Korg AX1G Guitar Multieffects

I bought this pedal roughly 10 years ago, i recently brought it back home since it's been sitting in a friends basement for a few years. Guitar multi fx's have come a long way since this one came out so I'm trying to review this pedal in the light of what's available today.

Editing is fairly straightforward once you get the hang of it, however it's not as hands on as units with knobs to twiddle. The selection of parameters to edit could be better though, most algorithms only have one tweakable parameter. For example delay feedback is a fixed parameter and only time and level can be edited.

The expression pedal is a nice addition and can be used to control a fair number of effects, not just wah and pitchshift but also phaser and tremolo rate. On the downside, the travel of the expression pedal is way to short, it's still usable however but a longer travel would go a long way towards making is a more usable pedal.

It actually has a fairly exhaustive range of effects and algorithms. Including some more exotic ones like pitchshifters, ringmod, drones, s/h filter and primitive looping abilities.

There is a slight background hiss on my unit, not incredibly important but loud enough to be noticeable. I'm running mine in a true bypass loop to get rid of the noise when I'm not using it.

Distortions are absolutely horrible. Stay away from them. Particularly in a band setting, they can be tweaked to sound ok for bedroom playing but in a rehearsal room they're useless. Absolutely no definition that cuts through the mix, just sounds like white noise.

The eq is ok I think, I haven't used it too much.

Modulation effects are actually really nice, smooth and spacious phasers and choruses, not that full of character but nice sounding. I compared the phasers in the AX1G to a Phase 90 clone and they certainly hold up well soundwise.

Pedal effects are somewhat mixed, wah is decent but the short travel of the exp. pedal is somewhat limiting. Ringmodulation is freaking awesome, considering how inexpensive they are today the ringmod alone it worth the price.

Pitchshifters are ok, it's not a whammy though. And the looping and sampling effects are a little hard to use and suffer from rather short sampling times, a few seconds at most.

Delays and reverbs are again ok but nothing spectacular. The delay where you can change delay time using the expression pedal is cool and can make some weird noises.

It's plastic but seem to be well built. I've had it for 10 years and gigged with it and put it through a fair amount of use and it has never crapped out on me.

Never dealt with them.

I'm still using this together with a bunch of other pedal on my board. It makes a nice addition as a decent wah, tuner and good modulation effects. It certainly takes up a whole lot less space than if I were to replace it with individual pedals.

Positive sides: good value for money today, great modulation effects, decent timebased effects and some weird stuff (ringmod, step filter etc.)

On the negative side: Bad drive effects, a bit noisy and the travel on the expression pedal is too short.

Not too bad. Editimg is a bit of a pain. Def need to peek at the maual. Getting to the built in tuner is a pain on mine as the patch buttons have minds of their own. You end up going up a patch, then down, then up then maybe they'll register a simultaneous hit and open the tuner!!

Rather good. I stick it between an epy LP and a Vox pathfinder and it does well. The distortions are nothing to write home about but the other stuffs pretty darn good (if a bit limited sometimes)It surprised a friend of mine whos a music teacher who thought i was using some fancy acoustic guitar sim while doing some mellow stuff and was shocked i got such a good sound out of "that thing"

Had it years. Been to hell and back and apart from the cosmetic dinks it works like a dream (apart from that darn tuner!!)

Never had to use them.

I mess about with just about every style there is and it has something for every one. Very good value. Am thinking of getting a new unit but will always keep the AX laying around.

Plug it in and start pushing buttons! The factory presets are as easy as making mud, customizing requires a few minutes of (ugh!) reading the manual.

I've used this with a Gibson sonex-180 and a Ibanez sa160. It definitely likes singles over humbuckers IMHO, as you start to get some weird fuzz on the HBs.

Is it gig quality? Not unless you're gigging in a pretty small place. It's perfectly adequate for practice and as a backup, but you're not going to replace your pedal board with this.

So far, so good. It feels lightweight and plastic, but I've dropped it and have put my whole 250lbs on the expression pedal! So, I guess I need to say it's pretty solid!

n/a

I like playing a variety of stuff, and this one unit allows me to do that. Where this comes into its own is on the road. I can run it off batteries, connect headphones, and be totally portable. Hotel, boat, car, wherever!

If you see one for a decent price, you'll probably find it fun and useful.

Use of pedal effects is easy and simple and the colour coded lights (green, orange and red) divide the effects into three sets of 10 allowing you to know where you are in relation to other effects. Editing the patches is quite tricky and you need to really follow the manual as you can get lost within the menus.

