Korg PX-3

Very easy to use.

So far I am only happy with a couple of the presets. I bought mine off ebay without a manual so I was limited to just the presets, but I got a new manual from the korg website today, so I will be checking out my own settings.

Sound quality on the presets I like are good. I think I will be a lot happier with the my own presets. I will find out.

I'm at least the second owner and so far no problems at all.

Great! I requested a new manual from Korg USA and they sent me a pretty poor quality photocopy. Turned out their copy was missing a couple of important pages and the support guy at Korg tracked down a PDF of the manual for me. He has posted it on the Korg Website here:
http://www.korg.com/service/downloadinfo.asp?DID=739

Basic R&R/contemporary Christian.

I got this for practice. I'm a brand new electric guitar player (I've been playing acoustic for about 11 months now). Before I got the Korg I was using a transformer coupler into my Mackie mixer to drive a pair of headphones. That sounded pretty dry and the Korg makes things sound a bunch better.

Easy to use once you get the hang of it. Don't loose the manual because you can't find one anywhere. The PX-3 is out of production in favor of the PX-4. The presets are really good! The "Eddie" Van Halen is one of the best sounds I have ever heard!

I use a American Fender Fat Strat HSS Texas Special with it. The blues and Eddie settings are to die for. I use it for everything! I play it through my Boogie Amp, Headphones, Mixer for recording. Through a good amp this thing sings!

After a year I have not had any problems. Seems durable.

Don't know, never had to call for anything.

I play Van Halen, SRV, Tom Petty, Beatles And OZZY. I like to call it shredding blues. I was so impressed with it, I went out and bought one of their Multi-effects pedals (AX-100). It sounds good too. It is the perfect pratice amp/device I have ever seen in my thirty years of playing. The thing I like the most about it and I would go out and buy another one if I lost it or it was stolen, is the Key Transposer. I can run any device like a CD player into it and transpose the key without changing the tempo. So many musicans play a half step lower than the standard tuning such as SRV and Van Halen, Metallica. With this, all I have to do, is change their key to mine so I don't have to play lead patterns lower or re-tune my guitar. It will play the song to what ever key you want it to be!! Also, you can record parts of the lead through it and slow it down in the same key to learn it. It is the size of a pack of cigaretts. For recording I can take a song, change the key, lay it as a reference track to play to and then back it out after I'm done with it. Feature for feature, there is nothing out there that compares to this!!! Except maybe the newer PX-4 which I have not tried. Some people tell me this one sounds better than the new one.

Very easy to use. The manual is helpful. Editing patches is easy.

I'm using a PRS Santana SE and earphones. The unit is not noisy, although some patches and programs produce some digital noise but you can live with it.

The factory presets are actually very good, whis is not very common with digital processors. The time-based effects are good, but the distorted and overdrived effects are not, many of them produce digital noise and a cheesy sound.

Most of the effects work on a pre-programmed basis -chorus, flanger, delays, etc.- but that's not that bad. Some of the effects can't be mixed, wich is not bad since the unit doesn't allow you to over process your sound.

I agree with many other reviewers: this is not a recording quality unit, nor is versatile enough for live performance. But IT IS A VERY GOOD PRACTICE PROCESSOR. The sound quality is good enough to obtain a satisfying tone for practicing. In its arena, the sound is good, but not incredible.

The case and overall unit feels dependable. I was surprised that the buttons are cheap and less reliable. I was used to better quality from Korg. The unit resists reasonable shocks. I wouldn't gig with this machine.

I owned once a PX1, and at that time (ca 1997) I was absolutely amazed. The PX3 is like a PX1 on steroids. It has all the great feature of the original machine plus a bunch of goodies: rhythm and bass generator, cd-in plug, sampler, good backlight, etc.

The problem with the PX3 is that today there are many incredible processors that are so truly great that the Pandora Box doesn't seem as good as it did some years ago. But it is still a very good practice device and a good value. 10 years ago you needed a $50,000 effect rack to get the same sound. I think this PX3 may be a great entry level processor and a great learning tool for rookies.

The PX3 is not a recording tool nor a unit to take to the stage. But it can acomplish most of the usual tasks that a guitarist needs in the bedroom or practice room. It's also a lifesaver if you can't take with you a lot of equipment (like being on vacation).

For the pro-musician may be a toy, but for the beginning guitarist is a wonderful tool I wish I had in 1987 when I learn to play an electric guitar for the first time.

I understand that the PX3 is no more being built by Korg, so if you want a new unit you'll have tho check the PX4. If you find a used unit, don't hesitate and buy it. You will got a great price for shure and you'll take with you a wonderful practice and learning tool.

It took about 30 minutes to be able to do the basics. Editing is out for now as I dont have a manual for the box. Help anyone?

I enjoy the sounds, 10 points

It seems to be a rugged little box. This one has been through the wars and it still works.

Ah, here we have a problems. I've been trying to get a manual from Korg, they respond quickly by email. But the content of the email is "we dont have any try your local shop". Maybe one of you guys can help?

