Korg Ampworks

Ease of Use is one of the main pro's of this unit. Just plug it in, mess with a couple of dials and bingo, tone is ready. Editing patches are easy as drinking water, and saving them too. There's only 2 patches (user) and one (manual) mode, that can be used as a patch if you keep your knobs at the same position.
It comes with a nice, folder-on manual, very complete, althrough a manual isn't the case here. I only referred to mine to double-check the footswitching use of the unit.

Sounds : While i read here through the reviews here, there were a lot of mixed reviews, some described it as noisy and thin, and others as good.
To me, it was a little bit of both. The low-gain amps models are perfect. Not noisy and very believeable. Some of the high gain models (especially the Uk Mdn and Recto) are really noisy on certain situations.

I play a custom made super-strat with Dimarzio Evolution pickups most of the time (althrough i have a Ibanez RG with Seymour Duncan pickups (JB/FullShred set). But i play pretty much every type of music, from blues to heavy.

The clean sounds of the Ampworks are great. I love to use the AC30TB factory preset, with the neck pickup of my main axe splitted into single-coil mode. It has a very unique voicing and it sounds great for jazz and some rythyms work. It does get a little messy with the full humbucker mode.
The bridge pickup sounds great with the AC30Tb in full gain, and with the BLK212 for cleans and satured (Stones-Like) tones. And with the Blues combo and the coils tapped, i can go to a SRV like sounds.

The dist/dirt tones of the Ampworks are middle-to-weak. I haven't used much of the UK Mdn, and especially the Recto. The Recto modelling sounds are very thin, without that low bottom that made the Recto famous, and the Uk Mdn, is very hard to tone. I have been using the Uk80's for heavy sounds (especially rythyms, can get that Wylde pinch harmonic squeak). And the Uk Mdn with lower-gain settings for doubling guitars in recording. For Ac/dc like tones, this box is heaven. Both the Uk80's and the UkMdn can get that fat sound. Using it with the 4x12 VIN speaker sim, is the way to go.

Speaking of speaker sims, they are pretty much all very good. I personally use the VOX 212, 4x12Vin, BLK 2x12 and TWD 4x10 most of them. But pretty much all of them have its qualities and really affects your tone.

On to the effects, this is the major downfall of the Ampworks in my opinion. Most of them, sound weird to me. Ok, i am not a effects kind of guy, but it really seems that most effects just adds weird noises to your tone. I use the reverb (on lower settings) the noise reductor and a little bit of chorus every now and then. But i really disliked the phaser (doesn't sound like a phaser to me), and the "auto-wah" which is really weird. However, the tremolo is really really good. I say that is better than some dedicated tremolos i heard.

This box is for recordings, mostly. I have been using it for 1 year now, and made some very good recordings with it. Doubling tracks and stuff is very easy, because you can change a speaker sim with a single finger. The sounds from it, are good. Not great, and are no substitute for the real amps, if you can afford (which i can't) them, but it have some really nice sounds and some nice flavors too.
Vox, Uk80's and Fender amps are all very usable. I have to rate it high for the clean sounds alone, but the dirt ones are a nice addition to the list.

I used it live a couple of times, but i like the ampworks better when used in line. The amp really colors the tone, even on loop. But this thingy is small, fits right into my guitar case, and i can easily and fast dial tones for about any kind of music, and i don't need to bring an amp, especially if i am just doing a jam with friends or a small recording in a studio (like a demo or something).

I will keep using mine for a long time probably.

Well, it is made of plastic, but so its most no-boutique effects these days. I have used mine a couple of times live. And had no problem. I used a Behringer footswitch, and it worked great. No Major problems at all. But yeah, it is made for desktop recording, not for stages.

Never really dealt with Korg about the Ampworks. But i dealt with them about some keyboards and they were great.

Like i said, this like box has tons of pros and cons :

Pros : Small
Easy to use
Very good clean sounds
Some usable dirty sounds
Footswitch operation without unwanted noises.

Cons : Some really unusable dirty sounds
Background hiss on high-gain options
Plastic.
White-on-Silver writings.
2 presets for user only.

I liked it a lot, and will probably continuing to be using.
If it were stolen i would replace it if short in cash, or try a POD (or a KORG AX3000G) if i had some spare dough. My favorite thing about it is the VOX sounds. (I use it a lot of time, for blues, pop, rock and others songs).
I did compared to the V-Amp by Behringer at time. And this little thingy offered more quality for less money. (I didn't tried the V-Amp rack version however).
I wish it had more user patches.