Sound quality is good, good range of effects and the pressure pedal works nicely with wah, volume and phaser effects. Overdrive and distortion effects are nice but i prefer to use the settings on my marshall amp for overdrive and distortion.

Owned it for 6 years never had a single problem, been droped and stood on several times (by accident ^_^) Still working as new

N.A

I play a variety of music dependng on how i feel or who im jamming with and this pedal provides a great range of good quality effects that allow you to experiment and be creative in playing your music. Would buy again if broken or lost as its simple, effective, durable and sounds great.

If one just uses the preset than it is pretty easy, but if you want to change the patches than you'll have to resort to the manual (available at the korg website). Relatively speaking, changing patches isn't really that hard.

The reason that someone will use a multi-effects unit is not for sound quality, but for convenience. It's obviously easier to tote around one pedal than 6 or 7 pedals with a board and wires. The downside is that there will have to be some compromise in sound quality.
The setup that I use this pedal for is for my church rig. I use a myriad of different guitars through a simple GK single speaker amp. I can carry everything from my car to the platform where we play in one trip. With just the ax-1, I'm set up in about 3 minutes.
The patches that I use are the more atmospheric patches (violin is an especially good patch) that can facilitat volume swells. Other that that, I've just programmed a couple of cleaner sounds that use the processor's reverbs and compressions, neither of which are great, but good enough in a musical setting where the guitar won't be out front.

Never had a problem after using for about 5 years (and since it was purchased used, who knows how long before that). It's only plastic which seems to me a bit iffy, but it's held up being dragged in and out of my bag 2-4 times a week for those 5 years.

NA

For what it does, it's extremely serviceable. Again, it's not for any one great effect but more for a convenient smattering of many different decent effects.

Easy to set up and get started.
The manual was fine for the basics but when it came to editing, I was lost and gone.
However I need to add that I have to get my teenage son to sort out my mobile phone, so I think it's a generation/application thing.

I use a tele or strat through a Vox AC30 or a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. I bought the unit about 4 years ago because I'd joined a bar band after a 10 year layoff and needed to add some new colours to the dry sounds I have (and am happy with).
Plus I needed an onstage tuner that was hands-free and offered a mute function. I don't use any other pedals.
The unit has dozens of pre-set sounds which I have no use for - I'm very old school - so maybe it's more than I needed in the first place.
I use a handful of the pre-sets (2 wahs, one distortion, a chorus, a tremolo, a 'Stevie Ray' sound, or a plain bright - one sound per song) or bypass it altogether.
I haven't noticed any extraneous noise from it. I'd like it if there was more range/depth in the wahs and the tremolo.

In 4 years playing on stage in pubs and clubs never had a real problem.
It's plastic, but I look after all my gear and keep it away from trouble and drunks.
However I'm on my second 9volt power unit simply because the crappy power leads short out from flexing. I think the unit should have an AC power lead. I would never use batteries.
A couple of times I've hit the wrong button (because I don't know how to edit it - duh - it's still factory set up) while changing banks onstage and in the dark I haven't been able to work out how to undo what I've done! The unit is probably for someone a little more sophisticated than me.

Never had a need

Been playing for 30 years, I love the tough, clean sounds I get through my guitar/amp combinations and only bought the Korg because I needed some variety for the band i'd joined. Whenever I play my Gibson ES-135 semi I bypass the unit because it's not at all compatible.
I play in an acoustic outfit too and use the Korg as an onstage tuner and just bypass it - expensive tuner, I guess.
I've noticed other people complaining about the quality of the sounds - I'm happy with the sounds I use and don't bother with the rest. Pub crowds aren't that fussy. The Korg does what I need it to do, but I'm not emotionally attached to it. Now my Vox - that's a different story!
I didn't try any other pedals - my Godson had one and it looked like an easy and affordable way to expand my sound palette without taking up any footspace! If mine disappeared I'd just run dry until I could find a used one, or maybe I'd see what else has been invented in the last ten years! There's always something new to make you go Wow!

No knobs to turn whatsoever - hard to get used to. But workable. I always hated to have to program a patch and was glad when I was done. Esp. the EQ sucks and totally unusable. To change patches you can easily miss. It feels like a toy. Cant use it live since it changes patches not on time! For home use its ok I guess. What I definitely liked about it: Runs also with batteries. Used it on trains and buses on vacations. Low budget equipment...

The distortions are decent, overdrives fail completely. Nice phasers. Forget loops etc. One prepatch was the one called "SPACED". This one rules! The delays and reverbs are crap. Use it with headphones its a little better...