I guess if the box got damaged, I would go out and buy something else (perhaps a PXR4 or a Digitech GNX3, something new with good user instructions.

This is a follow up to my previous review.

Unfortunately, I've discovered the delays and tremolos only have preset speeds...which makes synchronizing to a random beat practically impossible (in other words, you wont be able to tweek how fast the delay echos). Like others have said, it just a practice tool - NOT FOR RECORDING.

Because of this simple flaw, I'm going to have to drop the average rating down a few notches.

Extremely easy to use. Patch editing takes a little bit to get a grasp on to use it effectively, but it works fine. The manual is helpful and informative and not generally needed after about 2 days.

I play MIA Fender guitars -- not because of some snobbish attitude problem, but because I like them the best. The modern Fender "C" shaped neck fits my large hands perfectly, and the tone is to die for IMHO. In deference to the truly angry person below calling people over 40 morons because they like a more vintage tone, I liked this unit in its intended use as a practice tool. If people are mistaking this unit for a performance unit, blame Korg for touting it as such. It is most assuredly not well designed for that purpose, although it COULD be used for that if desired I suppose. I would run it through the PA myself in that situation, but tone is a personal choise after all.

All that aside, this forty something with vintrage Fender gear likes the PX3 just fine. It is clean and quiet, and produces a strong array of tones from the available amp/cabinet model combinations. I am able to get good clean tone as easily as a variety of distorted tones as a base, and the effects are first rate for such a small, portable unit. I do wish you could get both a reverb AND delay effect at once, but this isn't too big a deal in the end. As far as any particualr artist's sound, I believe this unit can get there most of the time anyway. I personally play original material in the blues/fusion/jazz vein, and for those things this unit is excellent. The metal/shredder sounds seem a bit harsh and tinny to me, but then I don't play that kind of music so that is just a layman's opinion.

All in all, for about $100, you can get one heck of a good practice amp that loads into a case ready to rock and provides a wide variety of usable tone bases to play around with. Is it perfect? No, but it is very good.

I have had my PX3 for over a year, and when I travel -- it goes along. It has taken minor abuse such as drops to the floor from my lap when I am practicing and so on and never given me a bit of trouble. I wouldn't drop it from 10' onto concrete or anything, but reasonable use should yield a long life I think.

Never dealt with them -- a testament to their product I think.

Overall, this unit rates high. I would purchase this unit again before I spent double on the newer PX4 unit simply because I think the price/quality ratio of the PX3 is so excellent. There is definitely NOT twice as much bang for the buck with the newer unit IMHO. Also, I like the older Korg amp/cabinet modeling better than the newer REMS algorithm they are using now. I also own a Korg PXR4 digital recorder which employs the REMS modeling and I definitely prefer the PX3's sound to that unit. For someone who might be looking for a good practice tool that sounds great, this is the ticket. It adds solid practice aids such as phrase training capability and jamming along with CD's plus things the competition doesn't offer such as center channel cancellation (to kill guitar parts on CDs that are centered in the sound stage) and key transposition to avoid retuning your guitar for the sake of learning a particular phrase. These things alone make the money spent worth it I think.

This little wonder is very easy to use. A little reading of the manual is helpful, anyway, but it's very intuitive, so no big deal. You just plug it in and enjoy it out-of-the-box; however, the more you experiment with this thing, the more it amazes you, it has LOTS of clever features in a small-sized package. If you ever used a Zoom 505 then you can use this easily. Some things are exceptionally cool for such a small device (some of the rhythm patterns, the lick-decoding feature, the master volume rotating knob, for example), but some things require a little more patience and are a little tricky (the tuner... I've used better ones, the harmonizer is very synth-sounding, plus when you bend notes it goes crazy). Reading the manual doesn't hurt, but if you're familiar with digital multieffects then this one will be no mistery, but always keep in mind that this is intended for being used as a pratice tool; if you try to use as a live-performance multieffects then it's very rigid and limiting (changing between patches quickly, for example would be Hell...)

First off, let's put one thing clear: THIS IS NOT A PROFESSIONAL LIVE PERFORMANCE OR RECORDING DEVICE, IT'S DESIGNED PRIMARILY AS A PRACTICE TOOL; once this is understood I must say that in this field this box excels!! I can imagine some stupid 40-something year old jerk saying "this thing sucks, I can't get the sounds I get with my "vintage" Matchless with "vintage" (HELL, I hate that word so much!!!) speakers and my $1'000.000 dollar rack stuff!!"; of course not assh#$$e, it's for bedroom practice, it's even unfair trying to put this against a POD. Case scenario: you just can't plug your 100W head full-throttle and your pedal-chain or rack gear at 11:30pm and jam with the whole band (bass & drums included) when you just got inspired and a great idea strikes, without being threatened to death by your neighbours/wife/parents/whatever unless you live alone in the desert, plus the time required to mount and plug everything in your setup. Then this is when this little treasure comes in your help, packed with lots of sounds and features to make your practice time more inspiring and enjoyable (anyway, playing guitar alone is already a thrill, doesn't it??).