Buy it for practice, recording and some live playing.
Don't buy it if you only play high-gain sounds (metal) and don't care about clean tones.
Buy it if you need something small, that can fit on a case, and still delivers good tone.
Don't buy it if you are a audiophile that hates any minimal background noise.

But, yeah, i love my little ampworks.

Este es el punto fuerte de esta cosa, todo es facilisicimo, se pude usar en directo sin ninguun problema, no hay complicaciones, excepto que las letras en los controles de amp, cabinet y efect no se ven, yo tuve que ponerles marcas de color para poder verlas mientras toco en directo.

mhhh, no es para profesionales, eso es seguro, ni para heavy metaleros, es muy ruidoso y articial, muchas simulaciones de ampli se oyen mal.Sin embargo, hay 3 que valen mucho la pena: TWD 410, Blues y 70, yo las uso con un Ibanez tube screamer(Ts9) y se oyen muy bien: un sonido fantastico a lo metal 70: Sabatth, Zep, Kiss, Ac/Dc, y pues la reverb, compression y delay son muy buenos;sin embargo, el chorus y tremolo son muy malos, muy artficiales , tambien creo levanta mucho el sonido de las guitarras y amplificadores baratos, les da calidad y potencia, pero creo que este aparato funciona mejor con un overdrive en previo, ya que los simuladores de amp no tienen mucha potencia por si solos, con un tube screamer suena mucho mejor, sobre todo si buscas un sonido blues-rock vintage; ahora quiero probarlo con un eco pedal en previo, y en el efecto solo compresion, creo que sonaron mejor y menos ruidoso en altas distorciones, debo decirte que lo uso con un viejo peavey scorpion de 100 watts y una guitarra ibanez rg270, asi que pruebalo primero, porque no ha todos les va gustar, sobretodo a los metaleros, pero si buscas rock clasico y blues es una buena y barata opcion, siempre y cuando le pongas un overdrive antes.

solo lo uso con pilas, pues no he podido encontrar un elimnador con el voltage exacto, y pues me ha funcionado bien asi, nunca me ha fallado; es muy practico para llevertelo donde quieras.

En Mexico, no lo se...aqui nada tiene garantia de nada

Toco rock n roll, blues y rock clasico, tengo 3 a?os con la guitarra electrica, me he acomodado bien con este aparato, pero realmente no es lo maximo, me gusta mucho su tono de blues, es realmente profundo, muy a lo BB King,Led Zep,Clapton(60) por eso me ha gustado usarlo a lo largo de 1 a?o, tambien su slap echoe a lo Sun Records para el rock n roll, y me ha dado varias posibilidades e ideas para usar con mi equipo, que es muy, muy barato, asi que ha sido bueno para mi, le ha dado variadad y matiz a mi estilo blues

Easy enough to use. It's all pretty self-explanitory. The markings are hard to see in the dark. Getting a GOOD sound is another story altogether, though.

Not so good. Most of the amp models are pretty thin sounding. Tremolo is not smooth at all. The auto wah is a nice idea. It just soesn't work very well.

It's pretty cheesy.

It's a little hard to find anybody at Korg. Not as hard as Roland, but hard.

I got this for home recording into a Roland VS 1680. I have a Pod that I've used a lot and really like. I take the Pod to events where the backline is provided and it can really make a so-so amp sound okay. I don't think this would. This is pretty much a dog purchase. I know it's a lot more cheese up front, but buy the Pod. It sounds like an amped up electric guitar. This doesn't.

The controls are very simple and easy to dial in tones. Manual is clear and easy to understand. Also includes a card that breaksdown all the presets so you can see where every dial was set for the preset.

I am using an Epiphone Joe Perry Les Paul and just running to a Roland Cube 15 practice amp. The models are pretty impressive. Some of the effects arent what I hoped. The auto wah is not very good and im not real impressed with the tremolo. It does produce a little background noise, but it is very little. This thing makes a cheap practice amp sound great.

I havent been using this for very long so i cant really comment on reliability but I would use it for playing live as it doesnt feel like it could take much abuse. I would really just recommend this for playing at home and possibly home recording, although I havent recorded with it yet to see how it comes across.

I have to admit that the are very few companies that I feel have very good online support. Korg is awsome. I emailed them late last night asking for the settings of one of the demo tones they had on the website that was not a preset or in any of the documentation. By the time I got off work today, I not only had a response, but they sent me the complete settings for all of the demo tones on the web site in a very easy to read/print format. I know that doesnt sound like a big deal but most companies you deal with just send out a standard automated response, if they even respond at all. The fact that Korg did, weighted heavily with me.