It held up so far, dont use it too often though...

dunno

Kind of a metal machine. Good enough for nu rcok etc. No usable overdrive, hard to control, fails in live situations. ok for backup at home. Was my first effect ever, years ago. The only I reason I keep it is I wouldnt get any money for it anymore...

The interface on this thing isn't the easiest in the world, and definitely not the fastest to edit. Using the patches is pretty straightforward, though. There's not a lot of room for custom patches. Only 30 writeable programs, with little flexibility on-stage.

The user manual was pretty clear.

Sound quality, for the most part, is terrible on this thing. The distortion is mostly like white noise, changing the drive level didn't really make it better. The compression (as well as some of the reverb and echo effects with clean tones) pops a *lot* when you hit a string, more than is normal with compression. Stereo effects were good, and the unit offers some interesting effects. Several effects are in stereo, which made it cool in a lot of ways.

Using this thing without an amp or some amp modeller is not recommended. Usually, when you get a floor processor, it's expected to have amp cab modelling. While it does (the "size" feature), it's not very good at all.

Very reliable, always used it without backup.

Not good for distortion, but good for clean sounds and effects. One of the worst things with this processor, in my opinion, is the output. It has stereo effects, yet to utilize them, you'll have to have a stereo cable instead of two mono cables, which means you'll have to most likely have to have a stereo-mono splitter, which is what I ultimately ended up building for it.

Bought this unit used. I've just started to really learn how to play after having a guitar around for several years and I've found this unit to have some really good, usefull sounds for the stage I'm at. It's easy to edit, and you defenetly have to fine tune it to your set up. No manual came with it, but it was easy enough to find on line. Once I read through it a couple times, it all made sense.

I put it through a Peavy Rage 158 amp and play on a Washburn Idol wi14, so I know it will never sound like a Les Paul through a Marshall, but it does sound pretty damn good. I get some noise through some of the pre-sets, but if you torque it, you can really cut out a lot of the noise. The effects really do depend on your set up, some weak, some almost too much, but I have been able to get some really good distortion and an awesome sounding clean through mine. The special effects are kind of weak, pedal doesn't travel al that much, but you can make so really cool sounds.

It is really kind of hard to see the display, so if you don't have a couple patch's real close together to switch back & forth to, I can't see using it live. Then again, most guy's would only be using a couple of setting anyway. It's never gone out or anything, so yeh, I'd use it live.

never used them

I play a wide variety, rock, country, metal and I've found it useful for all those styles. I don't know if I'd replace it if stolen, I'd probably shell out some more money and get something a little newer.
All in all, excellent in giving you a sound to be confident in playing with. Once you hear that you CAN sound like you know what your doing, it really opens up your playing and builds your confidence.
For what I payed for it, it'll always be in my bag.

You must create your own patches with this to fit your style. It is easy but takes time. Keep it simple and don't try to jam all the effects into each patch. I think some of these people are shredding,crunching, and swirling every patch and then wondering where their tone went.

Nothing matches a Fender twin or a roland JC 120 for clean, bright sound [ OOp's forgot about the new Rogue amps.] But for dist., phaser, compressor, flanger, this beats them all. Again, adjust the patches.

I would'nt play Symphony Hall with it. Parties, clubs, jams, it is a blast. Mine is old and used. Still works like new.

N/A

I play mostly rock at parties and small clubs. I have crafted each patch with the most " mind-blowing " effects imaginable. Sure there are tiny bits of hiss or static here and there on some of them, but nothing you could possibly hear with the rest of the band playing. The Behringer XV AMP is comparable but does not have the sampler/loop function that I like.

This effects unit is fairly simple to use, though it is a pain to have to scroll through the menus to get to the disired effect to be preseted. I don't have much recollection of the manual, so I guess it is not that important to use this unit.

I play a Gibson SG Standard through an old Marshall Reverb 12 amplifier. The modulation effects are decent, and the delay effects are okay. The main problem is that if no drive is selected, then the level of the effect drops to minimal. If you want the effect clean, then you must select the compression effect on for it to be anywhere near audible, but the compression is awful. I don't notice any difference between clean and compression, accept for that the compression adds lots of digital sounding noise to your sound. The other drive settings (distortion, fuzz and overdrive) sound really bad. They do not give you the feeling that they are real at all, and sound very grainy with way too much high frequency in them. This box has the some of the worst sounding distortion I have ever heard on it. The wah and volume functions using the expression pedal are not very good either.

This unit is very reliable. The only problems that I have had are when I plug the cables into the wrong jacks (i.e. Guitar into the "output" jack) by accident...

I have never used the customer support.

