Korg AX300G

When I first looked at this processor I was disapointed... How could an object so small be so damn good? The truth is that the sound of this baby here is just fantastic.

About editing... well if patience is your ally then you should have no problems... On the other hand if you are like me... :X

The manual is so confused! I read it about 3 times and I didn't manage to get it right. My sugestion is to try for yourself until you get it right.

I use an electrical guitar Lag Ak100 with a crappy Fender Frontman 15R (it reallyyyyyy sucks) and a Line 6 Spider II 150w. It rocks!

The processor really impressed me. I used to borrow a Boss Gt-6 and believe it or not I think this Korg is better.

All the effects sound great! From the distortions (which are powerfull indeed) to the cool delays, everything's just perfect!

You can depend on this processor to gig or simply kick it with your friends in a studio or at home...

It doesn't get a 10 because the pressure pedal sucks... I recomend you connect a real one to this Ax300G ;-)

Never had to call for help...

I play a variety of sounds. From blues to ska/punk and let me tell you this processor has got it all.

If it were stolen I would reach for my friends at the mafia to retrieve it to me =P

I love the distortions and the perfect delays. I hate the fact that you have to own a brain to edit all the stuff :X

This baby here it's only beaten by POD Xt Live... all the others don't even come near this good.

My friends out there if you wich a good processor at an incedible low price... don't search no more :)

Let music be your friend... never forget that [[]]

The AX300G is really easy to use. the interface is really simple and the style is not flashy at all. with its chain technology, its as easy as editing a chain of analog stompboxes. editing patches are also simple. i got an AX30G manual from a website and the functions of both of them are the same. an hour later, i've composed like 5 patches already. its like a caveman gfx. very good straightforward interface.

i use a fener strat and a fernder deluxe 112 plus (i know its old but hey, it sounds great!) with it. i never had feedback problems thanks to the NR technology!!! this gfx delivers superb distortions. time-based effects are fair (since there is an evidence of its "digital-ness" sound in it). ive already composed the sound of dimebag, eric johnson, joe satriani, and paul gilbert.

made of plastic, but i only use it at home, it will take a hundred years before it breaks down (i hope). but its made of very durable plastic, so i guess it will last.

never had a problem with korg

i play technical metal for almost 12 years and im glad that i bought this gfx. if it were stolen, id definitely buy another one. one thing that i love most in this gfx is its caveman interface. you don't have to be an expert in gfx to use this. if anyone has patches, please e-mail me. thanks!

Well... not really easy. A very complex editing systems, it's quite hard to get it at the beginning; after some hours you know how it works, but it still takes several minutes to get the sound you desire.
And thats the point: almost everytime I want to play, I end up tweaking around like an idiot; not ideal for the plug-and-play-fanatics.
On the other hand, I guess that is the price you pay for the almost unlimited tweaking possibilities: you can change millions of parameters of the millions of effect types, and once you stored your sound in some patches (there are 32), they are back there in half a second.
Good manual also.

That's where the strengths of this unit lie: it simply sounds great. You can get a huge variety of sounds; forget the pre-programmed patches, the Korg people must have been really drunk when they edited them and overloaded them with cheap space-effects.

You can both get a really solid, rocking basic sound and really weird effects; I use the Korg almost only for the first, as the latter only suit some strange experimental lo-fi style of music (maybe).

Some of the effects:

DISTORTION - hey man, I was looking for that sounds for years when I happened to get this little guy dirt cheap at an online auction; from this day on it has become my (only) standard setup.
I mostly use quite distorted sounds, in the first line for playing rhythm (powerchords), but also solos (soli?).
Some of the distortion types (there are many!) sound a little distant and muffled, especially through my bassy Peavey Studio Pro 112; combine them with a decent Exciter - and wow, there it is, a clear, balanced Punk guitar with all the tone you want.

EQUALIZER - well, they could have built in a more-than-3-band-EQ, but the one thats there is quite good and effective

WAH,BENDER - quite good, but the way of the built-in expression pedal is too short to really use them reasonably. I prefer my Crybaby.