Moron-bashing aside, let's focus on the sounds: The clean ones are very enjoyable, mellow and clean, the chorus and reverbs are quite nice and you can play some beautiful stuff (strange thing for me to say, I play Death Metal!) with them, and the patch "flower" sounds very new-age-ish (does that term exists?). The delay is good, not much flexibility time-wise, but good for practice. The pitch-shifter and harmonizer sound very fake, lifeless and synthetic, but it works OK for arranging ideas of your own to later translate them into real sounds with real gear and a real band. The distortions and overdrives are very similar among them, so I'd say that this is it's weakest spot; anyway they're usable enough to serve as practice aids to put down your ideas. The flangers/phasers are very digital but OK. The auto wha sucks, but it's forgivable. It has some cool effects of it's own such as "random". The cab simulation is weak and could be easily
ommited. All of the effects can be tweaked in very basic and limited way (one parameter per effect: gain, speed, depth or speed, depending on the effect), but what the Hell, is just for practicing (am I being repetitive???). The lick-slowing capability is nothing to write about but it has certainly helped me a bit in pin-pointing specific parts of songs; nevertheless at slower speeds the sound is worthless.

The best patches, or at least the ones I enjoyed the most were: subharm (a nice bass guitar mimic), 90's (best Metal distortion in there), eddie (delay-loaded), jimi (nice for Rock n' Roll), flower (New Age), chorus (pristine), SRV, among others.

The rhythm patterns are a cool bonus, and the ability to change keys and turning on/off bass lines is way too killer for a device in this price range. Some people say that this drum patterns sound very fake... of course they do, but remember what this thing is for! If you like something better, just buy a fu*?#$%ng drum machine and stop crying, butthole. You can turn off the bass lines and you have such a cool metronome : )

By now it should be understood what this box is for, so a 10 it is. If you're stupid enough to insist using it onstage, then the rating would go way lower... but I'm not that stupid! I always take care of my gear, even if it just costs US$10; I have to earn each and every penny, money just doesn't rain from the sky...

No idea.

It is truly a pandora's box, it can unleash very useful sounds to sparkle new ideas and to make practice time more enjoyable and creative. I guess that the PX4 is a little better, but this one was cheaper and has everything I expected and then some; I needed a cool and portable practice tool, for the rest (performing live & recording) I have my own real gear. I would strongly recommend grabbing one while they last; it doesn't matter if you play Country or Black Metal I bet that you'll find something that suits your style.

It's fairly easy to use. I usually only need a few sounds. The sound is very good for practicing

The sound is excellent for use with a headphone amp. I don't intend on running it through an amp. Just for practice. It's difficult to imagine a smaller unit offers the amount of sounds. Some of the drums thing could be omitted - I have no use for them

The unit has been very reliable - I recommend you buy the adapter. Alternatively, the new rechargable batteries are another good option. I don't think I would use for gigs - mainly for practice.

I have to rate this highly because of the features and function per square inch. It can fit easily in any guitar case and is very handy on the road.

Ok i suppose for the time that i had with it.

Sounded great while it worked.

Tottaly fukked.... played it for about 10 mins after purchasing (brand new).. turned it off, unplugged my guitar.. left it on the bench, came back 10 mins later, back of unit was so hot the batteries had melted big lumps in the battery cover. and the contacts for the batteries had melted and fell back into the innards of the box... batteries where untouchable due to heat for about 10 mins, brand new energizers and they were tottaly fukked as well

taking it back to the store tommorrow for refund, im getting something else.

sounded ok from the presets i went through, the bass and drums sounded a little like they were taken from a cheap casio keyboard. Although i cant really comment on this as i had no time to root around with patches, ,etc. but the fact that the bastard melted after 10 mins of play was a real let down, this was my first effects unit, been playin off and on for a few years....

With the aid of the manual, I was programming in no time. Had 21 patches made in 2-3 hours.

The cleans are sooooo nice. I play 50-60s so clean with a hint of delay, or a hint of chorus or???? was very good. Some of the FX are over done, but you can turn down the extent to which the effect takes hold just by turning the dial. 1/3 of the FXs (the major and minor overtones) will be useless to the average player (like me) but there are plenty left for the $$.

It is light. This may be a benefit for some, but it's too light. It can fall off an amp or a surface easily with a mild nudge for a cord. If you are going to use it live (as I am), you'll have to come up with a way to stabalize the thing.

I play 50-60s so the cleans are great (typical korg!!!). I don't generally change FX mid-tune, so this is perfect. If you want to switch FX mid-tune, the is NOT the unit for you.

I bought it on ebay and I knew from reviews that this was just the ticket. I've only started to play with the CD-record aspect and for an enthusiest who has the patience for that sort of thing, this is great bang for the buck.

One thing....YOU NEED AN ADAPTER!!!!!!! Don't kid yourself. It takes a + ----- - 9V with a wide barrel (like a BOSS PSA120) The wide barrell is needed to ensure the connection is solid, else you get an intermitant signal.

I've started to collect settings I created and I have downloaded others off the net. If you have any, please share them at the email address below and I'll reciprocate.

Overall....fabulous bang for the buck