I play pretty much all styles of music, but this unit is not much help for any of them. It mostly gets in the way of my sound. I have it looped into another switch box, and use it primarily as a tuner. I am pretty sure that they do not make this unit anymore, so I doubt any one will be buying one anyways, but if you are thinking of purchasing this unit, you may want to reconsider.

Quite easy considering how much stuff is in it. The manual is good. Editing patches is very intuitive, simple really.

Well, as with all multi-fx pedals, this one will have things to praise and things to boo. In all fairness, it is not the top of the line, $400 multi-fx unit of today. It's low priced, and a bit out-dated, like your computer you bought in 2000. But it gets the job done.

For what it is, it's actually a nice little unit. Surprisingly good. I like Korg's multi-units much better than Digitech's.

Overdrives are tasteful, Distortion 2 is good, fuzz is bad until you EQ it right (heavy on the bass), otherwise it will split open your ear drums.

The compressor is very good.

I found the chorus to be tasteful and rich, the phaser gives good EH and Boss emulations, and the flanger has an interesting tone... a bit thin, but still good... it doesn't really sound like other flangers I've owned (Boss, EH).

The expression pedal is short on travel, but it does the job. It's great for whammy (very smooth shifting), but the wah leaves something to be desired. I believe the word is "balls."

Tremolo and vibrato are nice too...

I think this is a good choice for anyone, really. Some of the effects may not be to your liking, but for the price, it's a solid little pedal (plastic casing notwithstanding).

Pretty easy, even for a multi-effect pedal. I have the manual, but didn't need it to figure out how to edit.

The travel on the expression pedal is pretty short.

Most effects are good. The chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo and vibrato effects are particularly good-- very smooth and tasteful. Overdrive is good at low setting (great for solos), but I found it more difficult to find a pleasing, high distortion setting. It can be done, but it takes some tweaking.

The fuzz, also, with enough tweaking, is good. I can make it sound ALMOST identical to my Big Muff, though there was something missing... probably some particular notch in the frequency.

Echo effects are tame and not particularly useful... good thing I have a seperate echo pedal. Reverb is okay.

Pitch shifting is surprisingly good... more realistic than the Boss PS-3... smooth transitings with the whammy function.

The filter is good... not moog good, but good nonetheless. I enjoy the ability to control the filter, modulation effects, echo and other perameters via the expression pedal. W/ the flange, you can manually sweep from high to low w/ said pedal... cool! There is lots of fun stuff to explore.

The scratch function is fun, though I haven't found a use for it yet. The sample and reverse sample are also fun, but too short.

All in all, this is a nice multi-fx unit, for not much money.

3 years, no problems.

I play various kinds of rock and pop. This unit gives me all sorts of sounds and options. I would recommend this to anyone, beginner or advanced. I use it in conjunction w/ various pedals, but one could concievably get along w/ just the Korg and a good delay pedal. Plus, it's not huge like some other multi-fx units... nice.

I learnt quickly how to change the patches, maybe the pedal-controlled functions took a little longer. But it's easy to use, a good multi-effect for the beginner. The tuner is alright, too. It's useful to have it in the box.

The lead distorsion fits me very well, and maybe the other "dist 1" too, but i can't get any decent metal sound, and I think there could have been more different distorsions in it.
Some of the effects are horrible, some are great. It has some great clean sounds, but I never use some of the other effects. I'm using a Fender Strat with my 30-watt amp. I feel that the Korg gives me some variation, the amp-distorsion is too boring.

It's plastic, but it feels and looks OK. But two of my three transformers have broken during use, I don't know why.

Never dealed with them.

It's good for a beginner, but I plan to buy a zoom gfx-5 instead of this, I'd like more features and distorsions.

It's pretty intuitive to use. I did look at the manual to figure out the loop/sample/scratch thing though... which is the beginning of my review: it sucks.

I have a Jackson explorer-body guitar. I cannot remember the model - fortunately it's not cheap enough to have it stamped on the neck or something ;). Stock Jackson humbuckers still in place. I run that into an Ibanez P7 phaser into a Danelectro Blue Paisley overdrive pedal (great pedal, btw) and into the AX1G. I have a Boss DS-1 distortion pedal on the way because I refuse to use the garbage distortion in this AX1G. All of that goes into a 15-watt Marshall paperweight that distorts much better than the A1XG.

When this disposable plastic box arrived, I was quite disappointed. I am a Korg fan (on the keyboard end of the biz) and I'm shocked that they treat their guitar players like this! There is little pedal travel, and what little there is - is too stiff. The wah and every other pedal-controlled effect, IMO, is unusable due to this.