AMPSIM - hum... not suited for direct-input-recording into my computer's soundcard (damn), but quite OK to use the thing in front of a PA or Stereo

DELAYS - there are freakin many, both short and REALLY long, you can edit the time by milliseconds - all you need and more

TREMOLO - yes!yes!yes! all you can expect from a tremolo, and much more than you can expect from such an old digital multi-FX

RING MOD, RANDOM STEP FILTER, SWEEO MOD DELAY - man, what did the Korg guys smoke when they designed these FX... nice to toy around, not to use seriously, though

NOISE REDUCTION - hm... effective, but it also cuts the lower volume notes. You need it as the digital noise is really ugly, but take care to find the right amount

CHORUS, FLANGER, PHASER - seem OK to me, I hardly use them, a little bit digital maybe

All in all, the most satisfying sound I had in my life as a guitarist

Plastic case, but I trust it, it seems solid (not as trashy as a ZOOM)

I use the Korg for my Melodic-Punkrock type of music in the style of No Use For A Name, Descendents, Pennywise, No Fun At All, Venerea ..., but also more acoustic (clean), slower things. It does everything I tell it and it does it well. I think it's also good for metal, almost everything in fact.

I compared it to a Zoom GM-200 (which I only keep for its direct-computer-input-ability as the rest is quite crappy), an ART XTREME (also great, but not my type of distortion and no programmability) and various pedals, but none of them even came close.

If it would not tend to prevent me from playing by challenging my computer-programming-side of my mind I'd give it a ten; still it is the best unit you can get in this price-range (and above) by far, as I think.
If you can get it used, don't hesitate!

Pretty easy to figure out, even if there are quite a few variables in all of the effects. The two button interface for selecting and entering patches is a little annoying, but the use of the infinite knob makes up for it. The IPE edit is very nice too for quickly changing effects to some of the more common settings. More effect units should have something like this. The manual is somewhat of a mess and I found it somewhat useless except for looking up effect patch parameters.

I'll go through each effect separately first -

COMPRESSOR - digital sounding, totally squishes harmonics and not at all transparent - this is the first thing I replaced (I use an Art Tube Compressor instead)

EQ - usefull and pretty easy to understand

WAH - not really that good, somewhat OK for AutoWah, but I soon replaced it with a Dunlop Wah (though I should have got a Vox!)

DISTORTIONS - mixed feelings here - If you like Van Halen and Pantera than it can do a pretty decent job, but otherwise I don't find their distortions very impressive at all. The break-up at higher gains is totally fake sounding and there is and overall lack of sustain. Also, the attack time on many of the distorations (except 'high gain') seem a bit too slow. The distortions actually sound OK at lower gain levels (8-9/50) but overall, nothing really amazing. I also find it difficult to emulate a lot of sounds I hear on CD. If you want SRV - forget it - buy a Tubescreamer.

HYPER-RESONATOR - not very usefull to me, but if you want fuzzy synthy stuff its there for you.

AMP-Sim - not very realistic AMP sim if you ask me, but then again this effect unit was made at a time when digital amp-sim was just starting to catch on. I find use for the 6L6 option in some patches for a Smashing Pumpkin type sound, but otherwise its usally turned off.

EXCITER - mediocre exciter - not bad on the more acoustic stuff.

CHORUS - very weak, kind of odd sound for a chorus.

FLANGER/PHASER - a bit cold sounding, but both decent enough to use nonetheless. Flanger works well on older Van Halen stuff.

VIBRATO/TREMOLO - great sounding, nice with distortion to get REM type effect.

PITCH SHIFTER+BENDER - does what is says, but the foot pedal does have enough travel to do the bender justice.

DELAYS - probably the best strength of the AX300G. There are five delay effects with many patches and even stereo settings (nice!). You can set up some nice Edge-like patches with these. The 'modulation delay' is quite useful as a chorus-type effect or thickening the sound up a bit(much better than the 'chorus' effect')

REVERBS - good for the time, but there starting to show their age. I find them great for guitar setups, sometimes a bit fizzy, but much better than most effect units. Only three choices of plate, room, and hall. They're not so good for keyboard stuff, but then again this is a "guitar effect" unit.

STEP FILTER/OSCILLATOR - useless to me as far guitar effects are concerned! Waste of chips! A regular envelope filter would have been a far better effect to include.

There are some nice bonuses in this unit too. You can set each patch up with a separate volume level and a separate noise filter setting. I hate noise and one of the major reasons I got this unit was because it is quiet.

Yes, its plastic, but its pretty thick and it feels like it could take a real beating. I've had it for about 6 or 7 years now and its never caused trouble. The infinite knob still selects perfectly (unlike Alesis products).

Never had to phone.