I have overall been very impressed with this and for the money, I could not have asked for anymore. After using this, I would have gladly paid twice what I did. Small and compact enough to take anywhere and cnn be used with headphones. I have an Arion Hott Watt II that will probably never get used again.

Okay, I just got off the phone with Joe from Korg USA (in the guitar department). I encountered a problem with my Ampworks G (see above review by LARRY for a complete review) this morning. I powered it up (battery power) and the PROG/WRITE/TAP buttons were all flashing simultaneously. The ON button was a solid red. I called Joe, and at first he suggested new batteries (alkaline only). Easy enough, I went to my local drugstore and purchased a 12 pack of the CopperTops. I came home, inserted two new batteries, and the same thing occurred. I called Joe back, and he walked me through this (pay attention if this happens): make sure the Ampworks is plugged into an amp/speaker/PA unit; hold down the WRITE button as you insert the plug into the INPUT jack. If the lights are not flashing anymore, and if your get sound, you are good to go. Joe explained that sometimes with this model (Ampworks G), the unit may go into a "service" mode that is only accessible by a technician (i.e. pressing a sequence of buttons, etc.). To exit this mode, you generally have to perform the above task. It worked. Thank God. I had knee surgery yesterday, and playing my guitar is about all I can comfortably do at this point in time. This is, and I let Joe knwo this, the first time I have had such an enjoyable and positive experience with a manufacturer. Hats off to KORG!

THANK YOU JOE AT KORG!

Not difficult to manage - there are 2 user settings - it's easy to tweak. I use it for home play/recording and informal jams. For live performance, a footswitch would probably help. 2 AA batteries.

I play a strat or hummer equipped. It's noisy on the high-gain settings - the noise gate helps, but does not completely eliminate. I?ve had this for about 6 months - it?s a fun guitar toy, and several of the tones sound good ? a great value for the price. I recently discovered another benefit: plugged into my little cheapo Crate practice amp, it turns the usual boxy tone into some good sounds, especially for the strat. I now have a decent practice amp. May not deliver perfect tube tone, but the Ampworks processor can definitely help in the punky SS tone department.

It's only plastic, so no rough handling. I bought this through MF, and the first one thay sent malfunctioned - switching was all off. So, was that Korg's fault, or did MF send a previously returned/abused item? The exchange was easy, and the second one has had no problems.

Another nice feature is the headphone jack. If lost, I would definately buy another for $50. More user settings would be nice.

It is very easy to use and the manual is very imformative but like a lot of multi effects there is little difference between some of the settings, maybe too many choices. The worst thing about it is it is hard to read the white lettering on the silver knobs.

This thing is great for silent practising as you can play straight into the unit with out an amplifier using head phones. I found when I play through my Fender frontman 15G there is a lot of hiss which can't be cured by the noise reduction . I tried using a Roland 30watt Amp which I use in my Church worship team and found the noise was not a problem due to a couple of reasons. The first is being only a small venue of about 250 people we don't play at a million decibels and the other is with ambient noise it is not a problem.
I tend to use the blues settings on the dials with reverb as you can get a slightly overdriven sound without hardcore distortion and the factory preset channels. One has a bright chorus sound and the other a moderately heavy distortion. I have housed my effects unit in a small box with removable lid, together with my tuner with foam rubber, so they dont move and have drilled the holes so I can plug in all the cables. I run it with a mains voltage adaptor otherwise they tend to get through batteries. It is great as I can store all my guitar cables, spare batteries picks etc. and have them to hand easily.
I have my guitar looped through the tuner with double plug socket and short patch lead so all I have to do is turn down the effects volume turn on the tuner and there is no unplugging cables necessary to tune up.
I am using a home built Les Paul shape guitar with Steward Macdonald "Golden Age" overwound humbuckers and 24 fret neck which sound really nice even without effects. I also have coil taps on them but I prefer the gruntier humbucker sound.

Well I haven't had it that long but I use it every time I play on our Church worship team now without problems. The worst aspect is when changing preset channels the volume is louder on some channels than others so you have to be aware of that.

I think you actually need to own a multi effects unit so you can decide on what type of effects suit your style of music. Many of the effects I would never use. I would probably settle for a Boss distortion/chorus/reverb effect pedal if lost or stolen probably. Value for money the Amp Works is hard to beat though and I bought it from Sweetwater and they shipped it to me in NZ within a week. Great service and it cost including freight about half the price they sell for here.

The Korg ampworks is very easy to use. The only things you'll need to refer to manual for are the mode/preset selection & amp/line switch. It doesn't get much easier than this.

I bought this to use for practise with my nice AKG studio headphones, and for some gigs where I can get by without an amp rig.

