Korg AX30G

This is a good pedal straight out of the box. Over a couple of years of heavy,pro use I have fine-tuned many of the factory sounds but my 16 user voices are still about 50% factory sounds, 25% modified factory sounds and 25% original sounds. The actual programming is a piece of cake once you have spent a couple of hours with the unit.

I use the pedal with an early 60s Gibson Les Paul and a more recent USA strat through a 1964 VOX AC30 with original add-on top boost. I don't find noise a problem compared to my old set-up of about 10 analog pedals joined together with bits of string. If you ignore the silly patches (why do they always have silly patches?) the sounds are mostly good and useful. I previously used a Dodd overdrive and a Tube Screamer for distortion and I find the AX30G can give me the same sort of voices. My previous experience of digital pedals is that the overdrive sounds are crappy. I've spent an arm and a leg in the past to end up with a unit which I only use for reverb and delay! I find the wah to be the weakest effect. (I've just got a Korg AX300G and I'm sure that they've improved the wah - or perhaps I just use it better with the improved pressure pedal)

I use the pedal as a pro musician and have had absolutely no problems since I purchased the unit about 2 years ago. I find the power supply worrying but it has been OK so far. I have made up a heavy duty power lead as I think the original bit of bell wire wouldn't put up with much standing on or kicking around.

I've never has cause to get in touch with Korg with a problem.

I play lots of different styles of music and have always found good sounds available. I have just upgraded to a AX300G for the 32 user patches and the improved pressure pedal but I think the sounds are virtually the same. The new pedal, however, does not contain my favorite patches from the AX30G - e.g. JimiWah, SpitWah, Gallagher69 etc. I do wish that Korg included an up/down footswitch or some other way of accessing the factory patches without having to copy them into the user patch area. Another useful thing would the ability to assign volume to the pressure pedal.

A bit complicated to use at first, unless you use the more simple, IPE function, which lets you adjust only certian parameters, but once you realise that you can adjust just about anything, it becomes worth figuring out how to work it, and it actually isnt THAT difficult. If you like heavy distortion, you will love the presets, however if overdrive is more your thing, you will need to work with it a bit. The manual, like the machine, looks complicated, but is actually quite good.

I use a USA telecaster+ through a peavey bandit 112, and have only got a lot of noise through stupid settings that I'm not likely to use anyway. The noise reduction helps a lot. The chorus, as everyone seems to say, is not great, and if you turn the settins up, it sounds out of tune which is of no use whatsoever. Distortion can be great if worked with, the presets are mostly very heavy, and some of the other presets - v12 engine, darkside- are a bit useless. With only having 16 user settings, Korg should have made the presets as useful as possible, instead of just showing off what the thing can do. However, those are the negative things. Otherwise, this thing is great, I can get what ever I want from it, and am very fond of its overdrive and delay sounds, as well as wah and flange. Do get an expression pedal for it, as it is much better than the pressure pedal, and you will be able to do fixed position tones. I got this thing for #170 with an expression pedal, and had been considering a zoom 505 for #90 but the korg blew the zoom away. My only complaint is that there is a gap when you switch between patches, though the individual function (allows you to turn off different parts of the effect chain), makes up for this. I have attempted to set up an Ax30G webpage which anyone can easily add to, so please visit it at : http://www.webspawner.com/users/ax30g

My friend bought one, and within a day a button had broken off, but the shop replaced it(the whole thing) and his and mine have been ok so far. I am a bit wary of standing on the unit with my DMs on, as it seems a bit fragile, I'd rather use trainers for it, and with my hefty big size 12s, I have stood on 2 pedals instead of one by accident more than once, but this is a personal thing. I would not use a backup as I couldnt afford one and think it seems pretty reliable though. (BUT DONT JUMP ON IT!)

never dealt with them.