I bought the A300G when it first came out, and at the time it was the best bang per buck effect unit out there with reasonably low noise. Shortly after, the POD came out, and its likely that I would I have bought the POD instead if I had the option at that time. I still use it a lot on clean patches, it meshes nicely with my Marshall Valvestate 100 when I send the left side to the main amp input and the right side to the effect loop plug. I find I can set up just the right balance of effect this way. The stereo output is a very nice feature. Delays, modulations, reverbs are quite good, and some of the patches are very unique. (much better than Digitech or Zoom) If you like to make your own sounds then the AX300G is for you, but if want emulation, I would say look elsewhere. I still own it and still use it reguarly, so I guess that says something about it.

No es nada facil de usar, demasiadas caracteristicas para tocar, para definir, demasiadas, por otro lado, mejor puedes definir el sonido que quieras

Uso este pedal con mi epiphone sg400 Deluxe, y las distorsiones logradas son bestiales, muy bueno el simulador de aplificadores. Incluso utilizo mi acustica cort con una pastillas en la boca Dean Markley, y los efectos de delay y equalizador de 3 bandas y reverb quedan muy bien

Ningun problema para utilizar este pedal en cualquier situacion. Yo lo he utilizado para grabar maquetas y para dar conciertos.

ni idea

Utilizo la epiphone sg400 para tocar heavy, perfectas distorsiones y la acustica para baladas, perfercto tambien. La verdad es que estoy muy contento con este pedal de efectos.

Many find this effect processor difficult to use. But i guess this is just the price you have to pay for such flexibility of options for this pedal. There are just too many different options to play around with here! However, the developers have made things a fair bit easier with a certain option allowing you to choose certain preset distortions/choruses etc and combine them all together. I use the preset EQ extensively. The jog dial, buttons and the LCD screen makes editing pretty simple.

Using this with an Ibanez RG570 and Peavey Rage 158. I play lotsa styles, from rock to metal to blues to jazz and latin.

1)I find the distortions pretty weak and thin... but managed to solve it but turning up the bass and the mids in the EQ to give it a fuller sound. Distortions can make the effect rather jarring even, especially if combined with the amp simulators... so extra care has to be taken when editing the distortions. The trick is actually to use less distortion.. let the guitar's full tone come out fuller and clearer.

2) This effect packs punch in options!! I've not even heard of many of the effects present.. like hyper resonator and ring modulator, step filter and a whole host of delays. The various options allows one to play things like metal to rock to jazz to blues, making the pedal a very versatile pedal. If you're bored, try creating weird effects. I've made cartoonish 'du-du' voices, chipmunk effects, the sound of rushing water, a bass guitar, an alien weirdo effect, a techno sounding rhythm guitar effect and an organ among many.

3)To get the sound you want, extensive editing has to be done.. so just be patient and you'll get what you want eventually. The preset sounds give a good demo on what the pedal has to offer.

only regret is that the pedal does not sound full and round enough for my taste...

It's plastic with a metal covering inside the plastic covering. Still, i wouldn't dare abuse this effect.. the plastic makes it look rather fragile. But it hasn't disappointed me yet... so i guess it should be fairly reliable. Its adaptor spoiled though...but got a replacement.

This effect is indeed value for money... even if you have your own distortion pedals, this would be good for supplementing it with all its weirdo effects... it is truely versatile. It's easy to carry around... with no bulky wah pedals but an innovative pressure pedal that saves space... the pedals are too close to each other for my big feet...usually end up playing barefooted and pressing the pedals with my toe.
If i lost it.. i would probably check out the more expensive effects.

I didn't have any trouble using the 300g from the start mostly because my cousin used a 30g in his band. I would always be curious of it and pretty much learned the basics from him. Everyone always says that the manual is crap and that it tells nothing. I don't believe that its the kind of manual that you can just open up when you first get the thing and start from scratch and try to learn the whole processor off of it step by step. I think its more like, whip out the processor, plug it in, start messing around with it and if you get stuck somewhere or want to know what something means, then just look in the manual for reference. The manual actually gives good straightforward information.

When I heard my cousins metal band for the first time, I was blown away. At the time I was using a DoD Tech4 (which also getts alot of critisim, but hey, look at the price, and look at what you get!). I just had to find out where these hard hitting meaty crunchy distortions, trippy reverbed clean effects and the great classics like wahs and phaser sounds were coming from. Even though the 300g wasn't my cousins 30g, it sounded way close, and it had double effects storage and new effects too! I know use a Peavey Razer (dual humbucker)guitar through a Marshall JCM 900 4100 head and Marshall 4x12 1960B cab. Man, this combo is the best for hard hitting metal or punk. I would also recommend an RG Ibanez in this setup. I used to get very minor feedback but then I put a noisegate on all my effects and solved the problem.