Distortion is very weak. Overdrive is weak. The pitch effects are... wait... I'm going to have to say the whole damn thing sucks.

I spent more time trying to find a decent use for this thing than learning how to use it. Okay, the chorus is nice. The delay is okay. I did finally find a use for it: a noise gate. The 'noise reduction' is pretty good. I dialed in a setting that works for me and it silences all my pedals, line noise, etc.

It should be noted that I am a novice guitar player. But I am a senior production engineer for (I'll omit the name). I know quality and I've turned this box inside out looking for it. I would never (shudder) record with this.

If the build quality is even 1/2 that of Korg's synthesizers, it will last. Korg is sticking it to you real guitarists in sound quality though.

I've not dealt with customer support. I've dealt with Korg on endorsements and the like and its made up of some great people. And as long as they keep sending me free gear, I'll keep thinking that too. Maybe Korg has come around with guitar stuff lately, I really only know about the synths and this one guitar device they made.

Again, I'm shocked at Korg. Apparently its resources are funneled into its synth line.

It was my first Multi-Effects Processor which was made in Japan.I bought it in 1999.And I still use it for practice although I'd had the GNX 3 and Behringer V-Amp 2.To edit the tone is so easy that I could adjust it without looking it.I read the manual when I used it for first,but soon I put it away.

My rencent setup are an ESP Eclipse FR!?and an old Charvel Strat into a Conquest T65R Combo.
The Chorus effect is so good,so is the overdrive.Usually I'd like to close the cabinet modeling when I play the AX1G 'cause I connect it into the effect loop of my amp. It sounds smooth.
Distortion needs to be more crunch,I mean is not so HEAVY for me.Maybe it's enough for guitar solo but ain't so good for metal rhythm!
Wah Wah is not bad.

I know I've play it for so long,but I still want to say that some buttons of my AX1G need to be prepaired.5 Years is not a vacation,but not a decay too......

Never contact with them.

I play Progressive Metal and Thrash Metal.And I'd like to play some like jazz or blues in common.This material is suit for different style---but suck for record.I've played for 5 years,my first guitar is a solid green Samick guitar(somehow like JS...but I really don't know the name of it...) ,and I had a GNX3!?a Metal Master,and a V-Amp 2#?they all worked amazing!The next one that I will buy might be the GNX2,'cause it's good for live and recording---by the way,I need the Whammy badly!
I think the Tone Works and the Tonelab are collided.I don't need the ring effect but really need more Amp modeling.That's what I want to say.

Its a verry easy beginners panel.
Also works great on-stage (used it in a little ballroom for over 200 people). The distortion's are verry good and I never had problems with adjusting the pedal for my own great sounds!
I never used the manual, so I don't rate it.

I'm mostly using my room amp. It's an Ibanez 15 watt's bass amp. reset to a guitar amp. I can get a real great whah with this amp and with the adjustible bass you can get a real metal/gothic distortion (dist. used by Korn/Soulfly/Cradle of Filth).

I was tuning my guitar once on the pedal and forgot to turn it back in effect mode. When i smashed the strings the pedal went off but a couple hours later it worked again! I was stunned!

Never used the C.S.

Mostly I play Blues/Rock/Metal/Grunge(Nirvana, Pearl Jam, NIN).
It's perfect for playin' Nirvana shit!

Very easy to use. I didn't need the manual.

Good clean sounds, as everyone says. The chorus is nice. Flanger and phaser are good too. I enjoy the whammy effect ... good w/ distortion for a My Bloody Valentine "Loveless" sound. Good compression. I didn't think the distortions were that bad. The fuzz and Distortion 2 are good, overdrive is good... it all depends on how you eq it... if you don't eq it right, it will of course sound like merde. That goes with all distortion effect... all sounds in general, really. EQ editing on the pedal is nice. Backwards sample is fun but short. DJ scratch is fun, as is ring modulator. The filter effect is awesome!

Wah is okay, but a little weak. Trebly for my tastes.

I've had it for several years with no problems.

Very nice little multi pedal. I use it with various other effects... I wouldn't use it as a stand alone, but even just as a compressor it's worth the money... cheaper than, say, a boss compressor, less noisy, sounds better, and plus you get a bunch of other fx with it, some great, some rather fetid, but those is the breaks.

Very easy to use. Editing is a bit slow, but once you get the hang of it, it's not too bad. I really hate changing the name of patches, because you have to cycle through the ASCII character set, which is slow. The manual is fine and useful for reminding you of the stock settings if you're looking for ideas.