I play rock/alternative type stuff and it suits me down to the ground, and dont think I'll be buying any more effects for a long time. I would probably buy it again, but wish it had more presets! I'm having to write them down! For the price, it is superb, but buy an expression pedal!! Oh yeah, visit the ax30g page on http://www.webspawner.com/users/ax30g

Painful editing feature compare to ZOOM floor mfx units. Without manual, you would have difficult time to learn how to edit your own patch. IPE Integrated Parameter Editor gives player easier to set/adjust the effect. However, to set a hyper/super killing effect, players still have hard time to read and understand the manual. AX30G editor is not as easy as the KORG PX-1 palmed-size mfx. Once you know how, you would love this mfx. It gives you more control and wider parameter sets compare to ZOOM mfx units.

The quality of sounds are excellent and even better than most ZOOM and DOD mfx floor units. Love the high tone (Korg prouds of its TONE WORKS products) sounds. This is one of the best mfx I ever had for the price I paid under $300. Distortions as well as clean sounds are excellent. Musicians can find most effects that they want on this unit. Wah is little weak but it is ok.

The plastic panel once was pulled up. But it is not a big deal. I just applied some super glue, then it is ok now. No problem at all.

Happy for the price I paid. I can't buy any mfx like this for the same price. The AX30G mfx is just like you get 10 single effect units combination. After I bought this one, I really love KORG products for its quality of sounds. I don't think that I would go back to either ZOOM or DOD mfx. BOSS is probably the only one that I try later.

i lost the manual within 24 hours of purchase, and i don't miss it. editng is a snap. thanks to korg's IPE (idiot proof editing or individual parameter editing- i've heard both from korg dealers), you can modify a setting without having to go into edit mode or permanently changing the preset. there are a few AX30 sites with info and patches, such as "http://www.houghton.demon.co.uk/guitar/ax30g/index.htm" or "http://www.wizard.net/~jtsinger/ax30g1.html".

the overdrives can get hissy but th AX has excellent hush-type noise reduction. the chorus is infamous for its lameness (read almost any AX30G review), but using the modulation delay as a chorus or setting flange resonance and feedback at zero will produce gorgeous, watery jimi-like chorus sounds. the pressure pedal works well once you get uesd to it,the 6L6 and EL84 simulators sound more natural on tape than most speaker simulators, and you can set delay and rotary/phase tempo with your foot. such a deal. and with minor tweaking, you can get a killer talk box sound as well.

i bring an extra power supply (goddamn wall-warts), but it'll take any standard 9v adapter, including archer (radio shack, 9 bucks), boss ACA-120, or ibanez adapter in a pinch. the AX30G itself is completely reliable, and i have yet to need or bring a backup live.

i've only owned two korg devices (this box and an old DW-8000), and they've never had any problems to speak of. i'm sure they're nice guys, but i've never had any need to contact them.

tube simulators, stereo leslie, killer wah, multiple reverbs, modulation and overdrive for $425 list is great enough, but at $150, i must be (be... be... be...) the luckiest(luckiest...luckiest...) man alive (alive...alive...alive...)

Fairly basic stuff. Programming is well accesible and relatively easy, though at first it looks pretty confusing.

I'd give it 10 but the chorus is a little weak and unrealistic. It sounds best when really cranked up loud through a tube amp, so I guess its not ideal for bedroom use. The distortions are just perfect for rock, I don't think you could ask for better. I found distortion/wah amazing. I had to fiddle with the settings a bit but its a totally harsh and amazing sound. Very proffesional. Its probably worth investing in an external footswitch for sake of using the pressure pedal - I'm not too confortable stamping on my rack every time i want some free flowing pitch shifter or wah. The pitch shifter is class, unlike the Zoom's offerings, its smooth and entirely usable.

After 2 weeks it crashed out altogether. I couldn't get any sound out of it at all. It transpired to be dust in the input, which was easily removed, yet not so easily detected. 6 months on and I've had no other problems.

The first AX30G I bought was defective, the pressure pedal didn't work. It was immediately replaced, accompanied with a few apologies. Nice.