Pros:
I love the following amp models: Boutique Clean, Blackface Twin (it gets a great fender sound with the blackface 1x12 cab model), Vox AC-15 & AC-30 top boost. The UK 70's model is also very nice, but not quite as authentic sounding.

Cons
I DON'T like any of the high gain models: Marshall JCM 800, Modern Marshall, or Mesa Rectifier. They all sound very fake & the tone controls just don't work well on them, so it's difficult to dial in anything useful. You just get a lot of mud and/or buzz. That's too bad because I really like to do some shredding every once & a while.

The unit would still be very useful for the great classic sounds, however all of the models suffer from an unusual amount of hiss noise. THIS THING IS JUST WAY TOO NOISY! Sure you could turn up the built-in noise gate threshold. That will make it quiet when your not playing, but as soon as you hit a note all the noise rushes in along with it. I really hope Korg fixes this because other wise they have a really useful modeler.

The chasis is made out of toy quality plastic. It's really flimsy, and the batteries even rattle around when you handle it. Also, the pots are not nutted to the panel, instead they are completely supported by circuit board solder. I would never trust this in a gigging environment.

This unit is on sale for $49.99 at Musiciansfriend.com, or at Guitar Center. It is of toy quality. However it does have some nice classic models if you can deal with all the hiss. Unfortunately I found it too annoying to use, and I returned it within my 30-day period at GC. I sincerely hope Korg takes this unit to the next level. They are on the right track with the classic amp models, and the compact size that can fit in most guitar cases. However they need to clean up the noise, use a more rigid chasis, and improve the high gain amp models. They may also need to work on some of the cabinet models as some of the 4x12 models didn't seem quite right. I cannot comment much on the effects because I don't like to use most of them. I tried the delay & reverb and I found it hard to get a subtle amount. It was like nothing or way too much with no range in between.

I toured with this across Thailand rigourously for 1 month this summer (2005) and it worked fabulously. I bought this over a POD or VAMP because it sounded better with my pedalboard and was much cheaper.
Took no time to be able to get it working. Manual is great and helps with editing patches. I only used 1 setting and worked great.

Setup:
EB Music Man Axis - TU2 - NS2 - MXR Dynacomp - DS1 - GE7 - Korg Toneworks Ampworks - Danelectro Tremolo - PH2 - DOD FX65 - Digitech XDD - RV3 -> Direct Line In
No noise, good tone
I couldn't bring a tube amp, so this was the next best thing for the size and price.

Yes, but power supply should conform to the rest of my pedal board for ease of use.

No dealings

Good stuff. Buy it if you want to have good tone but not pay a fortune and can live without a tube amp

It?s pretty straight forward. However, the markings on the dial are difficult to see under any circumstances. On a dark stage they would be impossible!

I apologize to those of you who have given it high marks, but I must say this: If you think this thing sounds good, you have absolutely no idea what good tone is! This little booger digitizes your signal using a terrible A/d, then processes the crap out of it using awful algorithms, and then turns it back in to analogue using an equally awful D/A. The end result is as to be expected: TERRIBLE TONE. I bought one of these on sale at musicians friend ($40) because of the good reviews. Who are the tone deaf idiots reviewing these things, anyway??? Mine went back. One side note: I found the ?rotary speaker? sound to be quite acceptable. At $40, I would have kept it and added it to my pedal board for that alone ? if it had a bypass switch!

Here is my rig in signal flow order:

?64 R.I. Strat with Seymour Duncan Hot rails with coil tap in bridge position, Texas Special in middle position, Seymour Duncan Hot PAF in between middle and neck, and a Texas Special in neck position. (Yep, my main axe is a 4-pickup ?Frankenstrat?!) Or, a ?92 SRV Strat. Or a Parker Nite Fly. Or a ?60 Les Paul. Or a ?83 Flying V. Or a ?78 Kramer (original one, with the aluminum neck). Or, a couple of funky old semi-hollow bodies (slide tunings in E, A, and G).

Next is a Korg DT-10 tuner.
Then a highly modified Cry-Baby.
Then the Bad Monkey.
Then A modified TS-7 tube screamer. (I use it in ?hot? mode with the drive maxed out for more of a Mesa Boogie hi-gain sound, which the Bad Monkey can?t do)
Then an old DOD analogue delay.
Then an A/B box to either?
A ?67 Super Reverb (w/ Alnico CTS speakers)
Or a ?67 Bassman head with a 4-10 Marshall cab loaded with vintage celestions.

I'me rateing it low HERE because it is a flimsy plastic box after all.

See above...