Actually, the sound quality isn't bad, if you use it right. I think the stock settings are pretty bad. They sound cheesy, thin and generally lack luster. They do catch your ear the first time you hear them, but you tire quickly and get annoying.

However, I've come across a way to use this pedal that really is great. I don't use it as a direct box, but to drive a Kustom Tube 12 (two actually -- in stereo!) It sounds really great. I've created a couple of patches using the Line DS and Line OD and through the Kustom, man, it sounds really great. The Kustom adds warmth that is missing from the direct out signal and the AX1G is capable of driving things so that some really nice and natural break up happens with the tube preamp. I typically have the Kustom set like this: bass - 9, treble 5 or 6 and the thing totally rocks. When I run into 2 Kustoms, I get a really nice live stereo sound that really sounds great. I would highly recommend this set-up as it's cheap (AX1G ~ $50, Kustom ~ 70) and very lightweight. For $180 you have a very useable tube-sounding set-up. The AX1G provides everything you need for effects and the Kustoms give you that tube warmth. My rating is pretty high with this set-up. I plan to post the specific settings of my patches on a website TBA.

Others have had problems. I haven't.

Can't say.

Overall, I'd give a fairly high rating for it's flexibility. If you drive a tube amp -- even a small one like the Kustom -- you can get some really great sounds for practice, recording and doing small gigs. I got the idea to use it this way from the Kustom 12 reviews here, and it was a good thing to do!

It's very easy to use. There are tons of presets to choose from, and you can easily edit them to make your own settings. I got this when i first started playing, and I had no problems figuring it out. It even has the presets listed in the manual in case you need to get one back.

My setup is a 1988 Charvel Model 4 into a Peavey 5150 combo. I originally used this pedal with a cheapo Marshall MG10CD. It was fine for when I was first getting started, but I would never dream of using it with my Peavey.

I tried using it for recording recently. It was the first time in over 6 months that I had used it. I had forgotten just how bad the sound from this thing was. I was running straight from the pedal into the mixer.

Clean sounds are actually decent. My clean setting that I had logged with a little bit of chorus and delay sounded quite good, and was noise free on the recording.

The distortion on the other hand, is just aweful. It is impossible to get a semi-full sounding low gain distortion out of this box. And the high-gain distortion just sounds like a chainsaw.

Effects that can actually be used on this pedal are chorus, delay, and (kind of) distortion. The wah is useless, along with just about everything else.

I gave it a 3 and not a 1 simply because of the clean sounds.

My first AX1G was defective, and I had to go back to the guitar shop to get a new one. That one works well most of the time, but it will randomly cut out, even with new batteries.

I wouldn't gig with this without a backup. I would'nt gig with this period if I had a choice.

Never dealt with the company. Just returned my defective pedal to the guitar shop.

I play a very wide range of music. I'll play lots of thrash such as Slayer, old Metallica and Megadeth. Then I'll move on to progressive stuff like Dream Theater and Symphony X. I even try my hand at shred songs once in a while. With one band I play a mix of punk and metal, and the other softer stuff, sometimes using an acoustic.

I've only been playing for about 2 years now. I don't use any effects right now; I just go straight into my 5150.

If it was stolen, I'd make a half-assed attempt to get it back, then give up. If I could find a buyer, I'd sell it any day.

Very easy for editing. You don't need the manual. The presetes are not good so you must do your own.

I have a yamaha pacifica 112 (SSH) with a seymour duncan distortion humbucker. I use it on a Crate GX15 (15W) and a fender ME80 (i think...) on the studio.
The sound is completely digital (that's bad). You may finally get some good sound but...
The distortions are very thin and flat compared to an analog pedal.
All effects don't have enough parameters. For example you can get delay for ...400, 450, 500ms... and you have only the volume for parameter.
The pedal sucks!!! Very small "angle" and not accurate!!! (for everything)
Loops, scratches, rings, "voice" are useless!

It's made of cheap plastic. I had some gigs without a backup but i wouldn't rely on it. I feel that it may break apart at a heavier push on it Although I don't have any problem yet (5+ "light use" years)

I play mostly rock. From classic 70s (zeppelin, purple) to alternative (red hot chili peppers, radiohead) and some metal. I play the quitar for 6 years. I don't have another effect unit. If it were stolen i would buy something better (and more expensive :)). I would probably go for analog.
Finally:
This pedal it's good for absolute beginners! Very soon you will find to need something better. For this money it's not something better... (unless sou want to start "collecting" stompboxes)

I expected from Korg a better manual, but io have to say that it's quite easy to edit preset patches and to get some good sound.