Nice.

Until I purchased this, I was only using Boss pedals, so I had a bit of a rough time at first, learning how to use this thing. It does become intuitive after a while, and after many readings of the manual.

Maybe it's me, but I think I'm the only one on this list that wasn't too thrilled with the distortion sounds. To me, they seemed too mechanical and unnatural. I love the clean sounds: chorus, reverb, flange, phase, etc. Also, the noise reduction comes in quite handy. My set-up is as follows: guitar, Vox Wah, Boss Distortion (the original orange one), AX30G, amp. Many of the presets in this unit will rarely be used (V12 Engine???). But there are enough good solid ones to make up for this (Fat & Brown). Overall sound quality is very, very nice. Remember, we're talking about a unit that goes for around $300. If you want better, be prepared to shill out the bucks!

I think it's a very solid unit. I'm concerned about the power supply, but I have stomped on it in gigs, with no problems. I also have no problem with the pressure-sensitive pedal. Seems to work just fine

Don't know. BTW, I am considering starting a web page that will be focus exclusively on the Korg AX30G. It would be a place to find all the "recipies" for cool and interesting sounds. If this interests you, please e-mail me with a complete description of your favorite patches. My email address is: jtsinger@wizard.net

I haven't been happy with other pedals in the $300 price range. I think it sounds better, and is easier to use than the Zoom products.
This pedal is made for putschky-ing (yiddish for "tinkering"). I wasn't happy with many of the preset sounds, but you have a lot of control over an awful lot of parameters. With enough time, you can create a wide variety of sounds that you would think could only be found on devices costing much, much more.
This is a great pedal for the price!

The Pitch Shifting and Bending are harsh and really don't sound natural at all. But the distortions, reverbs and modulation are great.

The Pressure Pedal isn't what it could be, it's too tight to be an exact controller.

The factory patches are very good and it's very easy to create your own voice. The only problem is that there are only 16 user-patches. (there are 50 factory-presets already) There's no need for the manual When I bought the device the music-shop had lost the manual, I got it by mail after a month or so but by then I already knew how it worked.

The sounds are very good, only the chorus could be a bit better... The presets are very good, but some of them are some strange space- sounds you probably never use. The distortion is also very good, only a real tube-amp is better(so buy one).

I already own it for about a year. I play in a band and I have used in on several occasions and it's still not broken(amazing for a plas- tic case, but Korg better could have made a metal-case)

Never needed the company

Before I bought this one I also tried the Zoom 1010 and the zoom 4040 The AX-30G offers you better sounds and more effects, it also has a nice LCD-display. I only would like to have some more user-presets than it would be even better than it is already

The manual is pretty hard to understand at the best of times, but the whole unit has been put together very nicely and is really intuitive to use. There are two different ways of getting sounds going, the simple way and the more complicated, more powerful way. Editing patches is very easy too.

The effects always sound good, apart from the chorus which can sometimes sound a little strange. There is a noise reduction feature, which helps the sound tremendously.

I haven't yet used it in a gig.

I haven't got back to the company yet.

The price was originally 250 pounds, but I got 30 quid off for a demo model. Yeah, I'd buy it again. I don't like the flimsiness of the thing, and it makes me wary of using it in a gig, but the sounds are really good and creating them is very easy. The best thing about it is probably the way you can set up effects very quickly and simply, but you also have a lot of power over your sound, which I like. I definitely recommend the unit.

It is easier to explore yourself than try to understand the manual.

Lots of nice sounds. The distortion, however, overloads my amp easily when I use it with a small amp.Some of the presets however do not seem to be pratical to me.

It does not have a metal chasis. It is a plastic. Use your judgement if you want to use it on a gig.

Never contacted yet.

The flexibility of the editing feature is a 'plus' of this product. You can create some really weird sounds out of it in a relatively easy tweaks, even though they may not be pratical. I wish KORG put a metal chasis and a better pressure pedal.