. I have tried many FX and have been often disappointed by the most expensive of them. You can get this one for less than $ 50 and have a nice little basic processor for small stuff.

I just dug this out of the cupboard as the band I am in dont like
me using the hot channels on my Fender Deville 2,12 .
I am on pre sets and have no manual , can anyone tell me how to store
a new sound ( in Scottish laymans tems please )

I was happy to use the Fender devilles hot channels but the band dont like it.
on initial switch on I found the dist had a hell of a bass on it
through my Les paul studio.
I tried a marshall Jackhammer but felt guilty cause it wasn,t mine
and was surprised to find that the A5 sounded better or at least the same . I also have a boss courus but again find this as good if not
better.
Echo is not up to much , I used to have a Watkins copycat ah those
were the days ( I think I sold it for drink )

This has been lying in my shed for 5 years and was coverd in dust
but it fired up no probs and went straight to work without
crackles or pops , imagine if a car could do that.
I,m gonna use it on Sat night with a Jim deacon cry baby on the
occasional lead break ( wild sound then on dist channel) and
no back up , fingers crossed. I have used it every night at home for
two weeks and thinks its tough enough to do the job.

This is the first place I have been thats got any info on this board
hope I can get some programming hints from you folks.

The guys that think this is bad have either bad guitars bad amps
or bad ears.
There is more than enough on here to please the less knowledgable
punter in a pub certainly on the dist and chourus side.
I can play the Cult and then click over for Californication and think
it sounds great.
I have never been a pedalboard buff , but now the separates are in the drawer along with the Deville channel selector and everything
is cleaned up cable wise.
For 20 quid I am delighted , wonder what I could get if I had some
money ? any suggestions anyone ?
P.s Guys who jump on their boards from the top of their amps are making far too much money.

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...

very easy to use.. no need the manual

ah sound quality....

hum well the distorsion/OD is crap...
the other effects are pretty good but the flanger seems to have problems to support big OD (troubles of big noises appearing from time to time (?).....)
u also have a "cut" (no sound..) when switching from one bank to another...

hum well 25 presets that sounds like crap and only 5 users... u'll have to choose your sounds...

bough used.. never had a single problem whith it!

i play metal.. this is a good choice for a begginer's cheap multieffects, that allows u to have a decent clean sound...
don't even think to use the OD or the distorsion...

buy the same?? hum not now... (i bought it when i wus broke, now i got enough money to buy a better multi effects..)
missing wah .. too bad..

the last thing...
u have 6 banks of 5 presets each... but u cannot switch from a bank to another with your foot.. this is a SHAME!

the effects are very easy to use it has a good delay and distorton
you only have one bank for editing patches which is a bit of a problem. the manual was very easy to use and straight forward.

the board sounds good with my vox amp and gives of a good sustain. i have created a good effects for brian may, steve vai and hank marvin. but as being in a band i have to have surten effects to suit my songs.

in the time it has been in my household it has had no work done on it.
i would not use it with out back up due to it has not got a repeat delay or octave in it.

It's very easy to use. You don't need even a manual.

This thing sounds really poor. I didn't found any of effect useful. Distortion sounds like a a bee. It has 5 different flangers and choruses but not even one is useful. They don't have any briliance. It has also 6 different kinds of reverbs, one delay but I still use my Marshall reverb. Compresor? Don't even think to use it. I have an Ibanez RG-570 guitar and almost any sound I tried on Korg has too many noise and input gain was overloaded all the time. You can't go over 50% of input gain because you get a very very noisy sound. Only with equalizer you can really change the sound of the guitar but I didn't found any sound really good. This thing has 25 presets and only 5 user banks. And presets are - no comment. I tried really hard to fill those 5 user banks with somekind of "useful" sounds. But all was in combination with Marshall's gain and reverb.

Otherwise it worked every time without any problems and the pedals are also quite hard so you can't break this thing so easy.

I play all kind of music - from jazz to metal. And I would never buy this model again. If you're a beginner and you don't have money - for this price you can't get even a single effect. So maybe is good enough for the very beginners but don't go with this thing on stage or in studio! I use now BOSS GX-700 - feel the diference :))

Very easy to use. Designed for beginners. It's got loads of pre-sets, it's just a matter of pluggin' and goin'.

Errmmm... I said it was for beginners: it's for skint beginners. The sound is, put it simple, very low-end. You get what you pay for... The distortion part of it is really the most dreadful. Apart from people who are really into lo-fi crap distortion, I couldn't see anybody liking this stuff. The effects are marginally better, but still sound weak and unconvincing. the only good sounds I managed to get out of it was when I f**ked around with the knobs and managed to get some sort of My Bloody Valentine kind of over-chorused distorted sound. But apart from that, it's a poor man's thingy.

It's plastic fantastic, and if you've got heavy foot and bootz, you might get through the board! However, I never had a single problem with it (except the das sounds)

Don't know about that.

I wouldn't buy it again. I was happy to have it in the first place, as I was playing a cheap guitar and even cheaper 10W Marlin amp, so it was a good way to have access to different effects in a cheap, one-box. But now I'm playing a '60 Jazzmaster along with a Hiwatt 100W amp, I just use a Tubeman H&K valve booster as well as a Boss Delay pedal, and I can't see myself coming back to this stuff! The conclusion is: if you're REALLY skint and desperate and you're a beginner, it will provide you with some fun for some time. And it will make you feel like saving your dosh for buying decent gear!

Patches are easy to set up and edit once you get the hang of resetting the controls to the stored positions each time you bring up an effect's parameters (not difficult, but can be tedious). The manuals are enough to get started with, but don't look for deep insight. The A5 isn't a real brain-buster to use, so this isn't a big deal.

Overall, not bad. The compressor, which rarely gets used, is very touchy. The Distortion/OD section sounds, well, like 5-year-old DSP. It's tolerable at low volumes but doesn't stand up when really amplified. The EQ section has an 8-position sweepable mid band which makes it much more useful than a regular 3-bander. The flanger, chorus, reverb and delay all sound reasonably good. There's also a NR/Noise gate section which cleans up after the noisy compressor and OD; when playing clean I keep it set to its lowest setting. The 25 built-in patches are not very usable, and only having 5 user spots doesn't help matters. The built-in headphone amp isn't an ear splitter but is satisfactory for practicing. I've done a couple of patches for bass that have worked pretty well, too.

It hasn't burped once in the five years I've owned it. The sound quality isn't up to par for gigging, but I might use it as a backup. It isn't built for heavy use but has stood up to being tossed in the goodie bag and hauled around to jam sessions.

Never had occasion to try them out.

I'd buy another if it were five years ago and I were on the same budget. At the time I compared it with a similar model from Boss which I didn't like. I'd love more patch spaces or the ability to clobber the presets (something I think the A4 took care of). This was my first outing beyond stomp boxes; I've since outgrown it and will probably buy a rack unit soon.
Short Answer: Not a bad box for driving a small amp around the house, but not something I'd record or perform with.