I use it at home with a little but good Fender X15 amp (or with an headphone) and with an old but gold Peavey T-60 guitar. There's some noise, most of all on distortion setting, but for my need it's acceptable. I've never tried to "imitate" the sound of some rock star, i'm not interesting in this exercise, i've only tried to obtain some clean or creative sound for recording on my computer: distortions are a bit noisy and some are weak, but chorus, delay and reverb are quite good.
Some presets are just an entertainment for kid, but with a bit of patience you can obtain your own sound, of course with not little limitation, but at the same time with some satisfaction.
It should be better to find a lower noise, a display backlight, a couple of tone controls and a longer sampling (at least 10 seconds), but you can enjoy it as it is, of course if you pay the right price for what you get and if you know what you need.

It's not made by stone and iron, at home i think it's reliable and on stage you have not to use marines boots or elephant kicks.

I've never dealt with Korg.

I still get an old Zoom 9002 and i think that the perfect contemporary substitute of this vintage nice (and noisy!) effect could be the Korg Pandora FX4, that maybe will be my next self-gift.
I've bought this AXG1 s/h from a kind person only one week ago, i think i've got a good quality box for what i paid (1/4 of a Pandora...), some effects are not different from what you can find in more expensive gears.
The worst aspects are a bit of noise (mainly on distortions) and the quite invisible display, the best are pedal and clean sounds.
If you are involved in a specific kind of guitar music, buy a specific effect, but if you like to play with an acceptable and personal sound, paying a cheap price, look for a s/h one and pay it not more than 50-60 $.

Once you've read carefully the manual, it's easy to use. The menus are quite intuitive and the multi-color light helps a lot. The manual is easy and complete.

I use it with Fender Strat(DiMarzio's s-s-s) through Marshall DSL100. The wha-wha, overdrives, equalizer and almost ALL the effects are CRAP. I use it ALL BYPASSED as a tuner (after all is a korg tuner, isn't it?) or as a metronome when I'm practicing at home. The tuner and the metronome are the 2 reasons why I don't sell it.

It's plastic shit. I use it in the gigs as a tuner.

Never dealt with the company.

I play metal, 12 years now. The thing is not good, at all. I use other pedals for the effects (MXR distortion+, Vox wha, Boss Super Chorus). If I lost it, I would replace it with a tuner. I think it should be good for a beginner, mainly because of the metronome and tuner. Don't but it.

You pretty much have to have the instruction manual to get started, it's not a real self-explanatory piece of equipment. Once you get familiarized with all of the functions - and there are A LOT of functions - it's easy to manipulate the settings, but be warned, this processor requires a bunch of little tweaking here and there. I guess that's how most of these types of units work, but you can literally spend hours programming one single channel. I don't like the fact that the channels are set up in a linear fashion, like you really only have access to three channels at once (the one you're using, then one up and one down in the chain) and you can't bring in other effects in on the fly. Example: say you have a channel that's set up to sound one way, but you want to kick in some overdrive for a lead you have to switch to a whole different channel. Maybe I'm asking a lot from it, but it's kind of restrictive.

When I bought this pedal (about five years ago) I was playing a Japanese-made Fender Jazzmaster reissue into a Crate GT80-DSP trans-tube that had a solid-state channel and a tube preamp channel, rhythm and lead for both, so four total. It also had like 30 different types of digital delay and reverb in the amp - I was into effects, can you tell? anyway, it always sounded like total crap, and a Japanese Fender should not sound like crap. The processor seemed to be sucking the life out of my tone, making it just sound thin and fuzzy. If I used the processor on a clean channel with just effects, like chorus, flange, wah, etc., and relied on the amp to handle the distortion it was better, but still very digital sounding. I didn't use it very much for quite a while, probably about a year. I was getting tired of being in solid-state hell, so about six months ago I bought a full tube amp (which, by the way, is the best thing you can do for yourself - there is no substitute for real tube warmth, but that's an entirely different conversation). I now have a 40w Pignose G40V powering a 2x12 cabinet that I built and loaded with some high-end Jensen speakers. Started using the AX1G again...not much improvement, as far as the sound goes. It will definitely sound better through a good tube amp and speakers, but don't expect much.