This is my main and only pedal. Yes, it is plastic, but hard plastic, and nothing has ever broken on it or malfunctioned even through the crazy parties that we play at (fortunately no drunk punkers have spilled their beer on my equipment). My pedal has always worked fine, I think that some pedals get malfunctions from the manufacturer but most are from people that screw around with them and don't know what their doing.

Ive never had to call korg yet, and hopefully won't have to, but I heard that they are cool guys and replace your equipment fast if its still under warranty, and they also do the same if its out of warranty only with a charge. Im giving them a mid rating because I have never experienced their support before.

I play metal, funk, punk, Industrial, and some other styles. I believe that this pedal works the best for metal and punk, but I use the included expression pedal for wah and it fits my needs perfectly. Ive been playing for 4 years now and have to say, Ive never liked stomp boxes because you cant customize the effects like you can with a good multi fx processor, and for the price, Id rather have one whole base unit with all my effects in one light, portable unit, than to always set up 3 or 4 different small pedals. The price is also good too. Say you have 4 stompboxes, thats around $200-250 and only 4 effects. This unit though, $250 and a whole library of editable effects. I love this processor the though and would buy it again in a heartbeat if it got stolen or broke somehow(which I don't think would happen unless you dropped something REAL heavy on it). This unit has attached to me and has also brought out a style of my own through it.

it is easy to get a sound you want out of it,you can get just about any sound you want out of it.it is very easy to edit patches.the manual for it explains everything you need to know.

i use an epiphone 335 dot or a squire strat with a fender stage 100 and it sounds pretty good.it can be kind of noisy on high gain settings but ther is a noise reduction level so you can make any effect quiet.most affects sound good.you can get anywhere from a screaming distortion to a perfect clear sound.i have made effects that sound like deftones distortion,and eric johnsons cliffs of dover.

so far i havent had any problems with it.

i play jazz,metal,punk,ska,funk,and some classic rock,and it seems to be best for metal and punk.i love the distortions you get out of it,you can get extremely high gain.i love it.

Well this unit is really easy to use... don't know what to say 'bout it. Just try it out - You'll get it soon. If you don't there is still the manual.
The manual is really useful for editing the patches, cause it helps to understand how the ax300g works.

I use a Ibanez RG, a hohner Revelation RTX and a Fender Strat (Japan). Haven't used the Strat with the AX300G yet, but it just sounds fine with the other two guitars I got.
You can get almost every sound you want out of this one fx-board.. never had any trouble with not getting the sound I was looking for spiteon the chorous which seems to be the weak part of the AX300G.
Some effects are a bit noisy, but that's okay to me... somehow noise belongs to vintage-sounding effects. I don't like the Hyper Resonator, too, but that's just a matter of taste I think.... Anyways I use this effect to play "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls or some dance music... just for fun.
It's really fun creating new sounds when you got nothing else to do.
I recently bought a Fender Hot Rod DeVille (4x10) and it just sounds great with the AX300G. Something that was really astounding to me was the fact that the tube sim can even improve the sound of an all tube amp. Try it out... it really sounds good.
I never really tried to copy the sound of someone, but I guess you could copy almost everything as long if it's not someone who uses many effects at the same time.

When I got this effect it was used to crash just like the computer I had back then when I used certain effects. So I went to the shop and got a new one with the same kind of bug.
I really could not understand it since I've always thought Korg was very reliable.
Anyways, on the 3rd try I got a board that works. And I guess it still works (I lend it to a friend who uses it as a mic preamp). So I guess it was just bad luck that the first two ones did not work

Never needed them.

When I got it I used to play Punk Rock. By now I developed my own style which is far away from punk. My influences are Pearl Jam, Neil Young, Selig, Lenny Kravitz, Cat Stevens and Faith No More to name a few. I haven't used the AX300G that much since I got the Fender amp. Don't need it to create the sound I want... I guess I'll use this unit again in a year or so when I have a new band.
If it was stolen I'd buy it again... I think... maybe I'd consider some of the more expensive boards, but I don't know. You get quite a lot for little money when buying the AX300G.
I think I'm gonna get me a used Ibanez UE 300 in order to have a better chorus effect and a real tubetoner.
If anyone's got cool patches feel free to send em to me

I bought it and started using it without reading the manual. The first impression was that it's really easy to use. But if you want to change some of the original sounds, you should use the manual.

Very good. I have a Marshall Amp and it sound even greater with this thing!

I just have it one week, so i can't say very much about reliability

It's ideal for punk-rock!