Some people don't mind/can't tell the difference between digital and analog; if you're one of those people this unit might work well for you. Me personally, my ears pick up the difference between the two instantly every time, blindfolded, miles away, doesn't matter. I'm not saying I'm better than everyone else, I can just tell, and other people will tell you the same thing. This unit makes all of the sounds "choppy" in a way, like you can hear the bits of sound coming thru the amp. grainy.

as far as the effects go, some of the modulation effects are decent, like the chorus and flange. Decent octave effect, doesn't seem to track very well when the signal decays. Delay, reverb - typical, it's not too hard to find a decent reverb or delay, but again the digital sound... The nice thing about all of these is that there are several different variations on these effects to play with. The wah is not very good, it doesn't have much range and you can't modify the sweep range either, which for something as important as wah it would seem like they'd make this effect more versatile. Ring modulator is simply annoying. The cabinet simulator...???? sounds like it's trying to add subtle low end, but it's not going to make you sound like you've got two Marshall 4x12's behind you. The random effect is pretty interesting if you can find a use for it.

Overdrive effects...essentially worthless. If you bought this pedal to sound like Jimi with a Fuzz Face, or Eric Clapton from the Cream days, you might as well have just set fire to the $100 you payed for it. The distortions are just so thin and grainy-sounding that it can be painful. I stopped even trying once I got the tube amp and realized it wasn't helping the sound of the pedal.

Also, don't try putting any other individual pedals around this thing. I had some other effects, like tremolo, delay, a fuzz effect, that I tried using to get around the linear-switching problem. I thought my tone was weak before, it was unbearable with other effects around.

I have to complain about the detune function. It works pretty well as far as tracking the notes, but it's not very smooth when you use the expression pedal. It's one of those deals (like the cheap DigiTech Whammy copies) where it bends the pitch in mini steps instead of sweeping through the entire range. Also the further down you detune, the more you get a delay between when you hit the string and when the note actually comes out.

The one thing that is really cool about this pedal is the sampling effect. It takes practice (well, doesn't everything), but once you get good at it it's a lot

It never failed me. I never relied on batteries, I bought an adaptor for it right away. It's made of plastic, so don't drive your car over it. I never had any real problems other than not being able to get what I wanted out of it. In five years of owning it I never had the balls to gig with it, so I don't know how it would handle "road use". From the looks of it, I'm guessing not well.

never had to deal with the company. It's nice that you can get a replacement instruction manual online at the Korg website, which I had to do when I broke it back out after getting my new rig and couldn't remember how to do anything.

I ended up selling this pedal on Ebay about three months ago for an unbelieveable $71, and I felt bad about taking the guy's money. Sorry, man, you got suckered.

When I bought the pedal I was into the Tom Morello style, I was huge into RATM and thought I could manufacture cool sounds by loading up on effects. Well...let's just say it's not the ship, it's the captain. You will never sound like Tom Morello with this pedal. End of story. He's got active pickups and vintage Whammy's and thechniques that just can't be copied, let alone with this toy.

I guess you can say my taste in music has "matured" because now I'm a little older and am really into gettng pure and beautiful tone. I listen to a lot of classics (Zeppelin, Hendrix, Cream, Rolling Stones) and newer bands that have helped to bring that sound back (Jack White, the Strokes, Kings of Leon), I've also gone back to my grunge roots a bit (Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees, Neil Young if you think he should be in that "category"). Anyway, this pedal will never - and I cannot emphasize this enough - NEVER produce great tone, with any amp, guitar, whatever, that you have. If anything, it greatly detracts from the tone that you could be getting. I may just be biased against digital processor effects, but in my humble opinion you're better off taking the $100 or so and putting it towards building a pedal board that has all of these effects on it. Really, I've never known anyone that uses, or would use, all of these effects. Pick a few sounds that you like and go out and get some good high-quality stand-alone pedals. Believe me, DON'T BE FOOLED by the discount super-value that this pedal seems to be in the mail-order guitar catalog...YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU GET!!!

editting not too complex, push some buttons, save, repeat, etc...

i've used this thing with a variety of amps (mostily combos) and guitars (mostily strat copies w/ bridge humbuckers), it seems to work against every amp when use one of the distortions settings. way to much mid-range, imagine a worse sounding dod grunge pedal, yeah, horrid. overdrive is better but still, i've got a $20 danelectro mini pedal (pastrami) that blows this away. pedal is way too noisy, noisy gate sucks, cab-simlu suck, just adds cracks and pops now days. the wha sounds like it's missing some high and low end, and the foot pedal does'nt controll it very well, no smooth low to high, it kind of jumps. oh, and the tracking on the pitch shifter is awful, so bad it's kind of funny hear. i would'nt use this ofr live or recording, mostily i use it as a headphone amp or just to goof-off.

i've had it since 99 and no problems that kept it from functioning. made of plastic, so i can't really say it's going to be reliable forever.

nope

well, it's like this. you want the g.i. joe amry super battle station and you get the dollar tree tank and a 100 green army men. you can still have alot of fun with it.